The dumbbell curl to squat may get you breathing, but is it the most effective way to strength train?
No!
Upper/lower body combo exercises are often a poor choice when trying to build strength or muscle because the load will inevitably be too light for a portion of the movement.
For example, on a deadlift + curl + press, the bend pattern (deadlift) is almost certainly stronger than the upper body movements. This means that you’re going to need far heavier dumbbells to get an appropriate training dose-response on the deadlift than you would doing a curl or a press.
If the goal is to get stronger and gain lean mass, and you want to do full body training, then opt for a superset or a triset instead and load up each pattern appropriately!
For example:
A1. Dumbbell Lunge @20X0, 8-10 reps x 3 sets, 50#, rest 90 sec
A2. Dumbbell Press @20X1, 8-10 reps x 3 sets, 35#, rest 90 sec
