The 10 Functional Dumbbell Exercises That Should Be In Your Workouts

4 min read
Sean Klein
Written by
Sean Klein
Published on
10/06/22
Last updated
12/01/23
In This Resource
  • What Is Functional Training
  • The 10 Functional Dumbbell Exercises That Should Be In Your Workouts

One of the main benefits of physical training is how it makes you feel better in your day to day life. This is why the concept and idea of functional training is so popular within the fitness industry as we strive to feel better in movements we perform throughout the day.

What Is Functional Training

  • The term functional is a pretty touchy subject in the strength and conditioning realm. Muscle has function, therefore any increase in muscle mass is technically functional. That being said, isolation training has a bad reputation because it is often done without other aspects of movement and doesn’t benefit any increase in movement capacity.
  • For this article, functional will be defined as movements that benefit both improvement in strength through the foundational movement patterns of strength training (that being said, almost any strength movement can achieve this goal). Predominantly movements that would be used with athletes or general population clients with good movement capacity already.

    • The 10 Functional Dumbbell Exercises That Should Be In Your Workouts

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    Secondary
    Upper Body
    Horizontal Pull
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    Secondary
    Upper Body
    Horizontal Pull
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    Secondary
    Lower Body
    Hinge
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    Primary
    Upper Body
    Hinge
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    Primary
    Upper Body
    Horizontal Press
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    Secondary
    Upper Body
    Horizontal Press
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    Primary
    Lower Body
    Squat
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    Secondary
    Lower Body
    Squat
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    Secondary
    Lower Body
    Hinge
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    Primary
    Upper Body
    Vertical Press

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    This resource was written by Sean Klein. Sean Richard Klein has thousands of hours of coaching experience and a BSc in Sports Science with Management from Loughborough University. He owns a gym in Bayonne France, CrossFit Essor, which runs group classes and a Personal training studio.

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