Full Body Strength Workout with Dumbbells

Full Body Strength Workout with Dumbbells is a very nicely done total body strength workout from Heather Robertson. I really liked the pacing of this workout, too. You can challenge yourself with heavier weights for many of the exercises. If you pay close attention to Heather when she does the exercises, and try to imitate what she does, you will get more out of the workout. For example, in the upper body circuit, during the underhand row, she rows up then holds the dumbbells briefly at the top of the row before lowering the dumbbells slowly. You will get a lot more out of the exercise when doing it slow and controlled. Though I did say this was total body, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that chest is neglected and it is a major muscle group. But it is not completely neglected. During the core circuit you do plank holds and a plank is a total body exercise that gives your chest some work. If you do a lot of Heather Robertson workouts like I do, then you are not actually neglecting the chest. She includes lots of push ups in most of her workouts so one workout minus push ups is not a big deal!

Full Body Strength Workout with Dumbbells is 45:52 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather is using 10, 15 and 25 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. This workout is made up of 3 circuits, a lower body circuit, an upper body circuit and a core circuit. The exercises are done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the lower right hand corner of the screen counting down the intervals and recoveries. Heather previews the next exercise during the recoveries.

Lower Body Circuit:

1. Goblet squat (one 40# DB)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Stiff leg deadlift (35# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Walking lunges (lunge walk 2 steps forward then turn around and walk lunge 2 steps back to start) (15# DBs)
6. Repeat #5 two more times
7. Double pulse sumo (pulse 2x at the bottom of each sumo squat) (one 45# DB)
8. Repeat #7 two more times

40 second recovery

Upper Body Circuit:

1. Curl & press (bicep curl into overhead press) (15# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Underhand row (20# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Skull crushers (10# DBs)
6. Repeat #5 two more times
7. Front & side raise (alternate straight arm front raise with straight arm side raise) (5# DBs)
8. Repeat #7 two more times

40 second recovery

Core Circuit:

1. Weighted crunch (hold one DB in both hands at chest just under chin and do basic crunches) (one 10# DB)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Reverse crunch (lay on back holding one DB in both hands raised to ceiling, arms are held isometrically in this position throughout, legs are extended out straight a few inches off the ground, pull knees into chest and do a reverse crunch, pushing legs to ceiling and feet over DB then push legs back out to starting position) (one 10# DB)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Russian twist (one 8# DB)
6. Repeat #5 two more times
7. Hold plank (hold forearm plank for the entire interval)
8. Repeat #7 two more times

For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.