Learn How to Lift a Dumbbell and your Bodyweight for Exceptional Fitness

For exceptional fitness, you need variety. Unfortunately, most individuals just stick to the same old boring routines day in and day out. I train my entire body 4-5 days a week using bodyweight training and external resistance. One of the best forms of external resistance are dumbbells.

Here's a really cool strategy to use when designing dumbbell and bodyweight workouts. Perform 5-10 repetitions of a particular bodyweight exercise, and immediately follow it up with a dumbbell movement. Now move onto a different bodyweight and dumbbell combo.

Here's a sample routine:

3 rounds of:

• Side to Side Pullups, 5 reps
• Dumbbell Bent Over Row, 10 reps
• Burpees, 10 reps
• Dumbbell Snatch, 10 reps

Try to complete the workout as fast as you can. Time the entire workout, record it, and try to beat your time the next time you perform this workout.

How to Progress with this Workout

If you were just training with your bodyweight, then you would progress in the following ways:

• Perform more repetitions for each exercise
• Add an extra round
• Replace an exercise with a difficult variation

Now, since you're adding dumbbells to the mix you can also make the workout harder simply by increasing the resistance of the dumbbells you are using.

Scheduling your Workouts

I've learned from experience that it is not a good idea to over-do intense exercise. If you keep performing the same exercises over and over again in the same manner, you'll hurt yourself. I rarely ever repeat a workout. Each workout is a challenge that I must conquer.

However, for beginners, performing this workout once a week is a good place to start. If you are training three days per week, then do not perform the same workout three days in a week. Instead, try to create your own intense circuit using the strategy I mentioned above.

BONUS TIP

Here's a bonus tip that will help you get even more results from your intense dumbbell and bodyweight circuits: always program slightly more than you can, but not too much more. For example, let say you took a look at the workout about and said to yourself, "Hmm, I think I can do five rounds of this."

If you think you can do five rounds, then program six rounds. However, don't go overboard with the workout and do 8,9,10 rounds in your first shot. Another good plan is to get to three rounds, see how you feel and see if you can keep going with the workout.

Practice Program Design

Lets do a little assignment. This assignment will help you create intense dumbbell and bodyweight circuits and transform your fitness levels.

Step one: make a list of 10-20 dumbbell exercises

Step two: make a list of 10-20 bodyweight exercises

Step three: group these exercises under the following categories: Chest, Back, and Legs

• If you put in dumbbell exercises such as bicep curls, and tricep extensions, then get rid of them. I personally do not waste my time with isolation exercises, simply because my goal is not to have big arms. However, if you wish to include these, group bicep curls with back, and tricep extensions with chest.

Step four: for each workout, choose two bodyweight exercises and two dumbbell exercises and perform them as a circuit using the strategy I mentioned in the beginning of this article.

If you want to learn more about how to effectively combine bodyweight and dumbbell exercises, then check out Coach Eddie Lomax's"Gladiator Body Workout." I've written about his eBook on my site, ShahTraining.com.