We are on week 5 of 12 of my getting my pre-pregnancy body back challenge.
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Are you following along? How are you doing so far? I would love to hear how much weight you have lost.
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To date, I have lost 8 pounds since week 1. After I gave birth I had 18 pounds to lose. For the first 6 weeks postpartum, I watched my diet with no exercise (other than walking) and lost 5 pounds.
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I have 5 POUNDS TO GO! And I can’t wait to see my body after these next 5 come off.
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My goal is to have all the weight off by December 1st and I think it will happen. All I need to do is ramp things up if my progress stalls and I’ll teach you how.
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This week we are going to introduce TEMPO into the mix. Working with tempo is pretty fun and challenging.
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Weight lifting tempo refers to the number of seconds it takes for you to complete a full range of motion of one repetition, usually called a lift.
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Tempo has a particular numeric scheme to describe the different phases. For example, 20X1 would mean:
- The first number 2 is the time in seconds to lower the weight after you’ve reached the top of the lift. This is the eccentric or negative phase. Working with eccentric tempos helps to increase strength.
- The second number 0 is the pause at the completion of the exercise or at the start of the lift.
- The third character X means an explosive lift in the concentric phase. You can think of the third number as the contracting phase. Here we typically use a faster momentum to return the weight to the start position.
- The fourth number represents the starting point of the movement. Here you can either pause or immediately begin the next repetition
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Here’s another example using a bicep curl with a 4120 tempo. What this means is: 4 seconds on the way down, 1 second rest at the bottom, lift for 2 seconds and do not rest at the top.
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Another change this week is the introduction of high intensity interval training (HIIT). Here want to get really winded and keep intervals short with short rest periods.
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I tend to stop my workout right before I feel like I am about to start wheezing; which is what happened during my stair workout this week.
Workout 1
| Exercise | Reps | Sets. | Tempo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Bodyweight Hip Thrust (shoulders on bench/feet on the ground) | 12-15 | 3 | 2023 |
| A2 | Push Up | 12-15 | 3 | 3020 |
| A3 | 1-leg Standing Calf Raise – toes neutral | 12-15 | 3 | 1111 |
| . *Rest 60 seconds between sets . |
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| B1 | Heels Elevated Narrow Stance DB Squat – GO DEEP | 12-15 | 3 | 3020 |
| B2 | Inverted Row | 12-15 | 3 | 4021 |
| B3 | Seated Calf Raise – toes neutral | 20 | 3 | 1111 |
| . *Rest 60 seconds between sets . |
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| C | Side-lying Leg Raise | 20-25 | 2 | 1111 |
| D | Lying Leg Curl | 12-15 | 2 | 3020 |
| E | Superset – Rope High Pulley Triceps Pressdown w Rope Low Pulley Curl…… | 12-15 each | 2 | 3020 |
| . *No rest between sets C, D, E . |
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Workout 2
| Exercise | Reps | Sets. | Tempo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Single-Leg Glute Bridge – shoulders on ground/foot on bench | 20-25 | 3 | 2011 |
| A2 | 1-Arm DB Shoulder Press | 20-25 | 3 | 2021 |
| A3 | 1-Leg Standing Calf Raise | 20-25 | 3 | 1111 |
| . *Rest 60 seconds between sets . |
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| B1 | Dumbbell RDL | 12-15 | 3 | 2011 |
| B2 | Wide Grip Lat Pull Down + 1-3 eccentric neutral grip chin up (3 second lowering) | 12-15 | 3 | 2021 |
| B3 | Seated Calf Raise – toes pointed inward | 30 | 3 | 1111 |
| . *Rest 60 seconds between sets . |
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| C | 45 Degree Back Extension | 20 | 2 | 2021 |
| D | Reverse crunch on floor | 30 | 2 | |
| E | Left lift (for abs) | 25 | 2 | |
| . *No rest between sets C, D, E . |
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Workout 3
| Exercise | Reps | Sets. | Tempo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Single-Leg Hip Thrust – shoulders on bench/foot on ground | 15-20 | 3 | 2021 |
| A2 | Push Up | 15-20 | 3 | 3030 |
| A3 | 1-Leg Standing Calf Raise – toes pointed outward | 15-20 | 3 | 1111 |
| . *Rest 60 seconds between sets . |
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| B1 | Split Squat with front foot elevate 6 inches. Get butt to ankle…………………… | 12-15 | 3 | 2020 |
| B2 | Seated Low Pulley Row to Waist – overhand grip | 12-15 | 3 | 2021 |
| B3 | Seated Calf Raise – toes pointed outward | 20-25 | 3 | 1111 |
| . *Rest 60 seconds between sets . |
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| C | Russian Twists | 30 | 2 | |
| D | Side-Bend | 20/side | 2 | |
| E | Palms Down DB Standing Lateral Raise | 15-20 | 2 | 2021 |
| . *No rest between sets C, D, E . |
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Workout 4
Cardio — same as last week but increase intensity. We want to start HIIT
What I want you to do here is 15-20 minutes of high intensity on stairs, treadmill, sprints etc.
I did stairs again; 10 sets of 100 stairs (running up)
Hi, where can I find the first 4 workouts? I never saved those. And can you tell me what a dumbbell RDL is? Is there someplace I can see these exercises being done so I don’t do it incorrectly. The last thing I want to do is get hurt. Thanks!
Hi Stephanie,
If you type in “week challenge” on the top right corner where it says enter keywords, all 12 of the workouts will come up. If your looking for a specific one you can type in the number and that specific one will come up. RDL stands for Romanian Deadlift. If you look up Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift on youtube or google images there are tons of demonstrations 🙂
All the best!
Anna, CPT, FF Specialist
Nice exercise…. I hope it really works for me. Definitely I’ll add these exercise in my daily routine.