In this article you’ll find a dumbbell arm workout, designed to blow your arms up in size whilst building a little strength, too.
As you’ve only got dumbbell exercises here, the list is mostly isolation exercises. It’s preferable that you do your compound movements first and then use some of the exercises listed below – or all of them!
We’ll have a look at the workout first. Below that, you will find all of the same exercises, broken down, demonstrated and explained with gifs.
The workout
- Exercise 1: Standing alternating bicep curl – 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps
- Exercise 2: Incline dumbbell curls – 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps
- Exercise 3: Hammer curl – 3 to 4 sets – 6 to 12 reps
- Exercise 4: Close grip dumbbell press – 3 to 4 sets – 6 to 12 reps
- Exercise 5: Overhead tricep extension – 3 to 4 sets – 6 to 12 reps
- Exercise 6: Tricep kickback – 3 to 4 sets – 6 to 12 reps
If you want to gain time, you can perform each bicep and tricep exercise as a superset, in the order listed above. Pick a weight that you can use for 6 to 12 reps and make sure you control your reps.
You can do this workout twice a week or even just once a week if you are a complete beginner. You also don’t have to copy exactly what is written down here either – pick some exercises that you like, and add them to your own routine.
See what you can use, according to your current training volume. Maybe you’ll need to adjust and do more or less sets. It’s up to you to experiment and find out what works best for your body.
Dumbbell arm workout – the exercises
Standing alternating bicep curl
This exercise can work as your bread and butter of bicep growth. Grab a weight you can use for 8 to 12 reps and make sure you have full control over your repetitions.
Everyone likes to pick up the heaviest dumbbells and swing them around from time to time, but it certainly isn’t efficient for muscle growth.
Incline dumbell curl
This is great because the angle allows you to take your biceps through their optimal range of motion, stretching them out fully at the bottom.
This exercise is great for building that bicep peak.
You won’t be able to use as much weight here as on the standing dumbbell curl. Pick some dumbbells you can use for 8 to 12 reps with a nice tempo.
Hammer curl
Hammer curls with build the long head of the biceps, as well as the brachialis (responsible for overall bicep thickness appearance).
You can probably use as much weight as on the standing alternating dumbbell curls here, if not maybe a little bit more. Again, make sure you control the movement as much as possible, going slow on the eccentric and slightly faster on the concentric.
Close grip dumbbell press
This first compound exercise on the list. With this one you are recruiting you chest as well as your triceps, meaning that you can use a little more weight than you would on the isolation movements.
Keep the weights close to each other as you press up.
Overhead tricep extension
An awesome tricep isolation exercise that allows you to use a decent amount of weight when you are doing the double arm variant.
You can also do this standing up or with a single arm at a time. Go slow and try to really feel the stretch.
Tricep kickback
For those who have elbow pain, this variation may be less painful to perform due to the force put on the elbow joint.
Make sure your arm is “fixed” in the right position, and extend, contracting the tricep at the top, performing a slow eccentric.
If you are looking for the best dumbbell exercises for chest, head over to this complete article.
