Dumbbell Wood Chop: How to Do, Benefits & Tips

You can use easily incorporate dumbbell wood chop exercises into your routine to build strength in your core muscles. This includes your low back, abs, oblique and pelvic muscles.

Dumbbells core exercises will challenge your entire core, which is important in helping you lift more weight in your workout, as well as function better in everyday life.

This exercise keeps your trunk activated in a rotational movement pattern, as well as multiple abdominal and back muscles for stability. In addition, your shoulder, legs and arms provide stability and mobility.

If you want more defined abs and obliques, you need to progress your training. This means working your way up in weight load in order to achieve stronger, more developed abs.

Benefits Of Doing Dumbbell Wood Chop Exercise

• Dumbbell wood chopper requires more balance that can lead to greater muscle fiber recruitment.
• It simultaneously challenges the stability of multiple muscles in your trunk, hips, and shoulders.
• It requires more muscular control than enhancing kinesthetic awareness.
• Dumbbell wood chop Workout increase core stability, and improve muscular imbalances.
• It affords a greater level of variety, which prevents physical and mental burnout.
• Dumbbells wood chop Workout are also perfect for the at-home exerciser with the limited space.

Muscles Worked During Wood Chop

The wood chop is a great exercise for the core. Your abs and obliques are works hard as you twist and lift, and the overall movement of the exercise means the core strength is working overtime.

The primary muscles worked during it are: Abs, obliques and back including erector spine

Secondary muscle worked: serratus anterior, shoulder, legs, calf as well as the gluteus maximus and hip flexors.

Dumbbell Wood Chop (High to Low wood chopper)

The Dumbbell wood chop is also known as the dumbbell up-down twist, you must add these oblique workouts to your dumbbell abs workout arsenal.

This is great for strengthening the twisting movement pattern of your torso, as well as improving your torso’s ability to resist twisting forces.

The dumbbell woodchop is a compound pulling motion and a functional exercise. While it primarily targets the abdominals and obliques, it also employs the shoulders, back, and glutes.

How to do woodchoppers with dumbbell

1. Hold the dumbbell with both hands, with either your fingers interlaced or with one hand over the other. Stand shoulder-width apart.
2. Keeping your arms straight, rotate the dumbbell in a diagonally downward motion until your torso rotate to the opposite side and your hands are at knee height.
3. Hold for a count of two. Then slowly reverse the movement to return to the starting position.
4. Repeat for the prescribed number of repetitions. Repeat the exercise on your opposite side.
5. Aim for 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps a side.

Tips

• Don’t lock the knees and hips. Allow the hips and knees to rotate slightly.
• Keep your arms straight, shoulders locked in place.
• Control the weight the whole time while doing this dumbbell Abs Workout.

Dumbbell Reverse Woodchop (low to high wood chopper)

The Dumbbell reverse wood chop is also known as low to high dumbbell Wood chop. The standing low dumbbell chop is a variation of the wood chop and an exercise used to target the muscles of the abdominal complex.

In particular, the standing low dumbbell chop primarily works the obliques.

Use the dumbbell down-up twist to strengthen and stabilize your core, and to strengthen the rotational movement pattern of your torso.

How To Do Reverse Dumbbell wood chop

1. Hold the dumbbell with both hands, with either your fingers interlaced or one hand over the other.
2. Keeping your arms straight, rotate the dumbbell in a diagonally upward motion.
3. Hold for a count of two. Then slowly reverse the movement to return to the starting position.
4. Repeat for the prescribed number of repetitions.
5. Repeat the exercise on your opposite side.
6. Aim for 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps a side.

Tips

• Don’t lock the knees and hips when performing dumbbell wood chops. Allow the hips and knees to rotate slightly.
• Keep your arms straight, shoulders locked in place.
• Keep the movement under control.

Kneeling dumbbell wood chop

The kneeling wood chop is the beginner friendly variation of wood chop.

It is the total-body movements that use many muscles in your body and giving you the opportunity to lift a little heavier and spike your heart rate.

This exercise is extremely versatile and can also be performed in a tall kneeling stance, a square standing stance, and a split standing stance.

How To Do Kneeling Dumbbell wood chop

• Kneel on the floor with knees hip-distance apart, holding a dumbbell with both hands, arms extended.
• Rotate torso to the left, bringing weight to outside of left thigh, keeping arms extended.
• Using your core, lift weight diagonally across the body and above your right shoulder, keeping arms extended.
• Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Dumbbell wood chop alternative

The best alternative to the dumbbell wood chop exercise in one’s training routine is a similar oblique isolation exercise that makes allowances for the needs of the exerciser and their training routine.

1. Standing Barbell Twist

The standing barbell twist focuses on your obliques. Use the barbell twist to strengthen the twisting movement pattern of your body. It is one of the best alternate of wood chopper.

It is a great idea to stop halfway through some reps, and attempt to resist the twisting force.

2. Side Plank Dips

The Side plank with hip dips is a brilliant bodyweight exercise that helps you to develop the strength and stability of your core.

It works your obliques and trim your waistline, and by adding the extra dip, you will be improving your muscle control and posture.

3. Cable Wood Chop

The cable wood chop is an exercise that uses a cable machine to simulate a wood chopping action, building strength and power in the core and obliques

Cable chop exercises will challenge your entire core, which is important in helping you lift more weight in your workout, as well as function better in everyday life.

FAQs

What muscles do dumbbell wood chop work?

The primary muscles worked during dumbbell wood chops are the obliques, abs and back, including the erector spinae and the transverse abdominus.

In addition, this exercise also uses the serratus anterior, deltoids, legs, calf as well as the gluteus maximus and hip flexors.

Are dumbbell woodchoppers effective?

Yes, the woodchop is a great functional core exercise.  Many training programs use the wood chop exercise to strengthen the side-flexion of the torso and improve overall abs appearance.

Takeaways

The wood chop is an excellent core exercise to add to your training program. Try this functional exercise and reap the benefits in all your daily activities.

Know More About Abs And Oblique Training

• Side Plank: Benefits, Variations, Muscles used, Tips
• 18 Abs Exercises You Can Do at Home Without Equipment
• Plank Push up: Benefits, Muscles Worked, Alternate
• Most Effective Abs & Oblique Cable Exercises & Workout
• Integration Core Exercises Elicit Greater Muscle Activation Than Isolation Exercises

BEST DUMBBELL ABS WORKOUT