This 30-Minute (No Bench) Dumbbell Workout Is All You Need for a Full-Body Blast
When it comes to getting in a good quality full-body workout, the type that helps you stack on total-body muscle while building life-extending strength, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. All you need to target your chest, back, shoulders, legs, and arms are simple tools like dumbbells and basic movement patterns – pushing, pulling, squatting, hinging, and lunging. And you don’t need hours in the gym either, as long as you’re pushing yourself hard enough.
This workout follows an AMRAP format (as many reps as possible), with a simple goal: complete as many high-quality rounds of the circuit as you can in 30 minutes. Track your reps, and aim to surpass those numbers each time you take on the challenge. This will ensure you’re increasing the volume of work you do in the same timeframe, leading to gains in strength and muscle through progressive overload. Once you can add a good chunk of work compared to your original score, it’s time for heavier dumbbells. This type of ‘density training’ is perfect for the time poor, who are willing to make every minute count.
After a thorough warm-up, grab a set of dumbbells, start your timer and get to work. Aim towards the higher end of the rep range in the initial rounds, but the reps will drop off if you’ve picked a challenging weight. What’s important is pushing close to failure, tracking your reps, and aiming to beat them next time.
Let’s go.
1. Push-Up On dumbbells x 10-15
Assume a strong plank position gripping a pair of dumbbells stacked directly below elbows and shoulders (A). Bend your elbows to slowly lower your chest to the floor, feeling a stretch in your chest as you pass the dumbbells (B). Keep your upper arms from flaring as you push back up explosively to a straight arm position.
2. Renegade Rows x 8-12 (each side)
Remain in your strong plank position 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. Continue in this fashion, alternating arms.
3: Front Squat x 10-15
Stand up and safely clean your dumbbells onto the front of your shoulders (A). From here, drop into a front squat until the crease of your hips drops below your knees. Keep your torso upright (B), before driving back up. Take a deep breath at the top and repeat.
4. Dumbbell Deadlift x 10-15
Drop your bells onto the floor just outside your feet, hinge down and grip them with soft knees, 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, keeping them close to your body throughout. Your arms should be hanging straight throughout this movement, think of them as hooks.
5. Reverse Lunges x 20-30 (total)
Stand tall with your dumbbells hanging by your sides (A). Keeping your chest up at all times, take a step backward with one leg, bending your front knee until the back knee touches the ground (B). Stand up explosively, pause and repeat with the other leg. Complete 20-30 total reps, counting each leg as 1 rep.
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