Welcome to the Brutal 45 min Bodybuilding and Cardio Workout.
Just like you can guess from the title, the following training session is combining traditional bodybuilding work with some conditioning work.
What can you expect from this training session?
- The complete duration is around 60min including a proper warm-up and cool-down.
- You will work your upper & lower body and finish of with a full-body conditioning session.
- This session is ideal if you are short on time and want to get the most work done in little time.
Let’s get to the workout.
Warm-Up
Before we start, I want to remind you to never skip your warm-up!
It’s just as important as your actual workout.
Just to give you a few important facts on why you should warm-up:
- Increases blood flow
- Reduces chance of injury
- Increases range of motion
- Improves performance
I could go on and keep rambling about the importance of warming up but I already did that in a different article. (click below to learn more)
If you feel a little more stiffness in your body after a long day of work, use this warm-up routine:
Brutal 45 min Bodybuilding and Cardio Workout
Part A) Lower Body
3 x 8 Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat
200 x Banded Hamstring Curls
3 x 15 Banded Clamshells
Part B) Upper Body
3 x 6 Kettlebell High Pull
100 x Banded Lat Pull-Downs
3 x 6 Kettlebell Strict Press into Windmill
(only windmill is shown in video)
Part C) Cardio
50 x Inverted Row
100 x Dumbbell Front Squat
2 min Plank
(click on the links for movement demonstration)


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How to approach it?
Bodybuilding Session:
The bodybuilding part of this training session is broken up into upper and lower body blocks.
You will perform three exercises for each block.
The main goal is to focus on the quality of movement and stay honest with yourself to move throughout the whole range of motion.
The quality of your movement is much more important than the weight that you use.
The cardio workout:
This is a workout that you are doing for time.
To ensure that you get through the workout as fast as possible, I suggest you to break up the reps early and make sure to keep moving with little breaks.
The workout shouldn’t take you longer than 15min.
How to scale it?
In case you need to adjust the movement because of for example an injury, this is what I would suggest to you:
- Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat: you can either do the Dumbbell Split Squat or drop the weights and do a bodyweight Bulgarian Squat
- Banded Hamstring Curls: play around with band that have different resistance strengths to find the right one for you
- Banded Clamshells: play around with band that have different resistance strengths to find the right one for you
- Kettlebell High Pull: instead of a kettlebell, you can use a band and do a banded high pull
- Banded Lat Pull-Downs: play around with band that have different resistance strengths to find the right one for you
- Kettlebell Strict Press into Windmill: you can leave the windmill out and just perform a banded strict press
- Inverted Row: an option would be the dumbell bend over row
- Dumbbell Front Squat: an alternative would be a squat with the dumbbells on your side or a dumbbell goblet squat
- Plank: a way to scale the plank is either to plank on your hands, or go down on your knees
(click on the links for movement demonstration)
Cooldown
After a long workout like that make sure to have a proper cool-down to avoid injuries & give your body the time to recover:
If you enjoyed this Brutal 45 min Bodybuilding and Cardio Workout, you should definitely browse through some of the following and bookmark them for later:
AMRAP:
10 AMRAP Workouts To Improve Your Endurance
EMOM:
20 EMOM workouts to test your strength and conditioning
Bodyweight:
Top 10 toughest bodyweight CrossFit Workouts
20 Bodyweight Crossfit workouts to do anywhere
Top 10 toughest bodyweight CrossFit Workouts
Dumbbell Workouts:
Top 20 Dumbbell Crossfit Workouts to boost your endurance and strength
5 At-home Dumbbell workouts to get stronger and leaner
Happy Sweating!