Anyone else doing Caroline Girvan's EPIC programme?

[BigButtons]

I thought I was pretty fit and toned. I have exercised consistently most of my life: weights, cardio, hit, running etc ( now 53). I have just finished day 8 of EPIC and feel like a complete wuss. It was the lunges one. I wanted to be sick even though I was standing infront of a large fan the entire time.
How do people actually manage to get through these? I have just looked ahead to the burpee day and feel like I am simply not up to this.

More brutal? 😱 is that even possible?

On a semi positive note I woke up in a sweat early this morning, and only then I noticed it hadn’t happened in the last few nights, so the HRT must be working as I’m sleeping better. I had a cocktail followed by a glass of wine yesterday, it might have been that setting it off. It looks like I will need to limit myself to the occasional single glass instead of quaffing daily 😢

Yes- I find when I don’t drink I don’t get the sweats- I need to drink less often that’s for sure.
Well I didn’t enjoy that abs/ glutes session much. My heart wasn’t in it and my teens kept interrupting me. I did finish it eventually but hated every second . It was me, not CG. I wasn’t in the right head space . Tomorrow’s another day- should dread the full hour but since every workout’s been nearly an hour I won’t know the difference 😂

How are you all doing?

I’ve been focusing on sweaty HIIT with GrowingAnnanas and Caroline’s Beast Mode. Plus a little Rebecca for light relief…

Photo summary of what I did today

Oh my! You had the energy for all that? I just did CG shoulders and core today and will probably swim this afternoon (DD has got into racing me and, disconcertingly, now beats me). Maybe I’ll do some yoga before bedtime, but we’ll see. Tomorrow we have a 3 hr hike planned (shortest one in our trail book!) and it’s glutes and abs day 23 in Epic. Not sure whether to do it before we leave or just skip a day. I am loath to skip too much as I’ve got into the habit now, but reading what @BigButtons wrote about it I am tempted to just skip it.

We will see how I feel tomorrow.

Wow @FlowerArranger that’s pretty impressive!
@Melassa it wasn’t that it was silly hard just I had no mojo at all and couldn’t be arsed to put in the effort.
Three hours hiking on top of glute and abs would be a big ask for me. Well done on the swimming.
I have a tendency to overdo things so being strict about just sticking with Epic is a good thing otherwise I would be silly and the. Give up because I had done too much.
There were hardly any test periods for the whole 50 minutes glutes😱
I feel very tired .
I suspect that I am not eating enough . Well I am eating what I normally do but now I have basically 5 hours hard core exercise to fuel and I am not doing that properly.
It’s the full hour for me today. No teens to sit on the sofa next to me putting me off and asking the questions that teens ask, so it might be better.🙏🏼😳

You all are pretty impressive and I’m impressed!!!

I do 1.5-2 hours most days. Usually Anna + Caroline, plus one or two of my favorite Rebecca and/or Lucy mini-sessions.

One think I’m not sure about: when the burpees or push-ups get a bit much I tend to ‘modify’ and power on. Wondering whether it might be better to take a short break and try and do it all ‘properly’…

@Melassa - why not just do one of Caroline's quick ones?

Or one of these super short tabata workouts from Anna:

Have fun!!

Did the hour- was of course interrupted part way through- par for the course- it was ok actually and I even managed to work with 6.5kg dumbbells for all but some of the arm ones, which considering I was on 4's when I started shows strength gains. I sweated like I'd been in a sauna though!
I hate the maker.

I tried one out after seeing this thread. Omg her workouts are mad! I'm pretty strong and fit (ish) but 45 mins of legs and glutes left me finding stairs a challenge the next day .
However, I did feel like I'd achieved something so will be going back for more.
None of the handstand things though, what's all that about?!

@Gherkingreen I thoughts I was pretty fit too! It’s a shocker. The first week of Epic was the most challenging- hence me starting this thread. I think it was because my musicales weren’t strong enough and my head wasn’t used to the pain levels🤣.
It’s still very challenging- day 25 today- but I am so much stronger than I was five weeks ago.

Please excuse typos- I haven’t woken up properly and my phone is filling the gaps!😆

right wittering on to myself- just for accountability really- got 20% into today's hiit which seems to consist solely of very dangerous looking lunge jumps, curtsey jumps and push ups at great speed. I have stood staring at the screen mostly. I would become a cripple if i did any lunge jumps or push-ups without carefully checking my form. off to find her non impact alternative.......

Ha! Thanks for the warning! The lunge jumps are what hurt my knee a couple of weeks ago. I think I will opt for a low impact too.

I will shortly be doing glutes, our hike has been postponed as DP is feeling tired (from doing nothing) so we are going to the beach again.

@Gherkingreen I think CG assumes we are all super sporty and more agile than we are, I can’t do handstands either (or half the push up varieties, or the dreaded pistol squats). Apparently she’s toned it down for later series and dropped the handstands and some if the fussier stuff. Thank goodness.

@Melassa - one of the reasons I love GrowingAnnanas is the fact that her low impact HIIT complement Caroline's more intense workouts. I often have 'intermediate' days where I focus on HIIT plus one of Caroline's shorter workouts.

As for handstands - no, just no! Pistol squats ditto And I'm happy if I can do ANY kind of push-ups with reasonably correct form, instead of some of the crazy variations.

Enjoy your hols

Yes, I was planning on doing one of the Growingannanas ones, I have it saved in my iPad. I have most of your refs saved on different tabs so I can go back to them when I have less time.

@Melassa Glad it's not just me with the handstands! Couldn't do them as a kid let alone a 6ft perimenopausal woman

I'm with you all on the handstands!

Well I did a low impact CG hiit. Stupidly I did not take enough notice of the title which said 'extreme'.
Turns out it was an 'emom' one whereby you repeat 3 exercises to given reps in a minute- each circuit is 10 minutes. The only break you get is what you get if you finish quickly enough before the next minute starts.
Having bottled out of the first hiit I decided I couldn't bottle out of another one. Didn't manage the crazy leg lift press ups. Just did normal ones on my knees.

So that’s what EMOM means! Well, I will be avoiding those too in the short term. Did the glutes and abs today, again not too bad but boy, do I hate the hip thrusts. Some exercises just annoy me and that is one of them. I look forward to the full body tomorrow and will be choosing my LIIT wisely to follow. Thanks to @BigButtons for all the warnings!

PS. I could never do a handstand as a child either, the extent of my gymnastic ability was forward and backward rolls. God, I hated gym!

The only break you get is what you get if you finish quickly enough before the next minute starts...

@Melassa I’ll be the guineapig and try things out for you🤣

Having said that I am away next week so will be a week behind you when I come back. My muscles could do with a break most likely 😮

@FlowerArranger so in reality as I got more tired and slower and slower with each round the breaks get shorter and shorter 🥴

Thank you. I did start one day ahead but there is an advantage to having fallen behind 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Definitely no handstands in epic heat! We're back on it now, as husband's back is more or less better, and did day 38 (shoulders). So hard!.

For the past week or so I've been mostly focused on the Beast Mode series.

Today is supposed to be Day 5:

Oh my flicking gosh!!!! Any of you done this???!!

I think I'll be substituting.........:-

to me