Apr 2 2012

Fire in Your Eyes – Shoulder Workout

Sculpt, define, and build beautiful, sexy shoulders. Shoulders that scream, “Look at me!” Shoulders that are beautiful and strong from every single angle imaginable.

To build shoulders that are beautiful and strong from every angle, you have to work them from all different angles. Shoulders have been my weak point for quite some time. Not anymore. I have created strong, sleek, muscular shoulders. You can too.

This workout is only 9 minutes, but your shoulders are going to be pumped. If you want to make it more advanced, go through the entire workout again. Want to make it even more advanced? Keep going through it. I go through it a total of 4 times. Then I add a little more just for fun. Make sure to check out the full workout breakdown below!

If you are loving these posts, please share them with your friends on facebook, twitter, and pinterest! Let your friends know that they can get into the best shape of their lives at home with you and me!

Let’s make the world a healthier, stronger place. Let’s start with you and me. Today. Right now. 9 minutes. Let’s go.

Go for your own personal best. Remember to post how many times you were able to get through this workout! I want to know how you did!

xoxo ~ Cori

Fire in Your Eyes – Shoulder Workout

SONG: Chase and Status ft. Maverick Sabre – Fire in Your Eyes

Workout Breakdown

	Time: 9 Minutes.
	Workout Type: Time challenge.
	Workout Exercises: 3 - but in different planes of motion.

Get your gear:

BANDS
Get your bands here

Buy the same nutrition products as me:

	PROTEIN Get your protein here
	SUPER GREENS Get your super greens here
	Peanut Butter Get your PB2 here
	EGG WHITES Get your egg whites here
	Tea Get your tea here

Fire in Your Eyes – Shoulder Workout

3 exercises. Different planes of motion for each. Go right from one minute to the next. Do not rest. Give your shoulders 9 minutes of focused attention. They deserve it. If you feel like you have to rest, just drop the band and keep on going with just your arms. No one is going to make fun of you. That’s the wonderful thing about working out at home. There is no shame. Just get it done. Let’s go!

Warm Up:
Always warm up with a dynamic warm up and rotator cuff exercises for any upper body work.

Front Raises with Band:
1 minute – standing
1 minute – bent over, around 45 degrees
1 minute – bent over, around 90 degrees
Raise your hands in front of you until they are parallel with your shoulders. Try not to over arch your back. Keep your abs tight. Press your feet into the floor. Engage your full body, with the focus being on your anterior deltoids (the front of your shoulders). 1 minute. Do the same thing bent over. Bend over more and do it again.

Do not rest! If you hit failure, just drop the band and keep going with just your arms! Go for a full 3 minutes then go right into the next exercise without resting.

Lateral Raises with Band:
1 minute – standing
1 minute – bent over, around 45 degrees
1 minute – bent over, around 90 degrees
Raise your hands to the side until they are parallel with your shoulders. Do not let your elbows drop down. Try to keep your elbows slightly above your wrists or even with your wrists, not below your wrists. Try not to over arch your back. Keep your abs tight. The focus is on your medial deltoids (the cap of your shoulders). 1 minute. Do the same thing bent over. Bend over more and do it again

Don’t rest! If you absolutely have to drop the bands, that’s fine. Just keep going!

These are really hard toward the end. Be prepared. Get mentally tough. You can do it. There is no shame if you have to use only your arms.

Rear Delt Raises with Band from 3 Different Angles:
3 minutes, bent over
3 straight minutes? Are you crazy Cori? No I’m not crazy. But I’m going to push you with this one. 3 minutes is such a short period of time if you look at it that way. You are essentially a primate. You are made to swing from the trees and use your shoulders all day long. You can go for 3 minutes. Psyche yourself up. Let’s do this.

Bend over. Step on the band. Stay bent over the whole time. Keep your abs tight. Press into your hips, your feet, your glutes. Keep your core strong. Lift your arms up so your wrists are parallel to your shoulders, but up at a 45 degree angle so your wrists are up by the top of your head or at least your ears. Lift your arms up so your wrists are directly in line with your shoulders. Lift your arms up so your wrists are in line with your hips. Those are the 3 angles. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Get the picture? Do it for 3 minutes. You will thank me later.

We all need to get stronger in this area. Computers, texting, driving, any movement when your arms are in front of you, has made this rear deltoid area weak. We need to make it stronger. Go. Now.

There it is. 9 minutes to completely pump up your shoulders. Want more? Really? Go ahead and repeat it. I go through it a total of 4 times, but don’t let that be your goal! Surpass me! Do more than me!

Post your numbers! Try to come up with a way to make the exercises even more challenging! Try to have better form than me! Tell me all about it in the comments.

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.

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:

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.

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 • 2 • Tags: Biceps, Delts, Lean, Lift Yourself Up: Achieving Awesome Arms, Rotator Cuff, Shoulders, Sleek & Sexy: Transformational Stomach Exercises, Strong Abdominals, Triceps, Upper body, Workout