This post is on 10 Minute Trainer Upper Body – Review
10 Minute Trainer Upper Body
My guess is that Beachbody primarily targeted women with this 10 Minute Trainer series. One of the biggest misconceptions that I hear from women is “I don’t want to bulk up”…then they usually start flayling their arms about and running around in a circle. I’m not sure what women think, but those five pound weights you got aren’t going to bulk you up; hell, 10 pound weights won’t…but if you do go to 15 pounds you run the chance of waking up with a set of balls and a full beard…Not really…but probably.
Seriously though, women’s bodies do not produce enough testosterone to get big and bulky. Besides, the big-ass amazon women you see on TV are usually an anomaly or are on drugs. Guys don’t usually have a problem with this “theory.”
Anyway, we are not going to be using weights in this video, at least I didn’t. Personally, I use Bodylastics Power Bands. They are WAY better than anything Beachbody puts out by a VERY large and substantial margin. If you need power bands they are the only place you need to look, that is all they do…make kick-ass Power Bands – go get them here.
10-Minute Trainer Upper Body
OK, so here is the deal:
- 10 Moves
- 10 Minutes
Let’s get this show on the road.
10 Minute Trainer Upper Body
3×5 Chest Press – Whatever equipme
nt you have, whether it’s the stuff that came in the box from Beachbody, or the Bodylastics stuff that I told you about, or some other stuff, make sure there are multiple mounts for things like doors, feet, and corners. The 3×5 Chest Press uses a foam door stop to mount the band at chest level. Have a look at this picture.
Here you want to get yourself in a lunge with your ankle over your toe, using your other leg as a stabilizer. Now start pushing. You want to do the allotted number of full chest presses, then you will be doing “top-half” chest presses for the allotted amount, then full chest presses again for the allotted amount.
- Switch Feet – Switch your lunging legs and do the series again.
- Switch Feet – Switch back to your original lunge leg and do the series again.
- Switch Feet – For this last set you will only be doing “top-half” presses.
Lunging Lawnmower – Still using your bands at the same level (I normally call these chainsaws, but for the purposes of this video they are lawnmowers) and standing in a modified side lunge like Tony is in the picture below, your arm that is furthest away from the door is going to be pulling the band to your ribcage. Use the arm that is closest to the door and pressed up against your knee as your stabilizer. Now start pulling, do the allotted set. **Do not get sloppy here, as I say in almost all my reviews, **FORM OVER REPETITIONS AND WEIGHT** Always with no zero exceptions until you decide to become a power lifter.
- Switch sides and do the same number on the other side.
- Switch sides – Go back to your original position and start pulling. (The thing with bands is that they really are not a static weight, meaning that the amount of “weight” that you are pulling varies; this is both good and bad depending on your goals)
- Switch sides – Again you will be pulling the band to your rib cage.
Three-Level Shoulder Flys – Keep your bands right where they are, by three levels I mean Low, Medium, and High, and that is where you will be pulling your bands. Have a look at the picture below. The level Tony is on is medium (chest level), low is where you will be pulling the weight down by your knee cap (or waist level), for high, you will be pulling the band above or to the level of your shoulder height (or face level).
- Switch sides – After the allotted amount of sets, switch sides so that you will be pulling the band with the other arm.
Crazy Eights – Starting out in a half squat just like you see Tony in the picture below. Next you will want to curl your left arm and hold it there (this is called an isometric hold or iso hold) and do full curls with the other arm. These are called Crazy Eights because you are doing repetitions (reps) of eight on both sides. Both sides count as one set.
- Repeat your sequence – Also remember to pick a “weight” so that you can do the whole exercise properly, but with the last few being a struggle to pull up. You should do this with every exercise you do.
- Repeat sequence –Again.
- Repeat sequence – Again.
Kickback / Throw Combo – Get into a lunge position as you see Tony in the picture below. Next you want to have your shoulders and elbows parallel to the ground (you want to hold this position) now “kickback” the bands so that your “whole” arm becomes parallel to the ground.
Throw – For the throw exercise, position yourself as you see Tony in the picture below. This time you will “glue” your bicep to your ears, then moving only from your elbows squeeze your triceps (behind your bicep muscle) into pulling the weight over your head and back again. For both of these exercises make sure you control the weight throughout the range-of-motion, meaning don’t just jerk the bands over your head, but control the bands or “weight” over and behind your head.
- Repeat sequence – Make sure you are mindful of your form.
- Repeat sequence
Incline / Decline Chest Press – Get into the same lunge position you were in for the very first exercise in this video. The Incline / Decline is basically the same as the chest press you did earlier, the only difference is you will be changing the angle at which you are pressing the “weight.” Use the Low/High Fly’s you did earlier as guideline for the pressing angles. For high or Incline Chest Press you will be pressing your weight over shoulder height. For low or Decline Chest Press you will be pressing your weight at waist height. The only variation for the Decline Chest Press is you will have your wrist “up” or facing the ceiling for the duration of your sets.
- Repeat sequence – Make sure you are mindful of your form.
- Repeat sequence
- Repeat sequence
High / Low Lat-Row – Get into the same lunge position as you see Tony in the picture below. With your arms straight out pull the band in up “high” or at about shoulder height (wrist down) when they go back as far as you can go, lower the bands to your waist level then in a CONTROLLED manner ease the bands back out to your start position.
- Switch Legs / Switch Grip – Lunge with the other leg forward, and change your grip, at first your wrists were pointed down, now point them up. Do that as well when you change from pulling the weight to up top, to waist height.
- Switch Legs / Switch Grip – Repeat the original sequence of this workout.
- Switch Legs / Switch Grip – Repeat the first Switch Leg / Switch Grip sequence.
Shoulder Fly / Press Combo – Once again get into the same position as you see Tony in the picture below. Now you are looking at the point in front of your toe. Next press the bands at shoulder height for the allotted amount. Next you want to move into the shoulder fly, hold the same position, next “half circle” the weight at the same level. When I say half circle I mean instead of just pushing straight out in front of you, “half-circle” the weight in front of you, you will feel it when you are doing the exercise, make sure you concentrate on the shoulder muscles for this exercise.
- Switch Legs – Repeat sequence.
- Switch Legs – Repeat sequence.
- Switch Legs – Repeat sequence.
Police Curls – Police curls are like the crazy eights we did earlier, except we are squeezing the band “inward” while you are holding the other side of the band isometricaly. A picture is worth a 1000 words, so have a look below.
- Switch Legs – Repeat sequence.
- Switch Legs – Repeat sequence.
- Switch Legs – Repeat sequence.
One Arm Tricep Extensions – Again have a look at the picture below. It’s pretty self-explanatory. The key to this move is to glue your bicep to your ear and only squeeze your tricep muscle just like you did before. You want to make damn sure you are doing these properly, because this is an easy exercise to really mess yourself up with if you are not watching your form. You can seriously mess up a bodypart that you are not even working on, in this case a “lat” muscle…I would know because years ago, maybe 8 or 9 years ago I did just that, doing this exact exercise. Just so we are clear check out Tony’s bicep glued to his ear here. DO THAT!
- Switch Sides – Repeat sequence.
- Switch Sides – Repeat sequence.
- Switch Sides – Repeat sequence.
FINISHED!
It took me longer to write this then it will take you to do this workout 20X. This one is probably my favorite workout thus far in the 10 minute Trainer series. The only problem I can possibly nitpick on would be that there is no warm-up. But other than that, for 10 minutes, you can’t beat it.
There is a couple minute cool down session that is after the video, so check that out in yours.
5 out of 5 Charles Face Rating
If you don’t have 10-Minute Trainer yet you can get it by clicking the link below. You can also save 10% just by signing up for a Free Beachbody account here. Or if you are really an overachiever, you can become a Coach and save 25%.
This concludes my post on 10 Minute Trainer Upper Body Review.
