10 Minute Dumbbell Chest Workout at Home is one of Caroline Girvan‘s early workouts, created in May 2020 (so during the pandemic lockdowns). During the intro, Caroline explains that she is creating this workout for people who may not have the same equipment they have at the gym (e.g. weight bench and heavy dumbbells). She uses a long container covered with a blanket for her weight bench and, rather than doing fewer reps with heavy dumbbells, you do more sets of chest press with lighter dumbbells. She then breaks down the entire workout, explaining each exercise that will be performed in the workout. Since I watched her intro when previewing this workout I just skipped over it to get straight to the work.
This is an excellent little chest workout to add onto the end of another workout, which is what I did this morning. The intervals are short and she gives you 30 seconds of recovery between each interval. This enabled me to continue lifting heavier dumbbells for my chest presses. I have only recently increased my chest press weight to 25 pounds so I had my 22.5 pound dumbbells on standby just in case by the end of the workout I had to drop to something lighter. And my chest and arms were burning near the end–especially after decline push ups and decline press. But the 30 second rests made it possible for me to stick with the 25s throughout. I did use a lighter weight than I normally use for the pull overs but that is because I had just finished a full length back and bicep workout with 4 sets of pullovers in which I used a heavier weight. So my back muscles were already fried from that.
***I returned to this workout on May 1, 2023 and lifted heavier dumbbells; so I am updating my weights below.***
10 Minute Dumbbell Chest Workout at Home is 12:16 minutes; 2:20 minute intro, no warm up or stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair and a bench or step. Caroline is using 12.5kg/27.5 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. This workout is done interval style. Each exercise is done for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen counting down the intervals and recoveries. During the recovery, Caroline previews the next exercise.
- Chest press (laying on bench or step) (25# DBs) (05/01/23 32.5# DBs)
- Standing horizontal press (hold one DB in both hands at chest level, push DB straight in front of you then pull it back to chest) (one 18# DB) (05/01/23 one 20# DB)
- Repeat #1 (05/01/23 32.5# DBs)
- Frontal cross body raise (stand holding one DB in each hand, keeping elbows slightly bent, raise one DB in front of you and on a diagonal (i.e. across the body), alternate arms) (12# DBs)
- Repeat #1 (05/01/23 32.5# DBs)
- Decline push ups (feet on chair behind you and hands on floor)
- Repeat #1 (05/01/23 32.5# DBs)
- Decline press (chest press, lay on floor w/ knees bent and feet on floor, raise hips into bridge and hold isometrically while doing chest press) (25# DBs) (05/01/23 30# DBs)
- Repeat #1 (05/01/23 32.5# DBs)
- Pullover (laying on bench or step) (one 30# DB) (05/01/23 one 35# DB)
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
