Day 54: Chest & Shoulders Dumbbell Strength Workout / HR12WEEK 4.0

Chest & Shoulders Dumbbell Strength Workout is Day 54 in Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week 4.0 program. This is an excellent upper body workout. I really enjoyed it and that is saying a lot since the chest is my least favorite muscle group to work. Heather keeps things interesting though by varying the exercises. My chest and shoulders were worked very well.

This workout contains four circuits; 2 chest circuits and 2 shoulder circuits. Each circuit is done twice. The exercises are 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. At the bottom of the screen during the preview, there is a small graphic with a weight recommendation–light, medium or heavy.

Chest & Shoulders Dumbbell Strength Workout is 40:34 minutes; 30 second intro, 3:45 minute warm up and 3:25 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. The weights listed below are what I used.

Circuit 1:

1. Traveling push up (do one push up then walk hands out to one side, do another push up, walk hands back to start and do one push up, repeat on other side)
2. Alternating fly (lay on back with legs raised and knees bent at 90 degrees, legs remain in this position while doing a single arm chest fly, alternate arms) (20# DBs)
3. Chest press (barbell @ 75#)
4. Upward chest fly (stand with arms at sides, palms facing in front of you, do a straight arm front raise, bringing ends of DBs together in front of you so you form a V when lifting) (8# DBs)
5. Repeat #1-4

Circuit 2:

1. Kneeling press (do a single arm overhead shoulder press while in kneeling lunge) (one 20# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other arm
3. Front & side raise (alternate one straight arm lateral raise with one straight arm front raise) (10# DBs)
4. Around the world (with palms facing forward and hands in front of thighs, keeping arms straight, raise DBs out to sides then overhead, lower DBs out to sides and back in front of thighs) (8# DBs)
5. Repeat #1-4

30 second rest

Circuit 3:

1. Neutral chest press (lay on back with knees bent and feet close to glutes, raise hips into bridge and hold isometrically while doing a single arm chest press, Heather’s arm is situated so the dumbbell is slightly diagonal) (one 30# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other arm
3. Negative fly (lay on back with legs are raised and knees bent at 90 degrees, legs remain in this position while doing a chest fly, open arms slowly and bring them back together at a normal pace) (20# DBs)
4. T-push ups (holding a DB in each hand, do one push up then rotate into side plank, raising top arm/DB to ceiling, alternate sides with a push up between each side) (10# DBs)
5. Repeat #1-4

Circuit 4:

1. Upright row (15# DBs)
2. Negative military press (in high double kneeling, hold a DB in each hand at shoulders, palms face each other/sides of face, push DBs overhead then slowly lower back to start) (20# DBs)
3. Rear delt fly (bent over rear delt flys, alternate arms) (9# DBs)
4. Cross punch combo (hold one light DB in each hand, do one cross punch each arm + one double arm overhead press) (8# DBs)
5. Repeat #1-4

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