30 Minutes to Fitness: Muscle Up/Lift 2B Fit

Kelly Coffey-Meyer just came out with 2 new workouts in her 30 Minutes to Fitness series: Home Gym Intervals and Muscle Up/Lift 2B Fit. I pre-ordered them both and did them as soon as I received them (I was actually out of town when they arrived, so I didn’t get to do them as soon as they actually arrived, but I did them as soon as I was home and able!). Muscle Up/Lift 2B Fit is Kelly’s first heavy strength workout (that I am aware of at least and I own almost all of her DVDs). The closest to it is Weights, but you use even heavier dumbbells in this one than you do in Weights. If you lift heavy in these workouts, they are actually pretty tough. They are done circuit fashion and opposing muscle groups are superset–so you are basically going non-stop and your heart will really be pumping if you are using heavy enough dumbbells. As always, there are two workouts that can be used as split series workouts, or you can use the premix that combines them for a full body workout, or you can use the other premixes to separate the muscle groups differently (and do different split series workouts). For each muscle group you do 3 exercises, each exercise is done twice and for most of the exercises you do 8 reps. Now, there is one exception to this. The first two back/chest supersets. You do those exercises 3 times. Every other exercise is only done twice. And the only exercises that are done more than 8 reps are some core moves (core is superset with shoulders) and some of the lower body exercises. In addition there is a Bonus Abs that is pretty unique and tough.

The first time I did these workouts I did the premix that combined both workouts plus the abs. It was an excellent total body workout–and tough! I am feeling it! I really love this DVD and can see using it in may ways in the future. I feel like she did an excellent job of hitting all of the muscle groups in a very well rounded way. What I also liked about this workout is that Kelly was also really challenging herself–you could tell that she was getting winded by her own workout! I usually lift as heavy or even heavier than most trainers in workout DVDs I do, but Kelly used 20s on one of the bicep exercises and though I tried to also use 20s, I had to quickly drop to something lighter. Kelly shared the poundage of all of her dumbbells except her heaviest set. It didn’t look much bigger than her 20s so I am assuming it was 25 pound dumbbells.

Workout #1 (Chest, Back, Shoulders & Core) is 29 minutes long; 4 minute warm up, 23 minute training time and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a bench/step. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used a barbell.

Chest/Back:

1. Double arm bent over rows with palms facing forward (30# DBs)/bench chest press (barbell @ 75#) (3 sets, 8 reps)
2. One arm lawnmower rows (one 50# DB)/chest flys (25# DBs)(3 sets, 8 reps)
3. Pullovers (one 45# DB)/push ups (toes) (2 sets/8 reps)

Shoulders/Core:

1. Arnold press (alternate arms) (20# DBs)/sit on bench and lean back with hands supporting you behind hips, pull legs in then push them out while leaning back (2 sets, 8 reps shoulders/16 reps core)
2. Lateral raises (10#)/boxer toe touches on bench (lay on back with legs raised to ceiling, crunch upper body reaching hands to toes) (2 sets, 8 reps shoulders/16 reps core)
3. Bent over rear delt flys (10#)/supermans on bench (2 sets, 8 reps)

Workout # 2 (Lower Body, Biceps & Triceps) is 30 minutes long; 4:30 minute warm up, 23:30 training time and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a bench/step. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used a barbell and a deadlift hex bar.

Lower Body:

1. Sumo squats (one 75# DB)/bridges (barbell @ 86#) (2 sets, 8 reps sumo squats/16 reps bridges)
2. Front lunges (20# DBs)/straight leg deadlifts (hex deadlift bar @ 105#) (2 sets, 8 reps)
3. Curtsey squats (25# DBs)/frog squats (no weight) (2 sets/ 8 reps curtsey squats/16 reps frog squats)

Biceps/Triceps:

1. Flip curls (16.5# DBs)/pledge curls (16.5# DBs)/skull crushers (15# DBs) (2 sets/4 reps flip curls/4 reps pledge curls/8 reps skull crushers)
2. Seated side (wide) curls (arms to side, elbows kept against sides) (15# DBs)/overhead tricep extensions (one 30# DB) (2 sets/8 reps)
3. Hammer curls (alternate arms) (20# DBs)/ tricep kickbacks (15# Dbs) (2 sets/8 reps)

Bonus Abs is 15 minutes long. Equipment: fitness mat. One of the background exercisers shows easier modifications of the exercises. Kelly calls bonus abs a tabata core workout. Though she sort of uses the tabata principle it is a little different from a true tabata circuit. Each exercise is done 4 times. Each time the exercise is done it is done for 30 seconds with a 10 second rest–so a full round of one exercise (done 4 times) is 2:40 minutes long.

1. Sit on mat and lean back, legs slightly bent in front of you, raise one leg and tap toe w/ opposite hand, alternate sides
2. Extended planks (straight arm plank, raise opposite leg and arm, alternate sides)
3. Full sit up into partial reverse plank (at top of sit up, put hands next to bottom and push body up–hovering for a second before lowering body and doing full sit up)
4. Frog leg crunches (lay on back with legs extended to ceiling and hands behind head, bend knees out to sides while keeping insoles of feet together, crunch upper body bringing elbows to knees)
5. Plank sit outs (in straight arm plank, bring one bent leg underneath of you as high as you can, placing outside of foot/ankle on floor but keeping the rest of the leg elevated, return to plank and alternate sides)

Premixes:

Full Body Workout (both workouts + abs) 67 minutes

Shorter Full Body Workout (2 sets of all exercises) 49 minutes

Shoulders, Arms & Abs 39 minutes

Chest & Back 19 minutes

Legs/Glutes 19 minutes

Quick Superset Fix 1 37 minutes

Quick Superset Fix 2 35 minutes

Muscle Up First Set Pump 29 minutes