Welcome to the simple and effective 20 min Dumbbell Workout.
Next to a pair of kettlebells, at least a pair of dumbbells should be found in your home gym.
If you wondering why I am so fond of dumbbells as a training tool, make sure to give the following article a read which goes in-depth on the benefits of dumbbell training and gives you some guidance on what type of dumbbells to use.
What can you expect from this workout?
- The whole duration is around 35 minutes including a proper warm-up and cool-down.
- You will perform a combination of dumbbell and bodyweight exercises.
- The session might look easy on paper, but you are in for quite a surprise.
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 the 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)
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If you feel a little more stiffness in your body after a long day of work, use this warm-up routine:
Simple and Effective 20 min Dumbbell Workout
6 rounds for time:
9 x Dumbbell Clean & Jerk
9 x Burpee
45 x Jumping Jacks
(click on the links for movement demonstration)
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How to approach it?
Before you start the workout, make sure to give the dumbbell clean and jerk a few tries to figure out what weight you can use.
The weight should be challenging but at the same time, you should be able to perform three reps unbroken for the complete six rounds of the workout.
As far as strategy goes, push the pace from the very beginning and use the jumping jacks as a time to catch your breath and recover a little bit.
This will help you to stay consistent throughout the rounds and keep the rest to a minimum.
If you do need a break, make sure to do it between the rounds and not between the exercises.
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How to scale it?
Before scaling the movement, always reduce the number of reps first if it’s too much volume for you.
In case you need to adjust the movement because of for example an injury, this is what I would suggest to you:
- Dumbbell Clean & Jerk: an option is to break the movement apart into a clean and press after doing a little break in between
- Burpee: If regular burpees are too much for you, you can opt for the “no push-up” burpee.
- Jumping Jacks: if you are struggling with this movement, you can either reduce the range of motion or do a variation of the high knees to get your heart rate up
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Cooldown
After an intense workout like that make sure to have a proper cool-down to avoid injuries & give your body time to recover:
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