The Two Birds With One Stone Workout

Hi there, athletes. This is Jonathan from http://www.WorldofDiets.com and I’m happy that Matt gave me this opportunity to write a guest post here today.

I have a love-hate relationship with workouts. I like how they make me feel and look and I enjoy them… to a point. However, I hate that they take me time I could spend doing other things like reading or watching House MD on TV (I love that screwy doc).

So, I always try to cut my workout time short. However, I don’t want it to be ineffective. So, I try to do the 2 Birds With One Stone Workout which basically means that I do exercises that work the upper and lower body at the same time.

These upper and lower body exercises tend to be harder, because they employ more muscles, so you get an awesome workout and you save a lot of time.

My strength workouts are usually 30 minutes long at most, and I train my entire body from head to toe during that time.

Let me share 3 of these exercises with you so you’ll see how powerful they can be:

Forward lunge with bicep curls

To do this exercise you will need a pair of dumbbells. Grab a weight in each hand. Stand straight and take one step forward with your right leg. Go into a lunge while curling both dumbbells. Make sure that your left knee (the rear one) doesn’t touch the ground and that your front knee is bent to no more than 90 degrees.

Rise, return to the starting position and repeat, while reversing your legs. This time, the left is the front one.

Squat and Front Dumbbell Raise

This exercise can be done with a dumbbell in each hand or, to make it a easier, with one dumbbell held in both hands.

Stand straight with your feet approximately shoulder width apart. Hold the dumbbells and keep your arms straight at your sides. Go into a squat by bending both knees and swing both dumbbells up with stretched out arms until they reach the height of your shoulders.

Lower the dumbbells and rise back to a standing position. Repeat 10-15 times for one set.

Squat and Shoulder Press

This exercise works the lower body and your shoulders. Grab a dumbbell in each hand and hold them at either side of your head. Go into a squat. Rise and press both dumbbells up until your arms are totally straight above your head.

Check out this video for more upper and lower body exercises that you can do at home, in the gym or in the park:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my post and that you’ll use these exercises to do awesome total body workouts to achieve your fitness goals.

*Jonathan Dunsky blogs at World of Diets where he writes about fitness, nutrition, and health. You can follow him through his RSS Feed.*

Tagged as: Guest Post, Strength Training