Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
It's hard to beat the appearance of bulging biceps, horseshoe-shaped triceps, and massively rounded shoulders. And fortunately, there are countless arm exercises that you could choose from to train all of your arm muscle groups, using everything from barbells to body weight to machines.
In this article, we're going to go over another group that can help you obtain the arms of your dreams: dumbbell arm exercises. We'll lay out the 12 best dumbbell arm exercises that will create massive guns, along with a great sample workout and some awesome programming tips.
Table of Contents:
- Major Upper Arm Muscle Groups
- 12 Best Dumbbell Arm Exercises For Mass & Strength
- How Heavy Should The Weight Be For Dumbbell Arm Exercises?
- Benefits Of Using Dumbbell Exercises To Train Your Arms
- Programming Tips For Arm Workouts With Dumbbells
- Sample Arm Workout With Dumbbells
The Major Muscle Groups Of The Upper Arms
Technically, the arms refer to the entire appendage that hangs off the shoulder joint. This means it includes the forearms as well as the upper arms. That said, when people are looking for arm exercises, they are generally only referring to the upper arms, which include the biceps and triceps as well as the deltoids (depending on who you ask).
Biceps Brachii, Brachialis, and Brachioradialis:
First, let's look at the muscles responsible for helping you perform bicep curls (and many other movements!).
- Biceps: The biceps is a two-headed muscle group that sits on the front of your upper arm. The two heads consist of separate muscle bellies that originate from different locations, come together as they travel down the arm, and then merge into the same tendon which is inserted across the elbow joint. Both heads are worked at different angles, meaning it's important to include long head bicep exercises and short head bicep exercises in your routine.
- Brachialis: It sits on the upper arms under the biceps and is the primary arm flexor. If you are looking for strong, developed biceps, you must train them. Brachialis exercises are crucial for bigger, stronger arms.
- Brachioradialis: It sits across the elbow, and while it is more of a forearm muscle than part of the upper arm, if you want a fully defined arm, strength training them is essential.
Triceps:
The triceps is a three-headed muscle group that sits on the back side of the arm. The three muscle heads include the long head, medial head, and lateral head. Similar to the biceps, this means that the three muscles all originate from different locations and merge as they travel down the arm. The common tendon then crosses the elbow joint to allow extension of the arm which is the primary function of the triceps.
The triceps are a vital part of the upper arm as it accounts for approximately 60% of the total mass. Being so, having small triceps will make it virtually impossible to have a set of arms of any significance. You must train the triceps!
It's important to include long head triceps exercises, medial head exercises, and lateral head triceps exercises in your routine for fully developed, well-defined upper arms.
Deltoids:
The deltoids are a set of three muscles that make up your "shoulder" muscles. These three muscles sit around your shoulder joint and allow it to manipulate the arm in virtually any direction. Because the shoulder joint is a ball-in-socket joint, it requires these different muscle heads to be situated in different areas to be able to push, pull, lift, and perform any other arm movement.
And while some people may not consider them an upper arm muscle, they certainly hold a lot of aesthetic value in creating a set of massive arms. If you want that capped look with shoulder muscles that stick out to make a valley with your biceps, deltoid training is essential.
As mentioned above, there are three heads to the shoulder muscles:
- Anterior Deltoid: The anterior deltoid is primarily responsible for shoulder flexion or bringing your arms up out in front of you
- Posterior Deltoid: The posterior deltoid is primarily responsible for shoulder extension or bringing your arms back behind your body.
- Lateral Deltoid: The lateral deltoid is primarily responsible for shoulder abduction or lifting your arms out to the side
Off all these three deltoid muscles, the lateral deltoid is the most important to give special attention to as it's the muscle that sits off the side of the upper arm. Make an active effort to work lateral deltoid exercises into your routine. Further, the anterior deltoid gets a ton of activation during pushing movements while the posterior deltoid gets hit on every pulling exercise.
This doesn't mean ignoring the other two deltoids. You can definitely still elevate your arm workouts by including anterior deltoid exercises and rear deltoid exercises as well. Just make sure you give the lateral deltoids some extra love.
12 Best Dumbbell Arm Exercises For A Sleeve-Splitting Arm Pump
Here we go! These dumbbell arm exercises are the best in the business for building every muscle of the upper arm. We'll lay out what dumbbell exercises you should be using if you want some impressive arms. We've also grouped each exercise by the arm muscle group it targets so you have a clear idea of what moves are responsible for growing each muscle.
Proper form is crucial for optimal growth so pay attention to how these are performed.
4 Best Dumbbell Exercises For Biceps
Prepare to feel the bicep burn with these first four dumbbell arm exercises. In addition to the biceps, these moves also hit your forearm flexors, the brachialis and brachioradialis, ensuring evenly defined and muscular arms. You're guaranteed to find these exercises in an ultimate biceps-building workout.
1. Standing Dumbbell Drag Curl:
Drag curls are basic dumbbell curls with a little variation. Instead of performing the curl with the elbows down to the side, you are going to pull your elbows back as you perform the curl.
This stretches the long head as it crosses over the shoulder joint. Doing so will create an intense burn that we promise you'll learn to love.
How to do the Standing Dumbbell Drag Curl:
- Keeping your knees soft and core braced, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold two dumbbells, letting them hang down by your sides. Your palms will face upward.
- As you begin the exercise, draw your elbows back while curling the dumbbells straight up your body. Work to keep the weight close to your body, while slowly curling the dumbbells.
- At the top, squeeze your biceps before lowering the dumbbells in a controlled motion.
2. Dumbbell Hammer Curl:
While they share some similarities, there are differences between the hammer vs. biceps curls. For example, instead of using a supinated grip (palms facing up), you will use a neutral grip. By internally rotating your arm, you will shift the focus from the biceps brachii and place more stress on the brachialis and brachioradialis.
As mentioned above, these two muscles are often overlooked by many new lifters meaning these guys are severely limiting the size of their arms. Don't be that guy. Do your dumbbell hammer curls.
How to do the Dumbbell Hammer Curl:
- Starting in a standing position, feet shoulder-width apart, holding two dumbbells with a neutral grip (palms facing inward).
- Keep your elbows and upper arms stationary.
- Flex your elbow by pulling the dumbbells upward, continuing to bring the dumbbells up until they touch your upper arm. Keep your elbows close to your sides.
- Lower the dumbbells slowly back to the starting position.
3. Dumbbell Spider Curl:
A spider curl is a bicep curl that is done while lying face down on a bench with your arms straight down. You will then pick up a pair of dumbbells and perform an arm curl in this position, and because your arms hang freely below your body, you are unable to cheat your bicep curls.
Looking for more information on this bicep-burning move? You'll want to read our article on the spider curl exercise, which includes some great variations to try.
How to do the Dumbbell Spider Curl:
- Place an inclined bench to a 45-degree angle, and lay face down on the bench holding two dumbbells with your palms facing forward.
- Curl the dumbbells up by bending your elbows. At the top of the position, contract your biceps for an additional 1-2 seconds.
- Lower the dumbbells slowly down to the starting position.
- Keep your arm and elbows stationary for the duration of the move.
4. Incline Dumbbell Curl:
After you finish your spider curls, flip over on the bench and perform some incline dumbbell curls. These are almost a mix of drag curls and spider curls as your arms hang straight down. This position limits your ability to cheat the dumbbell while also adding an extensive stretch to the biceps muscle fibers.
How to do the Incline Dumbbell Curl:
- Keep the bench at the 45-degree angle used for the spider curls.
- Lay on your back, face-up, holding two dumbbells with palms facing forward.
- Slowly bend your elbows to slowly curl the dumbbell up in a slow and controlled motion.
- Keep your arm and elbows stationary. At the top of the movement, slowly lower back down.
4 Best Dumbbell Exercises For Triceps
Once you've trained your biceps, you're going to focus on your arm's backside and train the triceps. Compared to the biceps, you may find you can use significantly more weight when training the triceps.
And because the triceps have three heads, it's that much more important to use exercises that target different angles. This includes having at least one overhead extension to hit the long head. Don't forget to cool off after going heavy on your muscles. These best triceps stretches will prevent your arms from being overtight and overworked.
5. Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press:
One of the biggest misconceptions about the bench press is that it's an awesome exercise for the chest muscles. While it does train the chest (and well!), you will notice that most guys with a strong bench also have huge triceps.
A bench press will train the entire upper body but you will notice the amount of flexion and extension that occurs at the elbow joint. Further, after the arms break parallel with the chest, the primary movement is elbow extension. This is why the best bench pressers have a ton of triceps-specific training.
You are going to hold dumbbells using a neutral grip when performing this press. This will allow an even greater amount of flexion and extension as well as relieve stress on the elbow and shoulder joints. You can use a slightly heavier weight with this exercise.
How to do the Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press:
- Lying down on a bench, hold two dumbbells with a neutral grip shoulder-width apart.
- Slowly extend the dumbbells up overhead by straightening the elbows. This is your starting position.
- When the arms are fully straightened, slowly begin lowering the dumbbells by bending your elbows. Keep your elbows tucked close to the body.
- Allow the dumbbells to come as low as possible to your chest. With your arms bent, begin to drive the dumbbells up, concentrating on triceps activation and straightening the arms.
6. Dumbbell Skull Crushers:
With a name like skull crushers, you know this is a killer exercise. While usually performed with a barbell of some sort, you can do them with dumbbells. Plus, this also lets you play with different hand grips to get that variety.
How to do the Dumbbell Skull Crushers:
- Laying down on a bench, face-up, take a dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms out straight above your body over your chest.
- These are traditionally done with a neutral grip but you can also use a pronated grip (palms facing forward).
- Allow your lower arms to come straight by bending your elbows and keeping them pointed upward. Move the dumbbells directly overhead by bending your elbows. They can come down to your forehead or slightly past your head.
- Keeping your elbows stationary, drive the dumbbells back to the starting position by extending your arms.
7. Dumbbell Overhead Extension:
This is an awesome dumbbell exercise to ensure you hit the entire triceps. While you traditionally perform this exercise standing, some clients may find that kneeling provides more stability for a bigger lift.
Pro tip: We find that using only one dumbbell at a time is more efficient for the majority of lifters performing the dumbbell triceps extensions.
How to do the Dumbbell Overhead Extension:
- You can sit down or stand with feet hip width apart, keeping your core tight. Grasping the inside of the dumbbell with both hands, start with your arms straight, holding the weight directly overhead.
- Allow the dumbbell to come back behind your body by bending your elbows while keeping them stationary. Lower the weight as far as you can behind your head, keeping your elbows pointing out slightly.
- Try to get a deep stretch and then with elbows bent, slowly straighten your elbows to return the weight overhead.
8. Tate Press:
Powerlifters have the biggest triceps you'll find. This includes the legendary Dave Tate., founder of EliteFTS With personal bests that include a 930-pound back squat, a 610-pound bench press, and a 740-pound deadlift. Tate is the real deal. And he also coined this dumbbell arm exercise for the triceps.
How to do the Tate Press:
- Lay down on a bench, face-up, with your dumbbells. You should be able to go heavier for this move.
- The starting position will have you holding your dumbbells overhead, similar to the top of a dumbbell chest press.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells down to the middle of your chest with your elbows pointing out. Your elbows stay relatively in the same spot.
- Let the dumbbells come all the way down but don't let them rest on your chest. Keep the tension.
- Extend your elbows, returning to the original position.
4 Best Dumbbell Exercises For Shoulders
As mentioned, the shoulders are a bit of a loner, as we're including them with the arm, but they're not really the arm. We still train them on arm day, though, since they're so incremental to most upper body movements and are crucial for all upper body workouts. And while we are including them in arm exercises, we will be treating them similar to the biceps and triceps, meaning we're focusing on accessory and hypertrophy movements.
9. Arnold Press:
The Arnold press is one of our favorite dumbbell arm exercises for the shoulders and is one of the few compound lifts on this list. One of the reasons it is so effective is it trains the front, lateral, and rear deltoids through a huge range of motion that offers some major time under tension.
While these are overhead presses, they are generally performed with smaller weights with a focus on hypertrophy.
How to do the Arnold Press:
- Sitting on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, bring them up to your shoulders. Start with your palms facing outward.
- Begin the exercise by performing an overhead press. Be sure to keep your elbows pointing forward as you straighten your elbows to raise your dumbbells.
- As you come down, you will externally rotate your arms while bringing your elbows in front of you
- At the bottom of the move, your arms should be in front of you with palms facing forward, similar to a boxer protecting his face.
- Push back, reversing this action to repeat again.
10. Lateral Raises:
Simple, basic, and effective, the lateral raise is one of the most popular arm exercises there is. It's also one of the few moves that most people kind of know how to do. And by kind of, we mean they still mess it up pretty bad, which is why you should take the time to read our how-to.
That said, above we spoke about the importance of training your lateral deltoid and the lateral raise is your golden ticket. Get some!
How to do Lateral Raises:
- Stand with your knees slightly bent and feet flat and feet hip width apart. Keep your core engaged so your trunk remains upright. Hold dumbbells in each hand with your arms down to your side. You can use an overhand grip or neutral grip.
- Pull your arms up keeping your elbows slightly bent, and slowly raise the dumbbells out to each side.
- Your arms will remain in the same position for the entire movement. Concentrate on bringing your elbows up rather than the dumbbells.
- Bring up until your elbows reach shoulder height, and slowly lower down to the starting position.
11. Dumbbell IYT Raise:
The dumbbell IYT raise is an excellent exercise as it includes 3 movements in one exercise. The front raise forms your I, the 45-degree raise is your Y, and the lateral raise creates a T shape.
Combined, these three movements train the front and lateral delts at every angle, promising some awesome muscle development. You can perform this exercise standing or sitting, and we'd advise using lighter weights.
How to do the Dumbbell IYT Raise:
- You can either sit or stand, holding your dumbbells in each hand. If you're standing, have your knees bent slightly so they aren't locked. Starting with your palms face down and your dumbbells in front of your thighs, raise your left arm and right arm simultaneously straight in front of you, stopping at shoulder height to form an I.
- Slowly lower your arms down and then perform the same movement at a 45-degree angle, so your arms and body make a Y. Again, slowly lower your arms back down.
- For the T portion of the move, perform a lateral raise. You will only pull the dumbbell to shoulder level. Slowly lower down to the starting position, and prepare to start at the beginning of the move, forming an I.
12. Bent-Over Reverse Fly:
Even though the rear delts get trained a lot with other pulling exercises, it doesn't hurt to add one isolation move. And that isolation is the bent-over reverse fly, which is the dumbbell version of the reverse pec deck machine. Again, this is a very simple yet effective dumbbell exercise to hit the rear delt as well as the upper back musculature. Perform these with a lighter weight to give your back a lot of volume.
How to do the Bent-Over Reverse Fly:
- Stand with a set of dumbbells, one in your left hand and the other in your right, and then bend forward allowing your torso to come down so you are parallel with the floor.
- Once you lean forward, your arms should hang straight down holding your dumbbells with a neutral grip and a slight bend in your elbows.
- Pull the dumbbells back and toward the ceiling while keeping your shoulder blades pulled back.
- Continue until your arms reach the level of your back and then slowly lower to the starting position.
How Heavy Should The Weight Be For Dumbbell Arm Exercises?
When using dumbbells to train the arms, you are going to want to stick primarily to lighter weights of 80% 1RM or less. This loading scheme would put you in the 8 plus rep scheme.
The primary reason for this is when training the arms, you want to focus on muscle hypertrophy rather than strength. This doesn't mean strength isn't important but rather you should be using big compound lifts to accomplish that.
Further, using heavier loads for dumbbell arm exercises can be a bit challenging as well as dangerous. Being able to just use one arm to stabilize the dumbbell, can cause a lot of stress on the joints. When paired with the fact you should be using bigger compound lifts for strength, there's no reason to go heavy.
Benefits Of Using Dumbbells
A dumbbell workout is an awesome choice. They're effective, easy to use, and are found in basically every single commercial gym. They also offer a ton of unique benefits. Here are a few of the reasons you want to include dumbbells in your arm training.
1. More Muscle Activation:
While barbells are ideal for strength, using dumbbells requires more stabilization due to only using one arm. This causes an increase in activation which can translate to bigger gains, which enables you to build more muscle.
2. Exercises are Easy To Vary:
As a dumbbell is a singular implement, you have the freedom to use various grips and arm angles. For example, dumbbells allow a neutral grip which is impossible to perform with a barbell.
3. Easier On The Shoulders:
Because your arms have the freedom to move, you can position your arms in various positions to help alleviate discomfort. One of the first pieces of advice for those with shoulder issues is to try using dumbbells. And for a good majority of them, it works!
Tips For How To Train Your Arms
Remember that the arms are already trained with every single upper-body compound movement. This means that in reality, you don't even need to use arm-specific exercises to create massive, strong arms. But it also doesn't hurt.
That said, we don't believe in the use of an arm-specific day (apart from a few isolated occasions). To train the arms optimally, add 2 to 4 exercises for each arm muscle per week into your workout split. Keep in mind that more advanced lifters will need more volume while beginner lifters could get away with less isolation work. Further, we like to rotate our arm exercises regularly.
While it's imperative to track the progress of your larger lifts, it's not as vital for your arm training. While you want to see gradual progress, your primary goal with your arm training is to bring each set to momentary failure.
The majority of your work should be in the 8 to 12 rep range but you can go a bit heavier (especially with the triceps and shoulder) or lighter once in a while with some 20 plus reps.
Sample Dumbbell Arm Workout
Wondering how you can put it all together for one killer dumbbell arm workout? Here's a routine for some inspiration!
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
|
Neutral Grip DB Bench Press |
3-4 |
6-10 |
|
DB Arnold Press |
3-4 |
6-10 |
|
Incline DB Curl |
3-5 |
8-12 |
|
DB Overhead Extension |
3-5 |
8-12 |
|
DB Hammer Curl |
3-5 |
8-12 |
|
Lateral Raise |
3-5 |
12-15 |
Add Some Mass And Strength With Dumbbell Exercises For Arms
We just laid out the 12 best dumbbell arm exercises there are. Plus, we even gave you some tips on how to alter some of them to give you even more options. Just make sure you use light dumbbells when needed so you do the exercises correctly. And if you invest in adjustable dumbbells or a dumbbell rack, you'll be able to use these workout ideas from the convenience of your home.
In other words, you don't have any more excuses to be walking around with small arms 3 months after reading this sentence. The clock is ticking, so go start training!
Looking for a great workout to build serious arm muscle? Check out The Ultimate Arm Workout! In the market for dumbbells so you can grow your arms at home? Head to our article on the 7 Best Adjustable Dumbbells!
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Garett Reid
Author