Yahoo Finance The Dumbbell Interval Session That Will Hotwire Your Fitness
In this era of workouts done ‘for time’, taking scheduled rest periods might feel a bit old hat. But shunning the humble stopwatch could be costing you valuable strength and fitness.
When it comes to maximising our force production – our ability to output strength – your straight 20-minute efforts can suffer from the law of diminishing returns. Or put simply, when you have time on your side, you can't help but pace yourself.
Our solution: by splitting your 20-min period into five smaller AMRAP intervals, with a liberal dose of rest, you’ll be able to maintain a swifter pace throughout. You'll also be teaching your body to go faster, rather than holding back with one eye on a slowly ticking clock.
Track your reps on your first round and try to hold that in the next four. Push hard on every round. Three minutes is long enough to dig yourself a deep hole. But two minutes of rest should be just long enough for you to climb back out.
Your Dumbbell Interval Session
5 total rounds of:
3 mins of Max Effort Circuits
followed by
2 mins of Rest
1) Push Press x 3
Clean your dumbbells onto your shoulders, palms facing in. Take a breath and brace your core (A). Dip at the knees and use your legs to help (B) press your dumbbells overhead. Lower under control to your shoulders and repeat.
2) Dumbbell thruster x 6
After your final press, keep your dumbbells on your shoulders and squat down, keeping your back straight and your chest up, until your thighs are beyond parallel to the ground (A). Stand back up explosively and, in one motion, press both of the dumbbells overhead to full lockout (B). Now, reverse the movement and repeat. Quickly.
3) Dumbbell Deadlift x 9
Finally, drop your dumbbells to the floor just outside 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 and squeezing your glutes at the top (B). Your arms should be hanging straight throughout this movement, think of them as hooks.
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