Club Benefits
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You don’t always need the heaviest weights to build strength or bulk up on muscle. In fact, there are several ways to build muscle without lifting heavier weights, and volume training is one of them.
Strengthen muscles from head to toe using this simple three-move chipper workout, using a set of the best adjustable dumbbells and your bodyweight. I’ve tried and tested this workout for myself, and trust me, it’s killer. Get ready for some trembling muscles post-session, and a serious test of cardiovascular engine endurance and prowess.
Here’s the workout in full, the benefits, and how to do it.
What is the 3-move dumbbell and bodyweight ‘chipper’ workout?
Combine overloading your muscles with weights and the functional benefits of exercising with your bodyweight to power through this routine.
Bodyweight exercise is a fantastic way to strengthen your joints, muscles, ligaments, and bones using natural movement patterns and full range of motion, so there’s always a reason to combine the two.
Here are the movements:
1. Dumbbell thrusters
Thrusters combine a squat with an overhead press, which requires core strength and stability to control and drive the weights as you press upward and lower them to your shoulders again. Besides, it's a full-body exercise, which makes it efficient, too.
Keep your chest proud and try to find as much depth as you can in your squat, aiming for the thighs to be at least parallel to the floor. Engage your core; even though the thruster isn’t an obvious core exercise, you’ll work these muscles hard.
Here’s how to do dumbbell thrusters step-by-step if you’re new to them, and I recommend checking out the video above.
2. V-ups
Ah, one of the most humbling abs exercises around: V-ups. This CrossFit staple will have you performing leg raises, toes-to-bar, and other bar-based exercises with better form, endurance, and core strength.
As you draw your hands and toes to touch, remember to lift your upper back away from the floor — think about the V-shape you’re creating with your body. Using correct form, this core exercise targets the deeper, stabilizing muscles around your lower abdomen and bulletproofs your midsection.
Check out the video above, and learn how to do V-ups step-by-step. In the video, I demonstrate how to do the alternating version, which is more accessible for beginners.
3. Dumbbell squat clean
Last but not least, the squat clean. This dumbbell exercise combines a hang clean and a dumbbell front rack squat. Use snappy hips, a strong core, and a glute squeeze to propel the dumbbells onto your shoulders, then immediately lower into a deep squat with your elbows lifted and chest proud.
Remember to clean the weights from either side of your outer thighs rather than between the legs, just for this variation. That means starting with feet roughly hip-width apart.
Here’s how to do the squat clean step-by-step.
The workout:
A chipper is a workout that uses high reps and volume to overload your body. You can break up the movements and reps however you like, giving you plenty of freedom to explore your limits during the workout.
Another benefit is that you can push hard without reaching full fatigue, allowing you to move into the next exercise before you hit failure.
You could aim for the same number of reps per exercise per round, or opt for the dropset protocol, starting with a higher number of reps, then decreasing as you go.
Work back and forth until you finish all reps. I recommend a 30-minute time cap as a starting point, but this will depend on your fitness level and exercise experience; you can shorten or increase the time cap as necessary.
Personally, I opted to start high and drop reps every round, which helped me find a rhythm and eliminate some of the math from the routine — an area that’s not my strong point.
However, if you can still count while dripping in sweat and panting through the reps, aim for whatever you like.
Verdict
Before writing this workout, I tested it. And boy, were my muscles trembling afterward. As is the goal with chipper workouts, the routine kills with volume, meaning you must stay on top of your form and move frequently between exercises, taking breaks where necessary.
Like going too fast too soon at the start of a marathon, it’s incredibly difficult to come back from full muscular fatigue when lifting weights. Instead, aim to reach a point where the last few reps of each set become a struggle, then move on.
Never reach full exhaustion, and choose a weight you can stick with rather than the usual 8/10 weight selection. By that, I mean how heavy something feels out of 10.
Remember, you have a staggering 250 reps to get through in total, which means opting for a lighter weight that allows you to clock those reps up without resting too often.
Although a bodyweight exercise, the V-ups are the secret weapon, despite the workout being squat-heavy. If you feel the exercise loading your lower back rather than your core muscles, try alternating arm and leg instead.
More from Tom's Guide
- You don't need planks to build a stronger core, just this 4-move bodyweight abs workout
- Forget the gym — this Pilates workout sculpts strong legs in 10 minutes
- Skip the gym — you don’t need any equipment for this 10-minute abs workout
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