Strength Total Body Workouts The 10-Minute Workout That Burns More Calories By Paige Waehner facebook linkedin Paige Waehner is a certified personal trainer, author of the "Guide to Become a Personal Trainer"; and co-author of "The Buzz on Exercise & Fitness." Learn about our editorial process Paige Waehner Reviewed by Reviewed by Tara Laferrara, CPT on November 25, 2020 Tara Laferrara is a certified NASM personal trainer, yoga teacher, and fitness coach. She also created her own online training program, the TL Method. Learn about our Review Board Tara Laferrara, CPT on November 25, 2020 Print This 10-minute cardio home circuit workout includes a variety of exercises designed to target all the muscle groups in a short, effective workout. You'll do 10 challenging exercises, many of them compound movements involving more than one muscle group. Move quickly from exercise to exercise, but keep good form and rest when you need to. Precautions See your doctor before trying this workout if you have any injuries, illnesses, or other conditions. Equipment Needed Various weighted dumbbells, a step or platform, and a kettlebell (optional) or a barbell (optional) Getting Started Begin by warming up with a few minutes of light-to-moderate cardio. Complete the exercises for the suggested time, one after the other, with little or no rest in between. Perform the circuit once for a 10-minute workout or up to six times for a longer, more intense workout. Skip or modify any exercises that cause pain or discomfort. Add extra rest periods if you need to. 1 Squat Press Verywell / Ben Goldstein The squat press combines a dumbbell squat with an overhead press. During this move you'll work the muscles in the lower body (primarily the hamstrings, glutes, and quadriceps) and the deltoid muscles in your shoulders. Equipment needed: Dumbbells How to do it right: Begin with the feet hip-width apart, holding the weights just over your shoulders. Lower into a squat, sending the hips back while you keep the torso upright and the abs engaged. Press into the heels to stand up. As you stand, press the weights overhead, focusing on the shoulders. Lower the weights and repeat a squat with an overhead press. Duration: 60 seconds 2 Wide Squat Weight Exchange Verywell / Ben Goldstein In this move, you'll combine a basic wide squat to work the lower body with a weight exchange to work the muscles in the shoulders, biceps, triceps, forearms, upper back, quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and core. The weight exchange might be considered a precursor movement to the farmer's carry. Equipment needed: Kettlebell or dumbbells How to do it right: Pick up one of your heavy weights (or use a kettlebell, as shown) and stand in a wide stance, toes out, holding the weight in the left hand. Squat down, keeping the knees in line with the toes. Put the weight on the floor. Switch hands and stand up, holding the weight in the other hand. Duration: 60 seconds 3 Pushups Verywell / Ben Goldstein Pushups are a great way to work the chest, arms, shoulders, and core. If you can't do a full pushup, consider an incline pushup, or put your knees down on the floor or mat to make the move easier. Equipment needed: None (mat optional) How to do it right: Begin on your hands and knees, resting your hands on the mat about shoulder-width apart, palms flat. Extend the legs straight, resting on your toes. Make sure your hands are directly under the shoulders. Bend the elbows, allowing them to flare naturally out to the sides and lower your body until your nose touches the floor. Keep your torso rigid and avoid sagging in the middle or piking the hips up. Push into the floor to push yourself back to starting position, continuing to keep the torso and legs braced. Duration: 60 seconds 4 Mountain Climbers Verywell / Ben Goldstein This move is essentially a plank with alternating knee bends. Mountain climbers work the whole body, but especially the muscles in your arms, shoulders, quads, and core. Equipment needed: None (mat optional) How to do it right: Begin in a plank position, on the hands and toes. Lift your left foot off the floor and bend your knee, pulling it in towards the chest. Cross the left foot over the right leg, hold briefly, then take left knee back to the chest. Bring the left foot back into your full plank and repeat on the other side. Duration: 60 seconds 5 Bulgarian Split Squat Verywell / Ben Goldstein The Bulgarian split squat is effective for working the quadriceps (thigh muscles), glutes, hamstrings, calves, abdominals, and spinal erectors. You can perform this move with or without weight. Equipment needed: Bench or sturdy chair How to do it right: Stand about three or so feet in front of a step or platform and place the left leg on the platform, either resting on the toe or the top of the foot. Keeping the weight on the front leg, bend the knees and lower into a lunge until the front knee is at about a 90-degree angle. Push through the front heel to stand up. Duration: 60 seconds 6 Deadlifts Verywell / Ben Goldstein A deadlift is a great way to work the whole body, but you will especially target the hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteals, lower back, and trapezius. The move is most often performed with a barbell (as shown), but you can also do it with dumbbells. Equipment needed: Barbell or dumbbells How to do it right: Stand with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold your medium or heavy weights in front of the thighs. With the back flat, shoulders back and abs in, hinge from the hips and lower the weight as far as your flexibility allows. Raise up, squeezing the glutes. Duration: 60 seconds 7 Dumbbell Bent Over Row The dumbbell bent over row works the muscles in the back and shoulders. It is usually performed using a weight in each hand, but you can also choose to do a single-arm row as a modification. Equipment needed: Dumbbells How to do it right: Stand with legs about shoulder-width apart. Hinge forward at the hips to about a 45-degree angle. Keep the knees slightly bent. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other. Bend the elbows and lift the weights up towards your chest. Lower the weights in a controlled manner. Duration: 60 seconds 8 Weighted Step-Up Verywell / Ben Goldstein Th weighted step up works the quadriceps muscles on the front of the thigh and the muscles in the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings). Make sure that the platform you use is stable. Equipment needed: Step or platform How to do it right: Start by standing in front of a step. Hold one dumbbell in each hand. Step up with the right foot, pressing through the heel. Bring the left foot to meet your right foot. Bend your right knee and step down with the left foot. Bring the right foot down to meet the left foot on the ground. Duration: 60 seconds 9 Hammer Curl and Squat Verywell / Ben Goldstein The hammer curl (shown) is a variation of the basic biceps curl. It works the biceps muscle on the front of the upper arm. When you combine it with a squat, you target muscles in the upper and lower body. Equipment needed: Dumbbells How to do it right: Start with feet about hip-distance apart. Hold one weight in each hand. Start your squat by pulling the hips back as you bend the knees and lower the body. As the body descends, bend at the elbow so the lower arms lift up and toward the shoulders. Keep the elbows close to your torso. When you are at the bottom of your squat, you'll be at the top of the biceps curl with the thumbs close to the shoulders, palms facing in toward the midline of the body. Lower the weights to the starting position as you lift your body out of the squat position Duration: 60 seconds 10 Renegade Row Ben Goldstein Your balance and core strength will be challenged with a renegade row. It works the muscles in the upper back (latissimus dorsi, rhomboids), shoulders, triceps, abdominals, quadriceps, forearms, and spinal erectors. Equipment needed: Dumbbells How to do it right: Place dumbbells on the floor so that when you set up in a plank position, the dumbbells are roughly shoulder-distance apart and the handles of the dumbbells are parallel to one another. Start in a tabletop position, gripping one dumbbell with each hand. Your hands should be aligned beneath your shoulders. Once your hands are secured with the dumbbells, move into a full plank position. Inhale and shift your weight slightly to your left side so more of your weight is supported by your left hand. Draw the right dumbbell toward your chest. Lower the dumbbell slowly to the floor, returning it to the starting position. Shift your weight to the right side and repeat the exercise, this time drawing the left dumbbell to your left chest/shoulder. Duration: 60 seconds Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Get exercise tips to make your workouts less work and more fun. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit