A Simple Guide To Proper Form When Lifting Dumbbells

How To Avoid Injury When Lifting Dumbbells

First, let’s talk about why you need to learn proper technique and form before you start lifting dumbbells.

Most people think that no matter how you lift weights, nothing will go wrong and your body will accept the pressure while magically adjusting itself to your lifting style.

This kind of mentality can end up hurting you as lack of proper form can result in injuries like sprains, strains, and dislocation of joints.

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Why Do You Need Proper Form When Lifting Dumbbells?

Lifting dumbbells is way more than just picking up a chunk of metal. You need to understand that our muscles stretch a certain way. Our body has its own compass to calculate right angles and scales. If you start to load your body with exercises without proper form, your whole effort will be a waste of time.

This may also cause you mild to severe pain with no results to show of your strength training workout.

Why Women Won’t Get Bulky Muscles When Lifting Dunbbells

Most women want to build a bit of muscle, but are fearful of getting too bulky. Some avoid heavy weights and others avoid weights all together in the hopes that they can avoid building up too much muscle.

But the idea that if you lift weights you will become too big is wrong. Even men struggle to build sufficient amounts of muscle to get big. In fact, many have to turn to growth hormones to even get close to achieving as much muscle mass as they want. This is all despite the fact that men have the natural advantage of higher testosterone.

So, women, who have naturally lower testosterone, don’t need to worry about getting too big. If you want lose that flabby look and have a toned body with a sufficient amount of muscle, then you need to start lifting heavier weights.

Weight Matters

When you start lifting dumbbells, choosing the right weight should be your top priority. The general advice is to get yourself comfortable with light weights then work your way up. However, light weight doesn’t always mean that you should go too low – rather, it’s more about your comfort. Which weight might suit you can be easily known by experimenting with different options.

Find the weight you can lift for just 3 sets, 8 to 12 repetitions each set. Keep experimenting until you find out what that weight is for each different movement. If you can only curl 10 pounds (4.5 kilos)  8 to 12 times for 3 sets before you are fatigued, this is the minimum weight you want to work with. This helps you select your dumbbells.

As you work out, your strength will grow. You will eventually be able to curl 20 pounds (9 kilos) 8 to 12 times each, and be able to handle 5 sets. This is when you go with a heavier weight. You should always try to exercise with weights that you can’t left more than 3 sets, 8 to 12 repetitions each set.

This quickly fatigues your muscles, cranks up your fat burning, metabolism boosting power, and minimizes the amount of time you have to lifting dumbbells to see any results.

Posture

Now that you have chosen the weight you are comfortable with, it’s time to correct your posture. The best tip here is to go through a little warm up routine with some light stretching before you actually start working out.  It ensures that good blood flow goes to your muscles and it helps ensure that you don’t injure your muscles while working out.

The second tip is to stand straight before attempting to lift anything.

Although there are many types of dumbbell exercises, this applies to every dumbbell exercise. For example, the bicep curl, which needs you to:

• Stand straight
• Pick up dumbbells by bending your legs, not your back.
• Keep them parallel to your side before bringing to the chest (which may result in your palm facing your chest)
• Breathe out on your way up and breathe in on you way down.  Keep in mind not to hold your breath because this may unnecessarily increase your blood pressure.

To get the most result out of lifting, make sure to lift slowly and steady because this puts maximum strain on your muscles. Keeping yourself hydrated is also a good practice.

Common Ground for All Dumbbell Exercises

As mentioned earlier, there are many exercises that you can do lifting dumbbells. These include, a dumbbell press, dumbbell rows, lateral raise, shoulder press, upright row, etc.

However, these exercises all require the same proper form for them to be carried out effectively. These include: warming up a little, standing straight, lifting slowly and steadily, breathing out on your way up while breathing in on your way down, keeping yourself hydrated, repeating sets, and last but not least, rest.

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Building up muscle isn’t easy.  If you’re not doing it right you can hurt yourself or you can end up doing all the workouts while not actually building up any muscle. When women try to build muscle they often end up making a variety of mistakes that make the job of building muscle much harder than it needs to be.  To learn more, download my free report, 10 Muscle Toning Mistakes Women Make to ensure you get the best workout when lifting dumbbells and other weights.