Cathe Live: Burn Sets Biceps & Triceps

#304 Burn Sets: Biceps & Triceps is the 3rd and final workout in Cathe‘s Burn Sets Live workouts. Between the 3 workouts Cathe hits every major muscle group and she works them thoroughly. The other two workouts are Back, Chest & Shoulders and Express Legs Heavy Weight. I love these workouts. I also love how hard Cathe is working in these live Burn Set workouts. She is all by herself and using much heavier weights than she ever used in her other live workouts that have a class full of people. She even swaps out to lighter weights mid set because she is really challenging herself. I love it! She only lifts this heavy in DVD workouts and not all of them either–she has about 5 series in which she lifts really heavy. She never challenges herself like this in her live workouts. The pandemic is a horrible thing but looking at the bright side, it has motivated Cathe to create some awesome live workouts that (hopefully) encourage the home exerciser to use heavier weights. These workouts definitely challenged me. Well, they challenged my left arm, which is what I lifted for. As I already mentioned in Back, Chest & Shoulders, my left side is still weak from shoulder surgery. You have two biceps tendons that connect the biceps muscle to two different areas of your shoulder bones. When repairing my rotator cuff, one of the tendons was moved and re-attached with a pin. My ortho surgeon showed me on an anatomical picture of a shoulder but I can no longer remember the specifics of it. For that reason, my left biceps are really lagging behind other muscle groups and I feel everything in that tendon. I lifted today for my left arm and the weights I used really challenged that arm, but they did not challenge my right arm at all. The bicep exercises especially–I barely felt it in my right arm. I don’t know how long it will take to even things out again between my arms, but I do believe workouts like these will help me bridge that strength gap. So probably starting after I get through the current month of workouts I already have mapped out, I will start scheduling these workouts weekly. Of course, Cathe has created a few other heavy lifting live workouts that I plan to try. So hopefully there will be a few more for me to use to keep things interesting.

***11/28/20 Update: This workout was used as part of my 6 week Cathe Live Heavy Weight Rotation. Because of that I am updating this review for anyone interested. In the breakdown below, I show what I lifted at the beginning of the 6 weeks and what I lifted at the end of the 6 weeks. This shows any strength gains I made by the end of the 6 weeks.***

Burn Sets: Biceps & Triceps is 38:30 minutes; 3 minute warm up and 1:30 minute stretch. Equipment: various dumbbells, full step 12 inches (4 risers), a chair and a fitness mat. As you can see below, literally the only weight I could match Cathe on was her first warm up set weight. I had to keep it much lighter even for the warm up set! It gives me something to work towards.

Warm Up Set:

1. Bicep Curls (Cathe is using 5# DBs)
2. Overhead tricep extensions (Cathe is using 5# DBs)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 with heavier DBs (Cathe is using 8# DBs; I used 6# DBs)
4. Repeat #1 & 2 with heavier DBs (Cathe is using 10# DBs; I used 7# DBs)
5. Repeat #1 & 2 with heavier DBs (Cathe is using 12# DBs; I used 8# DBs)

Circuit #1:

1. Standing bicep curls (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
2. Overhead tricep extensions (French press) (Cathe is using one 35# DB; I used one 25# DB/last week of rotation one 30# DB)

Circuit #2:

1. Seated double arm bicep curls (Cathe is sitting on chair) (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
2. Lying incline close grip bench press (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 13# DBs/end of rotation 15# DBs)

Circuit #3:

1. Seated alternating sweeper curls (supination curls); ends with 4 double arm sweeper curls (Cathe is sitting on chair) (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
2. Lying incline skull crushers (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs)

Circuit #4:

1. Single arm concentration curls (Cathe is sitting in chair) (Cathe starts using one 25# DB then drops to one 20# DB mid set; I used one 14# DB/end of rotation I used one 15# DB)
2. Lying cross-body tricep kickbacks (Cathe is using one 12# DB; I used one 12# DB)

Circuit #5:

1. W curls (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs/end of rotation 13# DBs)
2. Flat bench narrow chest press (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 13# DBs/end of rotation 15# DBs)

Circuit #6:

1. Alternating hammer curls; she ends with double arm hammer curls (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
2. Place step topper on floor, with palms on corners/sides of narrow end of topper, do concentric tricep push ups (lower normal speed and push up slowly) (Cathe is on her knees)

Circuit #7:

1. Concentric bicep curls (raise slow, lower quicker) (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs/end of rotation 15# DBs)
2. Eccentric tricep push ups on step topper (lower slow, push up quicker) (Cathe is on her knees)

Circuit #8:

1. Eccentric bicep curl (raise normal speed, lower slowly) (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs/end of rotation 14# DBs)
2. Single arm tricep kickbacks (Cathe is using one 15# DB; I used one 11# DB/end of rotation one 12# DB)

Circuit #9:

1. Reverse curls (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs)
2. Tricep dips off step (Cathe has one 12# DB on her hips)