Getting fitter and stronger with Caroline Girvan- all welcome!

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New thread!🤩

I wear my cycle gloves too for things like renegade rows. They really help.
If you want to check your posture for doing them, balance a yoga block or book on your back whilst doing the exercises. If it doesn't fall off your posture is correct!

If it's alternating renegade rows, I do one side for half the time then switch and have my other hand on a yoga block. Hand on my weight just hurts too much, it's like holding a parmesan grater.

I actually prefer holding the weight versus having my palm flat - straight wrist is much better for me than bent. Not that I'm back to doing RRs with Caroline yet. Having to have a day off after just the first 3 days of the beginner epic, bad DOMS.

Day 2 Beginners on the App done.

My upper body strength is completely terrible too. Although it always surprises me how quickly it improves if you stick with it.

I probably sound like a broken record........ but your upper body strength will increase exponentially if you work on strengthening your core!

My core is relatively ok, fortunately, I've been doing Pilates with an excellent instructor for years.

Hello all, back after falling off the wagon big time over the summer (far too hot), then super busy with work I kept putting off getting back into it. I’ve now completed the Christmas series and have started Beastmode on YouTube. I was attracted to it as it was short, I did Heat last winter/spring and it took me 5 months to complete as I can only manage 3 days a week and not 5.

Has anyone done Beastmode? So far so good, on day 2 which was fairly taxing, but I’ve got used to shorter workouts. It does have a lot of the word intense in the descriptions, but doesn’t seem too bad yet. It’s only 10 sessions so I
should manage to complete it quickly, then I think there’s another short series. For the longer series I find life gets in the way too much, I don’t have a lot of free time during the day and I’m so not a morning person so a 6am workout is definitely off the cards!

for the renegade rows I put my hand flat on the floor, as I find it really uncomfortable on the weight. I have weightlifting gloves (with wrist splints!) but they don’t help make it any easier.

@Melassa I've not done the whole beastmode program (I rarely do the programs, I mainly only do her upper body workouts as I train my legs at the gym) but I really enjoy them. I like the fact you do 4 sets, as this is how I generally like to train. 4 sets of as heavy as I can. I think if I was to follow one of the programs start to finish, it would be Beastmode, then I'd do it again to see if I could go heavier. I need metrics to see I've made improvement!

I'm the same with the renegades, i have psoriatic arthritis too so my wrists and fingers can be very sore. I put my resting hand on a yoga block

Thanks @florenceandthemac, yes the idea of revisiting did appeal and if it’s shorter I’m more likely do do so.

I’ve been doing random full body sessions in between, but I do like the structure of a series, just not too long a one. I started with Epic 1 and pretty much got to the end, but that was in the second lockdown so I had the time. Then I did Heat and Iron but couldn’t keep up the days so they all took a lot longer. I think CG has some other shorter series so I’ll try those after.

Unilateral series is good, pretty sure it's 5 days

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

Hello everyone, new and old. Sorry I have hardly been on here, but my iPhone won't load it at all, so I have finally cranked up the computer!
I will start up a new thread since we are almost full and link it on here. Hopefully my phone will load it. I have no idea what is going on as no other MN thread causes issues🤔

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/exercise/4979870-lifting-with-caroline-girvan-2024-whats-not-to-love

new thread!