30-Minute Core Training with Dumbbells (Build, Day 3)

How To Do Dumbbell Halos and Diagonal Dumbbell Chops

1. Stand with feet hip-distance apart, core engaged and soft bend in your knees. Hold a dumbbell in both hands horizontally at your right hip.
2. Brace your core tight as you pull the dumbbell in a smooth motion from your right hip to left shoulder and then behind and around your head, before bringing it down to your left hip.
3. Exhale as you perform a dumbbell wood chop, driving the dumbbell crossbody while extending your arms up overhead on the right side. Think “left hip to right shoulder”.
4. Lower the dumbbell with control back to your left hip, the perform another dumbbell halo, this time pulling the dumbbell from left hip, to right shoulder, then behind and around your head, before bringing it down to your right hip.
5. Then, perform another dumbbell chop, lifting the dumbbell crossbody from your right hip over your left shoulder, keeping arms straight with slight bends in the elbows.
6. Slowly and with control, lower the dumbbell to your right hip, returning to the starting position.

Modification: Alternate dumbbell front raises with a wood chop.

How To Do Forearm Planks, Dumbbell Pull Throughs, and Body Saws

1. Start in a forearm plank position, arms stacked horizontally beneath your shoulders, core engaged, one long line from your head through your heels. Place your dumbbell on the right side of your body, outside your right elbow.
2. With your left hand, reach underneath your body to grab the dumbbell and pull it across the mat. Stay in plank position, holding hips square to the mat as you slide the dumbbell across the mat; dumbbell ending outside your left elbow.
3. Then, return your left forearm to the mat before slightly rocking forward, pushing your nose towards your fingertips. With control, push back, returning to a forearm plank position.
4. Then repeat, this time reaching underneath your body with your right hand to grab the dumbbell and pull it across the mat, ending outside your right elbow.

Modification: Perform an alternating cross-body dumbbell lift and alternating knee drive.

How To Do Squat Thrusters and Slow Lower Front Raises

1. Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold one dumbbell in each hand. Dumbbells rests on your shoulders, in a front-racked position, overhand grip, palms facing in.
2. With your weight in your heels, sit your hips back as you lower into a squat, striving for a 90-degree angle between your hips and knees.
3. Then, drive through your heels, squeezing your glutes to stand tall. As you stand, perform an overhead thruster, pressing the dumbbells straight overhead. Your biceps should be near your ears.
4. Keeping your arms straight, engage your core as you slowly lower the dumbbells in an arc in front of you, ending when dumbbells are near your hips.
5. Curl the dumbbells back up to shoulder height, returning to the starting position.

How To Do Reverse Crunches and Russian Twists

1. Start lying on your back, core engaged, holding a single dumbbell horizontally between both hands. Extend your legs and arms away from each other, floating them off the mat.
2. Squeeze through your upper abs to lift your torso off the mat, crunching the dumbbell from overhead to your chest as you perform a sit up. At the same time, pull your knees in towards your chest, heels floating off the ground and knees bent.
3. Hold this seated position, keeping your torso straight and long, as you rotate your shoulders first to the right, twisting through the obliques to tap the ground outside your right hip with the dumbbell.
4. Return to center, then repeat on the left side, tapping the dumbbell to the ground outside your left hip before returning to center.
5. Then, slowly and with control, roll back to the mat and extend your arms and legs away from each other, returning to starting position.

Modification: Keep your heels on the ground for the oblique twists, and then sub a half crunch for the full reverse crunch.