| Guide Rating and Review | ||||||||
by Cathe Friedrich
Cathe Friedrich's Pure Strength Series gives us a true taste of serious strength training. The series includes three different videos, each targeted to different muscle groups, for a simple, three-day split routine. These videos are for advanced exercisers. Cathe doesn't mention how much weight she's using for each exercise, so I've included how much weight I used after each exercise. Pure Strength Back, Biceps & Abs This video begins with a brief warm-up and stretch and then you move right into some serious back exercises. In the first exercise, a T-bar row, you'll use one end of your barbell for a bent-over row (35-40 lbs). The next exercise is 3 sets of bent over barbell rows (45 lbs), followed by 3 sets of one-armed dumbbell rows (25 lbs) and shoulder shrugs (15 lbs). Most of these exercises also work your biceps, so they should be nice and fried by the time you begin with barbell bicep curls (25-35 lbs). Two sets of different dumbbells curls are next (12-15 lbs), followed by negative curls (25 lbs) and concentration curls (8 lbs). The ab section is about 10 minutes long and includes crunches, reverse crunches, oblique twists, etc. Totally killer! Pure Strength Chest, Shoulders & Triceps You start with a warm-up and move right into 2 sets of decline pushups (modifications shown). Your muscle building exercise is a flat-bench chest press with a barbell (2 sets, 35+ lbs), followed by two more sets on an incline (ouch!). You move into dumbbell chest press, chest flies and, finally, a superset of both exercises to finish things up. After a brief rest, you begin shoulder exercises, starting with an Arnold press with dumbbells (similar to an overhead press, 8 lbs). You move on to a new move called the seated clean and press with light weights (this one's a killer), followed by 2 sets of lateral raises (8-10 lbs). The last two exercises are reverse flyes and seated bent-arm lateral raises. Once you feel you can continue, the tricep section begins with drop sets of a close-grip chest presses with dumbbells (10 lbs). Next are some killer french presses and cross-body kickbacks with lighter dumbbells. You finish up with dips off the step with a barbell in your lap (if you can manage it). You end with a nice stretch for your quivering arms. Pure Strength Legs & Abs After the warm-up, you do a quick set of front and back lunges with light dumbbells, followed by a slower set with heavy weights. You'll already be trembling when you move onto 2 sets of static lunges with a barbell. Next is a warm-up set of plie squats, followed by the 'real' plie's with a heavy barbell and plenty of isolations. Step ups on a high step with dumbbells are next, followed by regular squats and hover squats (try not to cry). The last two exercises almost feel good after all that; 2 sets of quarter deadlifts followed by calf raises. The second section of the tape is done on the floor with a body bar (or ankle weights) and includes outer thigh leg lifts, inner thigh leg lifts, butt lifts and one-legged hamstring exercises. The ab exercises follow and include crunches, reverse crunches, and other classic exercises. This tape is pretty long and you might want to do what I did and split it into a 2-day thing. The stretching section at the end is nice, but could be a bit longer.
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