Two dumbbells, five exercises and 24 minutes to add size and strength to your upper body

With the festive season kicking off, you may find your training is getting put on the back burner. An hour upper body session may have been doable a few weeks back but, now with family visits and Christmas parties lined up, even 45 minutes feels like a stretch. But you don’t have to say goodbye to your gains — this 24-minute workout from fitness trainer Joe Bronston hits your biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, and back, giving you a full upper-body blast in less than half an hour.

All you’ll need is a little space and a pair of dumbbells – no other equipment. The workout follows a circuit format of 40 seconds of work, followed by 20 seconds of rest, to help maximise your time and effort. The six exercises will target every major muscle in your upper body to help you get stronger, but the minimal rest periods will keep your heart rate up, so you'll be improving your cardio too.

Some of the exercises are performed on the floor, so make sure you have something soft beneath you, whether that's an exercise mat or towel. Start on the first exercise; perform as many reps as you can for 40 seconds, with good form, then rest for 20 seconds, then move onto the next exercise. Once you've worked your way through the list, we'd rest for a minute, then repeat it two to three more times. Here are your exercises:

• Alternating dumbbell Z press
• Renegade row to push up
• Iso bridge chest flys
• Bent-over rear delt raises
• Hammer curl to front raise

No doubt at some point you'll be looking for something similar for your legs; so here's a dumbbell-only workout for your lower body that you can blast through in 30 minutes.