No cardio or burpees — you just need 15 minutes and these 5 moves to build muscle

You might not want a workout that combines cardio with muscle-building exercises, so this is for those who love lifting weights and want to do just that. No burpees, jumping, or equipment requirements except for a set of medium to heavy dumbbells and some motivation.

As a personal trainer, I’m always looking for ways to challenge my clients and keep them engaged while focusing on the basics of building muscle, known as hypertrophy. These are: progressive overload (slowly increasing volume over time), consistency and recovery. On top of that, while I’m not a dietician or nutritionist, I will recommend a high-protein diet to support muscle growth.

This 15-minute dumbbell workout is a recent workout of mine that I created one evening when feeling restless at home. It is guaranteed to kick up a serious burn for your muscles, support muscle growth and help you reach your movement goals for the day. It is done standing, so no moving from high to low positions, which can be tricky if you have limited mobility.

What are the dumbbell exercises?

Grab a set of the best adjustable dumbbells (or similar) and give this a try.

1. Dumbbell Cossack squat

The Cossack squat tests mobility, balance, stability and lower-body strength. It works your core, hips, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves while improving your posture and leg power. Focus on keeping your upper body tall without leaning forward and drive through your bent leg to stand as you switch sides.

For those with tight ankles, don’t lower down as far and focus on keeping your heel flat on the ground; ankle mobility exercises can help you sit lower into the squat if this is a problem area for you.

• How to do the Cossack squat

2. Dumbbell step-ups

Step-ups are both functional and strengthening, improving your ability to push through your legs to stand up, mimicking hiking, climbing, or walking up the stairs. Focus on placing your foot flat on a raised box or bench, then driving through that leg to stand on the box. Step down with the opposite leg, then switch sides. The taller the box, the harder this exercise becomes.

• How to do step-ups

3. Dumbbell wide and narrow shoulder press

If you like to mix up your grips with narrow presses and wide presses, this is your chance to incorporate both. The wide press targets more of your medial deltoids (shoulders), whereas the narrow grip hits more of the front delts and triceps; some find this easier for heavier loads, but it uses less range of motion overall.

Keep your press strict, which means using your core and upper body to drive the weights rather than your legs.

• How to overhead press

4. Dumbbell bentover row

Bentover rows use a pulling motion to hit the back and biceps. You can use a wide grip to hit more of the mid and upper back and trapezius muscles, but for this workout, aim to keep your elbows tucked and adopt a narrow grip, which hits more of your latissimus dorsi — the large, wide flank of muscle that sits like a V-shape on the back and aids movement like swimming, pulling and breathing.

Using dumbbells will help you focus evenly on your left and right sides, rather than one side taking over to initiate the pull.

• How to do the bentover row

5. Dumbbell squat press

The squat press combines upper and lower body strength work, making it a full-body exercise. You’ll squat, working your hips, glutes, quads and hamstrings, then drive the weights overhead, working your chest, triceps, core and shoulders.

Focus on shelving the weights at your shoulders and driving through your legs and core to bring the weights overhead and keep your arms close to your body as you press the dumbbells. This is about balance and stability, too, so try not to rush your reps and ensure you get good depth on your squats and a full press out during the overhead push.

What is the dumbbell workout?

It's simple. Start with 20 reps of each exercise (unbroken if you can, or two sets of 10), then drop to 18 reps, then 16 and so on, until you reach 0. As the reps get smaller, try to go unbroken. You need to choose weights that allow you to break into two sets at most; if you need any more rest, you're lifting too heavy.

Set a 15-minute timer and see if you can finish, then either reduce the timer or increase the weights if you do. If you don't, think about lighter weights or extending your time cap.

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