Cathe Friedrich's XTrain: Bi's and Tri's DVD

A unique program that's precisely targeted on your biceps and triceps. You get nine sets of exercise pairs — first you'll work your biceps, then your triceps. Despite the muscle group focus, it's amazingly diverse — you'll never repeat the same move twice. Cathe maximizes the variety with an ever-changing mix of standing, seated, floor and inclined-on-the-ball positions. She also varies the weight levels, pacing and equipment (often with optional modifications — “if you prefer not to use the tubing...”). All the exercises emphasize good form while using your maximum possible weight level (the “weight overload" technique). An on-screen display shows Cathe's level and reps.

Requires multiple sets of dumbbells, a stability ball and resistance tubing. ©2012.

Bi-s & Tri-s is an intense upper body strength workout that focuses on exhausting your biceps and triceps muscle groups with very little rest between exercises. In order to effectively reduce the rest needed between exercises you’ll be working nine rounds. Each round consists of one set of biceps followed by one set of triceps, and you’ll continue to repeat this sequence throughout your workout using a different exercise for every round. By not repeating any exercise throughout the program we eliminate boredom, increase mental awareness and stimulate muscle fiber recruitment from a surplus of angles.

To get maximum benefits from this XTrain arm program you’ll need to use heavy weights and do between 10 and 16 reps for each exercise. I suggest first trying a weight at is about 70% of yoru one rep max, and make adjustments as needed. If you can easily do 16 reps for any exercise you should select a higher weight the next time you do this workout. Likewise, if you can’t do at least eight reps you should consider lowering your weight. Remember, in order for this workout to be truly effective, you need to select a weight and resistance tube that challenges you for every exercise while still maintaining good form. You’ll see us taking notes to record our weights and I encourage you to do the same. This way, the next time you do the workout you can make it even more effective!