Are you bored at the gym? The elliptical and treadmills are great for getting the heart rate up, but you also need to add in other exercises to keep seeing results. One of the best tools that you have at the gym is a dumbbell. You can do virtually anything with it, and it’s so compact. Here are some exercises to get your dumbbell workout started.

1. Goblet Squats: You’re familiar with the squat, but the goblet squat is slightly different. You can add weight onto your squats by holding a dumbbell in front of you near the chest. By holding weight in front of you, you’ll use your back and shoulders, as well as working your lower body.
2. Farmers Carries: This exercise is so simple, yet so effective. You hold a dumbbell in each hand and walk over a distance. It challenges your grip strength, shoulders, core, and lower body. The first few steps may seem easy, but after several meters, you’ll soon understand the value of the exercise.
3. Snatches: You can reap the same benefits of an Olympic lift without the barbell. Use one dumbbell at a time to complete a power snatch. Keep the dumbbell as close to the body as possible, use your hips and a slight jump to lift the weight, and end with the weight overhead.
4. Weighted Lunges: To hit your glutes, hamstrings, and quads, you’ll want to do weighted lunges. To start, perfect the lunge. You want to take a wide step, and keeping the shin vertical, touch the knee to the floor, then return to standing position. To add weight, you can hold it in front of you like the goblet squat, or you can hold it in the farmer carry position.
5. Russian Twists: This is a great ab workout that hits all of the major portions of your core. First, sit on the floor and raise your legs off the ground. Maintain your balance, hold the dumbbell in both hands, and touch the dumbbell to the floor on either side of you. Raising the legs works the lower abs, maintaining your stability works the upper core, and the twisting motion attacks your obliques.
6. Renegade Rows: Have 2 dumbbells on the floor. Hold onto them during the entire workout in the push up position. Without twisting your body, raise one dumbbell to your armpit and control it back down. Alternate side to side. If you want an extra twist, throw in a push up in between.
7. Man Makers: It doesn’t take much to burn you out on a man maker. It incorporates every part of your body. You need to keep your core tight to maintain the plank position, arms for the row and the press, and legs for the squats. It’s several movements all combined into one. Do a renegade row, jump up and use your hips to pop the weights up to your shoulders, catching it in a squat. Then jump to stand and follow through overhead with the weights.

Once you master these movements, keep adding weight to make it more and more challenging. Start off with 3 sets of 10. Then increase to 4 sets of 15, and then 5 sets of 20, etc. The more you do, the stronger you will become. As with any exercise, use caution and only do weights that you can control.