Yesterday, Day 12 of The Asylum, was “Back to Core” again. Not much to report, so I did a piece about carbs and the evil of sugar.
Today, Day 13, was “Strength” and, as much as I loved this workout the first time through, I love it even more now, the third time.
I increased the dumbbell weight this time, and varied it depending on the exercise.
For the warmups, I used 12.5-pound dumbbell, which is the same as I had used throughout the workout before. I will increase this to 15 pounds next time through, because I want to make the moves as difficult as possible at the end.
Well, wait. This is just the warmup, so maybe I’ll leave it the same at 12.5. I don’t want to wear myself out.
I didn’t mention before that after the warmup, this routine is divided into three parts.
Part One is Cardio-Dumbbell Rotations. These work your whole body. I went to 15-pound dumbbells for these.
There are three moves in Part One, and we go through the series three times. Each time through, the moves get more difficult.
ROUND 1.
The first move is a Dumbbell Rotation that involves a curl, squat, jump back to plank, pushup, jump up. Repeat 8 times. I did all 8.
The second move is an Alternating Shoulder Press, 12 per side.
The third move is a single dumbbell Rotating Jump Squat. This was a timed move. I made it through without pausing, but I do need to write down my numbers here on out.
ROUND 2.
Dumbbell Rotations level 2 adds a spider move — where you bring your foot up to shoulder level while still still in plank — and another pushup, so it’s curl, squat, jump back to plank, pushup, spider right, spider left, pushup, jump up. I also managed to do all 8 here.
Next is Reciprocating Shoulder Press, again 12 per side.
Third is Dumbbell Curl Rotating Jump Squat, where we add a two-handed curl with a single dumbbell before doing the rotating jump squat. Had to slow down here, but made it all the way through.
ROUND 3.
Dumbbell Rotations level 3 adds 8 Plank Runs, so it’s curl, squat, jump back to plank, pushup, spider right, spider left, pushup, 8 plank runs, jump up. I only managed 6 of these, resting after the third and fifth ones.
Next is Simultaneous Shoulder Press, 12 per side.
Finally, we add an overhead press, so it’s a Dumbbell Curl Overhead Rotating Jump Squat. I did not make it through these, resting twice. Tough. I really felt the extra weight here.
Part 2 is Back Exercises. I went back to 12.5-pound dumbbells for these. There are only two moves in this section.
Hip Flys came first, where we bend over slightly with knees together and bent, and lift the weight with palms facing back, lifting toward the back, squeezing shoulder blades together.
The second move is Jumping Pullups. The move is just jump-assisted pullups, being sure to engage the back at the top. I mistakenly went wide instead of standard width pullups and tired quickly, resting 3 or 4 times during the minute allotted for the move.
Oh, and, yeah, if you read my Day 2 post, you may remember I had said that I didn’t see a lot of value in using the pullup bar for this series. I was wrong about that. It’s all good. Use it if you got it.
Back to Hip Flys. Same as before.
The second move now adds a pushup between pullups, and progresses, so 1 regular pullup, one pushup, 2 pullups, 2 pushups, and so on for 2 minutes. I got through 4 of each. I could easily do more pushups, but the pullups were difficult.
Back to Hip Flys, again same as before.
The last move is Rock Climber Pullups, where you grab the parallel bars, move your hands to the other parts of the bar, then back, all while staying with your chin above the bar. I’d like to say I went to the floor move, because my in-door pullup bar couldn’t handle it. It couldn’t, but neither could my back and shoulders. Anyway, the floor move was a plank on top of dumbbells, move to low plank one elbow at a time, move hands back to dumbbells and plank, lift one dumbbell to chest and back down, lift the other to chest and back down. Repeat. I took several breaks during this move.
Part 3 is Chest Exercises. Two parts, three times. I used 17.5-pound dumbbells for these.
We start with Chest Presses, but we also work the core here, so we are on our backs with shoulders and feet off the floor, knees near the chest. As we push the weight up, the legs go out, still with feet off the floor. Lower the weight and bring the knees back toward the chest. Repeat for 1 minute.
Next we did a moving recovery with Squat Flys, where we jump to a squat, and move our straight arms toward the back at shoulder level, jump back to feet together, with hands together still at shoulder level.
The next group of Chest Presses is alternating. Shoulders are off the ground, weights are both up, one leg is raised, and one knee moves in as the weight on that same side comes down. The weight on the opposite side stays up, as does the leg on that side. 30 seconds per side.
The next moving recovery was Alternating Back Lunge Flys, where we move one leg back as the arms go out, just like in the first set. As the leg comes back up, hands go together at shoulder height in front. Repeat, but using opposite leg. Keep alternating legs for 1 minute.
The last group of Chest presses, both legs and shoulders stay off the floor throughout the move, and we press the weight up simultaneously with both arms. This is HARD! I had to take a couple of breaks during the minute-long repetition.
And we finish the workout with Frog Jumps to Alternating Single-Leg Plank. Frog jump forward, drop down and jump back to plank with left leg off the ground. Jump back up. Frog jump back. Frog jump up, drop down and jump back to plank with right leg off the ground this time. Jump back up. Frog jump up. Repeat until Shaun T tells you to finish.
NOTE: I’m not too sure I’m doing this last move exactly as Shaun T does it, but I have space issues, so the above is the way I do it.
THAT’S IT. I was DEAD at the end of this workout. I made it through the short stretch, but three hours later I am still feeling wiped out.
And loving it! Tomorrow is “Relief” — I’ll need it.
Hmmmm…. Are carbs really as evil as many people think they are?