When you think of a typical lower body strength routine many people think of long boring workouts at the gym that use all kinds of equipment. You don’t need a long hour plus workout and a bunch of machinery to make those muscles sore and this 30 minute routine is a perfect example of how to get it done quickly and with only dumbbells.

In this workout video we have split the routine into 4 parts; a 5 minutes warm up, an 8 minute HIIT session, a 12 minute strength routine and then finishing up with a 5 minute cool down and stretch. We have strategically put the routine together this way to maximize your energy output over time while simultaneously increasing the effectiveness of the strength portion of the routine. One of the most important aspects of this is to do the more ballistic movements such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) before you do your strength training both to improve the effectiveness of each strength exercise and also to lower your chances of injury.

We wanted to especially focus on the lower body with this video so we not only chose strength exercises that focus on the legs but we also chose exercises for our HIIT section to be more leg intensive. All of these and other factors intentionally built into this routine come together to create a workout that takes only 30 minutes but get you the strength and endurance improvements of a workout that is twice as long.

Keep this in mind when you are planning your workouts for the day. More is not better when it comes to exercise. Overtraining can lead to increased an increased chance of injury but it can also increase stress-hormone levels which can keep you from losing weight. The best results come from short and intense workouts and unless you are an professional athlete there is no need to go over an hour for each individual training session.

Workout Structure:
- 4 Sections, each timed

Equipment:
- Dumbbells

Warm Up / Cooldown:
- Both included

Warm Up: (5 minutes; 30 Second each, no rest)
- High Knee March
- Torso Rotations
- Toe Touch Circles
- Slow Squats
- Toe Touch Kick (L)
- Toe Touch Kick (R)
- Slow Up and Outs
- Boxer Shuffle w/ Arm Swings
- Pendulum Swing
- Jumping Jacks

HIIT: (8 minutes; 20 on, 10 Off)
- High Knees
- Pop Squats

- Power Skips
- Lateral Jumps

- Jumping Lunges
- Burpees

- Broad Jumps
- Star Jumps

----  Water Break ----

Strength: (12 minutes; 45 on, 15 off)

- Squat
- Supine Leg Raises

- Deadlift
- Side Lunge

- Lunge
- Sumo Squat

Cool Down: (5 Minutes; 30 Seconds Each)
- Cross Leg Toe Touch (L)
- Cross Leg Toe Touch (R)
- Inside Thigh Stretch (L)
- Inside Thigh Stretch (R)
- Seated Toe Touch (L)
- Seated Toe Touch (R)
- Butterfly Stretch
- Hip Flexor Stretch
- Cobra Stretch
- Shell Stretch

This routine is a heavy hitter in the “afterburn” department as it included both a HIIT section and a strength section, so when looking at the total calorie burn for this routine remember that you can expect a vastly higher overall calorie burn due to the continued metabolic disturbance these types or routines cause for up to 48 hours afterward. If you just take the calories you burn in the moment with this workout you can expect a wide range due to how hard you push yourself during the HIIT portion and how much weight you lift during the strength section. Some of you may go over the top end of the calorie burn but very few will be under the minimum. With that said you can expect to burn anywhere from 240 to 422 calories or more in just the 30 minute of this routine.