JJ Virgin leads a 20-minute dumbbell arm workout using supersets: chest press paired with bent-over rows, overhead press with upright rows, then triceps extensions and biceps curls. You'll need multiple dumbbell weights and a bench, doing two heavy sets of 8-12 reps per exercise with controlled tempo.
All right, I've got a workout for you that you can do at home, and all you're going to need are dumbbells and either a bench or a fitness ball. Now you're going to need a few pairs of dumbbells. This depends on your fitness level, of course, but this isn't a beginner workout, FYI. So you're probably going to want to start with like a pair of 10s, a pair of 15s, and a pair of 20-pound dumbbells, and then increase from there. We're going to do one light warm-up set, and then we're going to do two heavy sets. And what does that mean for you? It means what's heavy for you. So at the end of the set, you feel like you could maybe squeak out 1 or 2 more in good form. Remember, form is always the limiter. Now we're gonna be doing this in a superset format where we're gonna be alternating between 2 exercises that work opposing muscle groups so that you don't really get a rest break until we get through that little block of exercises. Before you start this, make sure that you've done a total body warmup. Now that can be as simple as going up and down the stairs a few times, doing some jumping jacks. Doing a little walk around the block, but you want to get your core body temperature up. So, you know, 3 to 5 minutes of something before we get into this. And again, for each of these, we're going to do one warm-up set. So something pretty easy so that we get all the blood flowing, we wake up those muscles, we really connect in with the muscles that we're working, and then we're going to go directly into the heavier sets. I'm going to do 2 sets of those. All right, here we go. Okay, so the first thing we're starting with is a chest press. This is a warm-up set. So this should be really easy for you. Chest press, again, is an, an upper body pushing exercise. We are working your chest muscles, we are working the back of your arms and the front of your shoulders. And again, super easy set. Okay, right after that, we're going straight into bent over rows. Bent over rows are upper body pulling. They're working your lats, your biceps, the back of your shoulders. And what's important here is that we're keeping your rest of your body very, very stable and focusing on your lats. We're pulling those elbows up and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Again, very, very light, easy warm-up set, getting the blood flow going, focusing on the muscle groups working. Next step, go to your heavier weights. We are back down with chest press and coming up to do the bent-over rows. You may need a heavier weight for bent-over rows. If so, switch it out. If you notice, I'm going a little faster on the concentric and a little slower on the eccentric, and it's controlled. And I'm working between 8 and 12 reps. Counting's never been my strong suit, so— but what you really want to get to is a point where that last one or two, you feel like you maybe have one in the tank. If you're not there, get heavier weights. All right, that was your first push-pull block. Have a little bit of hydration, take a little break, minute or two. What I'm doing here is clean creatine, essential amino acid powder— it's my Amino Acid Power— and some Electro Replenish from Reignite Wellness. Next up, we are going to do an overhead press and an upright row. Overhead press is going to work the front of your shoulders, your upper back, the back of your arms, your triceps. So it's an upper body pushing exercise. And then upright row, upper body pulling, biceps, deltoids. So we are really hitting the shoulders hard on this one. And what I love about this is it's also really good for bone mineral density. We're loading the spine. So we're gonna start with an easy warmup set for both. Here's the form I want you to think about for an overhead press. Your knees are slightly bent, your palms are facing each other, thumbs are pointing towards your shoulders. And an easy warm-up set. So that could even be 5 pounds for you. Remember, form is the most important, and you really want to ensure that this first set is just getting the blood flow going. It's not hard, it's easy. What you're really doing during this warm-up set is focusing on making sure you're feeling the right places, right, and that form is good. Next one is an upright row. On this one, you want to think of your thumbs pointing up, right? So you're basically pulling your thumbs and elbows up together. Your elbows are coming up to just slightly below shoulder level. And just like with the overhead press, I've got my belly button pulled in tight. I am not jerking anything. All right, now we're going to move directly into heavier weights. You won't be able to do as much on this as you were able to do, of course, on a chest press. So where you might have done chest press bent over row at 20 or 25, this might be 10 pounds or 15 pounds. So here's an overhead press. Now, if you need to, you might need to change your weights. You might find that you can lift more on an upright row and less on an overhead press, in which case just switch your weights out. It's fine. And yes, you are going to feel your shoulders. They will be screaming. All right. That is exercise block 2. So again, now you're taking a little break. Have some more water, recover. Okay, here's the final block. And I gotta tell you, I rarely do these. I kind of call these the vanity muscles, but I know for so many of us, we really wanna get our arms looking ripped. And so this is just a little like icing on the cake, but you gotta build the cake with those other exercises I showed you. Since we're already warmed up, we do not have to do a warmup for these. So I'm gonna only do 2 sets of each of these, but if you can adjust your bench to a, just a very slight incline, I'm gonna show you how to do a little bit harder biceps curl. If you can't, no big deal, but if you can, it's gonna make it a little bit more challenging. So that's what we wanna do. So you're actually gonna need your heaviest dumbbell most likely for the tricep extension, and then 2 dumbbells for the bicep. We are going to start with a seated tricep extension. So in this one, you don't need the back, and what you're going to do is point your elbows forward, just break a 90° in the back when you come down. And I'm doing— I'm holding my belly button in tight. Don't arch your back. Okay, then we're going to immediately alternate that with this very slight Incline bicep curl. Now you rotate out and come up, so you keep it rotated out. You're slightly inclined. You'll feel how much harder that is. Lift your elbows a little bit up at the top. Keep your thumbs pointed out. That's a supinated hand. It makes it a lot harder. And see how I've got myself pushed back against the bench so I cannot swing at all? All right. If you find yourself swinging, you probably got to lighten that weight a little bit. Here's the triceps again. Okay, and we're only doing 2 sets here cuz we didn't have to do the warm-up set. And again, with all of this, if you want to add in a third hard working set, go for it. But I'm doing the Quickie Express arms workout, so This is how you get it all in. Okay, you just crushed an amazing arm workout. But let me ask you this: are you feeding those biceps the right kind of protein to build that muscle that you're after? Now, you know protein is the key to burning fat and building muscle. And in this next video, I'm going to share the best high-protein foods you need to be eating every single day. We're talking lean, clean protein sources that are going to rev up your metabolism help you shed that stubborn arm jiggle and to find those arm muscles you've been working so hard for.
