It only takes eight moves, 30 minutes, and two dumbbells to develop muscle all over

This low-impact workout will build muscle and boost your strength using just a pair of light dumbbells

A woman performing a renegade row with dumbbells
(Image credit: Getty)

Home workouts have plenty of advantages, saving you time and money by cutting out the need for a gym. And with the right mix of dumbbell and bodyweight exercises you can still build a strong body from your living room. 

We found this was especially true when testing the best adjustable dumbbells (opens in new tab), which allowed us to increase the weight as our strength grew to progressively overload (opens in new tab) our muscles for maximum results.

A great example of a dumbbell-only home workout is this session from Sweat app trainer Britany Williams (opens in new tab). It uses just eight exercises to hit every major muscle group in your body, and only takes 30 minutes.

Perform the exercises back to back as a circuit, resting 90 seconds after each full round of eight exercises before returning to the first movement. To finish the workout, complete three full rounds.

It's essential to perfect your form if you want to get the most from this short session. So, watch Williams' video below to find out which eight movements await you, and mirror her form to make sure your technique is on point.

Watch Britany Williams' full-body dumbbell workout

A post shared by Britany Williams (@britanywilliams) (opens in new tab)

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Williams recommends performing each exercise for 10 repetitions on each side of your body. So, for the lateral lunge to halo, you will perform 10 repetitions where you step sideways with your right leg, then move straight into 10 repetitions where you step sideways with your left leg.

Full-body workouts like this one are a great way to train for anyone who struggles to make time to exercise. By hitting every major muscle group in a single session, you can work out for fewer days of the week while still maintaining a high training frequency for each muscle.

Many full-body workouts also make use of compound exercises (opens in new tab), which work multiple muscles simultaneously. For example, the alternating snatches in Williams' workout will engage muscles in your upper and lower body, particularly those in your thighs and shoulders.

This allows you to work more muscles in less time, making it a time-efficient exercise solution. That doesn't mean you should do full-body workouts every day, though. Most people will need to allow their muscles to recover and grow for at least 24 hours afterwards.

To do this, you can take a rest day, try a lower-intensity activity like a flow of these anti-aging yoga poses (opens in new tab), or give your muscles a break with a cardio session like one from our running plan (opens in new tab)for beginners.

Harry Bullmore

Harry Bullmore is a fitness writer covering everything from reviews to features for LiveScience, T3, TechRadar, Fit&Well and more. So, whether you’re looking for a new fitness tracker or wondering how to shave seconds off your 5K PB, chances are he’s written something to help you improve your training.


When not writing, he’s most likely to be found experimenting with a wide variety of training methods in his home gym or trying to exhaust his ever-energetic puppy.


Prior to joining Future, Harry wrote health and fitness product reviews for publications including Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Runner’s World. Before this, he spent three years as a news reporter with work in more than 70 national and regional newspapers.