Improve your mobility and condition your body with this strength flow dumbbell workout

Build up your strength all while improving your joints' movement

Woman doing squats with dumbbells
(Image credit: Getty)

Strength training is important to help us carry out everyday activities, as well as offer better protection to our joints, whereas mobility exercises are important for joint health and increasing our range of motion. This workout focuses on both at the same time. It will take you around 20 minutes and all you’re going to need is one dumbbell (check out our best dumbbells if you don't own one already).

This style of training is what’s known as ‘strength flow’ – it’s a type of workout that is designed to improve your strength with a sequence of exercises that flow from one to the next. It’s popular in yoga, but this particular workout involves strength training exercises and home gym equipment, whilst transitioning from one move to the other.

You’ve got four exercises in this workout and you’ll transition from one exercise straight into the next. You’re going to do four reps of each exercise (on each side where applicable) before resting for a minute and then repeating the workout four times. These exercises target your upper and lower body, so it’s a great full-body workout. Remember, no rest in between each exercise, here’s what you’ll be doing:

  • Kneeling press
  • Knee to stand
  • Drop bent over row
  • Devils press

If you don't have any dumbbells, you can always use a single kettlebell instead. No weights at all? Grab a big keg water bottle (like the one in our best gym water bottle guide) and use this as a dumbbell instead. To help assist with your stability make sure you wear a good pair of workout shoes, so that you have the right support. For more full-body workouts, this strength superset routine is super speedy and only requires a pair of dumbbells too.

Bryony Firth-Bernard
Staff Writer, Active

Bryony’s T3’s official ‘gym-bunny’ and Active Staff Writer, covering all things fitness. In her spare time, you will find her in her natural habitat - the gym - where her style of training is a hybrid of bodybuilding and powerlifting. Bryony loves writing about accessible workouts, nutrition and testing innovative fitness products that help you reach your fitness goals and take your training to the next level.