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Burn Some Serious Calories With This High Intensity, Total-Body Workout

Full-Body Workout For Weight Loss

Burn Some Serious Calories With This High Intensity, Total-Body Workout

Full-Body Workout For Weight Loss
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Diggy Lloyd

If you're looking to lose weight once and for all, it's time you start strength training. For some, the idea of lifting weights can be intimidating, but you have nothing to worry about. Lifting weights can help you build lean muscle mass and can even improve your sleep. In addition to putting on more lean muscle, strength training raises your resting metabolic rate, allowing your body to continue burning fat hours after your workout!

The following workout was created by yours truly, a NASM certified personal trainer, and it focuses on compound exercises — which means you'll be working multiple muscle groups at once. Because of this, your heart rate will be elevated, your coordination will improve, and you will burn more calories.

What you'll need: A set of medium-weight dumbbells. Ten pounds is a great place to start, but feel free to increase or decrease the weight if needed.

Directions: Complete every exercise in the order listed. Whenever you see the word "superset" in front of an exercise, be prepared to transition into the movements, taking little to no rest in between the two exercises. After you've gone through all the exercises, take 3-5 minutes of rest and repeat for 2-3 rounds.

The workout:

Warmup: 5 minutes light cardio
Superset 1: Dumbbell Squat Press (12 reps) + Split Lunge Jumps (10 reps)

  • Rest 1 minute

Solo exercise: Dumbbell Deadlifts (15 reps)

  • Rest 1 minute

Superset 2: Bicep Curls (12 reps) + One-Arm Med-Ball Push-Up (12 reps)

  • Rest 1 minute

Superset 3: Single-Arm Chest Press (10 reps) + Renegade Row (10 reps)

  • Rest 1 minute

Solo exercise: Up-Down Plank (10 reps)
Cooldown: 10 minutes of stretching and foam rolling.

Detailed instructions on how to do each exercise, sets, and repetitions can be found ahead.

Superset 1, Exercise 1: Dumbbell Squat Press

Superset 1, Exercise 1: Dumbbell Squat Press
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone
  • Stand with your legs just slightly wider than hip-distance apart, arms raised to shoulder height with elbows bent, holding weights by your ears.
  • Bend your knees, squatting down low, as if you were sitting in a chair, keeping weight on your heels.
  • Press the dumbbells overhead as you straighten your knees to return to standing. This counts as one rep.
  • Complete 12 reps and go directly into split lunge jumps.
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Superset 1, Exercise 2: Split Lunge Jumps

Superset 1, Exercise 2: Split Lunge Jumps
Image Source: POPSUGAR Studios
  • Stand with your feet together and your knees soft. Jump and come into a lunge with your left leg forward.
  • Push off with both feet, jumping them together, then hopping into a lunge with your right leg in front.
  • Jump your feet back together to complete one rep.
  • Do 10 reps and then rest for 1 minute before moving on to dumbbell deadlifts.
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Solo exercise 1: Dumbbell Deadlifts

Solo exercise 1: Dumbbell Deadlifts
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography
  • Hold a dumbbell in each hand by your sides with straight arms and have a slight bend in your knees.
  • Lower the dumbbells toward the floor. Keep your back straight, not curved or arched. Your chest should be parallel with the floor.
  • Straighten up your torso so you have a straight body alignment. This counts as one rep.
  • Complete 15 reps and then rest for one minute, then move on to bicep curls.
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Superset 2, Exercise 1: Bicep Curl

Superset 2, Exercise 1: Bicep Curl
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography
  • Start by holding a dumbbell in each hand at the sides of the body.
  • Keeping your elbows close to your side, slowly raise the dumbbells to the chest.
  • Moving with control, lower back to the starting position.
  • This counts as one rep.
  • Complete 12 reps and go directly into one-arm med-ball push-ups.
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Superset 2, Exercise 2: One-Arm Med-Ball Push-Up

Superset 2, Exercise 2: One-Arm Med-Ball Push-Up
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Kat Borchart
  • Start in a plank position with your left hand on a medicine ball.
  • Keeping your torso square to the floor, perform a push-up by bending and straightening both arms. If a traditional push-up is too challenging, lower your knees to the floor. This completes one rep.
  • Perform 12 reps total and then rest for one minute.
  • Advance to single-arm chest press.
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Superset 3, Exercise 1: Single-Arm Chest Press

Superset 3, Exercise 1: Single-Arm Chest Press
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Kat Borchart
  • Lie on your back with your heels about a foot away from your butt. Hold a dumbbell in your left hand, and bring both hands to the ceiling.
  • Bend your left elbow, lowering your upper arm to the floor. Exhale and straighten your elbow, pressing the weight back to the ceiling to complete a rep.
  • Perform 10 reps and go directly into renegade rows.
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Solo exercise 2: Up-Down Plank

Solo exercise 2: Up-Down Plank
Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography
  • Begin in a full plank. Lower your right elbow to the mat and then your left, coming into an elbow plank.
  • Put your right hand on the mat, and straighten your right elbow. Do the same on the left to return to a full plank.
  • Complete 10 reps.
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Superset 3, Exercise 2: Renegade Row

Superset 3, Exercise 2: Renegade Row
Image Source: Rafe Masters
  • Start in high plank, each hand holding onto a dumbbell that is resting on the floor. Move feet wider than shoulders.
  • Pull right elbow back, raising dumbbell toward chest, keeping right elbow close to torso, abs tight, and hips facing down.
  • Lower weight for one rep; repeat on the opposite side.
  • Perform 10 reps and then rest for one minute before advancing to up-down planks.
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