While most people do not have room for a pile of weight plates and fancy equipment—most people can find room for a couple of high quality dumbbells. And this is great, because contrary to popular opinion you can get in a fantastic workout using nothing but dumbbells.

I realize that most people reading this do not want massive muscles; however I am sure they would not mind some muscle gain along with an increase in their overall fitness.

So below I am going to lay out a program anyone can use to build some muscle, get a good cardio workout in and burn off some ugly fat.

THE PROGRAM

The workout consists of seven exercises done in circuit fashion (meaning you move from one exercise to another with as little rest as possible).

The repetitions will be kept purposely high because we are not aiming for a maximum muscle building working, but more of a hybrid muscle building/cardio workout.

So keep the reps between twelve and fifteen, but really you can go up to twenty with no problem.

THE EXERCISES

You will be doing dead lifts, overhead presses, almost stiff legged dead lifts (keep some bend in your knees on these) bent over rows, standard push-ups, bicep curls, and some form of ab work, in that order—I prefer steep incline sit-us, but do whatever form of ab work you feel comfortable with.

SOME POINTS

Your goal should be to run through the above series with out taking a single break, of course you may need to work up to this depending on your current fitness level.

When you can do this take a three minute rest and try and repeat the circuit again.

For my purposes once you can do three complete circuits with only three minutes (or less if you prefer) of rest between circuits—it is time to increase the weight of the dumbbells and start at the beginning.

Also, it would go beyond the scope of this post to give descriptions of each exercise—you can simply google (or use your favorite search engine) any exercise you are not familiar with and you will pick up plenty of information on each.

Alternatively, you can make a quick trip to your local library and check out the fitness section where I am sure you will find the info you need.

SOME MORE POINTS

Please be advised to warm up thoroughly before beginning the routine—ten minutes of slow to moderate walking or just enough to get a good sweat going will get the job done.

Also, if you have some lighter dumbbells than the ones you will be using for the actual workout use them and run through two sets of each of the above exercises—for around twenty reps each—nothing too strenuous—just enough to get your body ready.

Lastly, take it slow—if cannot complete the circuit—stop.

Work into the above routine at your own pace—remember it is not a race—if it takes you a couple of months to get through it—no big deal.

CONCLUSION

As you can see dumbbells can provide you with a fantastic workout—and you do not need to have tons of space to get the workout in.

If you give the routine an honest try, I KNOW you will see your body change in the form of more muscle and less fat—along with an increase in your cardio fitness—good stuff.