Whether you are working out at home, in a hotel gym, or your regular spot this is a great workout that will challenge your full body, build your work capacity and keep you strong.
By doing all the exercises on one side of your body at a time, it will allow you to keep moving with less rest, so your heart rate will stay up and you’ll be getting the most out of every second of your quick workout.
The workout can be super quick and done in as little as 8 minutes or you can extend it out to as long as 20 minutes if you’ve got the time and want to put in more work.
Scroll down to watch a video of the exercises and the full outline.
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Equipment Needed:
All you need is one dumbbell. So grab that dusty friend that’s been hiding in the closet and you’ve got yourself a workout plan. A kettlebell will work equally as well if you don’t have a dumbbell.
The Exercises:
Every exercise in this plan is a unilateral exercise meaning it focuses on one side at a time. But don’t let that fool you. Even though you will be performing all of the exercises on side at a time, both sides of your body are always working to keep you balanced and upright throughout the entire workout.
Reverse Lunge
You’ll start with the reverse lunge exercise. For this particular workout, I recommend holding your dumbbell on the same side as the leg that is stepping back. This places the weight farther away from the leg that is doing the most work and creates more challenge to keep your torso upright. Single Arm
Single Arm Overhead Press
The second exercise is the overhead press. Curl the weight up in front of your shoulder so that the dumbbell and wrist are stacked over the elbow and the dumbbell is not resting on top of your shoulder. Brace your midsection tight like you’re pulling your ribs down and press the dumbbell all the way over your head. You can adjust the dumbbell out to the side of your shoulder with palm facing forward if that feels better for you.
Single Arm Bent Over Row
After the overhead press return the weight back to your side. Bend over from the hips keeping your core tight and back flat so that your torso is about 20-30 degrees above parallel with the floor. Hold this position and pull the weight up to the side of your torso between your pants pocket and the ribs so that you pull the shoulder blade back. Keep your abs tight and maintain your torso position as you lower the weight and complete the movement.
Suitcase March
Finally stand upright again after the row for the suitcase march. Reset your midsection so you pull the ribs down and your waist band up with your abs. It should feel like those two points get about a half an inch closer together. Keeping the weight at your side begin to march slowly pulling your knees as high as you can and maintaining your posture upright and side to side.
Sets and Repetitions:
The repetitions for this workout can vary a lot depending on what weights of dumbbells you have available. If you’re able to pick any weight you want, I recommend sticking with 8-12 repetitions for each exercise for the first 3 exercises and 20 steps for the suitcase march.
If you only have a weight that is light for you then you can increase the repetitions to a 15-20 range for all of the exercises.
But if you’re really not into counting repetitions and would prefer to zone out a bit, set a timer for 20-30 second rounds and change exercises each time it beeps. This is a great way to time your rest periods between sides as well if you choose to take any.
Alternate doing all the exercises on one side of your body before switching to the other so that you complete 2-5 full sets of each exercise per side.
The Workout:
Wrapping it all up:
This is one of those workouts that’s super simple, gets a lot of work done in a short period of time, and leaves you feeling better than when you started.
You can write it down on a business card or just keep it stashed away in your head for the next time you are traveling, lacking in equipment, or short on time and need to get a workout done.
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