Hammer & Chisel Rotation Ideas

[rheash92]

So many of you are saying that the H&C rotation is not balanced. Has anyone come up with a different rotation or some kind of a hybrid rotation that maybe incorporates some more cardio and is more balanced or mixing it up with other workouts/systems? I have all other Beachbody systems as well as all of Cathe's workouts. Any ideas? Thanks!

[momofcha]

They have that workout blender/hybrid matrix on their website - maybe plug in the beachbody programs you want to combine and see what it pops out?

[Daphne M]

I bet you can plug them into your own rotation very easily, because all of them are total body strength and generally interchangeable.

• The majority focus on heavier weights and almost every single one has pullups/chinups and push-ups.
• A few are more metabolic/functional. (Hammer Conditioning, Chisel Balance, Chisel Cardio come to mind.)
• And a couple I'd consider higher-rep/lighter weights. (Chisel Endurance and Iso Chisel Strength.)
• And two that are cardio (Hammer Plyo and Chisel Agility.)

If you break the workouts down into those categories, I found it pretty easy to plug them into my own schedule. For example, I like to do my own cardio every day. (Alternating easy and hard runs, cycling, rowing & some DVD cardio.) And I like to leave a day of rest between strength workouts -- unless they are splits, but there are no splits in H&C. So I ended up with:

Monday - VERY easy cardio
Tuesday - hard cardio + core
Wednesday - easy cardio + heavy weights
Thursday - hard cardio + core
Friday - easy cardio + metabolic or lighter weights
Saturday - medium cardio + core
Sunday - hard cardio + heavy or metabolic weights + core

One of things that made H&C so enjoyable for me was the variety of approaches to total body weight training. Amazing how differently the same types of exercises can be treated.

[AnMrsDe]

Could someone please tag this thread...for if (when) I ever get this set...I like to read all my options! Thanks so much!

[monterey vidiot]

I thought there would be a "hammer & chisel" tag, but that comes out as "chisel" and "hammer&" -- had to write "and" instead of using the ampersand.

[Kathy G]

I was thinking of following the included rotation for two days - do something else (cardio/abs) on the third day - follow the rotation for two days - repeat. This would extend the rotation out 24 days but my knees would probably thank me, lol.

I made it to the fifth week of the included rotation and started having knee discomfort. I took a break and came back to try to finish the rotation but my knees started bothering me after a week. I think the issue for me is doing legs six days a week (weighted most of the time or plyo). It doesn't give my lower body a break.

Kathy

[rheash92]

Great ideas. Thanks!

How much Plyo is there in the total body workouts? I like the idea of adding in your own cardio but I am wondering if I should be adding in HIIT or low impact steady state? Thanks!

[Daphne M]

rheash - There is only one workout that is pure plyo (Hammer Plyo), but a few of the others have some plyometric moves in them. They're pretty good at showing modifications if you don't want to jump. Hammer Conditioning comes to mind: it has a move where you hold dumbbells, do a burpee down to the floor, do renegade rows with each arm, then burpee back up with an upright row. Chisel Balance and Chisel Cardio also have burpees and one of them has split squat jumps too, I think.

Beachbody has posted workout sheets for each of the workouts, so you can browse through them -- see link here -- to get an idea of the mix of exercises.