Jun 25 2012

3 Weeks To Awesome – 10 Minute Shoulder Workout

3 weeks to hit your next fitness goal. Are you ready? Let’s do this.

This program is designed for beginners or advanced exercisers. The program focus will be the same over the next 3 weeks no matter what level you are at currently, but the workouts will be different depending on your ability.

If you are taking your first steps towards working out and getting in shape, then the workouts I am creating specifically for this program are for you. I’m rehabbing myself after being in a severe car crash, so I am doing these workouts in real time right along with you.

If you want to start to workout, but don’t know where or how to start, start here. I know that if you have never worked out before, or if it’s been years since you last exercised, jumping into a workout routine can be intimidating.

I am creating this new BPM.Tv 3 week workout series to guide you through it. I will be doing all the reps and sets with you in real time. This workout requires minimal equipment – all you need is a gallon size water bottle.

This workout is designed to get you moving. It will develop your flexibility, co-ordination and activate sleepy muscles. If you’re new to exercise, it will boost your strength, burn fat and spike up your metabolism.

VIDEO: BPM 3 Weeks To a New You – Fitness Program Day 1

VIDEO: BPM 3 Weeks To a New You – Fitness Program Day 1

If you are more advanced, choose another workout from BPM.Tv that focuses on the same muscle group. Today we are hitting shoulders, so if you are more advanced pick a workout from the Lift Yourself Up: Achieving Awesome Arms section or the Shoulders section.

This is one of my personal favorite advanced shoulder workouts: Just Be – 600 Rep Shoulder Workout

BPM Cori Ann Lentz just be 600 rep shoulder workout workouts

In addition to the workouts I am posting for this program, you will also have a focus and homework each day.

Why? Because exercise really is not enough to reach your fitness goal, no matter what it is. To reach any fitness goal you will need to embrace an entire lifestyle that involves proper hydration, nutrition, rest, motivation and time management.

We are going to train each of these aspects to make fitness a part of your lifestyle. This 3 week program isn’t just going to train you physically. This program will be training you mentally and emotionally as well. It really is for all levels, not just for beginners. Even advanced exercisers can benefit from understanding how things like hydration affect their goals.

Making the choice to live a healthy lifestyle is a huge first step, but you need to follow up with action.

The good news is that if you are a complete beginner, you will make fast progress with basically any form of fitness activity. The exercise doesn’t really matter as much as your form, nutrition, hydration, rest, flexibility, time management, stress level and attitude. It is these important parts of fitness that I want to help you focus on over the next 3 weeks and that is why this program is good for beginners or for advanced exercisers. We can all benefit from training to truly live a healthy lifestyle in all the different aspects of our lives, not just exercise.

This is a 3 week program that you can start at any time. Check back frequently for updates.

We will go over nutrition in more detail during the program, but to truly maximize the results you really should back it up with smaller portion sizes and more frequent meals. Eating small portions 6-8 times per day will have a dramatic impact on your metabolism. Take a few minutes to go through the food and diet section of the site to read about nutrition. Also, make sure to focus on the homework I give you during this program each day.

No matter what level you are at currently, it truly will be your focus on these seemingly smaller things that will supercharge your fitness efforts.

Finally, if you know anyone who would benefit from this workout – family, friends etc I hope that you will share it with them.

xoxo ~ Cori

Workout Breakdown

Time 54x54 workouts Time: 10 minutes.
Workout 54x54 workouts Workout Type: Time challenge.
Count 54x54 workouts Workout Exercises: 3.

Get your gear:

  No gear needed.
Just your own body and a decision to get it done.

Buy the same nutrition products as me:

Protein 54x54 workouts PROTEIN
Get your protein here
Greens 54x54 workouts SUPER GREENS
Get your super greens here
PB2 54x54 workouts Peanut Butter
Get your PB2 here
Egg Whites 54x54 workouts EGG WHITES
Get your egg whites here
Tea 54x54 workouts Tea
Get your tea here

Beginners Program Day 1 1024x576 workouts

3 Weeks To Awesome – 10 Minute Shoulder Workout

Set your interval timer to a total of 10 – one minute – intervals with no rest. Go through these exercises 2 times for a good 10 minute workout. If you can go through it again, go for it. I went through it a total of 4 times.

If this is your first workout in years, it is extremely vital that you focus on your form. It’s more important to do the exercise correctly than quickly. The great thing about this workout routine is that once you master the basic forms of these exercises, you will be in a position to make the jump to more advanced workouts.

Be mindful of your body awareness. When you get to the point where you can easily complete the routine, push it to the next level and either add weight or go through the entire routine again, or do both. As you start to pay closer attention to your body, you will feel your energy and strength increasing – it can be very empowering!

This workout is only 10 minutes. You can power through it. As you get more advanced, repeat it. If you’re new, feel proud that you are getting through it just once. Embrace the small victories. We all start at the beginning. There’s no shame in that.

Remember to post your scores! POST YOUR HOW MANY REPS YOU GOT THROUGH IN EACH INTERVAL! POST HOW MANY TIMES YOU WENT THROUGH IT! Keep track of your workouts so you know when you’re making progress!

Just remember that no matter how hard you workout, it is the homework and the seemingly smaller details that will ultimately get you to your goal. You can find the homework at the end of each workout in the 3 week program.

Warm Up:
The warm up is built into this workout.

Rotator Cuff Warm Up:
1 minute right (I got 17, then 19)
1 minute left (I got 16, then 22)
It is a good idea to always warm up with a dynamic warm up and rotator cuff exercises before any upper body work.

Single Leg Scaption with Retraction, Knee Up and Extension:
1 minute right (I got 9, then 18)
1 minute left (I got 13, then 18)
Keep your abs tight and squeeze it all in throughout this movement. Hold your balance. Balance on one leg. Bring your knee up. Raise  your arms in a V. Squeeze your shoulder blades down and back when your arms are in the top position. Bring your arms down. Bring your leg back to an extension and squeeze your glutes. Repeat. Switch sides after a minute.

Y – T – A Plank Up:
1 minute (I got 9, then 7)
YTAs are a great combo exercise to help improve poor posture from sitting at a desk for hours, texting, or being in front of a computer. This exercise feels great, can be performed with or without weighted resistance and truly helps open up the chest get you to sit up straighter. We are going to do it prone (face down on the ground) and add a plank up to it.

Lay face down on the ground. Lift your arms to a Y position. Thumbs up. Hold it and squeeze. Move your arms to a T position. Palms to the ground. Hold it and squeeze. Move your arms to an A position. Pinks up. Hold and squeeze. Move your arms under you, elbows and forearms on the ground. Press your forearms and elbows into the ground, lift your body into a plank, hold it, then lower back down. Repeat for one minute.

Repeat the entire routine again, then you’re done! If you feel good and you want to try to go through it again, go for it. Post your scores! Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me! I’m injured right now from the car crash I was in a few weeks ago, so I fully expect you to beat my numbers!

Focus of the Day and Homework

The focus and the homework today is to learn about hydration. Learning about how important it truly is to your goal is the first step. Putting that knowledge to work is the next step.

The homework today is to read and watch this post on hydration: How Much Water Do You Drink Each Day?

bpm cori ann lentz how much water do you drink each day workouts

After you have read and watched this post on hydration, you are going to put it into action by making sure you drink enough to stay hydrated each day during the next 3 weeks. This is going to be your main focus today and tomorrow because it is one of the most important factors in reaching your health goal, no matter what it is.

Buy your gallon jugs of water. Carry them around with you. Don’t worry about the weird looks your friends, family and coworkers give you. Make sure you drink at least 1 gallon each day. I drink a total of 2 gallons each day. It is very likely that you need more than 1 gallon of water each day while you are exercising. Read through the post, define an amount of water you can commit to, then do it.

Follow Through

I like to post something about cardio and nutrition at the end of every post because it is important.

Cardio and nutrition are going to be two of the most important parts of achieving your results, no matter what what your goal is. You can not work off your nutritional decisions with exercise. What? You can’t eat a donut, then just do 2 hours of cardio and *poof* it will be like it never happened? That’s what I’m saying. Come on. No. You can’t.

Your body doesn’t work like a simple addition or subtraction problem. It is not calories in vs. calories out. What you eat has a chemical effect on your body. Even if you do cardio to ‘burn it off’ the chemical effect is still present. Different sugars have an affect. Different proteins have an effect. Different fats have an effect. When you take a vitamin, you understand that it has an effect in your body that cardio will not ‘work off,’ right? Food works the same way. Different foods have positive and negative chemical effects within our body. You can’t just work them off.

You have to unlock and unleash the body fat by working with your body in every aspect. Your body works in harmony like a symphony. When one instrument is off, the entire song doesn’t sound right. A good steady drumbeat can’t make up for a guitar that’s out of tune. 2 hours of cardio cannot make up for a donut. Or pizza. Or macaroni and cheese. Or wine and a baguette. Got it?

Cardio

I recently cut my cardio to a minimum of 30 minutes of stairs with intervals as cardio 5 days per week.

When I’m trying to lose fat I usually do two separate 45 minute cardio sessions a day, but one session is really more like light activity and less like cardio.

I love my cardio and I like to stay conditioned. I personally prefer to do a little more cardio than the average figure competitor, then also eat a little more. It takes more time and effort, but I feel the pay off is well worth it.

The pay off is that I feel awesome. It might take me a little longer to build muscle because I do love my cardio, but it’s the cardio that helps me to keep focused and positive for the long haul. It’s important to know what keeps you motivated for the long haul too. I feel energized by cardio. I love it.

Post Workout Nutrition

When I was trying to gain muscle I finished every workout with a protein shake, animal protein, and some complex and simple carbs. These are healthy choices for gaining or for performance. These are not the right choices for me for trying to lose fat, define and sculpt muscle. Trying to define and sculpt muscle is different from gaining muscle. This means I need to eat something different.

When I am trying to lose fat and sculpt muscle, I am much more strict with my diet. Only true food sources. No protein powder.

I finish up every workout with lean protein from true food sources (a little red meat, white chicken, white fish and egg whites are best) and some dark green veggies or Super Greens mixed with water only. Again, no protein powder. If you are a vegetarian you would most likely need to supplement with protein powder. If you are not, let me say again that true food sources work best for losing body fat.

Even when I am trying to lose fat, I still FEED my body.

Want more information about nutrition? Check out BPM.tv Nutrition 101.

BPM Cori Ann Lentz Nutrition 101 workouts

You can also look at my current personal fat loss diet in order to get ideas on how to develop your own nutrition plan.

Cori Ann’s Prepping Fat Loss Diet:

BPM Cori Ann Lentz Nutrition Fat Loss Diet Plan1 workouts

You can click on the image above to link to my fat loss diet to get details about what works for me, but here is the basic breakdown.

This is my meal plan while I am trying to lose fat and define muscle. My carbohydrates come from complex sources only and are kept to about 100 grams per day.

My sugar is kept at about 18 grams per day. That’s it. That is less than what is in one banana. That means fruit is not in my fat loss nutrition plan. My sugars come from minimal amounts that naturally occur in veggies and in the complex carbs I eat each day. No matter what your goal, I highly recommend you watch your sugar intake, even ‘healthy’ sugar like fruit, and moderate it to a minimum based on your own personal goals.

My protein is kept at about 250 grams per day and comes from high quality, organic, free range (or wild) lean animal sources. My fats are kept at about 40 grams per day and come from my protein and complex carbohydrate choices (not additional plant sources like olive oil, coconut, nuts, or avocado).

That equals about 1800 calories per day. I don’t drop it much lower than that.

I eat natural, organic, whole foods that I cook myself, or if possible I eat them raw. I drink 1 to 2 gallons of water and a couple cups of either coffee or tea. There is no mysterious, magical diet. If you want to lose bodyfat you need to eat a fair amount of lean protein and A LOT of green veggies at every meal. Period.

BPM Cori Ann Lentz Cod Arugula Sweet Potatoes workouts

Did you like this post? Tell me in the comments!

Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments. Don’t be shy! Your comments may help to inspire another. Your questions may help someone else who has the exact same question, but is too shy to ask. I love hearing from you!

By Cori Ann Lentz • Workouts • 10 • Tags: , , , , ,