These 3 Full-Body Dumbbell Workouts Build Size and Turbocharge Fitness
Welcome to the Men’s Health Dumbbell Club, your weekly plan for a fitter, stronger body, using just two dumbbells. Your dose of dumbbell goodness drops every week, with workouts lasting from 20-40 minutes and designed to add lean muscle, build fitness and increase strength.
Click here to head back and check out previous weeks. Or, get stuck in to our latest offering: week 59, and follow the programme from here.
New This Week…
We're moving into the final week of our full-body EMOM training phase. As with previous weeks, each session focusses on big, compound movement patterns: pushing, pulling, lunging and squatting, ensuring no stone is left unturned in pursuit of muscle size and functional strength.
You should be familiar with the EMOM format by now, but if it's your first week in the club, here's a refresher on this seriously effective method for building work capacity and challenging your muscles with growth-inducing metabolic stress.
How To Perform an EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute)
Start a running clock and at the beginning of each minute, perform a set of a single movement, aiming for the higher end of the suggested rep range. Record your results. You’ll rest for the remainder of the minute before moving onto the next movement. Continue in this fashion until you’ve performed a round of each move. Rest for the entirety of the fifth minute then begin again from the first exercise. Repeat this format eight total times for a full-body workout that clock in at under forty minutes.
Consult your notes from last week, aiming to beat your score on each movement. If you managed to hit the higher end of the rep range across all sets for any given exercise last week, it's time to up the weights this week.
If this is your first week in the Dumbbell Club, simply take note of the weights you use and sets you achieve – we'll be coming back to them next week.
DAY ONE (W59/D1)
After a thorough warm-up grab your 'bells, start the clock and get to work.
Min 1. Dumbbell Floor Press (or Bench Press) x 10-12
Grab your dumbbells and lie flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground (use a bench if you have one). Press the weights up, locking out your elbows (A). Lower them slowly until your upper arms are resting on the floor (B), close to your body. Pause here before explosively pressing back up, squeeze your chest hard. Repeat.
Min 2. Hang Cleans x 10-12
Hold a pair of dumbbells at your side, hinge at the hips, bend your knees and allow the weights to swing back between your legs (A). Stand back up explosively, and use the momentum to pull the dumbbells up on to your shoulders (B). Allow the dumbbells to drop back between your legs and repeat. Avoid excessive rounding of the lower back throughout.
Min 3. Front-Rack Squat x 10-12
Clean a pair of dumbbells up onto your shoulders. Take a breath and brace your core (A). Sink your hips back and bend at the knees, squatting down until the crease of your hips passes below your knee (B). Drive back up explosively and repeat.
Min 4. Romanian Deadlift x 10-12
Stand tall holding a pair of dumbbells at waist height (A). With a slight bend in the knees, push your hips back and slowly lower the 'bells towards the ground, pinning your shoulders down and maintaining a flat back. Push your hips back until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings (B), pause and explosively return to an upright position.
Min 5. Rest
After you complete your fourth movement, rest for the remainder of that minute and all of the fifth minute.
DAY TWO (W59/D2)
Min 1. Bent-Over Row x 10 - 12
Hold a pair of dumbbells at your sides and hinge at the hips until your chest is parallel to the floor, dumbbells hanging at your shins (A). Maintaining a flat back, row both dumbbells towards your hips (B), squeeze here and lower under control before repeating.
Min 2. Dumbbell Deadlift x 12-15
With your dumbbells on the floor just outside your feet, hinge down and grip them with soft knees and your back as flat as possible (A). Squeeze your lats, grip your weights and stand upright, pushing the ground away with your feet (B). Take a deep breath and slowly reverse the movement, returning your weights to the ground, making sure to keep them close to your body throughout. Your arms should be hanging straight throughout this movement – think of them as hooks.
Min 3. Cyclist Goblet Squat x 15-20
Stand tall holding a dumbbell close to your chest in the goblet position. Raise your heels up on a weight plate or block, keeping your heels within 6in of each other (A). Sink your hips back and bend at the knees, squatting down until the crease of your hips passes below your knee (B). Drive back up explosively stopping just short of locking your legs out to keep the tension on the quads. Repeat.
Min 4. Hindu Press-up x 15-20
Assume a strong press-up position with your hands shoulder-width apart. Walk your hands backwards until your hips are in the air, almost above your hands (A). Flex at the elbows, lowering your nose to the ground between your hands before shifting your weight forward. Push the ground away, straightening your arms as you drop your hips to the floor (B). Reverse this movement until your hips are back in the air.
Min 5. Rest
After you complete your fourth movement, rest for the remainder of that minute and all of the fifth minute.
DAY THREE (W59/D3)
Min 1. Push Press x 10-12
Clean a pair of dumbbells onto the front of your shoulders. Take a breath and brace your core. (A) Dip at the knees and using your legs to help (B) drive the dumbbells up overhead. Lower them under control to your shoulders and repeat.
Min 2. Renegade Row x 20-24 (total)
Drop into a strong plank with both hands on your dumbbells (A). Shifting your weight onto your left hand, row the right dumbbell towards your hip (B). Pause briefly, then lower the weight under control. Repeat on your left side. Left+right = two reps
Min 3. Alternating Reverse Lunge x 20-24 (total)
Stand tall, holding your dumbbells at your sides (A). Take a long step backward with one leg, bending your front leg until your back knee gently touches the ground (B). Stand up and forward explosively, pause and repeat with the opposite leg. Alternate legs. Left+right = two reps.
Min 4. Split Squat Jump x 20-24 (total)
Step one foot backward and sink into a deep lunge with your rear knee lightly touching the floor (A). Explode upwards into a jump, switching legs mid-air (B) to land in a lunge position with the opposite leg forward. Repeat the movement, alternating legs each rep and aiming to jump as high as possible. Left+right = two reps.
Min 5. Rest
After you complete your fourth movement, rest for the remainder of that minute and all of the fifth minute.
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