Lifting with Caroline Girvan 2024: What's not to love?!

Morning all. I know there are a few of us on here who, like me, are small framed. I just wondered if you have any tips...

I managed to increase my weights for legs to 2x10kg this morning (the heaviest weight I've used since I started this!). But the problem was my wrist strength to hold them. My wrists/hands felt too weak to hold them down but I also felt like I couldn't safely get them up in the position on my shoulders. Not sure if I've explained that very well. Can anyone relate? I feel I could go up to 2x10kg for my legs but being held back by my wrists.

New ambition: have one of the niblings refer to auntie Pirate as hench. 😍

@DreadPirateRobots yes! It's great to feel strong. My grip strength is now excellent for my age (59). It's nice to see the body composition change, I don't believe the body fat percentage on my Tanita scales but the trend is pretty accurate and although I've put on a few pounds they seem to be mostly muscle. I was in the UK at Christmas and saw my nephews (who work out) and niece in London and they all said 'aunty Sam is really hench'. I had to look it up 😂
All thanks to Caroline!

I had one of those days in the gym this morning where I was like "... being strong is so awesome". Even though Caro was chest pressing 17.5s to my 12.5s. I'm not the only one who gets that, right? Seeing the muscle mass I've acquired is just still such a trip. I never get tired of it.

@AtomicBlondeRose great, thank you.

And there’s a good bank of 20-30 minute workouts too with the CGXmas and the Sunrise collection. Certainly I can always find something to suit between programmes.

Yeah there’s loads that are 45-50 minutes - in fact that’s more the default length for all the new programmes. Certainly the REV is coming in around 45-49 minutes and from
memory, Unleash/Intent/PE are around that length too. And it’s quite easy to skip the finisher or something if you need to save a couple of minutes. I can’t remember the last time I did a full 60 minutes.

Hello everyone. I'm new to this thread. I started doing CG last year. I've done Iron, Fuel, Epic Heat and am currently doing Epic 3 (which I'm really enjoying so far).

I'm wondering what to do next, e.g. switch to her app or carry on with the YouTube programmes. I've had a look at Epic 3 but some workouts are approx 60 minutes. I work full-time, so would struggle with this. 45 minutes is the sweet spot for me. Are there many programmes on the app where the workouts are this length? Or maybe I should just repeat the programmes I've enjoyed on YouTube?

@BigButtons I expect burpees on Fridays' full body days but hopefully the other days will stay free of them! Glad you are getting some cheaper weights, I've accumulated rather a lot now 😳 hate to think what the whole cost is overall!
@AtomicBlondeRose I really enjoy plyometrics so am looking forward to Day 4 if there are squat jumps. I think that's why I keep going back to redo workouts from Unleash which is now one of my favourite programme, often jumping on leg days (but no burpees)

Keep an eye out at Lidl - that’s where I got my 10kgs and they were on offer so I saved money for a pair. Can’t remember the price but I’ve never seen the, cheaper anywhere.

Day 4 of Rev and some dreaded jumping moves sneaking in! Also sissy squats which was a hard nope and a bit of a shock to start with. I’m getting used to the circuits format and it seems to go quite quickly although they are long. Trying to stick to doing three for now but it’s early days!

I started today and didn't find it too difficult, but knowing Caroline it will get a lot harder! She was very generous giving us a whole minute's rest between circuits, I've never seen that before 😂. I'm still not convinced circuits are as good for gains as the repeated lifting in Intent and PE but they are certainly more fun to do!I like the longer programmes but it's great to cut down the circuits from three to two if you're time restricted.

I enjoyed session 2 of REV - the variety meant it went fast and it was more wide-ranging than some previous programmes. However it was hard work and I know I’ll feel it tomorrow which I usually don’t! Also quite long; I foresee dropping to two circuits for some sessions. I do like how different it feels to the last few programmes I’ve done.

I'm enjoying Rev on day 2. Prefer the 3 circuit format than doing 3 sets of the same exercise one after the other. Enjoyed having an abs and some bodyweight too to mix it up a bit.

But..I feel done after circuit 2, the 3rd one is killing me! I think I've got used to the quicker advent workouts so have some adjusting to do.

Oh that's good , it means REV won't be Fuel 2! Judging from the description it looks like the second set of upper/lower body will be faster than the first set and the full body day more cardio based. The braids she has in the photos indicate this too!
I'm on a rest day so will start REV tomorrow.

Started REV this morning - I’ve had an enforced rest period for the last three weeks due to being away and then being ill. Still tried to do at least 2 workouts a week but a lot of body weight and long gaps between sessions so I was happy to see the first workout was upper body! This was just a classic upper body circuits workout - liked it a lot actually. No cardio or weird moves in this one which I was glad about. After 18 months of CG I can match some weights (always for the 4kg delts/lats, and I can do 15kg for single arm rows and one set of pullovers) for everything else and for the other pullover sets I tend to be “one below” - so if she’s on 15, I’m on 10, if she’s on 10, I’m on 7.5 and so on. I usually give it a try at the matched weight for a rep or two just to see. But I’m happy at the weights I’m at.

This is so helpful to read. I started last April with using 2kg-5kg. I was probably mainly using 2kg & 3kg for a while!

I got an adjustable set of 10kg a couple of months ago (mainly only using them at 8kg at the moment for lower body).

I was encouraged yesterday that I noticed I was using some weights for upper body that I was originally using for lower body.

I know these weights are still tiny compared with some of you (and definitely compared with Caroline), but I'm encouraged that I'm making progress and also been consistent since April 2024.

I'm hoping I might see some changes in body composition soon. I'm a healthy weight/BMI, but quite short/small framed and flabby (especially tummy fat).

Thanks for asking. I'm really enjoying Heat. The only day I've not enjoyed so far was the 'calisthenics' on day 9. Not sure why. I think I found it really hard! But maybe that's a good thing.

@BigButtons I had the same Christmas present, but just one 17,5kg dumbell for staggered RDLs, I'm not strong enough to use that weight for lunges, yet!!
Sorry you were poorly over Christmas. Out of interest, when did you start lifting? I'd love to know your progress in weights from when you started.
I've put on weight, 3kg in a year, most of it in the last few months...