Advantages and Disadvantages of Dumbbells

With free weights, you have three main choices: barbells, dumbbells or kettlebells. All three options can be used successfully to develop strength, muscle size and endurance. Dumbbells offer advantages and disadvantages that should be considered before you start using them in your workouts.

  1. Versatility and Variety

    • You can perform virtually every barbell exercise using a dumbbell and many, like dumbbell lateral raises and chest flies, that are only suitable to dumbbells and kettlebells. In addition, you can also exercise one limb at a time with dumbbells and can, in some exercises, use alternating arm action for further variety. You can work every muscle in your body with a pair of dumbbells and an exercise bench. And some dumbbell exercises, such as swings and step-ups, also have a marked cardiovascular effect.

    Safety First

    • Certain dumbbell exercises can take a while to master, but once you have perfected your technique, they are often safer than the barbell alternative. For example, during the barbell bench press, it is all too easy to get trapped beneath the bar. which could cause serious injury. With the dumbbell bench press, you simply drop the weights down and out to the side without worrying about getting pinned by a potentially heavy weight. This makes dumbbells ideal if you train alone.

    Build Up Your Balance

    • When you exercise with dumbbells, you have to coordinate two limbs at the same time and ensure you push or pull equally with both hands. The weights are free to move in any one of several directions, so you have to concentrate hard to keep the weights moving along the right path. These considerations mean that exercising with dumbbells will improve not only the condition of your muscles but also your balance and coordination. This is in marked contrast to using resistance-training machines where the weight is guided on rods. (

    And Now the Tough Part

    • Getting a heavy dumbbell into position to perform shoulder presses or bench presses is no easy matter. It some instances, you may even require not one but two training partners to help you get into the right position to start an exercise. Heavy dumbbells also tend to be very large and can be hard to handle because of their size. While there are adjustable dumbbells available, these are usually only designed for home use. Gyms use fixed-weight dumbbells, and the jump from one weight to the next may be prohibitively large, which makes progress difficult to manage. Unlike a barbell that can be loaded with as much or as little weight as you can lift, fixed weight dumbbells are limited to what is available at your gym. This may mean that even the lightest dumbbell is too heavy or the heaviest dumbbell may not be heavy enough.