compound exercises with dumbbells to help you lose fat and gain muscle if you are a beginner
to strength training and you work out at home and only have access to dumbbells or you're working
in a gym and you want to know what exercises you should be doing to get the most bang for your buck
for each and every strength training session in this video i'm going to break down what are
compound exercises also known as compound lifts why they should be the backbone of your strength
training program then i'm going to go over the best compound exercises that you can be doing
with dumbbells to build strength build lean muscle decrease body fat aka a body recomposition and of
course just function better in life then once i've gone over the top compound exercises you should be
doing i'm gonna explain a little bit about how you can work these exercises into your daily or
weekly strength training program so this is a highly requested video from the video i posted
previously talking all about compound lifts where i'm referring more to barbell exercises if you are
looking to work your way up to using the barbell these dumbbell compound exercises are a great
way to get started to build up your strength to work up towards doing all of these compound lifts
with the barbell so of course if you haven't watched that video yet and you want to know what
you can be working your way up to check out that video right here i'll link that in the description
below okay we're going to get right into what the benefits of compound exercises are but of course
if you're new here make sure you subscribe to my channel hit that bell to be notified
when i release a new video every single week just like this one if you find this video helpful make
sure you give it a like and leave any questions in the comments below i'm always happy to help
you guys out so what are compound exercises anyway compound exercises are exercises that
work more than one muscle group at the same time so in a way you're getting more bang for your buck
burning more calories recruiting more muscle fibers and teaching your muscles to work together
simultaneously they often mimic movements that we do in everyday life therefore help you function
better in your everyday life and reduce the risk of injury compound exercises versus
isolation exercises an isolation exercise would be something like a bicep curl where you are only
working one muscle group so when you are doing your bicep curl you are only working one muscle
group those are not bad they have their place in every single workout so in a compound exercise
the benefit of working more than one muscle group at a time is you are getting more out of each and
every exercise especially if you are limited in time for your workouts but that's just the gist
as to why we want to be doing compound exercises i also talked more about how you can incorporate
your compound exercises and your isolation exercises and put them all together in a workout
in this video i created right here teaching you how to build your own training plan for the gym or
for home so i'll link that one in the description below as well if you want to go check that out
next what are my top seven compound exercises that you should be doing on a regular basis or some
variation of these exercises to really start to build lean muscle get stronger and decrease body
fat that's one thing i'm not going to go over sets and rep ranges and rest time in this video when it
comes to the compound exercise i'm going to talk about i already went over all of your sets and
reps and rest time and explained it all in this video here i'll link that in the description below
so if you want to know more about how many reps you should be doing of these exercises go check
that video out after you watch this one number one squats i'm going to show you in this video
two ways that you can perform your dumbbell squats you can hold one dumbbell in a goblet position and
this is called a goblet squat you're going to be standing with your feet about shoulder width apart
elbows tucked in holding that dumbbell nice and tight you're going to push your hips back and down
drop down into your squat on the way up you will be squeezing your glutes and driving your heels
into the floor you also want to make sure you're engaging your core muscles and watching for any
rotation through your pelvis you can also take two dumbbells and put them in the rack position
up on your shoulders still performing the squat the exact same way but just watching that your
chest doesn't cave forward and that you keep your posture nice and tall squats are a great exercise
because one they are very functional when it comes to daily activity in life there are also many
other ways to perform a dumbbell squat such as holding both dumbbells at your sides you can also
put a chair behind you and use that as a marker to know that you got low enough into your squat
you can either sit right down on the chair or you can just tap your bum to the chair
drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes on the way up i often use that technique when
people are just learning proper form is literally holding a dumbbell at your sides or holding in
that goblet position sitting down in your chair driving up using your glutes and driving those
heels into the ground once you feel more confident in that position you can push the chair away and
start doing your squats without the chair if you're watching this channel i'm presuming
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check out some elements compound exercise number two deadlifts my all-time ultimate favorite you
can get just as much muscle recruitment from using dumbbells as you can from a barbell
obviously the only difference is you're restricted as to how much weight you can actually lift
when doing dumbbell deadlifts versus stacking a bunch of plates on a barbell
but if you are just a beginner you can get really strong and still build lots of muscle
by challenging yourself with a dumbbell deadlift so there are many different variations
of hinging deadlift type exercises that you can do and they are all classified as compound exercises
in this video here i'm doing a dumbbell rdl so romanian deadlift see how i'm starting with the
dumbbells at the side of my legs and i'm going to slowly push my hips back and lower the dumbbells
down the front of my legs almost pretty much touching my legs my upper traps are relaxed so
my shoulders are away from my ears and i'm staring a few inches in front of me to ensure that i
maintain a neutral spine throughout the entire exercise and i'm gonna lower down until i feel
tension throughout my hamstrings and my glutes once i feel that tension point i'm going to
act as if i'm driving my heels down into the ground at the same time i'm pushing my heels down
i'm squeezing my glutes and hamstrings to drive my body back up to starting position but the one
form tip that i try to tell every single person that is often forgotten especially on the way
back up to start position make sure your body weight is in your heels and squeeze through
that tension you want to feel it what i call the shelf so you have your bum and then your legs so
the shelf right here that is where you should be feeling a lot of the tension and on the way up
you're gonna squeeze through that tension clench your glutes together and stand back up straight
not until you've hyper extended your back you want to just make sure you're coming back up to
straight position and then you're hinging back again sticking your glutes out as if you're
pushing them back towards a wall but if you want to learn more about deadlift forms specifically
check out this video i already have on my channel breaking down all in more detail about how to do
a proper deadlift i'll link that video in the description below as well exercise number three
the dumbbell chest press a great alternative to a barbell bench press and the benefit of doing
a dumbbell chest press versus actually a barbell chest press is you're forcing each arm to work
individually versus a barbell bench press where there could be some compensation between
the stronger arm and the weaker arm so if you're working out at home and all you have is dumbbells
and you don't even have a bench you can lay on a mat on the floor doing a dumbbell chest press you
can lift both dumbbells at the same time you can also alternate you're going to get a little bit
more core activation and you can focus on one arm at a time if you have a bench you can also do this
laying on a bench make sure you're gripping the dumbbells right above your chest not above your
neck and lower the dumbbells down to about a 45 degree angle at your elbows either parallel or a
few inches just below your chest and pressing back up exercise number four a dumbbell bent over row
or a single arm dumbbell row so one of the best compound exercises for your upper body and your
upper back muscles of course is a pull up or a chin up and i talk all about those in my other
videos but of course if you're just starting out and you're not strong enough to do chin-ups or
pull-ups or you're not confident enough to go do some band-assisted pull-ups at the gym starting
with bent over dumbbell rows or a single arm dumbbell row is a great way to begin to build
your upper back strength and your total upper body strength so in the dumbbell bent over row you want
to be in a similar hinge position as you are when you're doing a dumbbell deadlift so no rounding
of your shoulders you want to try and have a neutral spine dumbbells are going to be a little
bit in front of your thighs and you're going to retract your upper traps so shoulders are pulled
away from your ears so you're not all scrunched up and rowing those dumbbells back towards your
hips trying to activate your lats the lats are the muscles right underneath your armpits so
they're one of the biggest muscles in the back as you're rowing you're going to be pulling towards
your hips squeezing your lats again you have the option to roll both dumbbells at the same time
or you can alternate rolling one dumbbell at a time now if you find you start to feel these
in your lower back or you don't yet feel strong enough through your core to hold this position and
lift heavy with your bent over row you can also try a single arm dumbbell row so i'm going to talk
about two different options of your single arm dumbbell row in this video today one where you're
resting your knee on the bench you're in a nice stable position make sure your shoulder is right
on top of your wrist you're gonna row that one dumbbell up towards your hip squeezing your lat
squeezing right inside your shoulder blade and making sure your upper trap so your shoulder
is relaxed and away from your ear this is also another great exercise and if you don't have a
bench at home and you only have say a chair you can try a three-point stance dumbbell row as well
where you're just putting your one hand on a chair on a box on an ottoman on the couch whatever you
have access to using that as your stabilization point and performing your three-point dumbbell
exercise number five an overhead press so there are again so many different variations i'm gonna
talk about an arnold press from standing and a seated position as well as one of my favorite
shoulder press so with the arnold press you are adding a little bit of rotation you're gonna
recruit a few more muscles in this movement you are starting with your wrists facing towards you
core nice and tight and as you lift the dumbbells up over your head you're going to be rotating so
that your wrists are then facing away from you at the top and towards you at the bottom you're going
to continue to press up and down making sure that when you get to full extension at the top you are
not arching your lower back if you are the option one is to modify that by lifting one arm at a time
or decreasing your weight so that you're able to stabilize your core at the same time you're
pressing overhead another option is to also go from a seated position but still making sure
that you are not arching your back at the top and keeping your core muscles engaged second
option for an overhead press that is a bit more shoulder friendly is just a conventional shoulder
press with the dumbbells this is a great place to start again with the options of lifting both at
the same time or one at a time depending on your personal preference and how each of them feel on
your shoulders one very very important form tip when performing an overhead press is when you're
here when you're pressing overhead make sure this doesn't happen so shoulders should be relaxed
upper traps should be as relaxed as you can when your dumbbells are here you're pressing overhead
not doing this so keep your upper traps relaxed while you're doing your overhead process compound
exercise with dumbbells number six is a farmer carry so i also added this exercise in my other
compound lift video because it is so important and often very forgotten in any strength training
program farmer carries are great for building your grip strength if your goal is to get stronger in
deadlifts in dumbbell rows in barbell deadlifts in pull-ups chin-ups and just again to be able
to open jars and function better in life also a great core exercise and work your entire lower
body it works almost every muscle in your body again a very very functional exercise if you're
looking here at the farmer carry how many times do you walk out of the grocery store doing this exact
movement we carry things all the time and focusing on building strength in these specific movements
will really help you not only build muscle get stronger it will help you in your other big lifts
but also just function in life with less worry of injuring yourself at the grocery store picking up
your kids mama's out there i don't know how many times i carry both my kids a four-year-old and a
two-year-old up and down the stairs or around the house or having to pick them up at the grocery
store wherever it is and i honestly say to myself every single day how do people do this who don't
lift weights i would have blown my back out like 30 times already but if you're working out from
home and you don't necessarily have a lot of space to be doing long farmer carries maybe
you're in a small basement room or a bedroom or wherever it is and you don't have room to walk
around with your dumbbells another option that i like to give people is what i call farmer carry
marching or farmer marching so where you are still in that farmer carry position holding
both dumbbells at your sides but instead of walking forward you're just focusing on marching
in spot so coming up till your knee and hip are at 90 degrees your ankle is at 90 degrees
holding for half a second and coming back down so what you're watching for here is that there's
no instability through your hips you are trying to maintain a stable core and again stability through
your hips while performing the motion you're still going to be working your grip strength
and really it's a little bit even more intense on your core than an actual farmer carry so again if
you don't have a lot of room give these ones a try as well and the seventh and last compound exercise
i highly recommend is either a reverse lunge or a step up so a unilateral exercise holding dumbbells
at your sides to help build single leg strength stability core strength again it will challenge
multiple muscle groups at a time get your heart rate going and help you get stronger
in your other compound lifts so just like all the other exercises when it comes to
lunges or step ups so many different variations here i'm just showing a dumbbell reverse lunge
so when you're doing this exercise you really want to step back and make sure your front knee
is not going over your toe and again just like in the deadlift on the way back up you are driving
that front heel into the ground to activate that glute and drive back up there also is an option
to add the stability factor where you are coming up with a knee drive and you are forcing that hip
and that glute to stabilize you before coming back down that just adds a little bit of extra
difficulty and of course you're gonna work your core and your stability a little bit more in that
exercise now again you can do a forward lunge you can do lateral lunges you can do walking lunges
there are so many different lunges but if you are doing lunges and you feel some kind of pain in
your knee step ups are a great alternative putting one foot on a bench or a box or a step whatever
height you feel comfortable with making sure again whatever foot is on the bench you are driving
through that heel not putting your body weight in your toe squeezing that glute and driving yourself
back up harder you're holding dumbbells the heavier the dumbbells the harder it's going to be
you can also add the same knee drive that we did in the reverse lunge to add a bit more of
stability factor now that's the top seven best compound exercises with dumbbells i just want
to add one little pointer in here and something that i like to do all the time is sometimes you
can start to combine a few of these exercises into a different compound exercise for example a squat
with an overhead press is a great compound exercise you are recruiting even more muscles than
you're doing in a squat so depending on what your workout structure looks like you can also do here
i'm showing you a reverse lunge at a bicep curl at an overhead press and you're repeating that so
again recruiting more muscle fibers it's going to get your heart rate up it's gonna help you
hit more muscle groups in a shorter period of time so that's just another one extra bonus
thing to remember is you're not stuck in this bubble of only doing specific compound exercises
combining some of these exercises into bigger lifts is totally fine as well but i think that's
for a separate video if you are just a beginner start adding those seven compound lifts into your
workouts and that's what i'm going to talk about now how are we going to add these into our workout
my best advice is if you are doing an upper and lower split pick about two or three compound
exercises per workout two or three upper body two or three lower body compound exercises and
then fill in the rest of your workout with what we call accessory work so isolation exercises
core exercises plyometrics stability again depending on your specific goals but my best
advice is take these compound exercises once you've created your strength training plans is
keep track of your reps and your weights and follow progressive overload so each week you
are trying to increase your weight or you're trying to increase your reps in each of these
exercises and continuing to challenge yourself and that's how you're going to get stronger
that's how you're going to get leaner i talk all about progressive overload in this video right
here i'll link that in the description below is if you want to know how to really get the results
that you want to look leaner and decrease body fat doing the same weight over and over and over
again is not going to get you there so take it upon yourself to educate yourself i've got all
the information for you on my channel already so there you go guys that's all about compound
exercises with dumbbells you can do at home or the gym to help you decrease body fat and increase
lean muscle as always i hope this video was helpful give it a like if you found it helpful
leave your questions below if you're interested in my eight week strength training program i'll leave
some information in the description below as well it's an eight week done for you strength training
program you can follow along in my app there's three day split and four day split options one
for the gym and one for dumbbells only it's a great way to get started and learn how to
follow a progressive strength training program to get stronger in these compound exercises
and see what a full strength training program would look like if you're interested in learning
more about my one-on-one online fitness and nutrition coaching i'll also put a link in the
description below as to where you can find out more about working with me one-on-one to reach
your fitness and fat loss goals thanks again for watching guys and i'll see you next week
you