Band and Body Weight Workouts for Travel

Spring break is coming up and summer right after that! I am starting a band exercise video series on my YouTube channel so you can workout on the go! HERE is my YouTube channel

The great news is that you can modify almost any existing workout routine for body weight/band work.

So I am going to show you a workout in my upcoming workout called Hourglass Extreme and then modify it for band and body weight.

So why is this idea coming into my head right now? Well like I said, spring break is upon us... But I also have a little news of my own. We are moving to the beach!

The husband just accepted a position in Port Aransas, Texas which is a little town on a barrier island outside Corpus Christi, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. We are ecstatic and nervous all at the same time. My kids and I are staying in town to finish out the school year to sell the house while my husband is going to live in our camper there. Once the house sells, we will be living with my in-laws and then moving into the camper until we find a house. So... my fabulous home gym will be going away for a while very soon. And there are no public gyms in this new town. I know, what the heck?! Maybe my new job needs to be training the people of the town and offering out my home gym time for membership LOL

So, my plan is the take my body and my bands with me for any situation. I also plan on having my Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells too, but I might not always have access to them, who knows?!

So let me walk you through how to modify any existing workout for band and body weight.

Below is a sample of my upcoming workout Hourglass Extreme which will be available for purchase very soon!

Regular Workout with Full Gym Access 

 Hourglass Extreme Week 5 Day 3

Exercise	Sets x Reps	Rest
Single Leg Hip Thrusts	4x8
Banded Face Pulls	4x15	60
Deadlift	PR--4x3
Shoulder Press	4x10	60
Seated Behind the Neck Press	4x10
Quadruped Banded Straight Leg Hip Extension	4x10
Ab Wheel	4x10	60
Front Raise Lateral Raise	4x10
Pull Through	4x10
Side Plank	4x30s	60
Bent Over Rear Delt Raise	4x10
Standing Banded Hip Abductions	4x10
Squat with Curl and Press	4x10	60

Modified Workout with only Bands and Bodyweight

(red exercises are changes, black stayed the same)

Exercise	Sets x Reps	Rest
Single Leg Hip Thrusts	4x8
Banded Face Pulls	4x15	60
Banded Deadlift	4x15
Banded Shoulder Press	4x15	60
Banded Seated Military Press	4x15
Quadruped Banded Straight Leg Hip Extension	4x10
Plank Walkout	4x5	60
Banded Front Raise and Lateral Raise	4x10
Pull Through (use band instead of cable)	4x15
Side Plank	4x30s	60
Banded Bent Over Rear Delt Raise	4x15
Standing Banded Hip Abductions	4x10
Squat (bodyweight)	4x15	60

                                  

As you can see, with bands you need to increase the reps generally and there is usually an easy substitution. Of course, bands are not useful for pushing through personal records. So that is off the table, but the idea is that you will be using bands and body weight forever! They are amazing for getting a great pump and hypertrophy. And most certainly better than doing nothing!

Hourglass Extreme - My New Workout

I have been working on writing my own lifting program for the past 4 or 5 months and it feels SO GOOD to finally be ready to tell you about it!

I love this workout, obviously, I wrote it. But I have seen some pretty amazing results in my shape and strength from it, which is probably what excites me the most. I want to shout from the rooftops, "It works, it works!" Haha! Seriously, I am stronger than I ever have been and look better than ever too.

Above photos all shared on the Venus Coaches IG page - follow us there! www.instagram.com/venusfactorcoaches

About Hourglass Extreme:

• It has 48 different workouts - written to be done 4 days a week for 12 weeks. 
• The program is advanced, I would advise that the lifter has been in the gym for at least 6 months. If you are a Venus Index client, you will have done the basic Venus Factor 12 week program and then perhaps another 12 weeks of Venus Circuits or Final Phase. 
• The workout uses a mix of equipment- dumbbells, barbell, bands, cable, ab wheel, and stability ball.
• Each workout has a different focus, designed to hammer that part for optimal hypertrophy, rotating through shoulders, legs, arms, back, chest/calves, and back.
• Each workout rotates though a personal record (PR) lift so that you can actively monitor and progress in strength gains- row, squat, shoulder press, hip thrust, chin up, and deadlift.
• Each workout has unusual but effective ab and glute work.

So all the behind the scenes stuff if not quite done yet, guessing a few weeks out from the official launch; which, of course, you will be the first to know about. But as a gesture of my love to you, here is a preview of a workout you can try this week at the gym!

X- Liss

Some new moves for you try in your next workout

Decline bench reverse hyperextensions with a swiss ball

The decline bench gives you a bit more of a range of motion and the ball forces some hip abduction while increasing the load. Give it a try at your next workout! I did 4 sets of 10 with a 5 count pulse at the end of each set. 

Banded Face Pulls

Banded Face Pulls - a great, and unusual, pulling exercise for your shoulders! Your thumbs should be inward toward your body, pull the band back and apart as you pull toward your ears. For extra BURN - pulse for 5 at the end of your last set ;)

Banded deadlifts With Lateral band walks

4 sets of 10

Burns the glutes SO GOOD!!! The band at the knees on deadlifts gives a completely different feel on the glutes, give it a try!

X -  Liss

P.S, got something great for you coming in a few days....

Glute and Shoulder Booster Video Workout

The past year has been mostly focused on building my glutes. In doing so, I have learned SO much about working them and all the nuances, who knew there was so much info on backsides? HAHA!

My other focus has been shoulders. I have managed to bring both of them up in circumference, and am looking forward to really comparing in photos soon as I am looking at a shoot date in the next 8-12 weeks. But the proof is there in the mirror!

So what I have been doing is adding on additional glute work and some days shoulder work to my lifting days 5-6 days per week. Glutes can handle high volume and frequency, but also need a lot of variation to hit all the musculature. Shoulders seem to do best with a lower frequency and lower volume. I hit them 3-4 days per week, and the volume is much lower than my glute work. My main workouts are full body from Venus Index aka Venus Factor.

Before I start a workout, I like to do hip thrusts or bird dogs to engage my glutes and get them firing.

Standing glute work- In the video are:

1) standing rear leg raises 
2) standing bent rear leg raises 
3) standing hip abductions
I did all for 3 sets of 10 with a 10 count isometric hold at the end of each set.

Here is one for your glutes and obliques - the banded side-lying clam raise

*feel free to take off the band to take it down a notch!

I did 3 sets of 10 per side.

This is my Shoulder Blaster Ladder that I used as a finisher. I did:

1. Lateral Raises

2. Front Raises

3. Overhead Shoulder Presses

4. Upright Rows (not in video)

For this ladder set, I started with 10 reps of lateral raises. Then I did 10 reps of ladder raises plus 10 reps of front raises. ..keep adding in the next exercise until you do all four. Then the exercises will start dropping out after 4 sets, so the next set would be 10 reps front raises, 10 reps overhead shoulder raises, and 10 reps upright rows. Next set, the front raises will drop out.

These all burn SO good! Add one of these, or all of them, onto your next workout and let me know what you think!

X- Liss

Glute Workout Boosters

I have been hitting glutes HARD for over half a year now while following the advice of THE Glute Man - Bret Contreras.

Hip Thrusts are #1

One of my favorites has quickly become the barbell hip thrust. It has taken me months to get here, and watching a video makes me notice all these form things. I am always improving.

155# for 3 sets of 10 on hip thrust in the Venus Advanced Strength glutes modules. Here is a snippet of my second set. Don't ya love my "fancy" bar pad? It is even down filled and matches my living room haha! What do you rig in your home gym? 

Actually Variety is KEY

Workout 1:
Some of my glute work today super-setted into Venus Focused Shape back and biceps. All about hitting the different angles! I did:
*4x12 single leg hip thrusts
*4x12 banded lying hip abductions (video)
*3x20 banded seated hip abductions 
*3x10+ 5 pulses banded donkey kicks (video)

Workout 2:
Here is a peek into some of my glute work last week. On this day it was super-setted into Venus Focused Shape Shoulders. The key to glute work is hitting the 4 main components, here are two:

*transverse plane hip abductions- fire hydrants
*supine bridging - cable pull throughs

I did half of a Fibonacci pyramid of 21-13-8-5 sets for both. 

Workout 3:
A key to great glutes is hitting them from all the angles. 2-3 days a week I add in about 4 glute exercises. This session I did:

*3x10 barbell hip thrusts (went very heavy- see the top video)
*3x40 banded hip abductions with 20 pulses at the end
*3x15 banded donkey kicks
*3x10 banded lying side clams

Try one of these glute finishers at the end of your next workout! What's your fave glute exercise? -Coach Liss