I’m a fan of body weight exercises and I like putting them together to create short, intense interval routines. I’m always on the lookout for new workouts and when I came across a recent article that describes two exercises that I do quite often:

• Dumbbell swings
• Burpees (or squat thrust)

According to the article (linked at the end of this post) these two exercises are effective when done one after the other without any rest in between. It is called a countdown workout. For example, you would start with say 15 reps. You would do 15 dumbbell swings, followed by 15 burpees. After that set, you do 14 reps of dummbell swings followed by 14 reps of burpees, and so on until you’re down to 1 rep.

Countdown workouts can be done with most body weight exercises and you may find that you won’t make it to one rep. That is fine though because it is supposed to be a challenging workout.

Why These Two Exercises?

If you consider the movements for both of these exercises you will see that they are working the entire body. Use them with the countdown method and you will end up doing 240 reps within 12 – 15 minutes. Since it’s an interval type of workout, you will also have the effect of boosting your metabolism long after the workout is complete. The article itself has a link to a podcast that will explain even more about why these two exercises are so effective.

Here are examples of how both exercises are done in the videos below.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Swing:

Burpees or Squat Thrust:

Resource:
The Ultimate Two-Exercise Workout