5 Day Dumbbell Workout 2024

In recent years, many people have started working out at home, but some still don’t because they don’t have the right equipment or a personal trainer. 5 Day Dumbbell Workout is helpful at that time.

You don’t need either of those things, though, to start building muscle at home. All you need is a set of dumbbells and a workout plan.

So, as someone who has worked as a personal trainer for a long time, I’ll tell you what I think is the best 5 day dumbbell workout for the whole body.

This will work every muscle and help you reach any fitness goals from the comfort of your own home with almost no equipment.

5 Day Dumbbell Workout Split Overview

You can do this workout for up to 12 weeks.

After 12 weeks, you might want to add more reps to your workout, make the dumbbells you’re using heavier, or look for a gym with a wider range of weighted equipment.

You are supposed to work out 5 days a week, according to the program. It’s totally up to you when you want to work out. Just make sure that your weekly schedule includes 2 days of rest and recovery.

The program is meant to help you gain muscle. Of course, you can also use it to help you lose weight, which is also fine. Just make sure to change how many calories you eat.

For this workout plan, keep the 45-second breaks at exactly that length.

If you have any other questions about this 5 day dumbbell-only workout program, please leave them in the comments section below.

Warm-Up

Before you work out a muscle, you should always warm it up to get the blood flowing, improve its range of motion, and lower the risk of getting hurt.

Using light dumbbells to do a few sets of exercises for the muscle you will be working is a great way to get the muscle ready for what’s to come.

Dynamic stretches are another way to get the muscles that will be used ready. But it’s important not to confuse these moving, dynamic stretches with static stretches, which have been shown to be ineffective and can even make you more likely to get hurt.

Day 1: Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps Dumbbell Workout

Set your bench so that the backrest is at an angle of between 30 and 45 degrees, and lean back on it. Hold a dumbbell in each hand at chest height and shoulder width apart.

Use your chest to pull the weights up, bringing them together over your body at the top, and really squeeze.

You do it the same way as the other two types of bench presses, but this time you lay back about 30 degrees and put your head on the floor.

Dumbbell Bench Press

Slowly lower the weights as far as you can to give your chest a deep stretch. Stop for a second at the bottom and then do as many reps as you want.

Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

Just like an inclined dumbbell bench press, but the bench is completely flat.

Dumbbell Flyes

Lay on your back on a bench and hold two dumbbells straight up over your head. Keeping your arms as straight as possible, slowly move them out to the sides until you feel a deep stretch in your chest.

Now, squeeze your chest muscles and use them to pull the weights back up to the starting position.

Hold the contraction at the top for one second and then do as many reps as you want.

Dumbbell Pullovers

On day 1, dumbbell pullovers are done the same way as wide-grip dumbbell pullovers.

The only difference is that you now hold a single dumbbell with both hands by putting your palms under the upper weight plate and squeeze your pecs instead of your lats.

Weighted Decline Crunches With A Twist

Place a dumbbell on your chest and lie on your back on a decline bench with your legs in the holds.

Try to pull your upper body up toward the ceiling by tightening your abs. You should bend in the middle of your stomach, not at your waist.

When you reach your limit, twist your toros to one side, trying to twist as close to 90 degrees as possible, and then lower yourself back down. Repeat the process as many times as you want, switching which side you twist to every other rep.

Weighted Incline Crunches

Again, lie on your back on a decline bench, but this time put your head at the highest point and grab the handle behind your head.

Hold a light dumbbell between your feet and raise your legs, hips, and the weight as high as you can by using your abs.

At the top of the rep, try to drive your hips up towards the ceiling. Then, slowly start to lower your legs until they are just about to touch the ground. Repeat the process right away and keep going until you reach your goal number of reps.

Day 2: Legs & Core Dumbbell Workout

Dumbbell Goblet Squat

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a dumbbell at chest height, supporting the bottom of the top weight with the heels of your hands. Keep your heels flat on the floor and your back straight. Bend your knees and slowly lower yourself down.

Keep squatting down until your thighs are just below parallel to the floor, then hold the contraction for a second. Stand up in one smooth motion by tightening your quads. Don’t bend forward at the waist, and do as many reps as you want.

Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlift

Almost everything about a stiff-leg deadlift is the same as the Romanian deadlift we did on day 1.

The only difference is that this time, the legs will be completely straight, with no bend in the knees. This moves most of the tension from the lower back to the hamstrings.

Dumbbell Rear Lunge

Stand up straight and hold a dumbbell in each hand. Put your feet next to each other. Move one foot back and put it on its toes on the ground a few feet behind you.

Slowly bend your front knee and lower yourself as you move your foot. Both knees should be bent 90 degrees at the end.

Stand back up in the same way, and then do the same thing with the other leg. Repeat as many times as you want, changing which leg goes backwards each time.

Walking Lunges

Walking lunges look a lot like the dumbbell rear lunge, but they are done in two different ways.

First of all, you won’t be going backwards; you’ll be going forwards. Second, when you get back up, you will now step through instead of going back to where you started. This lets you move forward like you were walking.

Single Leg Calf Raise

Stand on one leg with your toes on the edge of a box or step and your heel hanging off. Hold a dumbbell in the hand you’re balancing on, and put the other hand on something nearby for support.

Now, bring your heel down as far as you can, then tighten your calf to push yourself up onto your tips. For one second, squeeze as hard as you can, then let go and repeat until you reach the number of reps you want.

Dumbbell Calf Raise

This is done the same way as the one-legged version, except that both feet are on the ground and you hold a weight in each hand. Also, stand with your toes on the edge of a weight plate instead of a step or box for safety.

Day 3: Back & Biceps Dumbbell Workout

Deadlift

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, keep your toes and heels firmly on the floor, and lower your buttocks to the ground by bending your knees until your hamstrings are parallel to the floor. Hold the dumbbells between your legs.

Keeping your back straight, squeeze your glutes and drive them and your hips forward, pushing you up. Keep your arms fully extended the whole time.

At the top, squeeze your traps and tighten your abs for a second. Then, return to the starting position and do the number of reps you were supposed to do.

Romanian Deadlift

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your legs almost completely straight, with just a small bend in the back of the knees.

Hold two dumbbells by extending your arms down so far that they rest on your thighs. Now bend forward 90 degrees at the waist while keeping your back straight.

Once your torso is parallel to the floor, pause for a second, and then stand back up in the exact same way. Do this as many times as you want.

Single Arm Bent Over Row

Put one knee on a bench, bend over until your upper body is parallel to the floor, and then put your hand on the end of the bench. Take a dumbbell and hold it out in front of you with your free hand. Point it at the floor.

You can raise your arm by using your lats and bending your elbow so that your elbow is higher than your back.

Before putting the weight back down, really squeeze the lats for a second. Repeat as many times as you want, then do the same thing with the other arm.

Bent Over Bench Rows

Set the backrest of a bench to about 45 degrees. Lie down on the bench with your chest on the backrest and a dumbbell in each hand.

Now, you will do the same steps as in the single-arm bent-over row above, but this time you will use both arms at the same time.

Wide Grip Pull Overs

Lay on your back on a bench and hold two dumbbells behind your head with your arms fully extended and farther apart than your shoulders.

Tighten your lats and lift the weights up until they are pointing straight at the ceiling, keeping them the same distance apart at all times.

For a second, squeeze your lats as hard as you can. Then, put the weights back down. Continue until you feel a deep stretch in your lats, and then do as many reps as you want.

Bent Over Raises

Take a dumbbell in each hand and bend over until your upper body is parallel to the floor and your arms are straight and pointing at the ground.

Keep your arms as straight as possible, and use your back delts to raise your arms out to your sides until they are parallel to the ground.

Hold the squeeze for a second before doing the same number of reps as you want.

Day 4: Pull Dumbbell Workout

Weighted pull-up

For this workout, you will use a dumbbell to make bodyweight pull-ups harder. Use enough weight so that you can do between 5 and 8 reps.

This will help you get bigger and build back and arm strength. Do pull-ups as usual, but clamp a dumbbell between your legs and hold it there.

 Bent-over dumbbell row

The bent-over row with a barbell is a great way to build your back, but it works just as well with dumbbells. During this exercise, be careful not to round your lower back, which could hurt you.

Renegade row

Renegade rows are a tough back exercise that also work your core. It’s a very useful exercise because it teaches you how to make and keep your whole body tight. This will help you do better in a lot of other exercises as well.

Dumbbell Armpit row

This exercise works your shoulders and upper traps, and it is much easier on your shoulders than regular upright rows. Focus on pulling up and back on your shoulders to get the most out of this exercise.

Dumbbell shrug

With dumbbell shrugs, you only work your upper traps. Pull your shoulders straight up and don’t roll them backward to get the most out of this classic trap-builder.

Rolling your shoulders doesn’t help you build your upper traps, and it puts unnecessary stress on your shoulder joints.

Dumbbell preacher curl

People sometimes call preacher curls “Scott curls” because Mr. Olympia Larry Scott, who was known for his huge biceps, liked to do them.

They focus on the long head of your biceps, which helps make the peak of your biceps. To do this exercise, lean your upper arm against the backrest of your bench, which is tilted forward.

Concentration curl

The name “concentration curls” comes from the fact that you can really focus on working out just one arm at a time. They’re great for making the link between your mind and your muscles stronger.

For this exercise, use light to moderate weights so you don’t have to move too fast. At the top of each rep, you should really squeeze your biceps.

Day 5: Complete Upper Body Dumbbell Workout

What Are The Benefits Of A 5 Day Dumbbell Workout?

Splitting up your dumbbell workouts is a great way to get better at training.

Here is a list of what the 5-day dumbbell workout plan can do for you.

Versatility

Dumbbells are a piece of equipment that can be used in so many different ways that we can train with them almost anywhere and at any time.

We can do all the moves we need to do to build mass, strength, and power with dumbbells, and we only need a small amount of space, money, and equipment.

Increase the number of workouts

The 5-day workout with only dumbbells lets us not only train with few tools. It also helps us train on days right after each other.

This means that you can do your push, pull, and leg days in a row without leaving your house.

More often working out has also been shown to give better results, such as thicker muscles.

Balance out the imbalances

When you do a split-day workout, dumbbells are a great way to work on muscle imbalances.

Dumbbells can be used in a lot of different ways, which is great for challenging different ways of moving and working on body weaknesses.

A split routine also gives us more time to plan exercises for recovery and correction. This lets us work on our weak spots without skipping our bigger compound moves.

Gains in Muscle

When the number of workouts goes up and split programming is used, growth happens.

When you add in enough rest for each muscle group, your muscle growth will be even better.

Variety

A 5-day routine with dumbbells is a great way to change up your workouts.

By focusing on a different movement or muscle group each day, we give ourselves more chances to do different exercises.

Here is where we can add more leg exercises to help them grow or add corrective exercises to help them recover from and avoid injuries.

More attention on specific muscles

The 5-day dumbbell workout split is a great way to put more attention on the muscles you want to work on.

When we give different movements and muscle groups to different days of the week, we can do more than one exercise for that area.

This lets us focus on building the muscles we want and make sure we do each move the right way. With better quality movements and more of them, our muscles grow faster.

Time Efficient

Dumbbell exercises can be a great way to save time instead of going to the gym for a long time.

When you use dumbbells to work out, you won’t have to wait for more popular gym equipment, switch equipment, or even go to the gym.

This can make training much better, cut down on the time it takes, and get rid of common reasons why we don’t train.

Is A 5 Day Dumbbell Workout Split Good For Muscle Growth?

A 5-day dumbbell workout split is a great way to build muscle because it increases the number of workouts without making you overwork.

Research shows that you should give yourself 48 hours to heal.

With a 5-day dumbbell workout split, we can work out muscles around more than one joint and let them rest in between.

This means that we can train the chest, shoulders, and triceps on one day, and then just the chest and triceps on another day, without doing the same exercises on both days.

5-Day Dumbbell Workout Split – Wrapping Up

It might seem like you can’t do much with just dumbbells, but that doesn’t have to be the case. There are hundreds of exercises you can do with dumbbells, and you can also use them to do many barbell exercises and even a few machine exercises.

You can use our five-day dumbbell workout split to build muscle, get stronger, or get more fit. Stick with it for the next 4–8 weeks, and then try something else to avoid getting stuck or hitting a plateau.

FAQs – 5 Day Dumbbell Workout

 Can you get ripped just using dumbbells?

You can’t get ripped overnight, but with the right workout plan, you can tighten and strengthen every muscle in your body with just dumbbells. The key to success is to stick to a strict workout schedule and give your body time to rest in between.

 Can you build muscle only with dumbbells?

Yes, as long as the weight goes up over time. You can definitely get bigger by using dumbbells, but if you don’t keep adding weight, you’ll hit a wall. Every few weeks, add 5–10 lb (2.3–4.5 kg) to the weight you’re lifting. This will keep your gains going.

 Is 5 Days of strength training enough?

If you really want to see results on the scale and keep getting better over time, you need to commit to working out at least four to five days a week. But keep in mind that you’ll work up to this. You might want to start with two or three days a week and work your way up to five days over time.

 Can you build muscle in 5 days?

It’s more than enough to work out 5 days a week to build muscle. You can spread out your training over the course of the week, which is easier for many people to do than training hard for 3–4 days straight. Even if you only work out once a week for a short amount of time, you will build muscle if you are a beginner.

Camila Smith

I am Camila Smith. I am a fitness expert and personal trainer and a life coach, blogger, and triathlete. As a health and fitness expert, my mission is to cut through the industry’s noise and empower people to find lasting health, happiness, and confidence through sustainable solutions. More About Camila Smith.