16: Total Body Dumbbell Pyramid HIIT Workout | Strength + Cardio (15-30-45-30-15 Intervals!)

Hey everybody, I'm Amy from BodyFit by Amy, and this is your total body dumbbell pyramid HIIT workout. In this workout, we are working the entire body using dumbbells, and we will be getting both back to basic strengths and some compound movements to get some higher intensity intervals, all in a pyramid format. Of course, I'll give you lots of different options to work to your level, so listen to your body. Are you ready? Let's do it! Let's start just by getting our muscles warm with a march. We can pump those arms. We're just going to get the blood flowing through the entire body, get our bodies warm, our body's temperature up, and get everything ready to move. A few quick mobility and movement prep exercises, and then we will jump in adding our dumbbells. Let's roll those shoulders, start small, and then take it to the back. So as you can see behind me, I have a whole family of dumbbells. Don't worry if you don't have that many, just use whatever you have available to you. Maybe you just have one set. Let's take them to the front. Maybe you have a few different sets. I'll try to cue you when to go heavy and when you may want to take it a little lighter if it's, say, a compound movement. Let's cross those arms right through here, over and under, and then you can add a little step out or a side lunge right through here. Here, big cross over and out. So the way this works, we have 4 quick circuits. The circuits are pyramid format. So we're going to alternate between two exercises, and we're going up and down in time. So with those two exercises, let's take a nice big Y and then hinge, drive your hips to the back. Of those two exercises, one is going to be a little more of a compound movement, a HIIT interval, high intensity. It's still going to be strength-based, but it's going to get more of that metabolic conditioning, get your heart rate up, two exercises at once kind of thing. One more right here. Switch your hands right on top of the legs, roll through the back, cat-cow, really trying getting that lower lumbar spine as well. Your second exercise is going to be more of a strength back to basics, so one, one movement pattern, mostly trying to really go heavy and focus on that strength. Let's tap it back right here. So we'll alternate between the two of those, and we're going up and down in time, going up the pyramid, down the pyramid. We have 15 seconds interval 1, 30 seconds then 45, then we take it back down. 45 seconds, 30, and 15. Take this down to more of a lunge if you want, totally up to you. So with those, we will get 15 seconds of rest in between each, so it's going to move pretty quickly. Of course, if you need more of a rest, take it. You are allowed, it's okay. Hold this stretch right here, or take it all the way down right here. Big reach under and up. So within that, we're going to move quickly, but because it's only 2 exercises that you're alternating between, you should be able to get through it pretty fast. Let's step through, other side. Those 15-second ones are going to feel super short, those 45-second ones are going to feel long, but it's going to go quickly. Most of us who enjoy pyramids— I'm one of them— know that they move pretty fast. Go ahead and come into that high plank position or in all fours, whatever works best for you, but connect with that core. And we're just going to do a little forward and back on the toes or the knees, whatever feels good for you. And then little drop of the hips side to side. Again, you can be on your knees, you can be on your toes. Little child's pose, and then come up to all fours, or child's pose up to that plank. Just one last little stretch before we jump in with our first set of exercises. So it's going to move quickly, we're going to be done before you know it. We'll have a break in between each circuit. Go ahead and walk those hands back slowly, roll yourself up right through here. So a break between each circuit. Let's tap it out and reach here. 2, grab a quick sip of water and I'll explain your next 2 exercises. Let's take this right here. All right, your first move, we're going to have two heavy dumbbells, but your first exercise, which is more of your HIIT pattern, is going to be with only one of those dumbbells. All right, go ahead and grab two. So I'm going to go 20s. If you want to know what we're looking at, we're going to do a squat and a press with one dumbbell. It's going to look like this. So we're going to grab it here, one dumbbell, sit low, press it up. I'll give you some options second and third time to add a little rotation for core. Then we grab that second dumbbell and we do a deadlift. So you'll set one down and up in between, but we're keeping it lighter for that squat and press because it's going to get our heart pumping more. Get low, press high, and then hinge for that deadlift. Go ahead and grab one weight. Let's take it here. 3, 2, 1. It's only 15 seconds. Drive it up, get low. Now if you have lighter dumbbells and you want to use two dumbbells for this, that works too. We just want you going lighter on this and slightly heavier. And relax. All right, 15 seconds to breathe. Now we have 30 seconds of that deadlift. So remember, we're going to drive our hips to the back, weights stay close to the front of the body. Stand up straight. Let's do it, here we go. Down and up, here, push the hips back, stand up straight. So it's a little bit longer, this is a 30-second interval. Again, we're going to alternate between some of these where they're more focused strength intervals and then alternating with that HIIT, right? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 15 seconds to breathe. Now we're at the top. We have 45 seconds. If you want to get fancy, you can add a little rotational rotation on the press, or just your regular squat and press. Here we go, and here Alternating little pivot knees and hips, or just here and up, down and up. Either way, this is just going to get a little bit of that core. You're going to feel those obliques, a little more stabilizing, but we're still getting the legs working, we're still getting the upper body push, right? Squat pattern and push. Starts to feel like your heart rate's getting up too high, take your time with it. We got 10 seconds. 3, 2, 1, and relax. All right, we're staying up here for 45 seconds. If you want, take your feet a little bit wider for that deadlift. All right, 45 seconds. Again, this is the longest interval we do with both. Bend your knees to grab those weights. Let's do it. And stand up straight. These are big strong muscles, so if you have heavy weights, go for it. We are working the back of our legs and our butt, right? But we also want that lower back— we don't want it to be doing all the work, we want it to be contracted working and not straining, but it is working. So sometimes people say, oh, but I feel it in my lower back. You should feel it there. You shouldn't feel pain or strain, but it is helping your hamstrings and glutes. They should be doing most of the work, right? We got 5 seconds. 3, 2, 1. And relax. All right, grab one weight again. Squat and press, or squat rotational press. Last time with this exercise. It is 30 seconds in 3, 2, 1. Or add that rotation if you want. As we rotate, it's a little bit out in front of your body. So you're not going straight overhead, almost as if you're pushing to that opposite corner, right? 10 seconds. I know, woo, there's that heart rate. This is where the HIIT comes in. 3, 2, 1, and relax. All right, last exercise of this circuit, then we grab some water. We are getting it done. With a regular deadlift. Only 15 seconds. Last time, go heavy. Here we go. And stand up straight right here. Shoulders back, eyes up and out. Yes! One more and relax. Yes, team! Quick sip of water. Are you feeling it? I know I am. Cheers, y'all! Next one, we're going to get two compound exercises, big heart rate push, but you can do this. A lunge and a curl. All right, so your first exercise is going to be a lunge and the— and a curl. So you can decide. I'm going to go 15s. You're going to alternate your lunge, you're going to step up and curl in between. If you're feeling spicy, you can do the curl and then the lunge. Then we're going to take it with something a little bit heavier if you've got it. If you have the time to switch, it is a plié squat into a bent over row. So you are going to have to drop it in the plié and then drop your chest, row it here. All right, let's go ahead and grab something. Breathe. Something medium to heavy that you can do a bicep curl with. And again, you can do the curl at the top and then the lunge, or lunge with the curl. Here we go, step it back. This is your short one, only 15 seconds. Drop low, try to get low in that lunge. It's only 15, can we get 4 of them? I think so. Oh, that was short, right? All right, if you're switching weights. Make sure you're bending your knees to do it. Here we go. Remember, we're going to drop in the plié, drop in the chest, do the row. Everything comes up together. If that doesn't feel right for you, pick one and then do the second one the next time through. Here we go, 30 seconds. Plié, everything up. Here we go, and squeeze. Drop it down. All the way up. So I'm keeping my shoulders back, I'm starting with a plié squat, then it becomes a little bit of a hinge, right? So you feel the difference inside of the legs, inner thighs, glutes. 3, 2, 1, and relax. All right, this time guys, we are up at 45 seconds, and again, you can decide, maybe you want to do the curl and then the lunge, or do it at the same time. Up to you, as long as you get them both. In 3, 2, 1, 45 seconds. And here, drop it back low. And here, this is what I mean. If you want to curl and lunge together, it's going to be a little trickier. You're going to have to stabilize more with your core, and it becomes a racked lunge. You can also do that hammer grip Right palm stay in. I know there's that heart rate. That's why I told you this one was going to be a burner in terms of our heart rate getting up, that MetCon, right? We got 10 seconds. If you need to slow it down, slow it down. Glad that I picked my 15s. And relax. All right team, we are staying at 45 seconds. Plié squat and hinge row, everything up and up, all the way through the back of your body. 45 seconds in 3, 2, 1, here we go. Up, all the way up. Drop the hips, drop the chest, pull the weights towards the hip bones or the rib cage, all the way up. Again, if you don't feel like you have enough space to do the row, just do the row. You can do the plié on that last one, right here. All the way up, right? I know, squeeze in your back muscles. Yes. And up. 5 seconds. 3, 2, 1, and relax. All right, we're down to our last 2 on this one. Lunge and curl, it's 30 seconds. If you want to get spicy, take it to a curtsy lunge, up to you. For 30, here we go. Curtsy lunge, bicep curl. Get low and bring them up. Or again, spicy, and here it's all spicy no matter how you do it, right? All challenging. What's challenging about this? We're getting a lunge motion and a squat and hinge motion, so all of your big lower body movement patterns, but we're getting all upper body pull, right? And relax. Oh man, heart rate! Good thing this is only 15 seconds. You know what? Let's just crank out a row. 15 seconds. Bring them up, hinge, flat back. Just your row for 15. Forget the plié. Here we go. So upper body pull, that row and your bicep curls. Bigger muscles are working on the row, but they're all getting the biceps and your upper pull. 3, 2, 1, and relax. Oh man, y'all, let's grab a sip of water. Feeling it. I don't know about you. Here we go. Cheers, y'all. Guess what? This next round is all on the mat. It's going to be tough, but you can do it. Cheers. My heart rate is up. I am in that high zone. Let's go to the mat. Press and toe tap, a lot of core, climber. All right, so we're gonna start with the press and toe tap. Your mountain climber is more of your HIIT. If you're not going to the mat at all, you can just do an overhead press and bring the knees up, and then you can do standing climber or cross climber. If you can meet me down on the mat Let's go with these 20s. We can do it. You got a bench, feel free to use that as well. Here's what we got. If you want, you can just do the press. We're gonna mix up how we do it. We're gonna do a close grip press too, second time through. But if you can, we're gonna add a little toe tap just to get the core working. All right, then we set those down in between, and you can either just do a tap-in climber or you can run it. All right, you can also do a bird dog as a modification. So let's get both of those. Back to Basics strength, high-intensity climber, no matter how you do it, low impact or high. Starting here, here we go. Press and toe tap, slow and controlled. This is our short one. And again, if the toe tap— if that feels like too much for you, just hold those feet up or keep those feet down. You're still going to get the core working. Relax, set them down. All right, we got our climber, 30 seconds. Bring those knees in or across or both. I'm going to start in and go across on my second one. We got 30 seconds. Lift in the center, up in that high plank. Here we go. And listen, you don't have to— especially when we get to that 45-second interval— don't feel like you have to run it the whole time. You may want to focus your first half on really engaging the core, and then we'll pick up our speed. So here's our second 15. I'm much more wanting the core engagement than the speed, so really little lift of the hips. 3, 2, 1, drive the knees in. We're going to feel a lot of core on this one. So again, if you want to just do the press and focus on the core and the climber, you can. This time, let's keep our elbows out but our palms coming in. All right, 45 seconds, here we go. Get a feel for the motion first since this is our long one. Feel for that motion with this wide but palms in grip, and then add the toe tap as you're ready. And you may just want to tap one at a time right here, slow and controlled, right? Feel back of the arms, right? We're getting the triceps, they're always working, but we're getting them with this press as well. Here we go, and breathe. 10 seconds. Nice and strong. 3, 2, 1, and relax. Oh, all right, we are back to that climber again. Remember, you can always take it standing, but it's down and up. Arms are feeling it. Take those knees across, slow or fast or a combination of the two. You got 45 seconds, here we go. I'm gonna take my knees across first to get a feel for it. And then when we get to those last 20 seconds, I'm gonna run it. So you do you, you can keep this the whole time. Again, you can also modify in a bird dog. I know you're feeling your arms. Again, upper body pull as we got that row and the bicep curl, upper body push as we're holding this and did that press. Here we go, run it if you want, but keep the core engaged. I know, I feel it too. Yes, you can stay lifted. We got 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. All right, this is the last time with your press. You can go back to a regular press if you want. Toe tap, toe tap if you want to mix it up. Both toes coming down, regular or wide Narrow press, here we go. Oh, I'm going to go here to here. 30 seconds, team. So really focus on that strength. If your core needs a break, just do the press, or keep those feet up and stay engaged. But you can do the core work without any movement, right? 5 seconds. 4, 3, 2, 1, and relax. I wanted— whoo— to end on this one because we're gonna get it done with 15 seconds. We're going quick. All right, let's go for it. Here we go, 15 seconds. Whatever is quick for you, whatever is fast for you. Let's get it done because we got one more circuit and that is it. You got 3, 2, 1, and relax. Stretch it back. I don't know about you, but a lot of upper— all upper and core on that one. All right team, we are so close. Here we go, let's grab a sip of water. I know, here's what we got. We got a regular side lunge to finish out that lower body. We got overhead triceps and knee for push, upper push and core. All right, so again, I want you to pick something that you can do. Here's your side lunge. This is your higher heart rate, right? Then one dumbbell over the head into the knee. So we get triceps, little burn back of the arms, and we really get standing core. All right, side lunge, side lunge, over the head. All right, so whatever you have available to you, let's start with that side lunge. I'm going to go with my 15 15s because that's what I know I can do overhead. You do you. 15 seconds, right and left side lunge. Here we go. And here, step out, press in, drive into the hip. If that's not right for you, you can just do a side squat. You don't have to shift into that side. One more. Yes! All right team, we got 30 seconds, one dumbbell. Now if this is not right for you, just do the knees, but if you can, over the head standing crunch. So it's a little press and tries standing crunch. Here we go, over, elbows in. It's 30 seconds here, so really take your time. Get all the way down on the tries, then pull in. Make sure you're steady with the weight in place before you go into the tries. I know it's tempting to want to swing it all the way over, but I want you to really go up steady. 3, 2, 1, and relax. All right, we got side lunge again. This is 45 seconds. Let's really go for it. Strong with power. 45 seconds. 3, 2, 1, here we go. Stepping through. Yes! And here, step out wide. Now sometimes I show you, I like to rest this weight right here so I can really cross with the other one. You do you, all right? If that's not right for you, you can do one dumbbell or two, just like this, or even take it body weight, right? I know, right here. Yes, we got 10 seconds. 3, 2, 1. Set that weight down. One weight overhead triceps, 45 seconds into standing crunch. Let's bring it up and over. 3, 2, 1, elbows in, down and pull. So really take your time, use your core to to bring the knee towards the chest, right? It's not just here, we're using our core. Standing crunch, everything nice and tight. That feels like too much, put them together. Just pick one. Here we go. Yes! 10 seconds, then we're down at the bottom of this Pyramid. I know. 3, 2, 1, and relax. All right team, no weights on this unless you want to keep it nice and slow, but if you can, we're going to take it low, a little shuffle step. All right, I want you to get low. It's 30 seconds. Let's get that heart rate up. Here we go. Here, here. 30 seconds. If you want to, just— you can still get that shuffle without doing the hop step, right? Just shift your weight. 15 right here. Really get into it. Push out of it. Reach up. Yes, I know. We got 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, relax. All right team, this is your last of the triceps. Let's just do tries, just like we did with that row. No knee, just triceps. 15, go strong. We got 15 seconds only. 3, 2, 1. I know that heart rate is up. You can even try this grip. Sometimes you find this a little easier. When you're just doing overhead triceps. Core engage, stack the rib cage over the hips. Yes! Can you get one more? Boom! And relax. Oh man, you guys, woo! That was it. Those were our pyramid circuits. But how about— I think we got time for a bonus move. We're going to keep it keep it short. We're gonna keep it simple. It's just gonna be a dumbbell swing, and I'm gonna give you some options. If the swing is not right for you, you can just alternate a little deadlift, or one or two dumbbells deadlift. You can do that again. Otherwise, you're here, dumbbell swing, or kettlebell if you've got it, if you want to mix it up. Or you can do the swing handoff I know not everybody is comfortable with that, but if you are, try it. All right, otherwise any swing or deadlift that you want. 30 seconds, we're just going to hinge back, power up. Arms are not working. Let's get 30. 3, 2, power, here we go! Hand off swing, or kettlebell or dumbbell swing in the center, or deadlift. Power, lock it up. So I said arms aren't working, arms aren't doing the work. They're getting the work, don't worry, but we're lifting, powering up through the back of the legs. This is it, team, then we're cooling it down. We got 5, 4, 3, 2, swing and relax. Yes team, catch your breath. Oh man, tap it out. Yes you can, and yes you did it! How do we feel? Let's take one foot forward, sit back. If you need to grab onto something, you can, to stretch through the back of the leg. Also stretch through your back. Little stretch through there. Switch your legs. We're going to keep this cool down pretty short cuz I want to get you in and out. Please make sure that you get more of a stretch on your own. Hands right here, roll through that standing cat-cow. And here, and up. Reach it over. Leave me a comment, leave me a like, let me know how you're feeling after this. Do you like a pyramid format? I do, for all the reasons I talked about. It does go quickly, it does keep your heart rate up, so we get metabolic conditioning, getting cardio during our strength, but we get it done and we're in and out. Hopefully you're feeling strong and conditioned and energized, but also tired. Thank you so much for being here. Get some more stretching on your own. Let's get one big deep breath in and out. You did it! That was your total body dumbbell pyramid HIIT workout. Great job, everybody!