Light Dumbbell Exercises That Really Burn Calories

You probably think that if you want to lose weight and change your body, you need to lift heavy weights. This simply isn’t true! Though you do want to challenge yourself as you get used to your strength training regimen, you can actually burn some major calories using lighter weight exercises to help you along the way. The thing to remember is that strength training is one of the best ways to burn calories, shed fat, build muscle, and therefore speed up your metabolism. If you keep that in mind then you want to find a good balance of heavy weight lifting and also some good light dumbbell exercises that can help you get where you want to be.

Many health and fitness experts will tell you to combine a good blend of heavy and light weights throughout your strength training regimen. The reason for this is that you do want to burn calories, but you also want to help sculpt the body in a profound way. You can accomplish this by focusing on a blend of the two weights, which will help you to zero in on muscle while you burn and shed fat. Lifting lighter weights is always recommended at first. You might be surprised to learn that this is still something to focus on within your routine as you get more accustomed to lifting weights, for there truly is a place for lighter weights when it comes to sculpting and effective calorie burning.

Keeping all of this in mind you want to be sure to perform some of the best light dumbbell exercises that get you to where you want to be. These are easy enough to perform, but yet they get results and they also incorporate multiple body parts which is key. You’ll love the switch up to lighter weights and how this helps to transform the body in a slightly different way.

Wood Chopper: You start by standing with the weights at your side, and then bending deep into a squat behind you. As you move into the squatting position, you will quickly move the weights in one hand down to the opposite side of the body. Then you move up out of squat and lift upwards taking the weights with you. Then you perform a quick chopping motion as you move back down into squat. It’s like you are chopping wood and you want to do this with lighter weights as you are getting your upper body, lower body, and even your core into the act which is essential for long term results.

Rows: These can be performed in a great number of ways and you will love just how versatile they really are. They can be performed simply standing but lowering into a squat to get the lower body engaged. You are simply rowing the weights up but it works well as one of the great light dumbbell exercises because you are focused on the upper body in a big way. As you get used to rows you can perform them in a plank or add extra resistance, but starting small really helps to get you results here.

“Head Bangers”: You begin lying down on the ground with the weights held just above the chest. You are going to move them down bending at the elbow so that it almost feels as though you will bang yourself in the head, but obviously you don’t. You are working shoulders, triceps, and the entire arm as you contract through this compound movement. As you get used to it you want to keep with a lighter weight, but you can hold a bridge to get your lower body engaged too.

Sumo Squat with an Upright Row: This is a complex enough movement that you don’t want to add excess weight to it, but it works quite well. Be sure to move the feet pointing outwards and keep the knees tracking over the toes. This is one of the best light dumbbell exercises because it gets the whole body engaged, and you really never need to add much resistance to still get results so it’s an excellent choice for burning calories and adding muscle too.