There are so many cons to going to a gym. Chances are the gym will be crowded during peak hours, you can’t workout with your clothes off, you’ll have to wear sports shoes and then, it’ll be closed on a public holiday. But guess what? You can save all that money on gym membership and buy a pair of adjustable dumbbells. 

Of course, you can do bodyweight exercises like push ups and pull ups along with this workout, but it’ll be tough to replicate the efficiency of a lat pull down, a smith machine or a leg press. That said, you win some, you lose some. Even with nothing but a pair of dumbbells, you can build an elite physique provided you work hard enough and supplement it with a good diet. 

“Why dumbbells? We love them here at Athlean X, because they allow you to train like an athlete. You have that three-dimensional freedom that you just can’t afford with a bar, and you also have that compact space that you are going to be using to train at home,” says trainer Jeff Cavaliere on his hugely popular YouTube channel Athlean X. 

While the above video recommends a few compound exercises, we are going to go with basic conventional exercises here. 

Chest

Unfortunately, without a bench, you’ll have to restrict yourself to the floor. That means there is no scope for an incline or decline press, but you can still rip your muscles if you keep increasing the weight and the reps. Also, supplement this with a lot of push ups. 

Triceps

If you’re going to do push-ups properly, you’ll work your triceps well enough. But with dumbbels, you can use light weights to do this simple dumbbell overhead triceps extension. Try to do 10-15 reps with each arm. And keep increasing the intensity so that you cause muscle atrophy with every workout. 

Back

Again, our favourite way to train our backs is pull-ups, but using an exercise like dumbbell rows also help considering we don’t have a machine to do seated rowing usually. 

Biceps

One of the most popular dumbbell exercises, this one is well known and very simple to pull off correctly. However, make sure you aren’t ego-lifting and using proper form. Also, don’t pay a lot more attention to your biceps than any other body part. 

Shoulders

Just like biceps curl, the shoulder press is your standard exercise that works really well. You can also do lateral raises to hit the back part of your shoulders.  

Legs

Do not forget legs. You can do dumbbell squats and dumbbell lunges, and those two exercises are enough.