Fit Body by Julia: Get Pumped #5: Back Focus

Get Pumped #5: Back Focus is my final 2017 workout. I feel kind of sad. I have been really enjoying the long morning workouts I have been doing while on staycation. I do have one more day before I have to return to the daily grind and I have a long Yvette Bachman workout planned for that but starting Tuesday, my morning workouts are back to fitting into the hour time slot. Plus, I will not be doing Fit Body by Julia workouts for a while which makes me sad because they have really grown on me. Her Jori PHAT workouts and some of her strength workouts are so awesome that I cannot wait to return to them. But I have a lot of new workout programs I have to get through and that is what I have planned for the beginning of 2018. I’ll eventually find my way back to Fit Body by Julia workouts.

With that said, Get Pumped #5: Back Focus is not a super long workout. It is only 54 minutes and it even includes a warm up, so this could easily be used on a normal work day. But this morning I finished it off with a long (30 minutes) deep stretch, which felt wonderful after one of Julia’s tough workouts–and especially after two weeks of almost exclusively Julia and Yvette workouts. I have been neglecting my yoga the past few weeks. So I still ended up doing a 90 minute workout.

Anyway, Back Focus is a tough and solid workout but not my favorite of Julia’s workouts. I am a sucker for back workouts so I was really looking forward to this but her short Back & Lat Burst did a better job hitting my back comprehensively than this did. This was definitely a more metabolic workout. It seemed like getting the cardio in plus lots of push ups was as important as working the back. You also get some shoulder work in this workout, too. So back, chest, shoulders and cardio is the real focus–and they all get just as much focus as the back. I probably won’t return to this one.

Get Pumped #5: Back Focus is 54 minutes long; 4 minute warm up and no stretch, and no music. Equipment: dumbbells. Julia also used a sand bag for a few of the exercises. The breakdown below was copied from Julia’s YouTube page. I only made some formatting adjustments and explained any exercise that isn’t obvious from the name. The weights listed below are what I used. The warm up and the cardio burn out at the end are the exact same thing.

Cardio Warm up: 30 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest (4 minutes)

1. Squat + squat jump
2. High knee run
3. Roll back burpee
4. Pushup to T stand
5. Prisoner jacks
6. Angry donkeys

HIIT Tabata: 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds rest, repeat each exercise 4x before moving on to the next exercise (10 minutes)

1. Lateral lunge + single arm sword pull (one 12# DB)
2. Push Press (15# DBs)
3. Piston rows (20# DBs)
4. Sumo deadlift upright row (15# DBs)
5. Single arm superman row (a single arm row while in deep lunge) (one 25# DB)

HIIT Super Set: 50 seconds of work, 20 seconds of rest, repeat 2x (4 minutes)

1. Burpee back fly (back fly in plank and when standing) (10# DBs)
2. Halo slams (like an overhead kettlebell swing but with more force and when you bring it up overhead, you bring it up to the side of body) (one 15# DB)

Tabata Pair Time Pyramid: 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds then go back down the timed pyramid (6 minutes)

1. Kick through burpee
2. Shoulder stand into plow and back bend

HIIT Tabata: 50 seconds of work, 20 seconds of rest, repeat 2x (10 minutes)

1. Lateral lunge +  single arm sword pull (one 12# DB)
2. Push Press (15# DBs)
3. Piston rows (15# DBs)
4. Sumo deadlift upright row (15# DBs)
5. Single arm superman row (one 20# DB)

HIIT Super Set: 50 seconds of work, 20 seconds of rest, repeat 2x (4 minutes)

1. Get up press up and slam (start lying on back holding one DB at chest with both hands, roll to feet (hands free), push DB overhead, swing down between legs then back overhead, squat and lower bottom so you are laying on back again (one 20# DB)
2. Suitcase deadlift to side + oblique plank hop + lateral tuck jump over sand bag (I used 20# DBs)

Tabata Pair Time Pyramid: 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds then go back down the timed pyramid (6 minutes)

1. Alt windmills (10# DBs)
2. Split lunge snatch burpee (10# DBs)

Cardio Burn Out: 30 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest (4 minutes)

1. Squat + squat jump
2. High knee run
3. Roll back burpee
4. Pushup to T stand
5. Prisoner jacks
6. Angry donkeys

For more info on Fit Body by Julia and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.