40 MIN Upper Body PULL Workout // Day 3 HR12WEEK 2.0

Upper Body Pull Workout is Day 3 in Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week Program. The “pull” in the title means you are working your back and biceps, which compliments Day 1’s push workout, which worked the chest, triceps and shoulders. I found this to be a very metabolic workout–which is impressive since it is all upper body. Heather, of course, includes a few cardio exercises to elevate your heart rate but if you are challenging yourself with the weights you use then your heart will be elevated anyway. Bent over rows using 40 pound dumbbells definitely raises my heart rate! I feel like my back and biceps got some very solid work. Since this workout is only 41 minutes, I used Heather’s At Home Arm Toning Workout as a finisher. Between the two I burned 407 calories this morning. Not bad for a strength day. During the warm up and the stretch, Heather spent some time warming up and stretching your wrists and forearms which I really liked.

This workout contains 3 circuits; each circuit contains 5 exercises. Each circuit is done twice before moving on to the next circuit. All of the exercises are all done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the lower right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Heather previews the next exercise. If an exercise has impact, Heather shows a low impact modification.

Upper Body Pull Workout is 41:12 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 5:40 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather uses 10 and 15 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used a medium resistance band for the Super V Squeezes in Circuit 2.

Circuit 1:

1. Single arm bent over row (one 40# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other arm
3. Bicep rotation (start in hammer curl, raising DBs until the are at shoulders, when you lower DBs open arms out to sides with palms facing ceiling, reverse motion back to start) (15# DBs)
4. Negative bicep curls (curl DBs up fast and lower very slowly) (15# DBs)
5. Rear pull jacks (cross jack the legs, arms are raised to shoulder level with elbows bent at 90 degrees, cross bent arms in front of you when ankles are crossed and pull elbows behind you when legs are wide, wrists and elbows remain at shoulder level throughout)
6. Repeat #1-5

30 second rest

Circuit 2:

1. Underhand row (bent over row, alternate arms, palms face in front of you) (30# DBs)
2. Preacher curl (kneeling concentration curl–in kneeling lunge, with same side tricep against inner thigh of front leg, do single arm bicep curls–other arm is behind back) (one 16.5# DB)
3. Repeat #2 on other side of body
4. Super V squeeze (lay on stomach with arms extended in front of you, raise arms and legs in superman, hold and pull elbows behind back, push arms in front of you again then lower hands/legs) (I used a medium resistance band)
5. Squat & curl (stand with legs wide, lower into squat and hold, do one double arm hammer curl then stand) (16.5# DBs)
6. Repeat #1-5

30 second rest

Circuit 3:

1. Hammer curls (alternating hammer curls, palms face the body when curling) (16.5# DBs)
2. Narrow & wide row (bent over double arm rows, alternate one narrow row (arms close to sides) with one wide row (elbows away from the body) (16.5# DBs)
3. Super human (superman)
4. Bicep burn out (fast alternating bicep curls) (6# DBs)
5. Ninja hop & curl (start in straight arm plank but holding DBs, jump feet to hands so you are in a deep squat, remain in deep squat while doing a double arm hammer curl, place DBs on floor again and jump feet back to plank) (15# DBs)
6. Repeat #1-5

For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.