You receive weekly emails from Arnie's Pump Club, and this week there was a little surprise in your inbox — Finish Strong Challenge. Participants will be offered the opportunity to win $1,000 in exchange for just his three weeks of exercise and three workouts a week during December.
The first workout to start your #Arnoldschallenge is a spicy 6-move dumbbell workout that you can perform using the best adjustable dumbbells and your own body weight. A full-body burner hits your back, chest, shoulders, arms, glutes, and core. and Build your leg muscles with just 3 supersets.
I'm not a big fan of fitness challenges, so I stepped away from my desk and tried my first workout. Here's what happened to my body and how you can try it yourself even if you don't have weights.
What is the 6-move dumbbell workout?
The Finish Strong Challenge begins now. “Start today with a plan and get ready for new training on Wednesday and Friday,” Ernie wrote in his newsletter.
As of this writing, the challenge started on December 11th.
“The first workout is a full-body plan. It consists of three supersets with minimal rest between exercises.” Start with the first movement, then the second. Rest briefly and repeat the superset until you complete the set and repetition of the paired exercise.
Rest for 2 minutes, then begin your next superset. Arnie includes dumbbells and a bodyweight version, so I've included both in case you're short on equipment. please.
6 movements dumbbell workout: whole body
Superset 1:
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Superset 2:
Superset 3:
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Bodyweight training: whole body
Superset 1:
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- Push-ups 3×12 times
- superman pull ups 3×10 reps
- 2 minute break
Superset 2:
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- Deadweight Good Morning: 3×15 Reps
- Alternating bodyweight lunges 3×12 reps per leg
- 2 minute break
Superset 3:
- Bodyweight squats 3×8 reps
- 3×10 reps of IYT
I tried Arnold Schwarzenegger's Finish Strong Challenge – what happened
The benefit of this full-body dumbbell workout is that you don't have to go to the gym or be surrounded by equipment. I've always said that if you want to build muscle and strength, choosing free weights over gym machines will be a game changer.
Dumbbells give you a free range of motion and allow you to activate more muscle groups while performing exercises without the aid of auxiliary machines. While you may be limited by your grip strength during dumbbell training, you can still shift your numbers pretty high and work every muscle group in your body.
The first day of the Finish Strong Challenge was the perfect start to my Monday. With several meetings, a day spent at my desk writing, and two outdoor group fitness classes to teach sandwiched between them, I can safely say that exercise is at the bottom of my priority list. Sho.
I closed my laptop and it took me 30 minutes to complete this. The first superset was to torch your upper body using classic push-pull resistance training. The bench press works your front body, which means your deltoids and pecs with support from your triceps, while the row works your back body, which means your back, rear deltoids, and biceps.
For Superset 2, we moved on to a lower body workout consisting of two classic compound exercises that build big, powerful leg muscles: lunges and deadlifts. Deadlifts target the muscles of your posterior chain, including your hips, glutes, hamstrings, and calf muscles, and activate your core and hip flexors. However, staggering your stance will help you focus on one side at a time, requiring more balance and stability.
Lunges attack your entire lower body, and without the need for leg presses or barbells, you can add a punch to your legs by simply lifting the weights a few pounds. Having already flexed all my muscles, I moved on to a final superset of seated clean squats, press squats, and goblet squats.
The goblet hold is one of my favorites and allows you to handle the dumbbells nicely and heavily during the squat. The clean and press builds strength and by taking your feet out of the equation, it recruits your core muscles and improves stability. This allows you to isolate your upper body and clean it up with clean and press techniques. For most people, it's more difficult than standing, but once you learn the clean and press, it's an addictive way to sneak in a seated workout.
verdict
If I were to describe this dumbbell training in one word, it would be “efficient.” This is a classic full-body hypertrophy workout that uses two weights and takes just 30 minutes. If you have more time, you can extend this strength program to 45 minutes, but be sure to minimize rest between exercises and only rest between sets and supersets. Supersets utilize the Time Under Tension (TUT) method to work your muscles harder without resting.
There's nothing groundbreaking about any exercise or training format, but it's a reminder that sometimes simple is best. I didn't have to spend a lot of time commuting to and from the gym, and I came home feeling like I worked out my entire body and worked up a sweat. To my surprise, when I returned to my desk, my legs were a little unsteady.
If you're away traveling or visiting family during this time, a dumbbell set or a workout you can do with your own body weight is worth a million bucks, and this is definitely something to bookmark. Keep up the rest of your challenges, Ernie.
