Dumbbell-only workout?

[darkeconomist]

Hello all, I am a beginner to what hopefully is a journey to build muscle and confidence, and improve fitness. I am a skinny-fat guy, early 20s, 5ft10/178cm, and my goal is to rid myself of belly fat and build muscle at the same time. My arms and legs are very skinny, and my chest is abhorrent. I can make myself look skinny, but the belly fat is too much for my liking.

I have round iron weights at home - I insisted on having them rather than them being sold off. They range between 0.5-5kg, and I have 2 dumbbell bars and a barbell. I have a bench in the shed but I believe there is no 'pin' to slot and keep it upright. Considering I have somewhat decent equipment at home, I was wondering if anyone can advise me on what to do? I have drawn up a list of exercises for arms: bicep curl, tricep extension, hammer curl, tricep kick back, spider curl, dumbbell thrusters. If anyone could advise me on adding anything to arms that would be splendid, but my main focus in non-arm exercises using dumbbells.

Nutrition is another thing. I have bought whey protein and casein, and I roughly know what to eat (I think). Eating is generally the easier part for me, as I am now in a mindset of drinking water and not buying junk from outside. I do need to increase protein intake a bit though, but eating is half of the journey.

One thing I do know is to limit cardio - I'll be hitting 10,000 steps a day but I'll be listening to my audiobook so it won't be too intense.

Edited May 31, 2021 by darkeconomist

[JohnnyAb]

0.5-5kg is not really much weight, how much can you pull off in total on each dumbbell? Weights that small you'd use mainly for arm exercises. You can try some single straight leg deadlifts, all the variations of squats and lunges. It should be enough weight for some proper overhead presses if you're not used to exercising yet. DB chest fly. Maybe some single arm rows? Not sure where you're at. Check out reddit's rr, it might work for you and you won't need much equipment https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine

If you're trying to lose belly fat eating is not half of the journey but rather the majority of it.

[Username]

I like Body Coach youtube channel, there are some dumbbell workouts. I would suggest getting 40 kg set of dumbbells with 31 mm bars. I paid ~$60 for this kind of set, it's not expensive.

I usually use 4 kg each (HIIT) or 7 kg for cardio. Having 20 kg dumbbell is useful even if you are a beginner.

If you want to lose fat keto diet is going to be more effective.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Username

[Michal__]

Full body 

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Day A

1 arm ohp

Pushups

DB rows (1 arm)

DB RDL

DB biceps & triceps

Weighted planks (3 x 30s - 60s)

Day B

Pike push ups

1 arm DB bench on the ground

DB rows (2 arms)

DB RDL

DB biceps & triceps

Weighted planks (3 x 30s - 60s)

Everything is 3 sets 4 - 6 reps

When you can hit 6 reps on all sets increase the weight.

Obviously it's A, B, A, B, so every week looks a bit different.

And find a good stretching routine to do after the workout!

 

Edit: I didn't realize those were only 5 kg weights, sorry. In that case focus mainly on calisthenics and use them to make the calisthenics weighted (even then it won't me enough on most excersises)

Edited June 5, 2021 by Michal__

[Michael569]

@darkeconomist you could add elements of calisthenics to it. Maybe take those dumbells to a local calisthenic outdoor gym and combine them with pullups, dips, hanging rows, chin ups etc. You can also try to implement some elements of HIIT training. 

But for better muscle hypertrophy adding more complex lifts such as benchpress, deadlifts, bent-over rows, squads, lunges and shoulder press are more useful than light weights. 5kilo dumbels are decent for some isolated lifts if you are a beginner but eventually you may find the lack of weight limiting if you want to perform some more complex moves.

But again depends on what your goal is. Gym and weights are not necessary if the main goal is more functional strength, for that bodyweight and a pullup bar is all that is needed. 

[Elton]

@darkeconomist hey have you heard of funk Roberts on YouTube? I have recently purchased his dumbell workout 3 month program and I feel its very good.

He has many free vedios on you tube too, check him out, I am sure it will help you.