Feb 2 2012

Cold Shoulder – 600 Rep Body Weight Shoulder Workout

Hi Team BPM! Here is a 600 rep body weight shoulder workout that is great for building stability, strength, and size within the shoulders.

It is tough, but still great for beginners. This workout is also great for experienced exercisers who are looking to activate, stabilize and pre-hab the shoulders in addition to building size and strength. This workout is especially great for a winged scapula, which is what I work on correcting for myself.

Just because this workout is called the Cold Shoulder, that doesn’t mean you should skip warming up! Always start off upper body days with rotator cuff work as part of your warm up. You can use a band, weight, or even a water bottle like I do in this video.

We are going to activate different muscles in your shoulders than you may have never felt before. The full workout breakdown is below and includes how many reps, sets, and gives some of my tips on form. Like always, you can do this workout in your own home, or you can take it to the gym or out to a park. All you need is a few ottomans, benches, or something similar.

Go for your own personal best. Remember to post your scores below! I want to know how you did! Cold shoulder? Heat it up. Let’s go.

xoxo ~ Cori

Cold Shoulder Workout

Cold Shoulder Workout

SONG: Adele – Cold Shoulder (Out of Office Remix)

SONG: Adele – Cold Shoulder (Out of Office Remix)

Workout Breakdown

Time 54x54 workouts Time: Personal Best! Shoot for Under 45 Minutes
Workout 54x54 workouts Workout Type: 600 rep challenge
Count 54x54 workouts Workout Exercises: 10

Get your gear:

  No gear needed.
Just your own body and the will to kill your workout.

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

Cold Shoulder Workout

Absolutely no equipment needed. Just you and a few ottomans. You can also take this workout outside to a park or to the gym. All you need is a few benches.

1 warm up exercise. 9 shoulder exercises. The reps and sets are below. As little rest as possible, but if you need to rest it is better than going forward with improper form. Really focus on form with this workout.

Some of these exercises look easy, but they will surprise you with how quickly they get your shoulders screaming and hot to the touch. These are all well researched shoulder exercises that are specifically designed for a purpose. When done right, you should really feel a burn even though they look simple.

Remember to post your scores! I’m letting you know how long it took me to get through the workout. POST YOUR TIME! Keep track of your workouts so you know when you’re making progress!

Rotator Cuff Warm Up:
External rotation 25 x 4 (2 each shoulder)

Pyramid Stance Shoulder Press (Elevated):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
This is the exercise that is going to get us closer to a hand stand push up. To make it easier move your hands away from your feet. To make it harder move your hands in towards your feet. You can also modify this so you are on the ground to make it slightly easier since that will limit your range of motion.

Single Arm Pyramid Stance Shoulder Press (Elevated):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 right arm
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 left arm
Alternate side to side. Again, to make it easier move your hands away from your feet. To make it harder move your hands in towards your feet. You can also modify this so you are on the ground to make it slightly easier. If your wrists get tired here, take a second and stretch them out.

Pike Plank Walks:
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
Make sure to walk your hands out further than your chest. If you can get them out past your head, that’s great! These may seem easy compared to the last exercise! We are going to be working on doing wall walks next week!

Side Plank Ups (Modified with Knees Bent):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 right arm
10 – 10 – 10 – 10 left arm
Try to focus more on the medial (middle) head of your shoulder and lesson your core. I want your shoulder to lift you up, not your abs. Don’t rest on the floor in between reps. Keep the tension on the muscle.

Low Trap Dip (Modified with Feet on Ground):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
Bring the ears as close to the shoulders before pushing them away as far as possible. Your elbows must stay straight.

Scapular Protraction (Modified at an Incline):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
The main goal is to bring the shoulder blades as close as possible in the back before pushing them as far as you can away from each other. The elbows must remain straight. This exercise is vital to development in the serratus, which is often overlooked in a dysfunctional shoulder. Bring your hands close together to get more range of motion.

Serratus Anterior Diamond Press Ups (Modified from Knees):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
Some minor tweaks to form must include moving your hands into a diamond pattern on the floor, and moving them so that your hands are under your forehead or higher… NOT under your chest. This means that you slightly internally rotate and move your hands slightly higher than your shoulder. This will get the maximum out of the serratus.

Superman to Prone Cobra (With Rotation):
10 – 10 – 10 – 10
We want to turn on the muscles that may have become loose and weakened. The first position is like you are diving… or like you are a flying super hero. When you come down into cobra rotate your hands. Do 2 sets rotating so you are bringing your pinkies toward the ceiling as you lift, and 2 sets so you are bringing your thumbs to the ceiling as you lift. Switch directions each set. Make sure to keep your neck aligned with your spine, meaning don’t look up, but also don’t tuck your chin in too much. Don’t arch your back excessively. I want to focus on your shoulders, not your back.

Supine Cobra (With Rotation):
25 – 25 – 25 – 25
Do 2 sets rotating so you are pressing your pinkies to the ground as you lift your chest, and 2 sets so you are pressing your thumbs into the ground as you lift your chest. Switch directions each set. These are harder than they look! Make sure to keep your neck aligned with the rest of your spine, meaning leave your head on the ground. Imagine there’s a magnificently strong magnet on the ceiling and your rib cage is made of steel. Lift just your rib cage up and squeeze your shoulders hard.

Try to beat my time, but really focus on your form!

I finished this workout in just over 30 minutes, which means I was really moving through it. Next time I want to get it done in under 30, but of course not sacrifice form. Try to get this workout done is under 45 minutes if you are a beginner, or under 30 if you are experienced.

Next week we will be progressing these exercises further.

This workout is great for preventing injury and activating “sleepy” muscles in the shoulder joint. As you advance, you could even use this entire workout as a dynamic warm up to upper body weight lifting days.

Over the next 3 weeks I am posting 5 workouts each week. Each workout will be 600 reps. This week all of the workouts are bodyweight exercises, but they will still be super tough!

Next week the workouts will also be 600 reps, but I will add some difficulty with a few pieces of equipment you can use at home. The third week I will modify each exercise to progress to a more advanced level.

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 do a minimum of 45 minutes of stairs with intervals as cardio each and every day. When I’m trying to lose fat I usually do two separate 45 minute cardio sessions a day. Even while I have been recuperating from the car crash, I have still been able to do at least one session of my daily 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. 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.

BPM Cori Ann Lentz Nutrition Fat Loss Diet Plan1 workouts

You can click on the 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 Chicken Spinach Potato Diet Meal e1342330144283 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!

Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me! Let’s inspire each other.

By Cori Ann Lentz • Workouts • 3 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,