So you’re an absolute beginner who wants to work out from home with minimal equipment? We’ve got you!

In this beginner dumbbell home workout guide, we cover:

1. Workout Schedule
2. Workout Equipment
3. Workout Exercises
4. How to Do The Workouts

You may also be interested in the Sleekgeek Beginner Bodyweight Home Workouts or Sleekgeek Beginner Resistance Band Home Workouts versions.

FYI: This is a free version of the premium Sleekgeek 16-Week Home Training Guides to help beginners get started at zero cost.

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Workout Schedule:

The Sleekgeek Beginner Dumbbell Home Workout uses a 3-day workout schedule.

You’ll be alternating 2 different workouts: “Workout A” and “Workout B”:

You can repeat these two weekly schedules, alternating Week 1’s ABA schedule with Week 2’s BAB schedule.

The exact days of the week that you do these workouts on doesn’t matter. You could workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday like above. Or you could workout on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Or on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

The important thing is that you try to give yourself at least 1 day of rest between each workout to recover. If you’d like, you could also do light cardio or active recovery like walking, cycling, yoga, etc, on these off days.

Even if you don’t have a workout scheduled, it’s good to try and stay active every day in some way in order to build the habit of being an active person and to help with recovery.

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Workout Equipment:

The Sleekgeek Beginner Dumbbell Workouts are designed to use as little equipment as possible.

You’ll need:

• Your bodyweight (yay!).
• A sturdy chair.
• A pair of dumbbells.

Getting yourself a pair of adjustable dumbbells for this workout is ideal because you’ll be able to use lighter dumbbells or heavier dumbbells depending on the exercise.

Adjustable dumbbells also let you make the weights that you use progressively heavier as you get stronger and more confident with each exercise.

Take a look at Sportsman’s Warehouse, Game, Makro, Mr Price Sport, and Takealot for these kinds of adjustable dumbbells (common brands are Trojan, Headstart, Everlast, and GetUp). They should not cost you more than about R800-R900 for a 20kg set and are a very worthwhile investment.

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Workout Exercises:

The Sleekgeek Beginner Bodyweight Workouts are all full-body workouts.

This means that you’ll be doing exercises that work both your upper body and lower body during each workout.

Full-body workouts work incredibly well for most goals (whether you want to lose weight, build muscle, get stronger, etc) as well as for most levels of experience (beginners, intermediates, and advanced).

Since this is a home workout program, we’ll keep the exercises to only your bodyweight and dumbbell exercises.

The workouts look like this:

WORKOUT A:

#1: [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge

#2: [Horizontal Push] Bodyweight Incline Push-Up

#3: [Hip-Hinge] Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

#4: [Vertical Pull] Superman With Scapular Retraction

#5: [Single-Leg] Bodyweight Reverse Lunge

WORKOUT B:

#1: [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge

#2: [Horizontal Pull] Dumbbell One-Arm Row

#3: [Squat] Bodyweight Box Squat

#4: [Vertical Push] Dumbbell One-Arm Overhead Press

#5: [Single-Leg] Bodyweight Reverse Lunge

Here’s a recap of the two workouts.

WORKOUT A:

• [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge
• [Horizontal Push] Bodyweight Incline Push-Up
• [Hip-Hinge] Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
• [Vertical Pull] Superman With Scapular Retraction
• [Single-Leg] Bodyweight Reverse Lunge

WORKOUT B:

• [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge
• [Horizontal Pull] Dumbbell One-Arm Row
• [Squat] Bodyweight Box Squat
• [Vertical Push] Dumbbell One-Arm Overhead Press
• [Single-Leg] Bodyweight Reverse Lunge

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How To Do The Workouts:

The Sleekgeek Beginner Bodyweight Workouts are designed to be done for:

• 3 sets of each exercise
• 10-12 reps of each exercise
• 30-60 seconds of rest in between each exercise

This is a good starting point.

You can, of course, play around with this:

• Sets: If you’re worried about getting too sore, too tired, or are super short on time then, starting out with 2 sets of each exercise is absolutely fine. If you’re finding the workouts a little bit too easy, then pushing on to 4 sets of each (or some) exercises is also an option.

• Reps: There’s a wide range of acceptable reps that one can perform for each exercise, ranging from as low as 1 or 2 reps to as high as 15, 20, or more. However, due to the limitations with bodyweight and resistance bands, this is not always practical. Aiming for 10-12 reps of each exercise is a good place to start, but it’s OK if you find that you can only do 6-8, or would like to push on to 12-15, for example.

• Rest: The amount of time that you need to rest between each exercise is different for everyone and can also depend on the exercise. You’ll get the most benefit by being well-rested before doing your next exercise so that you can give it your all, but if you’re short on time or finding the workouts a bit too easy then feel free to reduce your rest accordingly.

• Frequency: As explained above, these workouts are designed to be done 3 days a week. But you can also do them only 2 days a week or even 4 days a week if you really want to.

There are 3 different ways that you can do these workouts:

OPTION 1 – REGULAR WORKOUT:

The simplest and most beginner-friendly way to do these workouts is to do each exercise one by one, repeating them three times before moving on to the next exercise.

For example, in Workout A, you’ll:

1. Do [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge for 8-10 reps.
2. Rest 30-60 seconds.
3. Do [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge for 8-10 reps.
4. Rest 30-60 seconds.
5. Do [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge for 8-10 reps.
6. Rest 30-60 seconds.
7. Move on to the next exercise, [Horizontal Push] Bodyweight Incline Push-Ups, and do the same thing.

OPTION 2 – CIRCUIT WORKOUT:

The most fun, challenging, and time-efficient way to do these workouts is by doing it as a circuit. This means doing 1 set of each exercise one after another until you’ve gone through all of the exercises and then repeat them all again for a total of 3 times.

For example, in Workout B, you’ll:

1. Do [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge for 8-10 reps.
2. Do [Horizontal Pull] Dumbbell One-Arm Row for 8-10 reps.
3. Do [Squat] Bodyweight Box Squat for 8-10 reps.
4. Do [Vertical Push] Dumbbell One-Arm Overhead Press for 8-10 reps.
5. Do [Single-Leg] Bodyweight Reverse Lunge for 8-10 reps (each leg).
6. Rest 30-60 seconds.
7. Repeat the circuit 2 more times.

OPTION 3 – SUPERSET WORKOUT:

A good compromise between the beginner-friendly regular way and the more fun, challenging, and time-efficient circuit way is to do what’s called a superset. This is when you perform two exercises back-to-back 3 times before moving onto the next two exercises.

For example, in Workout A, you’ll:

1. Do [Glute] Bodyweight Glute Bridge for 8-10 reps.
2. Do [Horizontal Push] Bodyweight Incline Push-Up for 8-10 reps.
3. Rest 30-60 seconds.
4. Repeat the above 2 exercises 2 more times.
5. Do [Hip-Hinge] Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift for 8-10 reps.
6. Do [Vertical Pull] Superman With Scapular Retraction for 8-10 reps.
7. Rest 30-60 seconds.
8. Repeat the above 2 exercises 2 more times.
9. Finish off with [Single-Leg] Bodyweight Reverse Lunge for 8-10 reps (each leg).
10. Repeat the above exercise 2 more times.

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Need More Help?

The Sleekgeek Home Training Guide is designed to give you the system + training plans to help you workout confidently at home.

What’s included:

• 16 Weeks Long: Each Sleekgeek Training Plan is 16 weeks long. We keep things simple and straight forward so that you can focus on getting stronger and fitter rather than feeling like you’re learning a new circus act every week with gimmicky exercises. You’ll be able to progress from one plan to the other or repeat the same plan over and over again.​

• Done-For-You Workouts: Let us take care of the nitty-gritty details so that you can just follow along and get results. We’ll tell you exactly which exercises to do, how to do them, for how many reps and sets, and how much rest to have in between.

• Different Equipment Options: The Sleekgeek Training Plans are available in 3 different equipment options (bodyweight, resistance bands, and dumbbells). We’ll even help you mix and match exercises so that you can get the best of all 3 if you want.

• For All Levels: The Sleekgeek Training Plans come in Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced versions. And by beginner, we mean absolute beginner. Don’t worry, we know that you may need to start from the very beginning and we’ll take good care of you. We’ll help you choose which plan is right for you and prepare you to progress from one to the other over time when you’re ready.

• Everything Is Explained: We’re in the business of educating and empowering. The Sleekgeek Training Plans come with a 70+ page Training Guide that explains exactly how the workouts are designed and the philosophy behind them. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to create your own endless workouts and training plans – if you want to.​

• Progressions and Alternatives: The Sleekgeek Training Plans are designed around major “movement patterns” (push, pull, squat, hip-hinge, core, etc). Every exercise comes with a list of progressions and regressions (harder or easier exercises) as well as alternative exercises using different equipment. If a particular exercise doesn’t work well for you, simply swap it out for a better one.​

• Video Demonstrations: We’ve filmed over 140 exercise demonstrations. You’ll be able to click on each exercise in your workout and view a quick YouTube video of the exercise being demonstrated with the correct form.​

Find out more about the Sleekgeek Training Guide here.