Upper Body Shred is Day 4 in Heather Robertson‘s week long Glow Up 2.0 Challenge. This was a tough and thorough upper body strength workout. Heather crams a lot into 30 minutes and manages to hit every muscle group in your upper body. This morning I paired this workout with Glow Up 2.0 Day 6 Glute & Thighs Workout. Between the two, I got an an excellent hour long total body strength workout.
This is Heather’s second Glow Up Challenge. (Here are my reviews of all of the workouts in her first Glow Up Challenge) Here is a little trailer about the second challenge. And here is her description of it: The Glow Up 2.0 is a free 7 Day workout series to help get you moving and will have you feeling your very best. The program also includes a free glow up guide that discusses nutrition and mindfulness and how incorporating these aspects into your daily routine can help you transform from the inside out! If you click on this link, then you can access the free guide.
This workout has 2 circuits, each containing 6 exercises. Each circuit is done 2 times before you move on to the next circuit. The exercises are all done interval style: 45 seconds of work followed by 15 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.
Upper Body Shred is 29:46 minutes; 2:30 minute warm up and 2:20 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Heather is using 5 and 10 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used a medium strength resistance band when doing the Super V Squeezes in Circuit 1 to give my upper back more work.
Circuit 1:
- Fly & curl (hammer curl DBs to shoulders then do a bent arm lateral raise, once you lower the DBs, complete the hammer curl by lowering DBs) (10# DBs)
- Alternating straight arm front raises (10# DBs)
- Kickback & fly (hinge forward, do one double arm rear delt fly with one tricep kickback) (10# DBs)
- Walking plank (alternate straight arm plank with forearm plank)
- 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 strength resistance band)
- 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)
- Repeat #1-6
30 second rest
Circuit 2:
- Skull crushers (lay on back with knees bent and feet on mat close to glutes, raise hips into bridge and hold isometrically while doing skull crushers holding one DB in both hands) (one 25# DB)
- Fly & leg drop (lay on back with legs raised and bent at 90 degrees, do chest flys while also bicycling legs) (18# DBs)
- Plank & reach (in straight arm plank, alternate raising one arm front of you to shoulder level)
- Press curl & push (bicep curl until DBs are at shoulders then do an overhead press with palms facing you, when you lower DBs, finish bicep curl by lowering DBs to thighs) (15# DBs)
- Fly combo (one straight arm lateral raise then raise both arms out to sides then overhead, lower DBs to shoulder level then pull elbows behind ribs, push DBs back out to sides then lower DBs) (7# DBs)
- Burpee & press (stand holding a DB in each hand, place DBs on floor in front of feet, jump feet back to plank, jump feet back into DBs, stand and do a hammer curl into an overhead press) (18# DBs)
- Repeat #1-6
For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
