Gym Style Back, Shoulders and Biceps

Gym Style Back, Shoulders and Biceps is a strength workout from Cathe’s Hardcore series. There are 3 Gym Style workouts (Gym Style Chest & Triceps, Gym Style Legs, and Gym Style Back, Shoulders & Biceps—all of which have now been reviewed on this blog) and together they are a split series. The difference between this split series and Cathe’s other split series, is that each workout is sold separately—meaning the 3 separate workouts are NOT all on the same DVD like her other split series. Each can be purchased individually, so I will review them that way. However, the three workouts were designed to be used together, so I will put this little paragraph at the beginning of each review. The only other “split” workouts Cathe puts out separately are her lower body workouts (Lower Body Blast, Butts and Guts, Legs and Glutes) but they have no corresponding upper body splits connected with them, so they don’t really count (though you can obviously substitute any of her lower body workouts for the lower body workout that comes with a split series). On to the workout…

Gym Style Back, Shoulders and Biceps is another excellent strength workout. 50 minutes; 3 minute warm up, 44 minute strength training and 3 minute stretch. I will say Chest and Triceps still gets top honors as the most brutal of the three Gym Style workouts, but this one is a tough and effective workout, too. She does a thorough job of working every muscle in the three areas the workout targets. As usual, after a Cathe strength workout my arms and shoulders are still burning. I am surprised I am not feeling it more in my back. I may need to go heavier in the future. The back, in particular, she works from top to bottom. I accidently went much heavier than Cathe on the ribcage pullovers with the barbell. I set my workout room up the night before and I had the barbell set up for the bicep exercises which uses heavier plates. For the back you mostly use dumbbells and the resistance band—the barbell is only used for one back exercise (the ribcage pullovers). I am actually impressed I did that move with that much weight. In the past, I’ve always done the pullovers with a dumbbell and never more than 20 pounds. I realized my mistake during the first set and even though I was challenged, I did every rep and finished the set. So I decided not to lower my weight for the second set. I did feel like it was hitting my arms and shoulders more than my back, so perhaps next time I should lower the weight and see if there is a difference. My arms and shoulders might have been compensating because the barbell was too heavy. Not sure. Nevertheless, I got a great workout and really enjoyed it. The sets, reps and tempos are all over the place in this workout—individual to the exercise and how hard Cathe wants to hit the muscle group, I suppose.

***I have updated this review at the request of a reader with the weights I used the last time I did this workout.***

Equipment needed for this workout: barbell, dumbbells, resistance/dynaband and a step at 10 inches (club step w/ 3 risers on each side) used as a bench.

Back (15 minutes):

Underhand lat row with dumbbells (25# DBs)

One arm lat row with dumbbells (30# DBs)

T-back squeeze with dynaband

Ribcage pullovers with barbell (35# BB)

Superman leg lifts on bench

Superman chest lift with side rotation (on floor)

Shoulders (11 minutes):

Seated overhead press with dumbbells (12# DBs)

Bent arm side lateral raise with dumbbells (10# DBs)

Lateral raise with dynaband

Front raise with dynaband

Seated rear flys with dumbbells (8# DBs)

Reverse fly with dynaband

Biceps (17 minutes):

Bicep curls with barbell (35# BB)

Crazy 8s with dumbbells (10# DBs)

Dumbbell concentration curls (one 17.5# DB)

Combo move: standard bicep curls up and reverse curls down (12# DBs)

Dumbbell hammer curls (17.5# DBs)

Wrist curls with dumbbells (10# DBs)

Premixes: Timesaver 36 minutes and Back & Biceps 35 minutes.