20-Minute Dumbbell Workout for All Levels beginners/advanced

A dumbbell, four moves, and 20 minutes are all you need for a total body workout.

Whether you're looking to dust off that epidemic shopping dumbbell that's been serving as a doorstop all winter or just need a quick fire, there's a minimal workout you can do in under 30 minutes. Will look inside and outside the gym, you're in the right place again.

This 20-minute, total-body muscle builder requires only a dumbbell (or kettlebell) but promises to tone everything from your shoulders to your lats to your legs and core. will work.

After a thorough warm-up, start a 20-minute countdown timer and work through as many high-quality rounds of the following four-move, full-body burners as you can. If your weight is a little on the lighter side, crank up the reps, but focus on keeping your form sharp and only resting as necessary to keep your reps hard.

Note how many rounds you manage to complete at the buzzer and aim to beat your score the next time you repeat the exercise to ensure progressive overload and serious gains in mass. Increase the chances of seeing.

1. Press x 5 (each side)

Clean your dumbbells over your shoulders, palms facing in. Take a breath and tighten your core. (A) Bend at the knees and use your legs for support (B) Press your dumbbells overhead. Control your shoulder and repeat. Perform five reps on your weaker side before repeating with the opposite arm.

2. Single arm row x 10 (each side)

Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in your left arm, assume a staggered stance, and engage the hips until your arm is fully suspended. Squeeze your opposite arm to create tension in your body (A). Keeping your torso still and avoiding excessive movement, bring your bell toward your hip (B). Pause briefly, then control the weight until your arm is straight. Perform 10 reps and then switch sides.

3. Goblet squats x 15

Hold your bell close to your chest (A). Bend your hips back and lower into a squat (B). Your elbows should come down between your knees. Run backups explosively. Repeat. Keep your shoulder blades down and back and focus on keeping your torso tall and straight.

4. Sumo Deadlift x 20

Lower your dumbbells to the ground between your legs, take a wide stance, and lower your back straight into a squat. Keeping the dumbbell upright, grab it with both hands by the 'head', or handle if using a kettlebell (A). Keeping your chest up and core engaged, push off the floor, walking backward to a standing position (B). Repeat. It will start to burn here, but push through as much as possible.

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With nearly 18 years in the health and wellness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach, and author, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring what helps people heal their bodies and minds. How to help improve

As our fitness editor, he prides himself on keeping men's health at the forefront of trusted, relevant, and reliable fitness information, whether by writing and reviewing thousands of workouts each year, building muscle, or burning fat. By taking a deep dive into the science behind the reduction. Or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.

Constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is as passionate about practice as he is about theory and has run everything from Crossfit and Strongman competitions to ultramarathons, multiple 24-hour exercise phases, and more. regularly tests his training to deal with (Very Unofficial) World Record Attempts.

Transform your abs and arms with this 20-minute workout.

Transform your abs and arms with this workout Horst owns.

I'm always looking for new exercise moves that hit multiple muscles. Top of my wish list is a time-saving arm and abs workout. This type of double whammy sash is not only functional but also beneficial for the body and mind.

Combining arm and abs exercises is actually easier than you think. "Each resistance arm movement requires us to stabilize our body by squeezing our core muscles, so the arms and abs come together," says Steph Korgel, CSCS, a certified strength and conditioning coach. Coach and Hyperice Performance Expert says. "When we train our abs and arms, we prepare the body to rotate, bend and twist in different planes while protecting the spine," she explains.

Meet the experts: Betina Gozo Shimonek is a certified functional strength coach, corrective exercise specialist, and Nike Global Trainer. Stef Corgel, CSCS, is a certified strength and conditioning coach and Hyperice Performance Specialist.

Not to mention, your abs are involved in almost every movement because energy travels through the core, says Corgel. "The stability provided by your strong core allows you to push, pull, bend, bend, bend, and plank while supporting your spine and limbs," she explains. It also adds a mental challenge.

Lucky for you, though, you only need a set of dumbbells to get started with this arm and abs workout (or just stick to bodyweight if you don't have any weights readily available. can). This exercise is perfect for beginners, but you can make it more advanced with heavier weights, says Bettina Gozo Shimonek, certified functional strength coach and Nike Global Trainer. Not only will you build a lot of strength during this arm and abs workout, but you're also going to get your heart pumping and break a big sweat, she says.

Time: 20 minutes | Equipment: Dumbbells or body weight Good for Upper body, core

Directions: Choose six moves and complete the reps as indicated, then immediately continue to the next exercise. Once you've completed all the moves, repeat the set twice for a total of three rounds.

Pro tip: To build strength, Gozo recommends doing this routine once or twice a week, alternating with a lower-body workout and warming up with some dynamic stretches.

A glute bridge works your glute muscles (mostly the gluteus maximus) and stretches the hip flexors, but you can also experiment with taking your heels further apart to create more tension in your hamstrings.

Five minutes after the leg workout, Herria switches things up with an isometric exercise called a wall sit (learn how to do a wall sit properly here), which means flexing the muscles without holding them tight. or be extended. The exercise strengthens the quads, so focus on squeezing your core muscles and squeezing your heels.

I love how varied the routine is, using holds and plyometrics (explosive movements like lunge jumps) to evenly target the muscles and torch your legs. In 20 minutes, you'll get the same burn as a 45-minute HIIT class. Plyometric training helps build strength and speed and fatigues the legs faster, and research has shown that it can improve jump and power performance in the lower body.

Decision

Leg exercises are heavy on the lungs, so avoid jumping jacks if you have hip, knee, or ankle injuries, and switch to squats if necessary. The intensity of this short workout is achieved with very little rest, so I recommend stopping the video if you're a beginner and need more time to recover.

Expect to work in all planes (directions) of motion, such as side to side, forward, and back, helping to target different muscle groups that are activated in different ways. Take the lesser-known gluteus medius (outer glutes) – they're turned on by sideways movement and hip abduction.

Building strength and stimulating muscle growth come from consistency and variety. This leg workout has different features, but consistency requires time and commitment. Mastering this exercise can help you build a stronger core and lower body and improve overall strength and mobility.

While calisthenics exercises may be kinder on the joints and more accessible to beginners, remember to always work at your current strength level and scale any sets, reps, or breaks to your ability. Bodyweight training can still be intense, but always try to go through a full range of motion, which means working your body all the way through an exercise. For example, get maximum depth in a squat without losing form.

Herria is famous for its calisthenics programs. The term "calisthenics" covers everything from bodyweight strength training exercises like squats and lunges to advanced gymnastics skills like pull-ups or planches. This 20-minute leg workout is accessible to everyone—no handstands or floating limbs in sight.

Check out Chris Herria's 20-minute home leg workout video

It's worth a reminder that a 20-minute leg-stand workout won't provide muscle definition to rival a bodybuilder's. Body composition is determined by a combination of lean muscle mass and low body fat percentage — you can learn how to calculate your body fat percentage and why it matters here.

But try adopting a progressive overload technique—gradually increasing the weight, reps, or sets to achieve muscle growth—which will help you build and strengthen your muscles.

As we mentioned, the workout uses compound exercises to target all of the leg muscles, including your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. By eliminating rest time, Herria says you can accomplish in 20 minutes what it takes gym-goers an hour to do. You will work for 45 seconds and rest for only 15. By focusing on form rather than reps, you can get more out of each exercise—quality over quantity.

Herria provides tips and hints throughout, so follow carefully.

The 20 exercises combine traditional strength, explosive strength, and mobility exercises. During the first movement—frog squats, which stress your hamstrings—try to start slow if you have limited lower-body flexibility or a stiff lower back. Try this bottom every day if that sounds like you.

During each 45-second working set, aim for at least 8-10 reps per exercise, especially when working on unilateral moves like Bulgarian split squats (see what happened when our author did this for a week 50 Bulgarian Split Squats Every Day and How to Do Them Here). Doing so will help provide consistency. Split squats involve raising one leg behind you on the surface, testing your core strength and balance.

If Forget Using Dumbbells - This 20-Minute Leg Workout Strengthens Your Glutes, Quads, and Hamstrings

I love working out with kettlebells, barbells, and dumbbells, but this 20-minute leg workout builds strength and muscle in your quads, glutes, and hamstrings without weight. If you want to train at home using your own body weight, this home leg workout is 20 minutes well spent?

Chris Herria, the creator of the calisthenics app Thanx, created this 20-minute home leg workout to help you build muscle with just your body weight and doesn't require a gym or weights. If you want to add resistance to your muscles, we recommend the best adjustable dumbbells for weightlifting at home to spice things up.

That said, calisthenics training is a great way to build strength, muscle, and coordination using functional bodyweight strength training like squats and lunges. And with over 3.7 million views already, this big burn leg workout is guaranteed to strengthen your lower body and work your quads, hamstrings, and glute muscles hard.