5 Reasons You Should Not Ignore Dumbbells

It might be time to think about letting go of the barbell and start picking up the dumbbells more. I have always been a barbell type of person since I started lifting weights back in high school, but recently I have started working out with dumbbells and I have been challenged more and pushed more. I was so surprised from the change in difficulty, I actually felt a little embarrassed because I could not lift as much with the dumbbells than I could with the barbell, and I felt weak. But that experience helped me to rethink the way I was working out. Was it more important to me to do exercises I was familiar and comfortable with, or was it more important to me to actually challenge myself more, even if it does mean to step out of my comfort zone? But here are five different reasons why we should all decide to give dumbbells a fighting chance.

1. You can do full body workouts – That is right, dumbbells are not just for the arms, you can focus on your core, and they are great for abdominal routines. You can perform lunges, leg workouts, and even target your back.

2. Greater range of motion – Greater range means you can build more strength. With a barbell, especially with chest workouts, the bar limits you when you hit your chest. Dumbbells allow you to go lower than your chest. Why is that important? You will use more muscle fiber, resulting in stronger muscles.

3. You can beat the workout plateau – A workout plateau happens when your muscles have adapted to your workout plan, and you no longer see results, or achieve little results. This plateau time can be very frustrating and many people actually give up on their workouts because of it. But dumbbells can help you blast through that plateau; because there are so many different ways you can use them for just one area of the body. If you are able to mix it up the more successful you will be.

4. Help you stabilize – When you use dumbbells you have to fight to stabilize them, you will become more balanced, and because you are fighting to stabilize you workout all those little muscles that do not normally get worked out from a barbell routine.

5. They are practical – If you have a great set of dumbbells at home, you can use them whenever you have the chance, and since they can give you a full body workout, you do not need a huge piece of equipment in your house that takes up a whole room. You might have to pay some money at first for a nice set, but there are no expiration dates on these, and they are easy to store away.

There are many other reasons to go for the dumbbells, because of the wide variety of dumbbell workouts on the Internet and there have been some in home workout DVD’s that have been released that specialize in dumbbell exercises. The P90x workout and the Tony Horton 10 minute trainer are great workout DVDs.

Get The Six Pack You’ve Always Wanted

Everyone wants nice tight abs, emphasized by a six-pack, yet it seems that people are prone to adding weight to the belly area first. Overeating and drinking excessive amounts of beer will quickly add inches to the waistline and give you a spare tire. Knowing how to burn belly fat will maximize the benefits from your ab workouts and help you shrink those extra inches. However, there is no magic formula or special cream that you can use to instantly transform your midsection. To burn belly fat you need a combination of diet and exercise, with a focus on increasing your metabolism.

Your belly fat might be covering firmed muscles that are lying underneath. If you are overeating and performing sit-ups or other ab workouts regularly, but not seeing the results you intended, the problem is your diet. A layer of fat covers Ab muscles. This means that you can be regularly toning your abs, while increasing the amount of fat that hides them. Reducing the amount of fat will reveal the toned abs you have been working on. Increasing your metabolism will ensure that you continually burn calories and reduce the amount of belly fat in your mid section.

Take both hands, make fists, and put your hands side by side. That is the approximate size of your stomach organ. Next time you eat a meal, look at your hands and remember that if you overeat, you are causing that muscle to stretch to hold large meals. Eating several small meals throughout the day will increase your metabolism without putting unnecessary stress on the stomach organ.

Visceral fat is the fat stored deeply, often in between organs. The stomach is prone to visceral fat, in addition to retro peritoneal and subcutaneous fat comprised the other two of the three types of belly fat. Visceral fat is highly sensitive to increased metabolism and is easy to burn. Once your body’s metabolism increases and you are in fat burning mode, this fat is one of the first types your body will burn. In addition to ab workouts that target the core stomach muscles, you must choose activities that will increase your metabolism, and burn calories through aerobic exercise. Running, interval training and key abdominal workouts is key for targeting the beer belly.

When choosing foods, make certain that the selections you make are those that help regulate metabolism. Foods that cause your blood sugar to spike will have a negative effect on your metabolism and will affect the fat burning process. By choosing the best foods such as whole grains, reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates, and burning calories you will effectively burn belly fat. Food that you want to stay away from, besides from the obvious like candy bars, ice cream, and fast food, are foods with refined sugars like white bread and cereals that are high in sugar. Whole wheat breads and cereals are great for you, but beware of breads that just say wheat. Just because it says wheat does not mean it is whole wheat.

Workouts that are great for focusing on the core are RevAbs and the 10 minute trainer.