You may think countless hours of sweating in the gym is required if you’re looking to pack on muscle, but it isn’t. All you need are some basic movement patterns to help you hit every muscle group and the willingness to push yourself hard enough. This six-move dumbbell workout is designed to maximise results in just 30 minutes, attacking your arms, shoulders, chest, legs, glutes and abs. Just head on over to the dumbbell rack (or you could even pick up a kettlebell) and get ready to crush this muscle-pumping workout.
When it comes to building muscle, most people tend to think split-body part workouts focusing on the upper and lower body are superior to full-body, but research indicates this isn’t necessarily true. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that regular full-body workouts can result in the same muscle growth as, (or in this study’s case better), than upper/lower split routines. Muscle strength was also found to be similar in both workout types.
As hypertrophy is the aim here, this workout focuses on lots of volume, so you’ll feel the burn but also be left with a wicked pump afterward. Work your way through the list below, performing three rounds of each exercise. Rest between 60-120 seconds between each round then, once you’ve completed three sets of an entire exercise, rest for two minutes before moving onto the next one. Here’s the workout:
- Overhead press 3 x 8 reps
- Split squat 3 x 10-20 reps
- Single-arm row 3 x 10-15
- Push-up 3 x 10-20
- Pullovers 3 x 8-15
- Ab knee tucks 3 x 10-20
Looking for more full-body workouts to add to your weekly training plan? This 20-minute Arnold Schwarzenegger workout (as you can imagine) will blow up your biceps and leave your legs like jelly. Alternatively, if you have more time on your hands and fancy some split workouts, here's a brilliant upper-body dumbbell workout and a lower-body workout, so you can hit your muscle groups separately.
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