Dumb Bells Review

By WLR's Personal Trainer, Nicola Glanville PTI REP Level 3

• Great tool for toning and strengthening muscles
• More muscle means more calories will get burned every day
• Ideal for increasing the intensity of your exercise

Dumb bells are excellent for increasing muscle tone. It is advisable to work on your core muscles first prior to exercising your extremities (arms and legs). If you start lifting weights without first engaging your core you could cause yourself an injury and adversely affect your posture. That said, once you have learnt to activate your core dumb bells are a fantastic addition to your exercise equipment collection. Dumb bells are known as ‘free weights’. Free weights are weights that have no fixed origin; you have to control the direction that they move in. Weight training machines on the other hand are fixed into position and the majority of them require you to push or pull a weight in a set direction i.e. up and down, or back and forwards. Free weight exercises are more functional than fixed machine exercises as they require the recruitment of additional supporting muscles to stabilise the movement.

Top Tip for Dumb Bells

When an exercise starts to get easy slow it down. The longer your muscles are under tension the more effective the exercise will be.

Examples of free weight exercises are:

Shoulder Press

Stand with your feet hip distance apart with a slight bend in your knees. Hold the dumb bells out to your sides with your arms bent and the dumb bells just above shoulder height. Push the dumb bells up above your shoulders and return to the start position. Complete 2 x 15 repetitions.

Bicep Curl

Stand with your feet hip distance apart with a slight bend in your knees. Hold the dumb bells down by your sides with the palms of your hands facing forwards. Bend your arm lifting the dumb bells towards your shoulders. Return to the start position. Complete 2 x 15 repetitions.

Dumbell Squats

Hold a dumb bell in each hand. Stand with your feet hip distance apart, your hands on your hips and your shoulders back. Draw in your tummy and hold it in (pretend that you are in a bikini and your friend has just produced a camera!) Lean forwards at the hips, keeping your back straight. Then sit down as if you were lowering your self onto a chair. Your feet should stay flat on the floor and your body weight should be distributed evenly through them. At the lowest point of the squat position your hips should be just above knee level and you knees should be over your ankles and behind your toes. Return to start position and repeat. Complete 2 x 15 repetitions.