20MIN Total Body METCON // Metabolic Conditioning

20 Min Total Body METCON // Metabolic Conditioning is a short but excellent and thorough total body strength workout from Heather Robertson. And as the title promises, it is very metabolic. Heather manages to work your entire body in only 20 minutes. She does this through compound strength exercises. Every exercise in this workout workouts multiple muscle groups. These types of exercises combined with interval training really spikes your heart rate. So you are building muscle while burning fat. This is the perfect workout to do when you’re short on time or combine with another workout as a finisher. I used this with another one of Heather’s total body strength workouts (Fusion Flow Day 3) which doesn’t work your muscles as well as this does. Adding this workout on made me feel like my entire body was well worked.

This workout has 2 circuits, each containing 5 exercises. Each circuit is done 2 times before you move on to the next circuit. The exercises are all done interval style: 45 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the lower right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Heather previews the next exercise.

20 Min Total Body METCON // Metabolic Conditioning is 25:42 minutes; 2:15 minute warm up and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather is using 5 and 10 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Circuit 1:

1. Squat & curl (stand with legs wide holding a DB in each hand in front of you, lower into squat and hold, do one hammer curl then stand) (16.5# DBs)
2. Renegade push ups (do one renegade row each arm + one tricep push up) (25# DBs)
3. Lunge & press (stationary lunges while also doing a single arm Arnold press) (one 16.5# DB)
4. Repeat #3 on other side of body
5. Weighted jacks (jumping jack the legs while doing a double arm overhead shoulder press with the arms) (5# DBs)
6. Repeat #1-5

30 second rest

Circuit 2:

1. Curtsy & lift (holding one DB in one hand, step back into curtsy/cross-back lunge and at top of lunge do a one single arm lateral raise) (one 9# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other side of body
3. Chest fly bicycle (lay on back and do chest flys while also bicycling legs) (18# DBs)
4. Deadlift & row (deadrows–hinge forward into deadlift, hold while doing a double arm back row) (30# DBs)
5. Stand up & hop (start in high kneeling on mat with hands clasped together in front of you, step forward into kneeling lunge with one foot, step the other foot forward so you are in squat, jump, land in squat and step one foot back into kneeling lunge then step other foot back so you are back in starting position of high kneeling, alternate lead leg)
6. Repeat #1-5

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