The Ultimate EMOM Dumbbell Workout for Size, Strength, and Full-Body Fitness

Simply start a stopwatch and at the beginning of every minute perform the prescribed reps of one of four movements, resting for the remainder of the minute. Each minute you’ll perform a different movement, starting again from the first exercise once you’ve completed a set of each. Rotate through all of the exercises in this fashion for eight total rounds, a total working time of just 32 minutes. Efficient.

Make a note of the weights you use for each movement, and attempt to hit the higher end of the prescribed rep ranges. Once you can complete all sets of an exercise at the top end of the reps, i.e. 8 sets of 12 reps, you’ll know it’s time to go heavier in your next session.

The Full-Body Workout

EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) x 32 Minutes

Minute 1: Dumbbell bench press x 6-10

Lay flat on a bench or the floor, your knees bent, pushing your feet into the floor. Press a pair of dumbbells into the air, locking out your elbows (A). Lower the bells slowly until they touch your chest (B). Keeping your elbows at 45-degree angle, pause here before explosively pressing back up. Repeat.

Minute 2: Dumbbell Row x 8-12

Stand tall with your dumbbells in your hands. Hinge at the hips until your chest is parallel to the floor, dumbbells hanging at your shins (A). Maintaining a flat back, row both dumbbells towards your torso (B), squeeze your shoulder blades together and lower under control to the start before repeating. Control the bells and avoid moving your torso and using momentum to help.

Minute 3: Front Squat x 10-15

Clean your dumbbells onto the front of your shoulders (A). From here, drop into a front squat until the crease of your hips drops below your knees. Keeping your torso upright (B), drive back up. Take a deep breath at the top and repeat.

Minute 4: Dumbbell Deadlift x 10-15

With your dumbbells on the floor just outside your feet, hinge down and grip them with soft knees and your back as flat as possible (A). Squeeze your lats, grip your weights and stand upright, ‘pushing the ground away’ with your feet (B). Take a deep breath and slowly reverse the movement, returning your weights to the ground, keeping them close to your body throughout. Your arms should be hanging straight throughout this movement, think of them as hooks.

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With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.    

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.   

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.   

 You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.