Q&A for How to Work out With Dumbbells

If you are doing everything right (for example, doing muscle exercises for half an hour 3-5 days a week, eating well and getting plenty of sleep), it can usually take about 1-2 months before your muscles become bigger and stronger. But this can vary between people. Everyone's different.

Yes, of course. Just remember to alternate evenly.

Full body workouts will only be effective if you are training no more than 3 times a week, doing 1 exercise per muscle group (3 - 4 sets per group), with mostly compound movements.

Start off slow and work your way up. If you have lost a lot of strenght in your arms, be carful as you may easily injure yourself. Start with some bicep curls, overhead presses, upright rows, overhead triceps extensions, bent-over rows, and skull crushers.

It does not. The notion that weight training is connected to stunted growth is only a myth.

Yes. You have to have protein for muscles to grow. You can supply enough protein through eating the right food, but you may also use powder supplements.

Breathe in when lifting the weight, and breathe out when putting it back in starting position.

Your upper arm can be made slimmer by burning off fat or muscle. This is best addressed by performing a high number of reps in about 3 sets, combined with eating fewer in order to obtain a caloric deficit.

It's important not to rely too much on any form of supplement, as you can consume the target nutrients with eating the right foods. However, if you want to increase protein consumption, look at whey protein powder. If your body does not agree with it, try other substitutes, such as pea or soy protein. Other supplements would include BCAA's.

3 times per week is enough. Remember to work out different groups of muscles every session.

I can tell you from experience, many years of boxing, bodybuilding and getting extremely fit, that there is really no such thing as targeting a specific area of fat. You can not target belly fat or leg fat etc. You can only work to lose body fat and it will melt off of your body in the order your body puts on/stores fat. I can tell you that the love handles were the very last to go for me when I was super fit. I was strong at 177lbs and 4.5% body fat, I had an 8 pack and yet I still had a little bulge on the love handle area. If you want to reduce your love handles you basically just need to focus on working out and calorie control. There's no magic answer.

They do not have to be sore. It's a myth that it's not a good workout unless it hurts, or "if you can still walk, you didn't work out hard enough". You should push yourself, but never to the point when it hurts. As soon as you feel pain, stop, then treat the pain and rest a few days until you have recovered. Sure, your muscles can be a bit sore, but it is definitely not a requirement.

Unless you have not hit puberty yet, then using dumbbells should not affect your height.

To increase your size, you have to increase your calories intake. Eat more food, especially protein and carbohydrates. Training will break down muscle fibers, you need food to repair and rebuild your muscles.

It depends on the supplements, but certain supplements can definitely have negative side effects, so I would talk with your doctor before beginning any supplements.

At 13 years old, it would be a good idea to start training, especially if you want to start outperforming others in sports. As far as having protein supplements...I would suggest you wait until later in high school before implementing them. Simply having a healthy diet as a younger teenager will be sufficient. Eat carbs and lean protein to get big.

That's perfect. In fact, the military trains in a similar manner. Increasing your rep numbers will help increase your muscular endurance but you will not see a significant increase in muscle mass or strength.

If your herniated disc is not fully healed, strictly avoid any strength training that might bear a load on your spine. Talk to your physical therapist about the right approach to recovery for your particular injury.

It depends on your goals. If you want to build strength, then stick to maybe 5 sets of 5 or 3 sets of 5 reps, and wait between one and a half and five minutes between sets. If you want to build muscle mass, increase reps and rest for shorter times.

Absolutely not! It is very harmful. Even after you are recovered, wait a month or two before lifting weights again and only do so on your doctor's advice.

I would reccomend performing 2-3 sets of each exercise with a break in between each set, about a minutes' rest between sets. you could also do what you've described as doing one set of each exercise after the other, this will get your heart rate up but make sure to take at least a 2 minute break after the circuit. but again, I would reccomend the first method.

In this case, you should definitely be consulting a professional for this advice - either your doctor, a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, rehabilitation specialist, or other suitably experienced and qualified medical professional should be sought out before attempting any sort of exercise, especially following surgery.