A complete guide on how to build muscle with dumbbells

 Dumbbells are great, and you can get a very good workout in with just a couple of pairs. In my opinion, getting adjustable dumbbells are much better than normal dumbbells, as it is much cheaper, and require far less space. Here is a link to the dumbbells I use, which are £40. Yaheetech 30KG Adjustable Weight Dumbbells 15KGx2 Dumbbells Set (sold as a pair) Home Gym Fitness Dumbbell Set for Lifting Training : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors. In my opinion, if you can't get a pair of adjustable dumbbells, or don't have lots of different weights, then I would just do callisthenics, or mix the two, as getting in a full, challenging workout and training to failure with a few dumbbells will be difficult.

Many people will ask, what split should I choose? What is the optimal amount of sets or reps? What is the BEST exercise? How many days a week should I train?

It doesn't matter.

I will go over a complete guide but you can optimize it for you, it's about what works for you. "But I can only train 1 day per week," Then train 1 day per week."But I don't know what to do." Then listen. "But I don't know what the BEST exercise is." Doesn't matter. 

If you are a new lifter then as long as you are doing a few basic rules(Which I will outline in this post), eating a good diet, and training hard, you WILL gain muscle. 

Now for the workout:

Dynamic stretches(30 seconds for each stretch) - You need to stretch before a workout to make sure you don't get injured. Here is the warm-up:
Small arm circles forwards
Small arm circles backwards
Full arm swings forwards
Full arm swings backwards
Wall slides
Trunk rotations

5 min cardio at a moderate pace (cycling, treadmill, row etc.)- this is optional, and studies have found that this is particularly beneficial for leg workouts.

There are 4 main upper-body movements - 
A vertical push (such as an Overhead press, dumbbell shoulder press or handstand push-up)
A horizontal push (such as a bench press, dumbbell press or push-up)
A vertical pull (such as a lat pull down or pull up)
A horizontal pull (such as a barbell row, chest-supported row, single-arm dumbbell row or body row)

There are 2 main lower-body movements - 
A leg press (such as a squat, leg press or Bulgarian split squat)
A hip hinge (such as a Romanian deadlift)

With these 6 movements, you can build a pretty good physique, but to build a truly impressive and aesthetic physique, we need more than just these exercises. This is a full workout guide on how to build a great physique and maximise your body.

UPPER BODY

Exercise 1: Incline dumbbell chest press. (Chest, triceps and front deltoids)
This is a brilliant exercise which works your pushing muscles (bar your side delts) effectively. It particularly targets your upper chest, which is the most important part of your chest for aesthetics.

Exercise 2 - Overhead shoulder press (Front and side deltoids)
Another excellent exercise which effectively targets your shoulders, and your triceps to a lesser extent. This is definitely one of the best exercises for your shoulders. 

Exercise 3 - Dumbbell row/chest-supported row (Trazpezius, rear delts, rhomboids, Teres and lats)
Both are great horizontal pulling movements, and target many of the same muscles, so use the one you want to do. They both target very similar muscles and will even target the biceps to a lesser extent

Exercise 4 - Pull up (Lats, Trapezius, Rear delts, Rhomboids and Teres)
One of the best exercises out there is a vertical pulling motion to complement a horizontal pulling motion. It will put more emphasis on the lats than a horizontal pulling motion, but they still target similar muscles. If you don't have a pull up bar, get a doorframe one, or do a lat pullover if you can't get one.

Those are the fundamental movements on any upper body workout routine, but there are other movements to help us make the most of our physique

Exercise 5 - Lateral raises (Side delts)
The lateral raise is one of the most important exercises to build an impressive physique which almost isolates the side delts.

Exercise 6 - Rear delt dumbbell flys (Rear delts)
The rear delts must be developed to give fully rounded shoulders, and are often neglected. These are often performed wrong, so I suggest watching this video: (33) How to: Dumbbell Reverse Fly - YouTube. Also, doing the exercise with your arms around 45 degrees behind your back is best for rear delt growth.

Exercise 7 - Bicep curls (Biceps)

The bicep curl is undoubtedly the best exercise to isolate the bicep, and there are hundreds of different variations with cables, barbells, kettlebells, seated, standing, lying etc. Don't overcomplicate it. Do a simple bicep curl, but simply turn your hand as you curl it up, like the demonstration below.

Exercise 8 - Tricep extensions 
The best exercise is to target the long head of your triceps, as this is not as heavily worked as the lateral and medial heads by other pressing exercises. If you could only do 1 exercise, it would definitely be these. 

LOWER BODY

Exercise 1: Bulgarian split squat - In my opinion, the best dumbbell leg exercise you can do for your quads and also works your glutes.

Exercise 2 - Romanian Deadlift - An excellent exercise for your hamstrings. It is a hip hinge movement and will also help strengthen the lower back and general spine health. You can do them one-legged if they are too easy

Exercise 3 - Dumbbell calf raise, this is an isolation movement for your calves and isn't necessary and the calves are very stubborn to grow for lots of people.

PROGRAMMING

So that's the workout, you could split it into an upper-lower split, push-pull legs split, or even a full body split. If you are short on time, I would use supersets (doing 1 exercise, then immediately doing another one before resting), The best supersets are antagonistic, pushing then pulling or an upper body then a lower body. Another is to cut the exercises down to the 6 fundamental movements, which in this case are the dumbbell row, incline dumbbell press, pull-up, shoulder press, Bulgarian split squat and Romanian deadlift. 

    A FEW THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
1. Progressive overload, In every session, write down the reps you did for each exercise and the weight, and in every session try to increase it. This is what it could look like:
WORKOUT 1 - 140kg for 10
WORKOUT 2 - 140kg for 11

WORKOUT 3 - 140kg for 12
WORKOUT 4 - 145 kg for 8
2. Sets and reps. Do 3 sets of each exercise in the rep range of 8-15 reps

3. TRAINING CLOSE TO FAILURE, you need to be training within 1-3 reps of muscular failure to actually build muscle, so pick a challenging weight and train like your life depends on it.

With all this, you should be able to build a great physique so read it all and put all of it into practice. Good luck!