Everyone’s obsessed with full-body workouts, and there’s a good reason as to why. Not only can they save you workout time by utilising multi-joint movements, hitting multiple muscle groups all at once, but studies have shown that two full-body workouts a week can deliver the same muscle and strength gains as four upper-lower-split workouts. You don’t need fancy gym machines for them either, as this workout shows. All that’s required is a pair of dumbbells and 30 minutes of commitment and hard graft.
As well as giving your cardiovascular system a run for its money—as multi-joint exercises require your body to deliver more oxygen to the muscles, thus raising your heart rate, giving it a good ol’ workout—they’re also excellent for working your core too. This is because exercises that engage multiple muscles at once, like a squat or deadlift, require engagement from the core muscles to help stabilise your spine. So, although you may not be doing a crunch or plank, you’re still strengthening your core in a functional way so you have better balance and can move more efficiently.
