Two essential dumbbells and three key exercises serve as your foundation for total-body muscle growth.

Ready to get started? Let's dive into this three-move sequence perfect for beginners, designed by Breona Boyd, NASM-certified personal trainer and the brainchild behind Pivot Healthy Living.

For those new to the weightlifting world, dumbbells offer a controlled and accessible way to master the fundamentals of squatting, pushing, pulling, and hinging. Unlike rigid machines or barbells, dumbbells grant unilateral training, where each side of the body can work independently. This independence aids in identifying and correcting muscle imbalances, preventing overcompensation, and ensuring balanced strength development.

Moreover, dumbbells help improve joint stability by requiring more control and coordination throughout each movement, engaging smaller stabilizer muscles that are often overlooked in gym machine workout plans.

Here's Your Rundown

This workout comprises just three moves, activating a variety of muscles across your body. Focus on perfecting form throughout to make the most of your time.

Once you're a pro at this session, try our beginner workout plan with dumbbells for a weekly routine that you can tackle three times a week.

1. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

Sets: 3 Reps: 8-12

Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells in front of your thighs with palms facing you.
Engage your core, pull your shoulders back, and maintain a neutral spine.
Keep a slight bend in your knee and a flat back throughout, pushing your hips back to lower the dumbbells, keeping them close to your body.
Lower until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings (usually at mid-shin level), without rounding your back or letting the weights pull your shoulders forward.
Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes as you push your hips forward to return to the start.

2. Renegade Row

Sets: 3 Reps: 8 each side

Place dumbbells on the floor, shoulder-width apart.
Get on your hands and knees, placing your hands directly under your shoulders, holding the dumbbells with your palms facing.
Engage your core and straighten your legs into a high plank with your body in a straight line from head to heels.
Keeping your hips square and torso stable throughout, lift the right dumbbell to your ribcage, bending your elbow and keeping it tight to your body.
Pause briefly at the top, then slowly lower the dumbbell back to the floor under control.
Repeat on the other side, and continue, alternating sides with each rep.

Trainer tip: To maintain balance and prevent your hips from twisting, widen your stance or drop to your knees.

3. Standing Shoulder Press

Sets: 3 Reps: 8-12

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart.
Hold dumbbells at shoulder height with your palms facing and elbows pointing forward.
Engage your core and maintain a neutral spine.
Press the dumbbells straight up, keeping your palms facing, until your biceps end up next to your ears.
Lower the dumbbells back to the start.

Trainer tip: To maintain balance and form, perform the exercise seated if you're unable to keep your torso stable.

This exercise is traditionally performed with palms facing forward, but a neutral grip – where the palms face – may be easier on the shoulders, especially for those with limited mobility or past shoulder issues.

Breona Boyd is not just a NASM-certified personal trainer and certified nutrition coach; she's also the founder of Pivot Healthy Living, an organization offering online nutrition coaching and personal training with a focus on empowering busy moms to prioritize their health as they juggle daily life. With expertise in both performance and wellness coaching, Boyd is dedicated to helping her clients achieve their goals sustainably.

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Breona Boyd, a NASM-certified personal trainer and the founder of Pivot Healthy Living, focuses on the science of health and wellness, offering a three-move sequence designed for beginners to master fundamental strength training movements and aid in promoting healthy living.
The three-move workout plan with dumbbells, designed by Boyd, focuses on activating muscles across the body, perfecting form, and implementing strength training, personal training, and wellness principles for improvement in joint stability and unilateral training.
The workout consists of three exercises: Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift, Renegade Row, and Standing Shoulder Press, each designed to engage specific muscle groups for a well-rounded fitness-and-exercise routine aimed at developing balanced strength, correcting muscle imbalances, and improving overall fitness.
Boyd's expertise goes beyond fitness, as she is a certified nutrition coach with a focus on empowering busy moms to prioritize their health in their daily lives, advocating for sustainable healthy living, nutrition, and personal training practices.