Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Men's Health Ultimate Dumbbell Guide: More Than 21,000 Moves Designed to Build Muscle, Increase Strength, and Burn Fat

Rate this book
The easiest, most inexpensive way to build muscle strength, size, and power turns out to be the best, with this supremely effective guide from the world's largest men's magazine

Workout fads and fitness equipment come and go, but as trainers and bodybuilders know: nothing tops a simple set of dumbbells for convenience, reliability, and versatility when you are trying to build muscles and get in shape. In Men's Health Ultimate Dumbbell Guide , Myatt Murphy, a fitness expert and longtime contributor to Men's Health, shows readers how to use dumbbells to develop just about every part of their bodies.

For anyone who believes that dumbbells can be used only for arms and shoulders, Myatt Murphy proves them wrong. Featuring 200 photographs, Men's Health Ultimate Dumbbell Exercises demonstrates how to perform a total body workout and get maximum results. There are exercises here—lunges, squats, dead lifts, curls, shrugs, kickbacks, presses, and more—that develop abs, arms, chest, legs, and shoulders, along with innovative new ways to get the most of this versatile piece of strength-training equipment.

With instructions for creating literally thousands of dumbbell exercises for the novice to advanced lifter, Men's Health Ultimate Dumbbell Exercises will be an indispensable addition to any home gym.

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2007

167 people are currently reading
115 people want to read

About the author

Myatt Murphy

44 books4 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
45 (29%)
4 stars
59 (38%)
3 stars
36 (23%)
2 stars
8 (5%)
1 star
4 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Profile Image for Ahmad Hossam.
288 reviews84 followers
October 29, 2020
A good collection of dumbbell exercises for all muscle groups. I like the message, you only need dumbbells to have a superb workout. Throw in a good bench (and maybe a set of resistance bands) and you basically have all your needs covered.

What didn't sit well with me is the gimmicky title. Every exercise can have a ton of variations, but they're just that: variations, not new exercises. In fact I'd argue that making it seem that dumbbells offer thousands and thousands of exercises does not make them more appealing. This "more is better" mentality doesn't really work here.

Still, a good guide if you're on the fence whether dumbbells are enough for a home gym (they absolutely are!!)
57 reviews
January 7, 2020
A useful book for beginners who want to work out with dumbbells.

The instruction photos in the book are of men and women. It is devoid of hyperbolic language about SHREDDING and CRUSHING and ENGINES, etc.

I wish it had more info about how to check for improper form, but overall I've found it very helpful.
81 reviews4 followers
May 1, 2021
Another shit from Men's Health.

The actual content in this 280p can be put in blog post ... max 40 pages)
for example for one exercise author created tens of variation that all same, and sometime they are incorrect and unsafe:

biceps curls standing
biceps curls sitting on a flat bench
biceps curls sitting on a incline bench
bicep curls sitting on a stability ball
biceps curls with your back against the wall
biceps curls your arm at 90 degree
....
all of above variation repeated only with reverse wrist

this way author market tens of exercise, to thousands of exercise that a lot of them less useful and sometimes incorrect/unsafe version of original exercise.
Profile Image for Benjamin Torres.
259 reviews21 followers
February 26, 2018
This book is perfect for people who have never weight trained, it details all the posible excercises you can do with a pair of dumbells and some other basic equipment and it describes what are the main muscles each excercise helps to develop (The photos are helpful).

I would have liked the workouts section to be more detailed and explain how best to focus the training on different parts of the body throughout the week or on a time based training, but other than that I think it is a very well structured guide.
6 reviews4 followers
November 20, 2020
Great guide for efficient use of DB exercises.

Handy for planning and customising DB workouts to suit personal needs. Great option if gym machines not available. Kindle version good value
20 reviews
August 15, 2022
The technique described in some of those exercises is obsolete and can lead to an injury. Overall it's a good guide through dumbbell exercises and an addition to your training journey. I've been doing most of exercises mentioned there prior to reading this book.
Profile Image for Stan.
827 reviews6 followers
April 4, 2020
A good guide to working out with dumbbells. I used the information in this book to design my workouts since the gyms are closed because of Coved 19.
41 reviews1 follower
August 20, 2020
Great book !!!

If this book had even half the variation ‘s in it I would have been dancing in the streets. But Mr. Murphy gives you even more ( much more) . He reminds me of Charles Poliquin in his writing. And of Bill Pearl in that he gives you many variants to the same exercise. As a home trainer at the moment it really helps .Chapter six is particularly interesting. Schedule’s for your skill level is provided and is well put together. In my particular case this book has helped me find the right angle using dumbbells to still work for strength.
Profile Image for Justin Dugas.
5 reviews
October 10, 2012
Most of the moves in this book are that of which I already knew and the reason for the high number of positions or moves you can perform with dumbbells is due to different hand or body positioning. However, I did learn a couple of new moves from this book as well as certain tweaks. This book would be excellent for someone who is just starting out using dumbbells, or even who has been using dumbbells for 6 - 12 months. The book also includes a workout plan section in the back for people who have trouble coming up with workouts on their own. Book was very informative and had great instruction on how to perform each workout (photographs included).
Profile Image for Patricia.
2,484 reviews56 followers
December 22, 2007
I've been flirting with the idea of starting a weight training program again and this was the perfect book. Imagine, doing a whole workout at home with just dumbbells. I'll probably buy this book.
Profile Image for Fishface.
3,294 reviews242 followers
February 6, 2016
Lots and lots and LOTS of dumbbell exercises in here. Not just for men, it uses photos to demonstrate correct form and execution of each move, and explains how to expand your repetoire with simple variations.
Profile Image for Linda.
100 reviews11 followers
relinquished
November 27, 2008
My life could have turned out utterly differently had I only read this in the 5th grade.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.