Home workouts are a great way to get fitter and stronger, and they can be used to build serious muscle as well. If you have dumbbells at home you can replicate the heavy lifts you might do in the gym, and increase both the strength and size of your muscles.
This workout from YouTube fitness duo TIFF x DAN is designed to help you strengthen your chest and back in particular. Ideally you’ll have a set of the best adjustable dumbbells to do it, because you’ll be using different weights in the session, but you can also use one set of dumbbells and increase the challenge when required by doing more reps.
Along with your dumbbells it’s also handy to have a bench or bosu ball to lie on for the chest section of the workout, though you can do it on the floor, plus a stool or table to lean on when doing the back exercises.
Watch TIFF x DAN’s 27-minute dumbbell workout
There are two sections to the workout, with the first focusing on chest exercises and the second on back exercises. Throughout the session you work for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds, and you’ll be doing three sets of each exercise you do — that’s three sets on each side when doing unilateral exercises like the bent-over row.
In the three sets the aim is to increase the weight of your dumbbell each time. Dan gives the weights he’s using throughout the session, and he increases the weight by 10lb each, For example he lifts 30lb, 40lb and then 50lb weights for the bent over row, and 40lb, 50lb and 60lb for the dumbbell chest press.
If you are using one set of dumbbells for the workout you can increase the reps in each set to follow the principle of increasing the challenge. By the end of the third set of the move you should be fairly close to failure, with this hypertrophy approach to training helping to stimulate growth in your muscles.
As always, when lifting heavy weights it’s important to get your technique right to reduce any risk of injury and make sure you’re engaging the right muscles. Follow Dan’s form and instructions to get the most from the session, and if you have time it would be very worthwhile to warm up the muscles in your upper body before starting, and do some stretching afterwards to cool down.
This is a tough session that’s aimed at people with some experience of lifting weights, so if you’re looking for more of a beginner-friendly back workout, this 14-minute bodyweight session is a great option to do at home, while this three-move dumbbell workout is another way to target your chest.
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