Upper Body Strength and Sculpt Supersets

Equipment: Weighted Objects (water bottles, household objects, dumbbells), Optional Elevated Surface.

Format: Perform each move for 0:45 and repeat for 3 rounds.

Superset 1

Move 1: Spider Climber to Pike Push Up

• Begin in a tall plank position with your shoulders stacked over your elbows, core engaged, and back flat.
• Keeping your core engaged, drive your right knee up to your right elbow to crunch your abs, return your right foot back to your starting position and repeat on the left side.
• From your tall plank, push back into a down dog position by pressing away from your hands and shifting your hips back and up toward the ceiling to end with your head in line with your arms. (Your weight should be evenly distributed between your palms, and your heels should reach toward the floor.)
• Shift back to your tall plank position and repeat.
• MOD: Place hands on an elevated surface (chair, couch) or perform from a kneeling position.

Move 2: 3 Way Raise

• Stand with your core engaged, chest up, shoulders rolled back, and weights in hand.
• Keeping your ribcage down and core engaged, lift both arms out to the side, maintaining a slight bend in the elbows and leading with your shoulders and elbows rather than your wrists.
• Slowly bring the weights back down to your sides with control and then raise the weights straight up in front of your body for a front raise, ending with your palms facing the ground.
• Slowly bring them down again to center and with your palms facing behind you, use your back muscles to pull the weight straight back.
• Bring our weights back to center and repeat the lateral raise to front raise and back pull.

Move 3: Chest Fly to Chest Pullover to Leg Drop

• Begin lying on your back on the ground and holding your weights straight over your chest with your arms extended and palms facing each other while bracing your core.
• With a slight bend in your elbows and keeping your shoulders pulled away from your ears, open your arms out wide, stopping when your elbows are in line with your chest.
• Pull the weights back together over your chest and with control, reach your arms overhead toward the wall behind you for a chest pullover.
• Brace your core and use your lats to pull the weights back up to your starting position.
• Straighten your legs, engage your blueberry spine and slowly lower your legs toward the floor.
• Return to the starting position and repeat.
• MOD: Keep your knees bent for the leg drop rather than extending them.

Superset 2

Move 1: Rotating Plank

• Begin in a tall plank position with your core engaged and shoulders stacked over your hands.
• Rotate to the right side, balancing on your right hand and your right foot, bringing your left arm up to the sky and the left foot behind the right foot for balance keeping your hips lifted off the ground.
• Rotate back to center and repeat on the other side.
• MOD: Keep your bottom knee bent as you rotate into your side plank.

Move 2: Isolated 2-Way Bicep Curls

• Begin standing with your back supported against a wall.
• Holding your weighted objects with your palms facing you, pull your shoulder blades back and down with your core engaged.
• Keeping the upper arms stationary, perform a bicep curl with both arms by curling the weights up to your shoulder while contracting your biceps.
• Reverse the movement to return to your starting position, externally rotate your arms and perform a wide bicep curl.
• Return to center and repeat those 2 curls back to back for the allotted time.

  

Move 3: Cross Cross Squat

• Stand with feet slightly wider than hip distance apart, engage your core and shoot your booty back behind you as though you were going to sit on a chair – keeping the weight in your heels and chest up.
• Power through your heels to a standing position.
• Drive your right knee up and across your midline, rotating your torso as you bring your left elbow to meet your knee; repeat on the other leg and then back to the squat and repeat.
• MOD: Squat down to a chair to help cue you with good form in your squat so you’re not loading all your weight forward or bending at the waist.

Finisher

Walking Plank to Mountain Climber (1:00)

• Begin in a tall plank position with your core engaged and shoulders stacked over your hands.
• Brace your core and lower yourself down to your elbows one arm at a time and then back up.
• Repeat 2 rounds and once you’re back in your tall plank, perform 4 mountain climbers by running your knees in toward your chest and back out, one at a time. Repeat from the walking plank.
• MOD: Perform this move from an elevated surface.