An expert trainer has shared a simple hack that will help you get the most out of your home dumbbell workouts

You don't need a gym membership to build muscle, even if you're an experienced exerciser. In fact, someone who knows what they're doing can achieve an awful lot with just a pair of dumbbells.

However, there's one piece of equipment that can help you get a lot more out of dumbbells, according to Liv Townsend, a yoga instructor who offers strength and mobility coaching, and that's a workout bench.

That's because when you do these exercises lying on the floor, your arms can't extend to their full range of motion. Bringing yourself away from the floor allows your muscles to extend further, which increases both strength and mobility.

The problem is, while you can slip your dumbbells under your couch when you're done with them, a sturdy workout bench tends to stick out like a sore thumb.

Thankfully, Townsend has shared a clever hack on Instagram if you don't have the space for a workout bench—use yoga blocks to raise your body off the floor, which will increase your range of motion during dumbbell exercises like chest presses and pull-overs.

Watch the Reel to see where Townsend suggests placing the blocks.

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The importance of using your full range of motion in strength training

As Townsend explains in her Reel, if you don't use your body's full range of motion when strength training, this could make you stiff and inflexible.

Range of motion refers to how far your joints can move during an exercise. Everyone's range of motion is different, depending on your genetics, age and how much you move your body.

But by moving your muscles and joints to their full range of motion, you can maintain and even increase your flexibility.

Plus, it can improve muscle growth, because when you're doing exercises on a bench or on a block, you recruit more muscle fibers than you would doing the exercise lying on the floor.

Combining strength training with flexibility and mobility exercises is very important. That's because you can become stronger without improving your flexibility, which can lead to stiffness and joint pain.

You can also become more flexible without strengthening your joints and muscles, which can lead to injury or discomfort.

Simple hacks like this one will ensure you're getting the most from your workouts.

My experience swapping a bench for yoga blocks

I regularly use a workout bench at the gym to do dumbbell chest presses, so I was intrigued to see if this was an effective way to replicate it at home.

It was easy to set up the yoga blocks and I found that lying in that position immediately opened up my tight chest and shoulder muscles without starting any exercises.

I performed eight chest presses in this position and I found them more challenging with the blocks underneath me than I would if I was just doing them on the floor. Plus, I could feel the stretch through my chest as well as the muscles burning in my pecs and arms.

Of course, yoga blocks can't entirely replicate all of the advantages of an adjustable weight bench, such as being set at an incline for presses, rows and curls.

However, for a simple home hack, I think this is a great way to improve dumbbell workouts.

If you don't already have a pair of yoga blocks, they're one of my favorite pieces of equipment because there are so many yoga poses with blocks you can do and they're a great way to enhance your mobility practice.