#234 Strong Express Upper Body is a fast paced upper body strength workout. Cathe works your upper body hard in a short amount of time. I needed something quick this morning so this worked perfectly. However, I do feel that this workout is unbalanced. Cathe hits the shoulders, biceps and triceps harder than the chest and back. Cathe does work every muscle group in your upper body (and a little bit of core work, too) but the chest and back are the two largest muscle groups in your upper body, so why do all of the smaller muscle groups get the bulk of the work? Especially the shoulders. Cathe really hits your shoulders hard. Plus, the largest muscle group, the back, gets the least amount of work. So, though she did work me well this morning and I even enjoyed this workout, I will not return to it. I need more balanced upper body workouts, or even workouts that favor the back, since when you are working those larger muscles groups (back and chest) you are automatically working all of the smaller ancillary muscle groups, too (biceps, triceps, shoulders). You can do Cathe’s live workouts by subscribing to her streaming site or purchasing the individual downloads. Here is a video clip of this workout.
Strong Express Upper Body is 35:30 minutes; 3 minute warm up and 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: a step with 3 risers on each side (10 inches) and dumbbells.
- Straight arm side raises (Cathe is using 5# DBs)
- Start with DBs in front of thighs, palms facing forward, open arms out to side, bending them at shoulder height so your arms are in goal post then press DBs up to ceiling, keeping elbows bent (Cathe is using 5# DBs)
- Scarecrows (Cathe is using 5# DBs)
- Raise straight arms in front of you to shoulder level, thumbs facing the ceiling, hold arms isometrically at shoulder level and rotate hands/DBs so palms face the floor, rotate hands/DBs so thumbs face ceiling again, lower arms back to start (Cathe is using 5# DBs)
- Repeat #1-4
- Single arm back fly (Cathe is using one 10# DB)
- Upright rows (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Hip hinge + 1 rear delt fly (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Repeat #7
- Repeat #8; changes to hip hinge + 3 rear delt flys (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Overhead press, partial and full reps (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Sweeper/supination curls (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #11 with lighter DBs (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Hammer curls (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #13
- Regular bicep curls (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #12 with lighter DBs (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Repeat #14 with lighter DBs (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Repeat #16 with lighter DBs (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Bent over single arm row (Cathe is using two 12# DBs held in one hand; I used one 25# DB)
- Single arm bicep curl using the same arm that just did #20, other arm is behind back (Cathe is using one 12# DB)
- Repeat #20 & 21 on other arm
- Repeat #21
- Repeat #21 on other arm
- Bent over tricep kickbacks (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Overhead tricep extensions (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Repeat #25 & 26
- Repeat #26
- Close grip bench press (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Wide grip bench press to different tempos (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Chest flys (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #30 & 31
- 5 full sit ups + 5 push ups, repeat this combo 5x
- Lay on back, hands behind head, head/neck raised, bent legs are raised with ankles crossed, do reverse crunches in this position
