Week 1 of LIIFT4

 Week 1 of LIIFT4. 

DAY ONE: Chest and Triceps 50/50

On you 50/50 days, you do all your lifting for the first half of the workout, and you do HIIT for the second half. 

This workout is a burner for your chest and triceps. Your first block is 10 reps of chest press, and ten reps of tricep skull crushers. You repeat those moves for a total of three times. 

Your second block is 10 reps of chest flies and 10 reps of tricep presses. I don’t remember ever coming past a tricep press before doing LIIFT4, so if you’re unfamiliar, tricep presses are where you keep your elbows close to your body. Repeat for a total of three times. 

And your third block is mean. You’re doing rotating chest press and then tricep pushups. NOOOOOO. Oh man, I hate tricep pushups! They are so hard (even after doing this program three times!). But you do them three times total and you got this! 

Now it’s onto the HIIT portion of the workout. You do three moves, and the time you do it ranges from 60 seconds, 45 seconds, and 30 second. The hardest move you do the shortest time, and the “easiest” (although NONE of these move are easy) are the longest. You start out with soccer runs. They remind me of hacky sack dances. You’re just bringing your knees up and your feet inwards as if you’re bouncing a soccer ball with your feet for 60 seconds. Then down on the ground for mountain climbers. And then you do something called catchers for 30 seconds, which is kind of like a no jump burpee, but instead of standing up after jumping into plank you stay in a squat like a baseball catcher would do. Being a huge fan of baseball (GO REDS!) I think I hated these just slightly less than burpees because I could think about baseball. You repeat three times.

Core component is also done three times, and your moves are rope climb (where you lay on your back with your legs up in the air, and you climb up as if you have a rope between your legs, and then bent knee windshield wipers, to really work your obliques. 

After that, you do you cool down with a lot of old school stretches. Day One is in the books! 

DAY TWO: Back and Biceps Circuit

This one has NO HIIT! Woo hoo. But it does have a burnout round at the end of the workout. Each block is four sets (quad sets) of for a total of three times. After a quick warmup, your first block is 10 reps of wide rows, 10 reps of wide bicep curls, 10 reps of traditional rows, and then ten reps of hammer curls repeated three times. 

Your second quad set consists of pullovers, where you’re on the floor and lowering the weight behind your head and then pulling it up over your chest, top bicep curls where you start the curl from the top and only go halfway down, reverse chest flies, and then bottom curls, where you start your bicep curl from the bottom and only go halfway up. By the time the third set comes around, my biceps are SCREAMING. The cool thing about LIIFT4 is as you progress you can lift heavier weights. I’ve never done this workout and not felt it the next day. As with every block, you do ten reps of each move a total of three times. 

The burnout round is mean too! You get on the ground for back extension for 30 seconds, and then hop up for full bicep curls. In this, you go for form rather than trying to bust out a ton. You do it three times total. 

Your core component is alternating sit ups with leg twists, and a 30 second plank a total of three times each. 

After your cool down, day two is in the books! And guess what - you get a rest day tomorrow! 

I usually do some kind of fun workout on my rest day. Lately it’s been Country Heat! 

DAY THREE: Shoulders Lift Intervals (picking up after your rest day)

I think lift intervals are my favorite day. This is where you do two moves (10 reps each) and then 30 seconds of HIIT. After your warmup, you do 10 reps of shoulder presses, and then 10 reps of upright rows. And then 30 seconds of alternating plyo lunges. You do that for a total of three times.

Your second block is front raises and side raises with a 30 second cardio interval of no jump burpees, repeated to make it three times total. 

Your third block…oh ho ho this is where things get interesting. You do 10 reps of Y Raises, raising to each corner of the room, and then you do shoulder flies. I may vaguely remember doing this in a Jillian workout? Maybe not? I can’t remember. But Joel tells you to go light, and me, well, I don’t listen well. I tried using 10lb dumbbells. Then I tried eight. I ended up going back down to five pounds and even THAT was challenging my first time. WHAT? Now that I’ve done this one a few times, I can get out a decent amount with my 8lb dumbbells, but I usually end up dropping down to five for my last ones for the third time I’m doing this one. Listen to Joel! GO LIGHT! Even the big guys in the workout are going light and you can tell the struggle is real for them! Your cardio is 30 second of squat jumps. 

Your core component is 30 seconds of both scissors and reaching sit ups, repeated three times each. Day three is checked off!

DAY FOUR: Legs 50/50

I just want you to know that you are in my prayers. :) Your first half of the workout is lifting, and the second half is HIIT. This workout is challenging!

After your warmup, you start this one with 10 reps of weighted squats, and 10 reps of deadlifts, three times total. That’s block one. 

Block two had ten reps of goblet sumo squats, and 10 reps of alternating rear lunges, and that’s ten on each leg. You’re there for a while and Joel makes sure that you know to take the appropriate weight because you’re doing so many reps. You repeat it three times. 

Block three is my favorite. You get down in the floor and do a bridge raise with the weights on your hips, and then you hop up and do calf raises. You do ten reps of each, however, each time you stand and do calf raises, you move your toes in a different position to do all sides of your calf. Toes straight for the first rep, toes in for pigeon calf raises, and toes out for duck calf raises. 

Your HIIT is 60/45/30 seconds, like on day one. You start with sixty seconds on high knee runs. Forty-five seconds of triple bear, which is super vile. You’re in bear pose, and then you hop side, center, side. It is horrible! And finally, you do thirty seconds of squat jacks. You don’t have to do it three times, but my legs are always shaking by the end! 

Core component is a prayer crunch for 30 seconds, and leg raises in plank for 30 seconds, repeated three times. 

You have earned your cool down, and your first week of LIIFT4 is done. 

You have two days off in a row. LIIFT4 comes with two recovery workouts (stretching, and one is foam rolling I believe). I’ve never actually done them, but I recommend that you do not be like me. (I have gotten very into doing Yoga with Adriene on youtube, and I truly enjoy yoga a lot more than I thought I would! I do try to implement stretching a few times a week.) 

Congrats on completing your first week!!