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Dumbbells are a popular piece of fitness equipment. Find out what accessories and attachments can make your dumbbell workouts even better.
A dumbbell is a type of fitness equipment that is basically a handle with a weight on each side. You can use this piece of exercise equipment to modify regular exercises like lunges or to do specific dumbbell exercises.
Among other benefits, you can use dumbbells to strengthen muscles at home or in the gym, you have the mobility that other free weights don’t allow, dumbbells are a compact piece of fitness equipment, etc.
For many of these benefits, a pair of good dumbbells is more than enough.
However, the right dumbbell accessories and attachments allow you to do certain types of exercises better, focus more on certain muscles, allow you to store them in a convenient way, etc.
This can make certain options a worthwhile investment depending on your training goals and budget.
1. Thick dumbbell grips
Dumbbells are a popular piece of grip strength workout equipment. They are perfect for exercises like wrist curls, reverse curls, Zottman curls, hammer curls, etc. where you train the muscles responsible for grip strength.
A dumbbell attachment you can use to step up your forearm training even more is a thick grip. The name of these accessories describes what they are, pads that you can wrap around dumbbell handles to make the grip wider.
Because of these thicker grips, your forearm muscles will have to work harder when you use the dumbbells. You can add these grips to all types of exercises or only to your existing grip workout plan.
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2. Dumbbell storage rack
This next dumbbell accessory is for individuals with a home gym and a few different dumbbells and possibly other fitness equipment.
A good dumbbell rack allows you to store your dumbbells in your home gym in a convenient and compact way. Instead of putting them on the ground in a long straight line, you can stack them in the air.
In turn, there is more room to do your (dumbbell) exercises or for other fitness gear.
Besides design and weight capacity, most dumbbell storage racks are relatively similar. If you have any non-standard dumbbells or other fitness equipment you want to store, you may want to double-check what the racks can hold.
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3. Lifting straps
Depending on the equipment you have available and personal preferences, you may currently use dumbbells to do leg exercises.
One potential downside of dumbbells when it comes to these exercises is that your grip muscles fatigue faster than the strong leg muscles. For example, when doing squats while holding dumbbells by your sides, this could be the case.
This is generally not helpful for growing and strengthening your leg muscles as much as possible. One way to overcome this challenge is to use lifting straps.
These are basically strong straps you wrap around your wrists and the weight you use. Lifting straps make it so your grip muscles have to work less hard. In turn, you can focus more on training your legs.
An additional benefit of lifting straps is that they are relatively cheap compared to the increase in the effectiveness of your dumbbell leg exercises. They are also more durable than something like dumbbell grip tape.
Besides that, you can also use this weight lifting accessory for other heavy (barbell) lifts like deadlifts and bent-over rows.
4. Dumbbell bars
You may have some weight plates lying around but no dumbbells yet. In that case, you can use a dumbbell bar attachment to create your own adjustable dumbbells.
These dumbbell bars are simply strong bars that allow you to secure certain weight plates on them.
One thing to keep in mind when buying dumbbell bars is that there are different sizes for different types of weight plates. Some support the less standard one-inch weight plates, others the more standard two-inch weight plates.
Another thing to remember is that some of these dumbbell bars are relatively long. The upside of this is that you can load more weights. The downside is that they can get in the way when working out.
A potential downside is that dumbbell bars, mostly the thicker ones, can come at a relatively steep price. Especially if you have to invest in additional weight plates. Adjustable dumbbells may be a good alternative to this dumbbell attachment.
5. Arm blaster
Dumbbells are a popular equipment choice for bicep exercises. One of the reasons for this is that they are compact. This can be helpful for curls with wrist turning or a neutral grip.
The main point of these bicep exercises is isolating your upper arm muscles, sometimes a few forearm muscles, as much as possible. To make sure these are the muscles that move the dumbbells you want to keep your upper arms and body in the same position.
This can be challenging at times, especially when doing these curl exercises with heavy dumbbells.
One of the bicep curl accessories that can help you avoid moving these other body parts is the arm blaster. An arm blaster is a pad of strong material that hangs down from your shoulders on which you can put your upper arms while doing bicep curls.
The arm blaster makes it so it becomes easier to not move your upper arms and isolate your bicep muscles.
A benefit of arm blasters is that they are relatively cheap compared to arm blaster alternatives.
One potential downside is that some people find arm blasters uncomfortable. It can also take a bit of trial and error to find the right height setting for you personally. Additionally, this dumbbell accessory has a relatively specific use.
6. Resistance bands
Resistance bands are a type of fitness equipment that are basically elastic cords. You can use them as separate resistance for many exercises but also as a dumbbell accessory
One of the downsides of using equipment like dumbbells is that the amount of resistance your muscles experience lowers drastically at certain parts of the movement during certain exercises like for example bicep curls.
Resistance bands work the opposite way. Their resistance increases as you stretch them out further. You can combine good resistance bands with dumbbells to do a variety of exercises with more constant tension.
Some of the other benefits of resistance bands are that they are relatively inexpensive, easy to store, and very portable. They can also be used in other exercises to train many different muscles.
One downside is that resistance bands are not the type of gym equipment you can use for the rest of your life. At least every few years you will need to replace the last set with new resistance bands.
Besides that, you may need an additional resistance band anchor for certain dumbbell exercises.
7. Dumbbell kettlebell attachment
A kettlebell is a metal ball with a handle on top, usually made of cast iron or cast steel. This relatively unique shape enables you to do particular exercises that do not have the exact same effect as with other fitness equipment.
Instead of investing in an additional kettlebell set, which can be relatively expensive, you can upgrade your existing dumbbell set with an attachment to make these weights more similar to a kettlebell.
These dumbbell kettlebell attachments are simply an attachment you can put on the handle of a dumbbell. After that, you can use it to do exercises like the kettlebell swing, Turkish get-up, the racked kettlebell squat, etc.
An attachment like this can be a good inexpensive way to come closer to a kettlebell workout. Do keep in mind that this setup does not have the same slender shape as a kettlebell, especially with heavy dumbbells.
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