15 Minute Dumbbell Workout

If you’re short on time, then you need your workouts to be short, sharp and effective. Here’s a dumbbell workout that will work your whole body in just 15 minutes. Use it as your standard training session or use it as your Plan B when you don’t have enough time for your normal, longer workout.

The Exercises

Squat Thrusts

Muscles Worked: Quadriceps, Deltoids

1. Stand with your feet hip width apart and a pair of dumbbells held at shoulder level with palms facing forward.

2. Squat down to parallel.

3. Push through your heels to return to the start position.

4. Push the dumbbells directly up to full arm extension.

5. Lower your arms back to your shoulders. 

Renegade Row / Push Up

Muscles Worked: Latissimus Dorsi, Deltoids

1. Get down in the top position of a push-up with a pair of dumbbells in your hands resting on the floor.

2. Perform a push-up.

3. Row your right arm up to your rib cage.

4. Lower the dumbbell back to the floor.

5. Do another push-up

6. Row your left arm up to your rib cage.

Floor Press

Muscles Worked: Pectorals, Front Deltoids, Triceps

1. Get down on the floor on your butt with a pair of dumbbells in your hands and your knees bent.

2. Lie back on the floor and bring the dumbbells up to full arm extension above your mid-chest with palms facing forward and the dumbbells touching.

3. Lower the dumbbells by bringing your arms out and down until your triceps are resting on the floor.

4. Push back up to the start position, bring the dumbbells together above your mid-chest. 
   

Alternate Dumbbell Curl

Muscles Worked: Biceps

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and pair of dumbbells held in your hands at your sides with palms facing forward.

2. Curl your right arm up to your shoulder level, squeezing the bicep tightly in the top contracted position.

3. Lower your right arm to the start position, simultaneously curling your left arm up to full contraction.

4. Continue in this alternating manner to complete your reps count.

Overhead Triceps Extension

Muscle Worked: Triceps

1. Sit on a bench or chair with a dumbbell held by its end in both hands.

2. Lift the dumbbell up to full arm extension above your head, keeping your elbows in at the sides of your head.

3. Lower the dumbbell behind your head to fully extend the triceps.

4. Push back to full arm extension.

The Workout

Perform this 5 exercise dumbbell workout as a circuit where you move directly from one to the next without any rest. Do 10 reps of each exercise. Once you have completed a round of 5 exercises, work for just as long as you need before moving into your second round. Your goal is to get through 5 rounds of this workout within 15 minutes. However, don’t rush or compromise your form in order to do so. 

If you are doing this workout as your standard program, perform it 3 times per week. Once you can comfortably get through 5 rounds of the circuit, add a little bit of weight to the dumbbell.