When I train my abs, I like to choose exercises that stress the abdominal region without directly targeting it. Combine these with direct ab exercises, and you’re on your way to stronger and leaner abdominals.

Here are 6 of the best abdominal exercises you can do with dumbbells:

Exercise #1: Bulgarian Split Squats

• Dumbbell squats already do a great job of working your abs. The Bulgarian split squat places even more stress on your abdominals. To do this movement, stand a foot or two in front of a bench, facing away from it.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Try and keep your back straight and chest out. Lift on foot and place it behind on the bench.
• From this position, squat as low as you can. Stand back up. After you’ve completed all the repetitions with one foot, switch feet.

Exercise #2: One Arm Dumbbell Floor Press

• One arm exercises are great for training your abs. For this movement, lay down with your back flat on the floor. Bend your knees and place your feet on the floor.
• Hold a dumbbell in one arm, with the other arm out to the side for balance. Press the dumbbell off the floor and over your head. Keep it steady at chest level.
• From this position, you can also contract your abdominals and perform a slight crunch, bringing the shoulder with the dumbbell off the ground. After you’ve completed all the repetitions on one side, repeat on the other side.

Exercise #3: DB Alternating Ab Swings

• Hold a dumbbell in each hand, and stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Swing one dumbbell in front of your body, while simultaneously swinging the other dumbbell behind your body.
• Reverse the movement and swing the dumbbell behind your body in front of your body, and the one in front of your body behind your body.

Exercise #4: DB Clean and Front Squat

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Hold a dumbbell with each hand. Clean the dumbbells up to your shoulders, and go directly into a front squat.
• Stand back up, return the dumbbells to starting position and repeat.

Exercise #5: DB Split Squat

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand. Take a big step with one foot forwards. From this stance, squat down, and back up.
• Switch leg positions once you completed all the repetitions on one side.

Exercise #6: DB 1 Arm Hanging Snatch

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Hold a dumbbell with one hand. Push your hips back and bend your knees. Hold the dumbbell so that is between your legs.
• Reverse the movement and shrug the arm that hold the dumbbell, and bring the dumbbell towards your chest. Straighten out your legs, trying to generate as much power as possible.
• When the dumbbell is at chest level, bring your elbows out and underneath the dumbbell and let it travel over your head. The dumbbell should be above your head, arms locked.
• Pause, and return the dumbbell back to starting position.

Start adding these exercises into your regular workouts and watch yourself get leaner.

Coach Eddie Lomax has developed two impressive fitness programs that revolve around these dumbbell exercises. They are Gladiator Body Workout and Superior Dumbbell Workout.

Gladiator Body Workout features 6 unique training programs that you can perform by combining bodyweight and dumbbell exercises. There is a workout for general fitness, fat loss, and strength & size. There are also other high intensity specialty workouts titled Rounds of Fury, Juggernaut Workout, and Utterly Nasty Interval Training. Click here for more information.

Superior Dumbbell Fitness uses Dumbbell only exercises to develop high intensity workouts. It incorporates all of the same ideas and workouts as Gladiator Body Workout, but the workouts do not include any bodyweight movements. Click here for more information.

You need to make the decision today: Are you going to continue to follow pointless, boring workouts and never get any impressive results, or you going to take a chance and try some trully unique workouts using Coach Lomax’s programs? Start today with either Gladiator Body Workout or Superior Dumbbell Fitness.

Hey Coach, Glad to have you back again. So, whats Athletic Body Workout all about?

When most people decide to workout it is because they want to change the way they look. They usually want to lose fat and gain muscle. And traditionally, when asked to pick the type of body they want, they usually use some type of athlete to describe the body they want.

Most people want the strong, lean, athletic body type. And the best way to build an athletic body is to train more like an athlete and less like a gym rat. The Athletic Body Workout is designed to train you like an athlete, so you can build the athletic body you want.

Awesome. Well, what are the benefits of combining Barbell, Dumbbell, and Bodyweight workouts within one program?

Exercise is about movement…both the movement of your own body, as well as the movement of objects. So, to train your body for all these types of movements you need to use different “tools”. Bodyweight for the movement of your own body. Barbells for the movement of an external object with both limbs. Dumbbells for the movement of external objects with either one limb or in alternating fashion.

Using bodyweight, barbells and dumbbells not only trains your body to perform these movements better…but build athletic muscle and burns fat as well. You not only improve your athletic skills, but your athletic appearance as well.

Makes sense. Is Athletic Body Workout similar to your previous workouts? What is the main difference?

Previous workouts were Workout Without Weights and Superior Dumbbell Workout. Besides the obvious difference of combining bodyweight, dumbbell and barbells, the workout structure is completely different. You rotate between General Fitness, Fat Loss, and Strength & Size workouts to keep you on a steady path of building your athletic abilities and athletic body.

Workouts I did after this like the Ultimate Gymless Workout, Extreme Dumbbell Fitness and Gladiator Body Workout use this similar system because it works so well…and keeps you from getting bored.

You talk briefly about nutrition in Athletic Body Workout. Can you elaborate on what you feel are some optimal nutritional strategies for the average trainee?

For the average trainee, you don’t need to worry about supplements or complex eating strategies. But you should clean up your diet. In my opinion, most people already know how to eat correctly…they just don’t. What is better for you, an apple or a cookie? I bet you already know the answer, right?

I would start to write down everything you eat for a week. Then take a look at it in writing. You’ll quickly be able to pick out your problem areas and clean up your diet. Remember, you need fuel to build an athletic body and give your all during the workouts…so give your body good, healthy food.

In your previous workouts, the cardio was intertwined with the strength workouts. Do you follow the same strategy with the Athletic Body Workout?

Yes, this is a big part of Athletic Body Workout. Just think about it, most athletic activities combine strength and cardio at the same time. They only exceptions are sports that focus on only one physical attribute, like powerlifting. You need to have the strength to perform the activities AND the heart and lung power to sustain the activity. You perform how you train…so you must train both strength and cardio at the same time.

There are GPP workouts sprinkled through the workout programs. This is for General Physical Preparedness. They are a lot of fun and give a lot of benefits…as well as challenge both strength and endurance at the same time.

How would a complete beginner go about achieving a more athletic physique?

Stop traininglike a bodybuilder and start training like an athlete. By that I mean throw away all those split routine workouts and “isolation” exercises and start using Full Body Workotus with compound exercises. The object of an athletic body is not to maximize the size of each muscle, but to build athletic muscle and a strong body that works together. Plus, you need to start to blurr the lines between strength training and endurance training. Doing biceps curls and jogging for 20 minutes is not going to build an athletic body no matter how much you do it.

If you get the Athletic Body Workout, start with the General Fitness Workout. You’ll probably realize you are not as fit as you think you are.

Is the Athletic Body Workout for Men Only?

No. The Athletic Body Workout is for women as well. However, if women feel uncomfortable using barbells, they can stick to dumbbells for those exercises. Both men and women can benefit greatly from this type of athletic workouts.

As in all your other workouts, does this one come with templates?

Of course. I am big on having workout journal sheets so you can document your progress. Getting an athletic body is a journey…and like any worthwhile journey, it should be documented. The journal sheets are printable so you can use them over and over again.

Thanks for talking with me again, Coach.

If you’re absolutely serious about developing a lean, athletic physique, then you need to grab a copy of the Athletic Body Workout. Click here to learn more about this incredible program.

Dumbbells are one of the best ways to build up your chest. The following are my top three picks for effective exercises using the dumbbell:

But, to better understand the first two exercise descriptions, you’d better see this video:

The basic floor press is great, but I learned these two high intensity variations from Coach Lomax’ Gladiator Body Workout that I just need to share with you:

Dumbbell One-arm Floor Press

• Get into the position of a floor press, but instead of holding one dumbbell in each hand, just pick up one dumbbell with one hand. Place the other hand beside your body, palms resting against the floor for balance.
• Tighten your core, and press the dumbbell towards the sky. The tip I learned from Coach Lomax was to start the exercise with your week side first.
• This way, you target your weaknesses when you’re fresh during your workouts.

Dumbbell Hip Raise Alternating Floor Press

• Get into the position of a floor press, with a dumbbell in each hand. Slowly lift your hips off the ground so that only your feet and upper back are resting on the floor.
• Tighten your core and perform a dumbbell press with one hand. When you press the dumbbell, be sure to twist slightly so that your shoulder is off the floor.
• Lower the dumbbell, and press with the other hand. Alternate in this manner.

Dumbbell Push Up Row

• Assume a push up position with dumbbells in each hand. Perform a push up by lowering your body between the two dumbbells. You should feel greater tension with this exercise than with regular pushup since you’re working with a greater range of motion.
• When you return to the top position of the push up, lift one dumbbell up and bring it toward your chest until your elbows are bent behind your back.
• Return the dumbbell back to the ground, perform a pushup, and perform a row with the other hand.

Top 4 Tips for a Bigger, Stronger Chest:

1. Don’t forget to train the rest of your body. Guys make the mistake of doubling up on their chest, but neglecting other parts of their body. Remember that your body doesn’t like imbalances. Too many imbalances will cause injury.
2. Getting bigger and stronger is not just about exercise. Make sure your diet is in line as well. The biggest mistake people make when trying to get bigger is to eat everything in sight. Instead, focusing on gradually increasing your caloric intake.
3. Alternate between a variety of exercises. I’ve given you three exercises here, but I urge you to go and find some brand new ways to work your chest from a different angle.
4. Don’t neglect bodyweight movements. My favorite chest building bodyweight exercises include elevated pushups, plyometric pushups, and dive bombers.

I hope these tips will help you increase the size and strength of your chest. For more exercises and workouts for strength and mass you can do at home, check out Gladiator Body Workout.

When it comes to external resistance, we have a lot of options available to us – barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine ball, and resistance bands. Each of these implements offers a unique advantage to the other pieces of equipment. Lets take a look at each implement to see which is right for us:

Barbells

• Best Uses – Great for overall maximal strength training. If you were to just perform a handful of compound lifts using barbells, you’d get big and strong fast. In fact, some of the best strength training programs out there such asStronglifts 5×5 and Starting Strength rely on the primary use of a barbell.
• Drawback – Barbells are big and bulky. If you don’t have space for them, you shouldn’t grab them. In addition, if you do not have a power rack or Continue reading

At some point, straight sets will become boring. Even supersets, circuit training, and interval training will seem boring and useless. Now, I’m talking about advanced trainees here. I’m talking about guys who’ve been pushing up the weights for more than just a few months.

Today I’m going to reveal a few tips and ticks to help take your dumbbell workouts to the next level:

Trick #1: Partial Intervals Continue reading

I finally saw Dheeraj again on Friday. He was HUGE! By huge, I mean FAT! According to Dominic, Dheeraj had been eating a lot. Dheeraj follows a typical bodybuilder training split, and just like a typical bodybuilder he goes through some strange cycles.

Continue reading

There are many types of equipment to choose from: kettlebells, barbells, dumbbells, sledgehammers, sand bags, medicine balls, and clubbells. This is not even a concise list. Which equipment do you feel has given you the greatest benefit for your money?

Do you have a “dream” equipment out there. Is there a piece of equipment out there that you feel you would purchase in a heartbeat if money or space were not a problem? Why did you choose this product?

Please, post your thoughts to comments.