#196 Toasted Trisets Upper Body is another excellent upper body strength workout. As the title indicates, you are doing circuits of 3 exercises per upper body muscle group. You repeat each 3 exercise circuit 3 times. For the majority of the exercises you are doing 8 reps but some of the exercises you do more. But overall it is a relatively low rep workout so you can lift heavier than usual. Of course, you are not getting a lot of rest between exercises and since you are hitting the same muscle groups with 9 consecutive exercises before moving on to the next muscle group–there is some fatigue happening! I matched Cathe‘s weights for all of the exercises and that really challenged me and worked my upper body thoroughly. At the end of the workout, during the core work, Cathe mentioned several times that her arms were shaking. So were mine! I had some serious upper body trembling going on by the end of this workout. 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.
Toasted Trisets Upper Body is 53:30 minutes; 4 minute warm up (you will use 5 pound dumbbells during the warm up; #1-3 is actually part of the warm up but since you start using 8 pound dumbbells at that point, I started the breakdown there), 7:30 minutes core and 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: step with 3 risers (10 inches) and dumbbells.
- Hammer curls; hammer curl + overhead press; hammer curl + overhead press + 2 overhead tricep extensions (Cathe is using 8# DBs)
- Single arm bent over rows (Cathe is holding two 8# DBs in one hand)
- Plyo push ups (on knees behind step, fall forward and lower into push up on step and push back up to start)
- Bicep curls, 8 reps (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- W (wide) bicep curls, 8 reps (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Hammer curls, 8 reps (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #4-6 (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Repeat #4-6 (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Overhead tricep extensions (French press), 8 reps (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Lying skull crushers, 8 reps (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Tricep dips off side of step, 24 reps
- Repeat #9-11 two more times
- Single arm bent over row, 8 reps (Cathe is holding two 15# DBs on one hand; I used one 30# DB)
- Pullovers, 8 reps to slow 4/4 count (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Bent over rear delt flys, 8 reps (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Repeat #13-15 two more times
- Chest flys, 8 reps (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- 8 push ups
- 2 close grip bench press + 2 wide grip bench press, 4 reps of this pattern; changes to 1 close grip bench press + 1 wide grip bench press, 4 reps of this pattern (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #17-19 two more times–when you repeat #19 you go straight to the second pattern (one of each), after 8 reps of that pattern you do 4 slow wide chest presses
- Overhead press, 8 reps (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Straight arm side raises, 8 reps (Cathe is using 8# DBs)
- Straight arm front raise holding one DB in both hands, 8 reps (Cathe is using one 15# DB)
- Repeat #21-23 two more times; the 3rd time you do #23 you do 10 reps
Core: (starts at 42:00; 7:30 minutes)
- Monster walks, 10 reps (lay on mat, arms extended to sides in a T and legs straight and about hip width apart, lift torso, one arm and opposite leg, keeping arm and leg straight and touch hand to foot, alternate sides)
- Lay on back, arms straight holding 5# DBs and reaching DBs toward ceiling, lift straight legs from floor to arms/DBs, lower legs and when you raise them again, raise them on an angle, lift legs toward arms/DBs again then lift them on an angle to the other side, this pattern is one rep, do 5 reps of this pattern
- Elbow plank hip dips, 10 reps (rotate hips side to side toward mat)
- Repeat #1-3 two more times
