20 Minute Christmas Strength & Cardio Workout with Dumbbells

20 Minute Christmas Strength & Cardio Workout with Dumbbells is the workout Caroline Girvan uploaded in December 2021 for her followers to do on Christmas. It is an intense workout. There are no cardio moves in this workout. However it is very metabolic so you are getting cardio with your strength work. Pretty much every exercise is done at a brisk pace so your heart rate will definitely get elevated. By the end of the workout I quit reaching for my heavier dumbbells. Caroline’s chair is present in this workout but she doesn’t use it for any exercises. It is for Winston, her adorable beagle! He is present at the beginning of the workout then shows up again for the stretch. In fact, he does just what my dog Ginger does–as soon as I am lying on my back on the mat, she comes over to lick my face. Caroline is also wearing a super cute holiday hat during the intro.

This workout is done interval style. The exercises are done for 45 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen counting down your 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.

I have really been looking forward to doing this workout ever since Caroline uploaded it and it did not disappoint. It was a lot of fun, very intense and worked me well. According to my Fitbit I burned 198 calories. Because this workout is just under 26 minutes, I paired it with one of Caroline’s other total body metabolic strength workouts that she uploaded in December: 20 Minute Dumbbell Full Body Workout | Strength + Cardio. Between the two workouts I got an excellent and intense total body strength workout this morning.

20 Minute Christmas Strength & Cardio Workout with Dumbbells is 25:53 minutes; one minute intro, no warm up and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Caroline is using 9kg/19.8 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Squat (DBs are held at shoulders) (25# DBs)
2. Shoulder press (arms in goalpost) (18# DBs)
3. Squat then press (squat with DBs held in front of you under chin, palms facing you, when you stand do an overhead press) (16.5# DBs)
4. Squat to RDL (alternate one squat with one Romanian deadlift) (25# DBs)
5. RDL (deadlift) (35# DBs)
6. 1/2 rep RDL (lower to bottom of deadlift but only raise halfway) (25# DBs)
7. Bent over double arm rows (30# DBs)
8. Supine row (double arm bent over row with palms facing forward) (25# DBs)
9. Staggered squat to press (single leg squat w/ non-working leg is in kickstand with DB held at shoulder and a single arm overhead press when standing) (one 16.5# DB)
10. Repeat #9 on other side of body
11. 1/2 rep staggered squat (single leg squat w/ non-working leg in kickstand, lower to bottom of squat but only raise halfway) (one 25# DB)
12. Repeat #11 on other side of  body
13. Single arm overhead press (one 16.5# DB)
14. Repeat #13 on other arm
15. Static/stationary lunge (16.5# DBs)
16. Repeat #15 on other side of body
17. Lunge to staggered RDL (one reverse lunge + one single leg deadlift w/ back/non-working leg in kickstand) (one 20# DB)
18. Repeat #17 on other side of body
19. Alternating renegade rows (25# DBs)
20. Push ups
21. Renegade row to push up (one row each arm + one tricep push up) (25# DBs)
22. Squat to press (squat w/ DBs at shoulders with an overhead press when standing) (15# DBs)

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