If you’re short on time for your workout and want to both target a specific muscle group or part of the body while improving your overall fitness, then a combination session with both cardio and strength elements is a smart way to go.
This 15-minute dumbbell workout from fitness trainer Kat Boley is designed to get your heart pumping while you also work on your biceps with some isolation exercises. The combo approach makes it a bit different to many workouts and a fun way to vary your exercise routine while also enjoying the benefits of getting stronger arms and fitter overall.
You need weights for the workout, and since you’ll mainly be doing biceps curls and variations on the move a lighter set of dumbbells is probably the way to go. A set of the best adjustable dumbbells would be a useful option so you can quickly change the weight to exactly what you need.
Watch Kat Boley’s 15-minute dumbbell workout
The workout is made up of seven exercises, four that target the biceps directly broken up by cardio moves to boost your fitness. The cardio moves also act as your rest breaks for the biceps exercises so your arms get a little bit of a rest, because there are a lot of curls on the agenda with this session.
You do 12 reps of each biceps moves, and then do each cardio move for 30 seconds, and aim to complete three circuits of the seven exercises in total. Try not to rest too much between moves — maintaining your momentum will keep your heart rate up to increase the cardiovascular benefits of the session.
Below are the moves you’ll be doing in the workout. Boley demonstrates each move in the workout on her Instagram post, so check them all out in advance to make sure you know what you’re doing without having to pause and check.
- Bicep curl to overhead press
- Mountain climber
- Hammer curl
- Skater
- Single arm curl
- Standing crunch
- Biceps curl to press down
For the biceps exercises make sure you move with control and maximize the time under tension for your muscles by trying to engage the upper arms as much as possible. Squeeze at the top of the reps to really work the muscle, and lower the weights back down slowly rather than letting them drop.
Then for the cardio moves you want to push hard and fit as many reps into the 30 seconds as you can. If you can set a timer on your fitness tracker then that will be handy to avoid having to watch the clock yourself so you know how long you have left.
If you’d rather do a straight biceps session, this three-move dumbbell workout is also 15 minutes long and you spend your whole time focusing on the upper arms. If you’d rather focus on your fitness, then this 20-minute standing cardio workout keeps you moving the whole time.
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