
Strength training is the number one fitness trend for 2025. Women are wearing weighted vests, sliding on rucksacks, and hitting the free weight area of the weight room in numbers the industry has never seen from the female demographic. The surge in women on weights is spectacular. But many people (men and women!) don’t know where to start. Lucky for you, it can be as simple as three exercises done for 30 seconds each on each leg with one dumbbell.
What It Can Do
I know what you’re thinking- sounds too good to be true. Just 3 minutes? Yes. You’re sick of being lied to, right? Misleading headlines. False claims. Too good to be true clickbait. I’m sick of all of that, too. Let’s talk about what strength training can do: increase bone density, prevent the likelihood of falls, help preserve muscle mass as we age (in other words, minimize natural age-related muscle decline, called sarcopenia), and improve our quality of life in our later years. These three exercises can do that. They are for strong lower body muscles and health hips. And they can be done in three minutes.
What It Cannot Do
Here’s what you didn’t read– anything about weight loss, body sculpting or contouring, bikini-ready bologna, or my biggest pet peeve as a fitness journalist: belly fat. “Do this to get rid of belly fat” is icky 2000s magazine-selling lingo. It sold. It sold really well. So false claims that simple things get rid of belly fat continue to Pinocchio their way into our inbox, social media feeds, and morning television shows. The thing is, there isn’t a quick exercise or set of exercises key to losing body fat or belly fat nor condescending vernacular (generally directed at women) that quick gets us “swimsuit-ready.” A systems approach to a strong body with low fat (both visceral: around our organs~ SIREN! That’s the potential lethal kind of fat~ and subcutaneous: under our skin) involves a total wellness overhaul. That means dialing healthy changes to our sleep, stress management, nutrition, hydration, aerobic activity, interval exercises, strength training, recovery, environment, and limiting sedentary behavior outside of deliberate rest periods. Something tells me you already had a hunch that claims that a little exercise or two can do all of that were hogwash. Now that an exercise physiologist has told you so, maybe you’ll be less susceptible to being lied to in the future.
The Bottom Line
Now that we’re clear on what this can do- strengthen your lower body with just a dumbbell in little time- let’s get to it.
How Much Weight Should I Use?
If you’re just getting started, I recommend using a 10 pound dumbbell. If that sounds heavy, I understand. But you need a load that weighs enough to challenge the biggest and strongest muscles in your body. You don’t just want to go through range of motion at a joint without effectively exciting the muscle! That would be a waste of time. 10 pounds is about the minimum effective weight to get your lower body muscles engaged with these exercises. With time, build up to a 15 pound dumbbell. I typically use a 20 pound dumbbell. Between 10-20 pounds should suit most people.
Sets
One set will be done in 3 minutes. You’ll get the most out of this program if you do 3 sets. I know what you’re thinking- Dammit! That’s 9 minutes, not 3! Hold up before throwing rotten vegetables. You’ll get 85% of all you’ll get out of the workout in the first set. Why do the extra 6 minutes (additional 2 sets)? For the extra 15%. If you’re short on time or if 3 minutes is all you can wrap your head around committing to, do the one 3 minute set! 85% is a pretty good takeaway.
Reps
Instead of counting reps, this prescription is time-based. Spend 30 seconds on exercise 1. Spend 30 seconds on exercise 2. Spend 30 seconds on exercise 3. Exchange your dumbbell to the other hand and swap legs to repeat on the other side. 30 + 30 + 30 = a minute and thirty seconds (x2)= 3 minutes!
Rest for one minute and shake out your legs before doing another set, if you so choose.
Exercises
EXERCISE ONE: Wall Dead Lift
What It Works: Hamstrings and Glutes
Stand about half an arm’s distance from a wall. Press one foot back into the wall. Push hard, as if you’re trying to kick the wall away from you. Ground the other foot directly underneath your hip on the floor. Hold a dumbbell in the same arm as the leg on the wall. Trace the dumbbell down the front thigh, like you’re shaving your leg. Stop when the dumbbell is below your knee. Pull your hips toward the back wall (like a slingshot!). Your back will not be vertical, but it should be flat at the bottom of the deadlift. Your intention is to flex the hips back as far as possible. To facilitate that, your knee will bend, as well. Think about pulling your hips back as far as you can and your knee will naturally bend (don’t over think the knee). From the bottom of the dead lift, powerfully draw your hips forward, like you’re releasing a rock from a slingshot. Stop the movement when you are standing perfectly upright and with your shoulder over your hip, over your knee, over your ankle. Repeat another repetition. See video for demonstration.
EXERCISE TWO: Isometric Pistol Squat
What It Works: Quadriceps
Take the leg that was positioned on the wall in exercise one and kick it out in front of you. Dorsiflex your ankle- that means pull your toes toward your shin. Sit your butt back on the wall behind you. Aim for a 90-degree angle at the knee and hip on the supporting leg. That means that your knee should be directly over your ankle on the stable leg and your thigh should be parallel to the ground. The kicked out leg should be even with the other leg at the thighs, but the lower leg forms an extension (so the entire leg is hovering parallel to the ground- hurt so good in the quads!). Your dumbbell should be racked at your collarbone on the stable side. See video for demonstration.
EXERCISE THREE: Curtsey Lunges
What It Works: Glutes
Take the leg that was positioned out in front of you in exercise two and weave it back behind you to form a perpendicular line with your base leg. Your base leg will start with the in anatomical position with standing upright (shoulder over hip, hip over knee, knee over ankle). As you lower into the curtsey, that knee and hip will flex like you’re doing a squat. The unstable leg will weave behind you, forming a right angle, and dropping your shin to the ground at the bottom. You want to try to plantar flex at your ankle (point your toes) so that the tongue of your shoe touches down to the ground. (That makes it harder on your glutes to lift you up!) If this poses too difficult of a task for you (for now!), you can grip the floor with your toes to help lift yourself back up. When you rise back up to standing, bring this knee up in the air to challenge balance. Your dumbbell should be held horizontally- by the heads- with both hands at your collarbones. See video for demonstration.
Video Demonstration
Enjoy this brief and effective hips and lower body strengthening series of exercises!
I intend to post more frequent blog posts, but typing content with no ChatGPT assistance is time consuming. (I don’t like artificial, so these words and grammar imperfections are all from the heart and Ms. Pick’s 8th grade grammar class. Ms. Pick’s classroom has since been renovated to a bar. Judge loosely.) You’ll find me far more frequently @BrookBenten on Instagram, blazing trails, racing triathlons, jogging the dog and holding my camera phone out to tell you about it.
For additional short dumbbell-only workouts, check out my latest ebook, 10 Minutes to Slim and Sober. The ebook comes with eight subtitled 10-minute follow-along workout videos (for legs and glutes, core, back and biceps, chest and triceps, HIIT, modified HIIT, power endurance) set to motivating Royalty Free Fitness Music.