An Arms Workout With Dumbbells to Hit Your Biceps, Triceps and Shoulders

Should you end up defaulting to lower-body exercises every time you get to the gym—because who doesn’t love a great legs routine?—having an arms workout with dumbbells in your list could be an awesome strategy to make certain you’re fitting some upper-body strengthening into your plan too.

And that’s necessary, since those muscles really do lots to get you thru life. Your biceps, that are positioned on the front of your upper arms, assist you to with any pulling motion you could be doing, certified personal trainer Francine Delgado-Lugo, CPT, movement and strength coach and cofounder of Form Fitness Brooklyn, tells SELF. This implies each time you open a door, pick something off the ground, or carry an object, your biceps are working to assist you to get it done, she explains. Once you flex or bend your elbow, your biceps are firing.

Your triceps, which make up the back of your upper arm, are the opposing or antagonist muscle to your biceps—they assist you to with pushing movements, Delgado-Lugo says. Each time you shut a door, lower your body to the ground, or press something overhead, you’re using your triceps. In addition they help stabilize your arms while you’re carrying a heavy load, she adds. Once you extend your elbow and straighten your arm, your triceps are working.

And while you could not consider them as “arms muscles,” your rear deltoids—which run along the backside of your shoulder—play a key role in your upper-body functioning. This small muscle is “very necessary for posture and for moving the arm backward,” explains Delgado-Lugo, so it’s super necessary to work on strengthening along together with your biceps and triceps.

While your arm muscles are relatively small, they’re actually pretty necessary for larger lifts, like rows or bench presses (and for body weight exercises too, including push-ups and pull-ups). “They play a critical role in supporting those movements,” Delgado-Lugo says. Take the row, as an example. Regardless that your larger back muscles are the first drivers, your biceps work to assist keep your weight—whether we’re talking a couple of barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell—regular and complete the movement. Similarly, with a chest press, your pectoral muscles could also be doing many of the work, but your triceps are helping it along too.

To present these mighty muscles the eye they deserve, Delgado-Lugo created the next four-move routine for SELF that you could add to your arsenal of arms workouts with dumbbells while you’re craving something latest. With exercises including the Arnold press, three-way biceps curl, bent-over row to triceps kickback, and bent-over reverse fly, you’ll goal your arms in addition to your shoulders and parts of your mid and upper back.

Together these muscles “are all integral to effective pushing and pulling and carrying in horizontal and vertical directions,” explains Delgado-Lugo.

The exercises you’ll be doing are a mixture of isolation moves (those that focus on one area of the body) and more compound moves (people who hit multiple muscle groups). The three-way biceps curl, as an example, is an isolation move that hones in in your biceps, while the bent-over row to triceps kickback is more of a compound exercise that fires up your larger back muscles along together with your triceps.