Getting fitter and stronger with Caroline Girvan- all welcome!

I feel mean saying it as she does so much and clearly puts a lot of planning in but I just couldn't get on with this and it's taken me 2 months to finish it which is shocking! I'll complete it and start Epic next week.

You're not wrong 🤣

I did iron day 27 yesterday and quite enjoyed it, but if day 28 is all hip thrusts I might give it a miss. The last one that had a lot of those it did occur to me I could probably have achieved a similar effect more enjoyably via, um, other activities.

Christ this Iron series is a massive struggle. I've just switched off 28 because of the sheer boredom of 30 mins of hip thrusts. I've done other exercises instead. I think there's only two left of this one and I hope Epic will be better for me. I've just found it so boring aside from the full body sessions which are great. You can't please everybody I guess, I just found Fuel so much more fun. It's takes me so long to complete this.

OMG todays workout Endgame day 26 Killer arms and chest was the hardest arm workout I've ever done. I nearly cried - until I saw that Caroline had to stop for rests during the 1 minute sessions too.

For those of you who don’t want to do heavy leg workouts I really recommend Lucy Wyndham Read’s Thighs and Glutes, especially if you introduce some variations that make them more challenging.

Core workouts also work the legs. I still swear by Rebecca Louise’s Best Abs, as well as Caroline’s Braced Abs and Core.

Last day of my skiing break. So glad I did all the leg work last year. No more fear of moguls 😁

I also much prefer the upper body stuff nowadays and use lower weights on the lower body. Last time my bum and thighs bulked up a bit too much and I couldn’t fit in my trousers, which would’ve involved an entire wardrobe refresh. Also I’m quite a small build so too much bulk just makes me look stocky.

I now stick to 6kg for most lower body exercises and I find it’s perfect for staying toned and firm without the build up. I’ve started to go a bit heavier for some of the upper body stuff as I did enjoy my strength at the end of Iron, plus I’ve been doing work around the house and it’s really been helping with the drilling and chainsawing and my arms don’t get so tired.

I’m on Heat day 34, I’ve been doing 3-4 a week with gaps in between but I’ve not skipped one, I even did the HIIT, so I’m quite chuffed with myself. Last time I skipped most of them so this has been a novelty for me.

Just to call myself a liar, did iron day 26 before lunch - legs circuits which I quite enjoyed.

What weights do you use mostly for lower body Endgame now @BigButtons ? I'm really enjoying the Endgame: Full body days are my favourite, and I prefer leg days to arm days (I'm a runner and after 3 months still can't lift heavier than 5kg for over head exercises like presses!)
I haven't done any of the HIIT days either which I feel a little guilty about but as I run 3 or 4 times a week I prefer to concentrate on heavier lifting when I do CG workouts: I spent all day yesterday laying out and planting veg and it was so much easier than previous years thanks to Caroline, bending over for long periods is no longer painful!

I've always had sturdy walkers legs, I think the risk of damaging them and also lower back with weighted exercises may outweigh possible benefits at this point.

But as it's rainy here for the next couple of days and DH is away I really need to get on and finish the series rather than sitting here talking about it.

I've got a bit behind, up to day 25 of iron last week.
I'm generally enjoying the upper body and whole body ones more than the legs, and I'm happy enough with the strength of those so I think after I've done the last 5 I may start again but not do the legs ones.

Is Caroline coming back with anything new?

I really enjoyed listening to Dr Layman too. I've listened to Layne Norton and Dr Andy Galpin who are also interesting in the subject of protein and muscle synthesis but Dr Layman is the easiest to understand on putting eating habits into practice.
My jeans are getting tighter. I was a skinny fat runner before so I hope that it's due to a little muscle gain and not over eating Barebell protein bars 😂

@BigButtons Many thanks for this recommendation to listen to Peter Attia, especially that discussion with Don Layman. I had no idea that age (in my case late 60s) had such an influence on protein synthesis, nor that the quantity at any one meal could be optimised for protein synthesis/ muscle growth.
Peter Attia also seems to appreciate that many of us want to continue to increase lean muscle without overdoing calories.

Do the studies take size and sex into account at all?

@BigButtons that's interesting, so consuming a protein bar with 20grammes of protein is a waste of time and calories as a snack! I don't eat breakfast so I'll increase the volume of my protein shake to get 30 instead of 20g.
It's hard to get enough protein in if you don't eat 3 meals.
This morning did a 20 min full body workout and an 8 mile run. Still had some energy this evening so did Day 51 of Heat which I'd strangely missed (cough) when doing the programme.
30 minutes of a hundred different versions of push ups 😱

Still going with Iron round 2 and Epic heat. Almost gave up on Epic heat the other day after the ‘burpee bonanza’, until I realised that was the title and it wasn’t going to be a regular thing! Really enjoyed the ‘flaming legs’ a few days later.

Day 18, upper body - I used every size of weight we have during that, though only one of the 10kgs.

I probably need to work on correct form with an incline first - maybe even wall initially.