Men's Health & Exercises With Dumbbells for 20 Minutes

As a guy who's set on spending no more than 20 minutes at the gym, you're going to have to double -- or maybe even triple -- up on your exercises. Fortunately, that's not hard to do. Multi-joint and combination exercises don't just save time, often they provide more of a challenge by requiring balance and coordination. You may even find them more engaging than simply moving from one machine to the next.

  1. Step-Resistance Workout

    • Good health and weight maintenance requires at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. Even hitting the gym every day won't get you there doing only 20 minutes of cardio per session, but it can get you close enough that you can take a quick 10-minute walk some other time. The problem is fitting in your resistance work. Set up a step in a corner of your gym with the risers at a height that requires a 90-degree angle at the hips and knees. You'll get a cardio workout that also targets your quads, hamstrings, calves and glutes. While continuing to step, do two sets of biceps curls, overhead triceps extensions and overhead presses using dumbbells. Each set should include eight to 12 repetitions.

    Core

    • Step up and challenge your core. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms at your sides and your palms facing back. As you step up, bring your arms forward and overhead in an explosive movement. When both feet are planted firmly on the step, lower your extended arms in a controlled motion just to chest level while contracting your ab muscles. Bring your arms to the starting position as you step down. Next, work your obliques by stepping up and punching alternating arms across your body, first up toward your shoulder, then across your mid-section and then down toward the floor. Do two sets of eight to 12 reps for each exercise.

    Back and Chest

    • While you can do cardio and core work every day, your other muscles have to rest between workouts to repair and grow. On alternate days, replace your arm and shoulder work by hitting the floor between stepping and doing as many fast pushups as you can for your pecs. During your next step break pick up your dumbbells, place one foot on the step, leaning slightly forward at your hips, and do a bent-over row with your palms facing in and your elbows tucked tight into your body. This will work your lats. For the next break, take the same position but with your palms facing back and lift your elbows directly out to your sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of the move. This works your posterior deltoids and the traps and rhomboids of your upper back.

    Considerations

    • As you will be doing several moves at once, start slow and take some time to perfect your form, which generally means keeping your head back and pelvis aligned and never locking your joints. You may also need to start with a slightly lower dumbbell weight than you're used to. If you can get your heart rate to a higher intensity of between 75 and 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, you only need half as much cardio time, meaning your 20 minutes at the gym will be more than enough. While more complicated formulas exist, as a rule of thumb for a man, subtract your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate. You can take your heart rate by placing two fingers on your carotid artery while stepping.