Serious Strength with Gin Miller

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Total Time - 72 minutes

Gin Miller leads this ADVANCED strength workout using HEAVY WEIGHT with HIGH REPS. Equipment options included plate loaded barbell, 3 sets of dumbbells, and a step platform. Other weighted bars or just dumbbells can be substituted for plate loaded barbell.

$19.95

bella bar kit - plate loaded barbell used in Serious Strength.  Ships separate from DVD.

Back Cover

About Serious Strength

Heavy Weight, High Rep?

Getting serious results with strength training is all about adaptation and change. "Most people use the same light weights time and again," according to Gin, "and they wonder why they fail to get results - they get stuck on a fitness plateau."

It may be difficult for any one workout to be all things to all people, but this heavy weight, high rep formula provides the greatest flexibility and opportunity for change in advanced participants.

Considering that muscle fatigue is the goal in any strength workout, be it pure strength or muscle endurance, this workout can be applied to either goal. By paying attention to your body, this is a workout that can be customized and varied to suit your needs.

If muscle endurance is on your periodization schedule, you can work lighter. If muscle strength is needed, go heavy. If fewer reps are required to produce fatigue, use the skip points to jump to the next exercise or provided stretch. But over time, increase your weight selection and you will eventually see serious changes in your lean to fat ratio.

With the high rep formula, particularly applied to the large integrated muscle groups such as squats, there's also a fat burning cardio effect as you work these major muscles to fatigue. "If I were told that I had to choose between cardio and strength workouts," says Gin "I would definitely go with strength. You can get significant cardiovascular benefits with a high rep, intense, strength workout."

In group exercise and home fitness workouts, higher reps are generally needed for advanced participants because the amount of weight is typically much less than what would be required in the weight room. But for more isolated muscle groups, if weight selection is indeed heavy, fatigue is more likely to occur prior to the end of a high rep set.

According to Gin, "It doesn't really matter how many reps you do or how heavy the weight is, what really matters is muscle fatigue. If you can get to muscle fatigue and then follow with rest and recovery, the muscles will adapt and strengthen. That's when changes in your body will occur."

Weight Selection

What is "light", "moderate" and "heavy" is all relative to what you are adapted to in weight selection and relative to the exercise - be it multiple, larger or integrated muscle groups or smaller isolated muscles. When first attempting this workout, choose a weight that you are already comfortable with to get a feel for the high rep demand.

Gin uses a fully loaded Bella Training barbell throughout most of the workout for a total plate load of 35 pounds. This heavier weight is generally suitable for the larger integrated muscles groups, but may be too much for isolated muscle groups.

She does not do a plate change during the workout - if needed, you can pause the workout to change plates - but it's best to have a selection of varying weights at hand. Weighted bars can be used instead - but considering that most people are likely to have lighter versions of these bars (15 lbs or less), heavy dumbbells can be substituted on the barbell exercises.

The Rep Formula - fast, slow, slower and super slow

For most of the exercises, Gin does a specific combination of fast, slow, slower and super slow reps. To give you a sample of this combination, a 2 minute portion of the 5 minute squat set is posted on our Fit Clicks player.

This formula with varying tempos is the real key to results - having used this approach in her own classes, Gin's body has undergone a serious transformation.

While some may dread the thought of "super slow" reps for 8 counts, that's where the real magic happens. By forcing the elimination of momentum, the targeted muscles have to fight against the pull of gravity - in both the concentric and eccentric contractions. At the same time, secondary stabilizers of the joints and the core have to kick in to maintain proper form and posture.

DVD Features

DVD is replicated or pressed, not duplicated on DVD-R

DVD offers 2 menus - the main menu plays the full workout, including exertion checks, set ups and intros. A bonus quick mix menu provides a quick rearranged version of the workout that automatically plays a modified sequence from large integrated muscle groups to smaller isolated muscles.

Bonus music option- toggle the music on or off with your remote audio button: channel 1 is with the music (default), channel 2 is just her audio cues. Workout bpms are 130.

More Info

Music provided by Cardio Mixes - www.cardiomixes.com

Main Menu - plays the full workout timeline.

Direct text links are below each section:

Pt 1
Squats 1
Biceps BB (barbell)
Squats 2
Biceps DB (dumbbell)

Pt 2
Rear leg lifts
Chest (pushups or presses)
Lunges w/ shoulders (she does a starter lunge set on each leg to establish ROM, then does the combination sets: right lunge, shoulders during rest/transition, left lunge, shoulders, right lunge, shoulders, left lunge, shoulders and finish w/ shoulder presses)

Pt 3
Bridges
Rows DB
Plie Squats
Rows BB

Pt 4
Triceps (dips or extensions with either the bar/prone or dumbbells/overhead, seated)
Core - side seated (stabilization 'sweeps')
Bicycles
Planks
End stretch

The main timeline includes approximately 45 chapter points total. A lot are skip points: for longer set ups or intros, you can hit skip to start the exercise. If you finish a set early, you can skip to the stretch or the next exercise. You can also skip thru exertion checks and breaks between the parts of the workout.

Sub Menu "Quick Mix" - plays a rearranged version of the main workout.

The sub menu has just the MAIN workout exercises - tightly trimmed to start and end quickly. The lineup is laid out in columns and times are given for each exercise segment. These segments play AUTOMATICALLY in the sequence. Familiarity with proper weight selection and rep demand is recommended prior to use of the sub menu Quick Mix.

Starts top left:

Column 1
Squats 5:00
Chest 4:34
Squats 2:42

Column 2
Rows bb 2:32
Plie squats 2:41
Rows db 3:44

Column 3
Lunges shoulders 1 - 2:58
Biceps db 2:41
Lunges shoulders 2 - 4:07

Column 4
Biceps BB 4:44
Rear lifts - 4:42
Triceps 2:58

Column 5
Bridges 3:31
Core - link goes direct to abs section in the main timeline, side seated exercise - skip to bicycles or planks if preferred.

With the exception of warm-up and core, which can both be played from the main timeline, all of these segments are on their own timelines and also have the toggle audio off option.

A couple segments are cut shorter than the actual workout section: i.e. lunges 1 was cut and does not have the first set (R/L) done to establish ROM and biceps stops before she does the final reps across the break.

These timelines are automatically programmed to play in the order described above - this more traditional sequence was done for people don't like to get up and down off the floor in the middle of the workout, so bridges are at the end and then it goes to Core/abs. It also goes from major/multiple to minor/isolated muscle groups - the exception is shoulders - they are done during the rest breaks of the lunges.

Although the timelines play automatically in the rearranged sequence, you will be able to choose ANY exercise to start and just do a few in the sequence or you can return to the same menu, if you prefer to select your own exercises.

Customer Comments

I tried Gin Miller's Serious Strength tonight and loved it!  I adore the moves for the biceps.  I love the leg work.  I plan on using it along with Simply Endurance in my November rotation.  Thank you for putting an excellent workout on the market.

Gretchen C.