Chiseled Chest & Back: STRENGTH Workout // Day 38

Chiseled Chest & Back is Day 38 in Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week Program. This was a brutal upper body workout. I chalk that entirely up to the short recovery periods. 10 seconds between exercises feels like nothing. For many of the exercises I had to use lighter dumbbells than what I normally would use because there was no real recovery! I was burning out big time even with the lighter dumbbells! I am not a fan of the very short recovery periods. Not only is it not enough time for your muscles to recovery sufficiently for the next set, but it is not enough time to choose the weights for the next exercise and get into position (and also to set aside the weights you just used) let alone towel the sweat off your face or get a sip of water. However, the workout did fly by because you have no time to think (or rest)–you are just go-go-go. Since this workout is just under 45 minutes, I used one of Heather’s Daily 10 workouts as a finisher: Day 1 Upper Body. That almost felt like a recovery after this workout since it gave me 20 second recoveries between exercises!

For this workout, you will do one dumbbell exercise 3 times followed by one body weight exercise done once. The exercises are all done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 10 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.

Chiseled Chest & Back is 44:29 minutes; 4 minute warm up and 5:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather is using 5, 10 and 15 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. 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)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Traveling push up (do one push up then walk hands out to side of body and do one push up, walk hands back to start and do one push up, repeat this series walking hands out to other side of body)
4. Underhand row (bent over row with palms facing forward, alternate arms) (25# DBs)
5. Repeat #4 two more times
6. Swimmers (lay on stomach with arms extended in front of you, lift chest and legs, paddle arms and legs as if swimming)
7. Chest flys (18# DBs)
8. Repeat #7 two more times
9. Plank taps (in straight arm plank, alternate tapping feet out to side (once each foot) then tap hand to opposite shoulder–once each hand)
10. Pull over (lay on back with legs raised and knees bent at 90 degrees, perform a pull over w/ upper body in this position) (one 30# DB)
11. Repeat #10 two more times
12. Super human (supermans)
13. Double arm bent over rows (30# DBs)
14. Repeat #13 two more times
15. Inchworm & hop (stand at end of mat, hinge forward and walk hands out to plank, do one push up, walk hands back to feet, stand and jump, raising arms overhead)
16. 30 second rest
17. Triple chest press (lay on back on mat, knees bent and feet in floor, hips are raised and held isometrically in bridge entire interval, press one arm/DB to ceiling, press other arm/DB to ceiling then lower both arms/DBs at the same time) (18# DBs)
18. Repeat #17 two more times
19. Push back push up (one push up then push glutes back to heels keeping knees elevated off mat)
20. Scapular squeeze (extend arms out to sides in a T with palms facing ceiling, pull elbows behind ribs then push elbows back out to a T) (5# DBs)
21. Repeat #20 two more times
22. 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)
23. Chest press (lay on mat with knees bent and close to glutes, raise hips into bridge and hold isometrically while doing doing chest press) (18# DBs)
24. Repeat #23 two more times
25. Walking plank (alternate straight arm plank with forearm plank)
26. Bent over rear delt flys (8# DBs)
27. Repeat #26 two more times
28. Star fish (lay on stomach, arms extended in front of you, raise arms/chest and legs off floor, hold isometrically while opening straight arms to side and bringing them down to hips while also opening legs)
29. Alternating renegade rows (25# DBs)
30. Repeat #29 two more times
31. Lay down push ups (alternate one push up with one superman)

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