Dumbbell Swing

Get your legs and shoulders fired up with this Home Exercise of the Week.  It’s called the Dumbbell Swing and it’s a great full body exercise that will get your heart rate and metabolic rate up.  Full body exercises burn more calories and strengthen your cardiovascular system.

The Dumbbell Swing targets your quadriceps, inner thighs, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and deltoids so there are many muscles working together with this exercise.  More neurons are firing and more oxygen is needed so stay focused, breath deeply, and get ready to sweat!

If you don’t have a dumbbell at home that’s ok.  You can use any object that provides resistance and is easy to hold on to like a jug of water for instance or if you’re a new mom you can even use your child!  They will think it’s great fun!

Let’s take a look at how to do the Dumbbell Swing properly.

  • start by standing up tall with your feet in a wide stance, toes pointed slightly outward
  • let your weight hang down in front of you
  • squat down with your body weight on your heels, pushing your hips back, and keeping your head up and shoulders back
  • push up through your heels and at the same time swing the weight up to shoulder height while keeping your arms fairly straight
  • immediately squat down again dropping the weight between your legs and repeat
  • it’s ok to use momentum on this exercise but don’t get sloppy on the form

So there you have the Dumbbell Swing.  If you want a challenging full body exercise that will boost your metabolic rate and get that liquid awesome flowing then you’ll want to make sure that you are adding this exercise in to your routine!