Working out doesn't have to eat up large chunks of your time. In fact, recent research has found short bursts of exercise can be just as effective as traditional, long-duration exercise sessions.

For instance, doing workouts of 10 minutes or less throughout the day was associated with a lower risk of early death, according to a March 2018 review in the ​Journal of the American Heart Association​. In addition, researchers of an October 2019 review in ​Sports Medicine​ found no difference in how micro-workouts and longer, continuous bouts of exercise affected blood pressure and heart health.

Exercising in short bursts also allows you to easily fit exercise into your daily schedule. Instead of trying to block out 30 minutes for exercise three or four days a week, you can fit in a quick 5-minute workout every day.

To help get you started, here is a 5-minute dumbbell workout made up of three exercises that help you build muscle and joint strength and improve cardio fitness. Set a timer for 5 minutes and perform each exercise for the amount of reps listed below. Cycle through the three exercises until the 5 minutes is up.

With this quick workout, you get everything necessary to strengthen your body in a way that realistically conforms to your schedule while providing tons of health benefits.

Trying to lift dumbbells too heavy for you can result in injury. Choose weights that allow you to complete all the exercise reps while maintaining good posture and technique throughout all movements and positions.

The 5 Best Adjustable Dumbbells for Home Workouts, According to Trainers

This exercise is a sequence of movements combined to create a single, well-rounded, whole-body exercise. It incorporates push-ups, rows, squats and overhead presses to build strength, improve conditioning and increase dynamic movement. Additionally, it enhances power output and improves stabilization and balance, while helping to develop total-body stamina.

To make this exercise safe and effective, always keep your back and abs tight, and keep the dumbbells close to your body.

This exercise is often called a “manmaker,” but we make deliberate choices about the language we use and think this move would benefit from a new, gender-neutral name. What do you think it should be called? Let us know at editorial@livestrong.com.

Squats are frequently used in CrossFit workouts and other training programs because of how effectively they strengthen your core and lower body.

Adding dumbbells to a traditional body-weight squat increases resistance and therefore promotes greater muscle growth in your glutes, quads, adductors (inner thighs) and hamstrings.

Wood chops are an excellent exercise for strengthening your entire core, including your obliques, which are involved with torso rotation. By incorporating dumbbells into this exercise, you add extra resistance to increase and enhance the benefits of the exercise.