Get Ripped & Chiseled is one of Jari Love‘s older workouts, but boy is it tough. All of her workouts are high rep/endurance workouts, but this one is one of the worst. Millions of reps plus she supersets muscle groups, completely burning them out before moving on to the next muscle group. I remember doing this workout many years ago. I am a huge Jari Love fan and I have always bought her new releases as soon as they came out, this one included. This is one of her workouts that had a “dread factor” to it for me. And now that I did it again this morning, I remember why. Lots of muscle failure for me. Jari tells you in her intro that because of the very high reps, you need to go with lighter weights than you would usually use. So I kept that in mind. She does no unusual exercises, but what she does do is lots of different tempos. I lift pretty heavy normally so I used lighter weights than what I usually do for the exercises. They were still too heavy! On several of the exercises I started with a weight that was lighter than what I usually use and still had to drop to something even lighter! So by the time we got to shoulders and biceps, I was grabbing 8 and 10 pound dumbbells! And still burning out! There are a lot of reps. By the end of this workout my muscles were trembling and hours later they are still burning. A highly effective, though painful, workout! BTW–during the overhead press track, even Jari dropped her weights to something lighter!
This is a total body strength workout; however, unlike in her other workouts, there is no core work. But she does include under “Bonus” an ab workout. I am not reviewing it here because it is from her Slim & Lean DVD, which will eventually reviewed here. Before each exercise you get a screen that tells you what exercise you are getting ready to perform. You see one of the exercisers doing several different versions of the exercise. In addition, it tells you how many reps you will be doing and the total pounds that each of them are using for the exercise.
There are 3 exercisers in this workout with Jari. In the intro and at the stretch at the end, she shares that they are not trainers but they are people who come to her classes (and then she talks to them and asks them questions during the stretch; if done properly could have been interesting but instead stalls the stretching and irritates me). Two of them used a barbell for some of the exercises and Jari and the other exerciser used dumbbells. For this workout you need a variety of dumbbells (and a barbell if you want to use one) and a step with two risers.
Jari is her usual low-key self in this workout. Oddly, no Laurie. Laurie is in almost every one of Jari’s workouts and I missed her! But this is still an awesome workout.
Get Ripped & Chiseled is 64 minutes long; 4:30 minute warm up, 55 minute training time and 4:30 minute stretch. For the warm up you will use light dumbbells. For all of these exercises (except tricep dips) there are a lot of reps, but the tempo of the reps will constantly change.
1. Lunges with back foot on 8 inch step.
2. Squats
3. Stiff leg deadlift & bent leg deadlift
4. Chest press (step will be inclined)
5. Push ups
6. Chest fly (step will be inclined)
7. Back track: regular back rows and horizontal rows
8. Tricep dips off step (I raised my step for this–one of the exercisers also raised theirs to 10 inches)
9. Skull crushers laying on 8 inch step
10. Pullovers laying on 8 inch step
11. Overhead press/front raise to side raise
12. Traditional bicep curls
13. Hammer curls
That’s a great point about our bodies not knowing the difference between types of resistance—I remember reading that in Cathe’s emails but totally forgot! I am so sorry to hear your rotator cuff surgery only lasted a year; I really hope your right shoulder continues to feel better. I think I should look into bodyweight programs, as I’ve been eyeing Jari and Barlates, too
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That’s a great point about our bodies not knowing the difference between types of resistance—I remember reading that in Cathe’s emails but totally forgot! I am so sorry to hear your rotator cuff surgery only lasted a year; I really hope your right shoulder continues to feel better. I think I should look into bodyweight programs, as I’ve been eyeing Jari and Barlates, too
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Hello,
I hope you have been doing well. I think we are around the same age (I’m 53). I am returning to this workout and hopefully some similar workouts because I dread heavy weights anymore. I struggle because I do have osteoporosis in my spine and I have read that lifting heavy is necessary, but my joints and back don’t want to. I know this is a muscular endurance workout but I remember it really burning my muscles out. Hopefully, with this kind of training I won’t lose any muscle mass if I work to failure. I read conflicting information on this
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Hi Cara, I haven’t done a Jari Love workout in years, but I do remember a time when her workouts were my go-tos. They burned!
I’m 55 and I have osteopenia. That was discovered in 2019 and I just had my latest bone density test in March. It has improved but is still osteopenia. I’ve had to completely change my workouts due to my shoulder issues. I am now doing bodyweight workouts. It has been more than 2 months and I do not notice a difference in the size of my muscles. I also don’t think I’m any weaker but I am lifting the heavy dumbbells so I can’t really test that theory.
I have also read that lifting heavy is necessary as we age but we also have to consider our own limitations. I was pushing myself because of the mindset that if I didn’t, I would turn into my parents, who did not age well. But your body doesn’t know what type of resistance you are using–whether it’s bands, dumbbells or bodyweight–it just knows you are giving it the resistance it needs to build muscle and strengthen your bones.
Basically, I have just had to accept that if I kept trying to lift heavier and heavier dumbbells I was going to continue to exacerbate my shoulder problems to the point where I might not be able to do anything. I have suffered with chronic pain in my left shoulder since 2018. I’ve had rotator cuff surgery that only helped for a year or so. I’ve had spinal ablations that again, only helped for a year or so. And here I am, back in the pain zone but with BOTH shoulders causing problems rather than just the left shoulder. Finally changing how I was working out stopped my right shoulder from going down the same path as my left shoulder. But my left shoulder is so messed up I’m spending this year getting medical treatment for it–and laying off the heavy weights. I hope to get it corrected and this time, I won’t mess it up again by giving into the heavy lifting mindset.
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