20 Min HIIT Dumbbell Workout is a total body metabolic weight training workout from Caroline Girvan. Though Caroline does hit every muscle in your body at some point, personally, I would not count this as my strength training workout. As the title indicates, this is a HIIT or high intensity interval training workout. Since you are using dumbbells, the reps are done at a fast pace to elevate the heart rate. This means you cannot use heavy dumbbells like you would normally use in one of Caroline’s workouts. I used this as more of a cardio conditioning workout. I got a great workout. It did feel intense to me but my FitBit reported that my heart rate never spiked into my peak heart zone. It remained in the cardio zone But I still got a great workout. I burned 175 calories.
This workout is done interval style: each exercise is done for 30 seconds followed by 15 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen, counting down the intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Caroline previews the next exercise. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage.
20 Min HIIT Dumbbell Workout is 26:01 minutes; 45 second intro, no warm up and 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 6kg/13 pound dumbbells. I also used 13 pound dumbbells for all of the exercises. Everything is done with 2 dumbbells unless I specify one dumbbell in breakdown below.
- Clean (bicep curls done to a brisk pace using momentum, you are using your legs to assist)
- Clean to squat (repeat #1 but when DBs are at shoulders at top of bicep curl, lower into a squat)
- Squat (hold DBs at shoulders)
- Press (overhead shoulder press w/ arms in goalpost)
- Squat to press (squat w/ DBs at shoulders and when standing do overhead press)
- Forward lunge
- Repeat #6 on other side of body
- Alternating bent over rows (done at a brisk pace)
- Push ups (Caroline’s hands/DBs are close together under body so more of a tricep push up)
- Alternating renegade rows
- Snatch to push up (squat, reaching DB toward floor, as you stand, pull DB up upright row fashion until you get to shoulder level then flip elbow so weight of DB is in palm and do an overhead press, when you squat again, place DB on floor, walk feet out to plank and do a push up) (one DB)
- Single arm clean to press (swing DB up to shoulder hammer curl style and into an overhead press) (one DB)
- Uneven squat (hold one DB at same side shoulder)
- Single arm squat to overhead press (one DB)
- Uneven lunge (static stationary lunges done at a brisk pace, hold one DB at shoulder, same side as front leg)
- Repeat #11-15 on other side of body
- Reverse lunge
- Repeat #18 on other leg
- Alternating reverse lunges
- Staggered RDL to curl to press (single leg deadlift, at top of deadlift do a single arm bicep curl into an overhead press) (one DB)
- Repeat #21 on other side of body
- Close squat to curl to press (narrow squat with DBs at sides of body, at top of squat do a bicep curl into an overhead press)
- Kneeling alt leg squat (start in high kneeling holding DBs at shoulders, step one foot forward into into kneeling lunge then step other foot forward so you are in squat then step back to high kneeling, alternate which leg steps forward first)
- RDL clean to squat (deadlift, at top of deadlift do a bicep curl, at top of bicep curl when DBs are at shoulders do a squat)
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
