Anyone else doing Caroline Girvan's EPIC programme?

Quick tip for lateral raises when increasing weights: angle the arm slightly forward (about 5 to 10 degrees) rather than level with your body. It puts less stress on the shoulder and prevents injury.

I did day 11 today and upped my weights from 3 to 6kg. My legs were extremely wobbly going down steps after, I needed to hold on to the wall. Again absolutely dripping with sweat (I obviously need bushier eyebrows as it trickles into my eyes and stings).

I’ve also been trying to avoid my wine with crisps daily aperitif, which has been my downfall and probably led to the wobbly tummy. It has been hard, I’d got into the habit of pouring a glass in order to mark the end of my working day, now I do a workout and at most nibble on Korean crispy seaweed with fizzy water. I really hope my tum goes down after this, I’ve not had a drop since last week and have 3 bottles of white in the cooler staring at me 😬

Tomorrow shoulder workout which bizarrely I’m looking forward to. I used to have some definition there from boxing and martial arts years ago which I’m hoping to get back.

I have no idea what the EMOM is, sounds grim, not sure if I dare look! 🙈

@BigButtons - the perfect 'Caroline why are doing this to me??!!!!' antidote:

go back and forth along the monkey bars in the school playground

Oh yes, I've done that too

@Newbornandupwards - I agree with @Pekkala. Also, there is no law that decrees that you have to do an entire EPIC workout on a single day. Just do what you can, and maybe add on a light 10-minute Lucy or Rebecca workout.

Alternating CG with Growingannanas is another way of easing into EPIC life

Wait for Epic day 45.....EMOM HIIT but only 30 mins...how bad could it be

Seriously, I'm 49 and have never had tone and strength like I've got now - I also thought I was fit until I started her workouts - wrong!!!!

My biggest achievement was going from zero upper body strength to being able to go back and forth along the monkey bars in the school playground. I got a round of applause from Y5

Newborn - have a look at Beginner Epic or some of her shorter workouts if you find the Epic ones too much - I just went to it, and used light (or no) weights to start with, took breaks and did very few reps, and missed out anything that would have damaged me (pistol squats and knee to squat jumps, I'm looking at you....)

I may join

@FlowerArranger wow amazing stuff! I thought I was one of the oldest at fifty something. You are inspiring.

If someone had told me, pre-GC, that I would one day be able to do push-ups and burpees, plus doing all kinds of stuff with 5-10 kilo weights..... well, no way, absolutely no way. And yet here I am!! And I'm 67!

However, I strongly suspect that the lovely Caroline has drunk from the witches' brew - I mean those burpee and push-up variations...!!!

I started EPIC, but found it too difficult to carve out the time, so I did EPIC Heat instead. I didn't follow it religiously - I run a couple of times a week, so sometimes subbed that in for HIIT, or did a day a day late.

I haven't seen a dramatic transformation (some of the people on the FB group are incredible!), but I'm definitely more toned, bit of arm/ab definition. I've put on, rather than lost weight - hoping it's muscle mass and not just my age! I was an OK weight to start with though.

I'm another person in their 40s concerned about bone density (don't want to turn into my mother!!), so that's a big motivator.

I think if you can see yourself improving, that's what matters. I could hardly do any push-ups at the start, and now I can do 10 or so in a row, and a couple of decent tricep push ups. I've just got some heavier weights - I did lower body with 6.5kg today, previously I was using 4.5. Not much compared to some people, but an upward curve for me.

As you say, different people find different things easy. I can squat/wall sit etc all day, but my core strength is terrible!

I don't mind a pistol squat, I am a figure skater and they have really helped my skating, as has the single leg and core stuff. They don't come up very often, just to reassure you. Wish I could say the same for the burpees

@FlowerArranger I agree with you, I have seen the “fruits” of my inactivity. Yesterday I got piggy swollen feet from sitting in the office all day then in a bar drinking cocktails. I never had swollen feet or ankles even in pregnancy, so I’m finding this horrifying.

I have looked at the links you posted and will probably do a low impact session tomorrow, after my walk in the morning. They all look really interesting, I did the knee one earlier, before burpee hell. Thank you for those, there’s a lot on YouTube but a lot isn’t great, so recommendations are always super welcome.

No really, you should do it, it does pass quite quickly and you feel great afterwards. It is hard but if you can only manage 4 reps per exercise it’s still a great workout. You got through the hour weight session, you can get through this, promise!

I was just amazed at the range of burpees. It really is quite twisted how many evil combinations she thought up. But all good in the end

I'm convinced that burpees, in whatever shape or form, are the work of the devil! I've decided that, for the time being, I'll just do basic, straightforward burpees, without any embellishments. And leaving out the push-up and/or the little jump at the end if it all becomes too much.

I am totally with you, @Melassa, when it comes to weights vs HIIT, but Anna has loads of low impact HIIT sessions which aren't too taxing in this heat.

At the end of the day, my philosophy is that any form of exercise is better than sitting on the sofa drinking and eating carb-rich salty or sugary cr@p...

Just finished the burpee session, absolutely dripping with sweat. I had to go out on the balcony in the 20 second breaks just to cool down.

I only managed 4 reps of most of the exercises, with the odd 8 and 10 rep for the less elaborate ones. I never thought there could be so many versions of a burpee. Pistol squats you say? There’s a burpee for that. There seems to be a burpee for most tortuous positions including impossible push up combos (push up and clap anyone? I never even got off the ground)

The positives are that I got through it and that it seemed to pass quite quickly in a haze of horror and tomorrow is a rest day!

I’ve decided I much prefer the weight sessions, even the dreaded lunges. It’s just too hot for HIIT even with the aircon on. Maybe I will see it differently in the autumn.

I started off with 3 + 5 kg, but after I started working with Caroline, I very quickly moved up to 5 + 7.5 kg. I'll probably get some 10 kg dumbbells for RDLs, squats and the like pretty soon. It feels soooooo good!!!

For those who struggle with certain types of exercise or have weak knees, ankles, shoulders, whatever, I would suggest that you look at Redefining Strength. This lady doesn't do workouts as such, but she explains HOW to do things really well - as well as pointing out what NOT to do.

She has several videos on push-ups, e.g.:

And this one focuses on dodgy knees:

Have fun!!

@Melassa I only have 3kg and 5kg dumbbells. I mainly used my 3kg with the 5s here and there. I haven't increased but have noticed in the last week of epic 2 that the 3s felt a lot lighter. I'm planning to go up to the 5s when I start again next week.

Lidl and aldi also have dumbbells sometimes cheaply - mine are all from there.

I’m also doing the EPIC series and today is burpee day for me, I was not looking forward to it so hearing it’s not too bad does help. I used to do Jillian but got bored of the same sessions over several days, plus I am now in my 50s so wanted to up my weight training to offset muscle loss. Like many lockdown has meant less movement overall and I’d lost a lot of muscle tone, which has since been replaced with chub!

My DM has osteoporosis and joint problems and I want to avoid getting it as much as I can, plus I’ve always had fairly defined arms and legs and a couple of months ago I spotted the beginnings of a bingo wing, so decided to get off my backside and do something about it.

10 weeks is a long time though and I’ve looked ahead at some of the HIIT sessions and they seem pretty scary, so I’ll be following this thread to help me to keep going and not sack it off.

I do need to up my weights though, currently using 3kg as the next size up in my house is 15kg, but I’m finding them far too light now. I might need a trip to Decathlon to pick up some in between weights. Does everyone gradually increase as you go along? Or do you all stick the the same weights throughout the programme?