Dos and Don’ts When Exercising With Dumbbells

Article by TOAS

Incorporating dumbbells into your daily exercise regimen has a host of benefits whether your intention is to build bigger muscles or just to keep fit and build stamina. It is a form of weight lifting that is pretty much user-friendly. You essentially just need one set of dumbbells, which is 2 dumbbells: one for each hand, and you are set to go.

Strain and Sprain

As with any form of exercise, it is imperative to pay close attention to some dos and don’ts so as to protect yourself from getting hurt while doing any of the exercises. Exercising incorrectly can lead to undesirable muscle strain and ligament sprain which is what you must do in your utmost to avoid. A strain is when the muscle is stretched too far or torn. This damages the muscle fibers. When bone or joint ligaments are over-stretched or torn, it results in a sprain. Ligaments are fibrous connecting tissues that connect muscles to bones and joints.

Dos and Don’ts

DOs

Warm up first before you start lifting the dumbbells, even if you are just practicing. Warm-up exercises help warm up the muscles to prevent overstretching too quickly which could hurt either muscles or joints as mentioned earlier. You can warm up the muscles with light cardio, or by doing a light set of each exercise before proceeding to heavier weights.Take a rest in between sets of exercises. A set is defined as a group of repetition for different exercises.Go slow when handling your weights. Lift and lower your weights slowly and steadily.Stand up straight. Make sure your posture is straight. Engage your abdominal in every movement you make to keep balance and protect your spine.Choose at least one exercise for each major muscle group. Some major muscle groups are: chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and abdominal. Leaving any muscle group out could cause an imbalance in your muscles and possibly lead to injuries.Take a rest for 1 to 2 minutes, or long enough to catch your breath, between each set of exercise.After you complete your routine, remember to cool down with light cardio and/or stretching.Take rest days too! They are as important as workout days. Make sure the same muscle groups is not worked for 2 consecutive days.

DON’Ts

Don’t use momentum to lift the weight. If you have to swing to get the weight up, you could be using too heavy weights.Don’t forget to breathe! We are tempted to hold our breath especially when it is the toughest. Don’t. As the American College of Sports Medicine puts it “Exhale when the exercise is hardest, and inhale when the exercise is the easiest.”

Check out Dumbbell Routines and Exercises for a total body workout to improve your physical fitness in 90 days. Digital format means you can get started working out right away.

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Warning to Body Builders – Dos and Don’ts For Exercise

Article by Gaetane Ross

For many people their exercise program begins the day they no longer like what they see in the mirror. Sadly, a lot of people do not have the will power or the drive to actually see any results from their exercise.

If you are like many other people today looking for advice to get you going and then maintaining your exercise routine, you have come to the right site. Take a deep breath, shore up your perseverance and check out the tips below that will help you become healthy and fit. These ideas can get you started on a training program and help you stick to it.

Don’t overdo it! The first big mistake most people make is to begin an exercise program with unrealistic expectations. They go full steam ahead trying to burn off fat that they have put on over many years in one exercise session. There are many ill effects that can happen from this approach.

1. Injury- If you try too hard too soon you could injure yourself. You can simply push your body too far with sudden physical exertion that you are not used to. Add to this hard pounding routine a lack of proper warm up and cool down sessions and you have a great recipe for disaster. This type of exercise routine will get you hurt and set you back for some time.

2. Burn Out- You do not want to burn out after only a few training sessions. Remember, that training should be consistent and intense. If you lack either of these qualities in your routine, you will have no results and a heaping lot of frustration.

If you will start at a comfortable pace and consistently increase the intensity over time, say about 10% per week, you will avoid both injury and burn out. This is a great way to avoid overdoing things at the outset.

3. Balance- You need a good balance to your regimen, too many people will hyper focus on one area of the body. This is never recommended for the long term. It is better to have a whole body regimen than singling out specific areas; this is healthier and may spur weight loss or muscle development for your chosen area. You see the body is not a collection of parts working independently of one another, it is a system. Developing any one part of the body means looking at the whole.

Lack of balance takes you back to injury as well, your risks increase when you are focused on one area. Avoid this type of work out altogether.

4. Nutrition- Often times when people are trying to lose weight they will drastically cut their calories. This is a bad idea overall. When dieting remember you should never cut more than half of your caloric intake, any more than that, your body can go into starvation mode where it hangs on to the fat stores you have. Basically, your metabolism will slow to a crawl making it even more difficult to lose weight.

Don’t forget the water! You will find that some people tend to shy away from many kinds of fluids just to achieve a lower weight. The problem is water is vitally important to your workout. When you stay properly hydrated your bodily functions work correctly and often you will flush toxins and fat from the body, which makes losing weight easier.

Don’t forget to eat well. You should eat a healthy balanced lunch or breakfast. For supper you can go light and just have a snack or skip the meal entirely, however never skip the first meal of the day.

Do Persevere! After the new wears off your new gym clothes and walking shoes, you may find yourself avoiding exercise again. Be on the lookout for this type of behavior and snap out of it when you slip. Set and keep realistic weight loss and body building goals. You will have to work hard to attain them, but nothing is better than enjoying your image in the mirror.

Any time you feel like quitting or you need some motivation remind yourself of your goals. Now that you have a few great tools, what are you waiting for? Plan and execute your exercise regimen today!

Your mind will be your most powerful weapon; a great looking body demands the use of your mind. It will be what helps you develop your plan and stick to it. In the end you will find that you can attain an exercise routing that is both rewarding and fulfilling, which equals a routine you can keep for life.