Don’t ask for whom the bells toll; they toll for thee. The dumbbell man-maker is a test of full-body fitness. So how long can you last?
The format
Combining a dumbbell push-up, a renegade row to each hip and the best part of a burpee, before finishing with an explosive clean into a thruster, the man-maker rocks your body from head to toe. With the ‘death by’ format, you’re going to start a running clock and do one rep at the start of every minute – adding a rep to each extra minute. Let’s go…
Push and pull
Hit the deck and assume a strong plank position with your hands on your dumbbells, shoulder-width apart. Perform a push-up, lowering your chest to the ground between the bells before driving back up explosively. Next, keeping your hips still and your core tight, row one dumbbell up to your hip, pause and return to the ground before you repeat with the opposite arm.
By activating the body’s big muscle groups, multi-part compound moves such as this are unmatched kJ burners.
Get up to get down
With the ground and pound complete, it’s time to test your stand-up game. Keeping a good grip of your weights, jump your feet forward, pop your hips and drive your feet into the floor, standing upright explosively, almost as if you’re jumping. Use this momentum to help you pull your dumbbells up and onto your shoulders, before dropping down into a deep squat, the crease of your hip passing below your knee.
Put ’em up
Chest, back and legs successfully assaulted, shoulders are the final target. From the bottom of your squat position, stand up explosively and, in one motion, press your dumbbells upwards, locking them out overhead. Slowly lower them back to your shoulders before reversing the movement all the way back down to the ground.
All of the above? Yeah, that’s one rep…
Death by
With time ticking away, rest for the balance of the first minute. As soon as the next minute rolls around, hit the deck again for round two. This time, perform two full reps. Carry on in this way, adding an extra rep each minute, until you can either no longer fit the work into 60 seconds, or you quit. Which will come first?
