Welcome to the Men’s Health Dumbbell Club, your new weekly plan for a fitter, stronger body, using just two dumbbells.
Click here to head back and check out previous weeks or simply get stuck in to our latest offering and follow the programme from here.
New This Week…
Following directly on from our density conditioning blocks based sessions, over the next two weeks we’ll be moving into a ‘repeat and beat’ phase, where we’ll be repeating workouts from past weeks, aiming to smash our previous rep scores. The point of this is to ensure we're progressively overloading which will lead to strength gains and muscle growth. So, we're heading back to week 17.
Each workout for the next two weeks will consist of a single 30-minute blocks, all ‘repeats’ from weeks 17 and 18. Your goal is to make your way through as many high quality rounds as possible, resting only as necessary to catch your breath and keep your form sharp, aiming to beat your previously scored reps and rounds, ensuring progress.
If this is your first week in the club, or you didn’t record your scores previously, simply perform as many high quality reps as you can across the 30 minute window.
Every workout is designed to hit your full-body, targeting your chest, back, shoulders, quads and hamstrings across the week, while also pumping up those arms and delivering a lung-scorching conditioning effect that’s sure build fitness and burn calories.
If your goal is to shed some body fat, then this is the perfect phase for you. When combined with a smart, sustainable eating plan that ensures your body is in a calorie deficit over the course of each week, whilst also providing you with enough energy to smash yours training sessions, you’re sure to begin dropping fat while preserving lean muscle and building fitness.
Coach’s tip: Use a pen and paper to track your workouts and try to avoid Instagram doomscrolling between sets. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, staying mindful of your breath and focussed on the reps ahead will help you to optimise your rest, and ultimately— maximise your gains
Day One (W19/D1)
After a thorough warm-up set a countdown timer for 30 minutes and work your way through as many high-quality rounds of the following circuit as possible, resting as necessary to keep your form on point, but aiming to beat your reps and rounds from Week 17.
1. Floor (or Bench) Press x 10-15
Lay flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Press the weights above you, locking out your elbows (A). Lower them slowly until your upper arms are resting on the floor (B), close to your body, pause here before explosively pressing back up. If you have a bench, use it.
2. Bent-Over Row x 10- 15
After your final floor press, stand tall with your dumbbells at your sides. Hinge forward until your torso is almost parallel to the ground and allow the dumbbells to hang just below your knees (A). Maintaining a flat back, row both dumbbells towards your hips (B), squeeze your shoulder blades together and lower under control to the start before repeating.
3. Front Squat x 10-15
Clean your dumbbells onto the front of your shoulders (A). From here, drop into a front squat, by pushing your hips back and bending at the knees until your thighs pass parallel to the ground (B), before driving back up explosively. Keep those dumbbells secured high, with a strong, upright torso throughout.
4. Split Squat Jump x 20
Step one foot backward and sink into a deep lunge, with your rear knee lightly touching the floor (A). Explode upward, jumping into the air and switching legs mid jump (B) to land in a lunge position with the opposite leg forward. Repeat the movement, alternating legs each rep. Keep this movement as fast paced as possible, focussing on maximising the height of each jump.
Day Two (W19/D2)
As with day one, perform a thorough warm-up, set a countdown timer for 30 minutes and work your way through as many high-quality rounds of the following circuit as possible, resting as necessary to keep your form on point, but aiming to beat your reps and rounds from Week 17.
1. Push Press x 8-12
Clean your dumbbells onto your shoulders, palms facing in. Take a breath and create tension in your core. (A) Dip at the knees and use your legs to help (B) press your dumbbells overhead. Lower with a controlled tempo to your shoulders and repeat. If your weights feel a little too light, don’t use any drive from the legs and focus on a strict press from the shoulders.
2. High Pull x 8-12
Stand tall with your dumbbells at your waist, in front of your body. (A) Keeping your core tight, hinge forward slightly before explosively standing back upright and pulling the dumbbells up towards your chin, driving your elbows up and back (B). Slowly lower back down to your waist under complete control. Avoid simply ‘dropping’ your dumbbells back to your waist to build more muscle and avoid injury. If your dumbbells feel light, avoid the help from your hips and simply stand tall and pull the weights up to your chin.
3. Dumbbell Deadlift x 15-20
With your dumbbells on the floor just outside of your feet, hinge down and grip them with a flat back and neutral spine (A). Engage your lats and stand upright, pushing the ground away with your feet, keeping your chest up and your black flat throughout (B). Lower them back to the ground in a hinging motion and repeat. Avoid excessive rounding in your lower back, keeping your form tight throughout. Don’t rush, in a race to build muscle, slower and steady wins.
4. Jump Squats x 20
Lean slightly forward as you squat (A), then explode up, jumping as high as you can (B). Cushion your landing with bent legs, then sink immediately back into another squat and repeat. Aim for the maximum possible height you can achieve on each and every rep, even if that means pausing for a quick breath. We’re looking to produce power here, not simply go through the motions.
Day Three (W19/D3)
As with days one and two, perform a thorough warm-up, set a countdown timer for 30 minutes and work your way through as many high-quality rounds of the following circuit as possible, resting as necessary to keep your form on point, but aiming to beat your reps and rounds from Week 17.
1. Press-Up on Dumbbells x 10-15
After your final press drop your bells and assume a long-arm plank position. With your core tight and hands below your shoulders stacked on top of your dumbbells (A), bend your elbows to bring your chest to the floor (B). Keep your elbows close to your body as you push back up explosively.
2. Renegade Row x 10-12 (each side/ 20-24 total)
15 press-ups in the book, keep your hands on your bells and midline tight (A). Shifting your weight onto your left hand, row the right dumbbell towards your hip (B). Pause briefly, then lower the weight under control. Repeat on your left side (each row equals one rep).
3. Tempo Goblet Squats x 12-15
Hold a single dumbbell close to your chest (A). Sink your hips back and slowly over a count of four seconds descend into a squat (B). Your elbows should come in between your knees at the bottom. Drive back up explosively. Repeat. Pay attention to that tempo, it matters.
4. Burpee Over ‘bells x 10
With both dumbbells on the floor next to you, step back and hit the deck into a press-up position. Lower your body until your chest touches the floor (A). Stand back up and jump powerfully over the dumbbells (B) – driving through your hips when you take off. Land and immediately drop to the floor and repeat. The dumbbells keep you accountable for the height of each jump.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
