Spinervals UltraConditioning 3.0 - Ultra Full Body with IronGirl

Length: 69

Difficulty Rating: 9.1

Type: Circuit - spinning with leg/core/upper body strength circuits. The spinning focus is Tempo work.

Format:

~ 3 minute warm-up (no standard spinervals warm-up!)

~ 1 x 8 min. Tempo effort (BR/15)

~ Upper Body - 3 x (30 sec pushups, 45 sec bicep curl to military press)

~ 2 x 4 min. Tempo effort with 1 min rest (SR/15, BR/15)

~ Core - 3 x (30 sec stability ball crunches, 30 sec back extensions)

~ 4 x 2 min Tempo effort with 1 min rest (BR/15, BR/13, BR/15, SR/15-BR/15)

~ Legs - 3 x (30 seconds static lunges each leg)

~ 4 x 1 minute Tempo effort with 30 sec rest (SR/15, BR/23, BR/15, BR/12)

~ Burnout set - 1 min. each of (pushups, static lunges right, bicep curl/military press, static lunges left, ball crunches, back hyperextensions w/ ball)

~ 5 minute cool down

This ultra conditioning feels harder to me than the Core (2.0) or Upper Body (4.0) workouts, but not quite as hard as Legs (1.0). I think the one reason is that there is no real rest in this one (except when doing the tempo intervals). Often when you are doing strength work off the bike in Spinervals, there is someone who is slow in getting off the bike and causes Coach Troy to yell at everyone to speed it up. But in this workout, the Iron ladies are pretty quick! I had not realized how much I appreciated those extra seconds of rest, until I did this workout. So, really, this ends up being a very efficient circuit type workout.

I don't love the exercises chosen for the strength segments. The ab work is too little for me, so it isn't worth it for me to do it. So, I end up choosing to do some additional upper body strength work in this section so it feels more complete to me. I also like to mix up the exercises so I'm not doing 3 sets of the exact same exercises.

So my strength mods are something like this:

Upper Body:

~ pushups and bicep curls/military press

~ pushups and hammer curls with heavy weight, followed by overhead press with heavy weights

~ pushups and rotator cuff work

Upper Body (instead of abs)

~ military pushups and barbell rows or lat pull downs with bands

~ tricep extensions and dumbbell pullovers

~ 1 arm lat rows

Lower Body

~ lunges

~ squats

~ lunges

I find the workout can be pretty effective when done this way. If I do it Coach Troy's way, I just don't feel like I got enough of any of the strength work.

In the cycling sections, the work is all tempo and difficult. I never feel quite recovered, since I try to keep my strength work heavy, so this workout ends up feeling quite difficult, but good!

I do like the setting of the workout (on a rooftop in a harbor), and I enjoy workout out with an all-female inspiring crew.

I really loved this workout. The workout is set outdoors on a rooftop overlooking the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The workout follows this general format:

Cycling Warmup

8 Minute Cycling Tempo Set

Off the bike for 3 Sets of Upper Body Work (Pushups, shoulder press)

2 Sets of 4 Minutes Cycling Tempo Sets

Off the bike for 3 Sets of Core Work and back hyperextensions

4 Sets of 2 Minutes Cycling Tempo Sets

Off the bike for 3 sets of alternating front lunges

4 sets of 1 Minute Cycling Tempo Sets

1 Minute each upper body, core, lunges, back.

This workout just flew by. All of the participants were very motivating to me as they were obviously in great shape and working hard. I also liked that the strength segments were based on time, rather than on a number of reps. This made it easy to substitute exercises if desired. I did this in the ab section to increase the difficulty. In summary, this was a great workout, and one that I am pleased to have in my collection! I give it an A!

warm up

8 minute tempo ride - Big Gear 15

Push ups (either on the floor or legs on the stability ball)

Bicep curls into military press

Repeat two more times - 1 min. each doing as many as you can

2 x 4 minute tempo

Small Gear 15

1 minute rest in between

Big Gear 15

Crunches

Hyper Extensions

repeat two more times doing as many as you can (sometimes 30 sec. sometimes 1 minute)

4 x 2 minute Tempo

Big Gear 15

Rest 1 minute

Big Gear 13

Rest 1 minute

Big Gear 15

Rest 1 minute

Small Gear 15

Lunges - left side- as many as you can for 1 minute

Lunges - right side

repeat two more times

4 x 1 minute tempo

Small gear 15

30 sec. rest

Big Gear 21/23

30 sec. rest

Big Gear 15

30 sec. rest

Big Gear 12

30 sec. rest

For 1 minute each you do as many as you can:

Push ups

Lunges

Crunches

Hyper Extensions

Back on the bike to cool down.

I really enjoyed the workout. It was nice to have the outdoor scenery. This workout was filmed on top of the Maryland Science Building overlooking the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Lots of water shots which was nice. This all female group of participants did this entire workout in 100* temperatures.