Erin Stern's Elite Fitness Workout Week

Bodybuilding.com has so much valuable information on it, including full workout routines and programs. The last month, I decided to try Erin Stern's Elite Fitness Program. So far, I am really liking the results I am seeing. The program is 4 weeks long, each week it's the same set of workouts. I am in my last week, over half way done with it, and because I liked it, I decided to post the weekly workout routine on here for future reference. I am planning on taking about 2 weeks to do more HIIT workouts  to shock my body and then jumping back into this routine again. If you click the link above, you can see all the workouts again and she even has daily nutrition plans on there but I just try to eat healthy in general.

I really liked this workouts because on average they only take 30-45 minutes each and you feel pretty worked afterwards. The rest breaks are timed so you keep your heartrate up. By the third week, some of the workouts I chose to do high knees or jumping jacks during the rest breaks to keep my heart rate up even more. 

Day 1: Shoulders and Arms

4 sets of supersets, take 45-60 sec rest between each set.

• 5 minute cardio warmup
• Set one: x4
• 10 push jerk
• 10 DB upright row
• Set two: x4
• 10 cable rear delt flies (or DB bent over row)
• 10 cable front raises (or DB front raises)
• Set three: x4
• 10 skull crushers (this really hurts my elbows so I chose to do tricep extensions in plank position)
• 10 bicep curls
•  Set four: x3
• Inverted Bicep rows to failure
• Close hands tricep pushups to failure
• ABS:
• 1 min plank
• 1 min side plank, each side
• 30 sec isometric hold V-up
• 20 ab roller (my knees can't take this so I do swissball pike pulls)

Day 2: Legs and Plyometrics

Start with 3 rounds of the plyometrics followed by squats and then 2 supersets.

• 5 min bike warmup
• 3 rounds of plyometric circuit (10 reps of each exercise, 60 sec rest between each exercise)
• Line jumps, jumping as high as possible almost like a tuck jump over the line
• 180 deg jump squats
• Tuck jumps
• Depth jumps (stand on bench and drop off landing in squat position, you want a hard impact vs soft because the isometric drop hold places a lot of stress on the legs to hold it and the body adapts)
• Dynamic step ups (10 each leg) 
• 5x10 barbell squats (60-90 sec rest between sets)
• Superset one: x3-4
• 10 good mornings
• 20 calf raises
• Superset two: x3
• 15 reverse hyperextensions
• 10 leg extensions (my knees dont do this, so I substituted static lunges x10 each leg)

Day 3: Cardio and Abs 

I choose to do this on a bike or spin bike because of the low impact, you can also do running if you want. You want to challenge yourself and change the resistance/speed going harder or faster. An alternative is to take a spin class, then someone else is telling you when to push it haha.

• 5 minute warmup
• 30 minutes of variable intervals (last time I did this, I chose spin bike and did 1 min normal, 30 sec standing, 15 sec all out climb, 15 sec stand, for a total of 2 min intervals for 30 mins)
• 5 min cooldown
• ABS
• 30 cable crunches
• 15 cable chops, each side
• 20 captain chair leg raises
• 20 roman chair sidebends, each side

 Day 4: Back

3 sets of supersets followed by pullups or single arm lat pulldowns.
60 sec rest between all sets

• 5 min cardio warmup
• Set one: x4
• 10 single arm DB row
• 10 DB lat pullovers
• Set two: x4
• 10 single arm incline DB row
• 10 close grip lat pulldown
• Set three: x4
• 10 widegrip lat pulldown
• 10 facepulls
• 3x8 each arm, single arm lat pulldowns on cable column. Alternative is 3x8 pullups.

Day 5: Chest and Shoulders

3 sets of supersets followed by to failure decline pushups
45-60 sec rest between all sets

• 5 min cardio warmup
• Set one: x4
• 8 DB bench press
• 8 seated DB military press
• Set two: x3
• 10 incline DB flies
• 10 prone incline DB front raise
• Set three: x3
• 10 incline DB bench press
• 10 DB lateral raises
• 3 sets to failure: decline pushups
• ABS
• 20 ab roller ( I do swissball pike pulls)
• 15 swissball roll ins
• 30 swissball crunches
• 30 toe touches

Day 6: HIIT Cardio

This is harder than it sounds, especially if you really push yourself. I choose to do this on a bike because of the low impact, you could do it running but I like the visual feedback of the speed I'm going, because then I can see how fast I went the first round and set that as a goal for the next rounds, especially as I become fatigued.

• 5 min warmup
• 10 minutes of 30:30 intervals, 30 seconds all out, 30 sec easier
• 5 min cool down

Day 7: REST

Actually rest this day. Your body needs adequate rest to build muscle as well as to avoid overtraining.


On bodybuilding.com, this same workout week is repeated for 4 weeks. Each week I was able to increase my weight lifted even if just a little bit. Each time I did the workout, it felt a little better too. I now feel stronger and have a good base. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)