Lifting and getting stronger with Caroline Girvan: 2025

[BigButtons]

New thread !

@Cherryblossom81yes bizarrely she never repeated the 20 minute circuit in later programmes, can’t imagine why 😂. It was one CV of the hardest days for me, chapeau for doing it on the hottest day of the year!

I took naproxen for my shoulder today- stupid arse I am. And I pulled a muscle in my right thigh. Someone up in the skies is telling me to back off but it’s soooo hard. And I dropped a 2.5 kg weight plate on my little finger last night so that has any angry bruise on it.
was gonna do yoga but am drinking gin instead🤣

@Gobacktotheworldaccording to the July calendar for suggested workouts she posted it’s 60 mins as is the anterior workout on Wednesday. Back glutes and hamstrings so fairly certain there will be hip thrusts!

Oh no I hope you feel better soon @BigButtons

Well done @Cherryblossom81 - that definitely sounds an intense workout! I guess an advantage of starting the CG workouts late is getting to do them in the optimum order rather than chronologically.

@Gobacktotheworld were you wondering about reps? I have been having a nosey on YouTube and watched half of the training tips q&a from 2 years ago- it was quite good with regards to understanding the reps. CG likes to mix up the amount of reps as there are benefits to both higher and lower. She also said that even when she isn’t going above a comfortable weight she will always be trying to improve and make the move harder by concentrating on form and adjusting speed.

I have had 2 days off and did some short Maddy Morrison stretches - really like these, but I felt like I couldn’t follow the yoga workout I tried when she was speaking German! Bit daft as I could just copy her. I do speak a little German but it didn’t help! I have also done a couple of spin bike workouts. I had planned to take a week off from GGing but decided to do iron 1 today and just use lighter weights. We are in London so super hot but I used a fan and it was a fairly doable workout, and I skipped some static lunges as I hate them!

CGing 😆

Morning all- thanks for your concern about my muscular niggles! Shoulder feels better this morning. I will take another naproxen though just in case. Right thigh finally healed after last week’s heat session- I am no longer limping.
Just looked at the new posterior chain workout on the app. She is using some crazy weights for RDLs. They would put my back straight out- I’ll stick with 15 and 17.5 if I decide to do it.
covered myself with jungle formula last night and was able to sleep on the covers without getting bitten to death!
I am still glad I have the fb group on snooze- this is a much nicer space to be in🥰

@BigButtonsyes once I’d seen the weights she was using I decided to continue with Unleash. I have a back injury issue at the moment and it definitely wouldn’t have improved using 25kg for staggered RDLs and 20kg for rows!
I think she’s preparing us for the new series, she’s already hinted at buying heavier weights. I hope she’s not going to lose a lot of her subscribers by going this route, what started off with minimal equipment (Epic1) is looking more like a gym now. Heavy dumbells aren’t cheap!

Not only are they not cheap but they are dangerously if your form isn’t absolutely spot on.
There will be a huge number of injuries- especially with those who are less experienced.
It surprises me that she is going down this route as she has always emphasised that weights don’t need to be super heavy to be effective.
I will stick with what I know is safe for me. I could or ably get 20kg off the floor for rows but my form would absolutely awful. RDLs at that weight is pointless for most people.
The thing is that she is expected to and of course this is her living- to come up with new material and ways to train.
There is going to be a limit to this. I wonder what will happen when she has exhausted stuff.
I don’t need to get any larger than I am muscle wise so am ally to stick with what I am using and just maintain and hopefully stay mostly injury free- although I am not doing well at that at the moment!

I saw something on the Facebook group where a poster was suggesting the new programme will include a weights bench. So I am guessing it will include more emphasis on a barbell? Possibly lower reps? Hopefully there will be a little screen with alternates for those with dumbbells if so. Maybe it was just speculation though.

Caroline mentioned getting an incline bench as well as heavier weights for her next programme. I have one, it is good for rear delt work (a little incline face down - as I can't get as low as she does when she's sitting on a bench. Also to hold onto for rows. If you wanted it for bench press you'd presumably have to get a rack to in order to place the barbell as I don't imaging many people will have a spotter in their living room 😂

Unless I could use one of the dteens as my spotter - I think that would be a disaster on so many levels 😂.

It’s annoying as I would have liked to join in with you all in september- but there is no way I can fit a bench, rack and barbell in my frontroom! Already have an indoor bike and weights in there as well as the usual front room stuff! Stability ball might be an option as I think we have a deflated one somewhere so thanks for the link. I don’t think I will be barbell ready yet by September in any case though!

😂 my weights are also under the window!

wow that is heavy! Would definitely need to be in a gym to hip thrust my body weight 😳 I was wondering about getting a cheapy fake les mills type bar that I could take apart and slide under the sofa amazon.co.uk/Adjustable

@Clearingaspaceyes you can lift a lot heavier with a barbell. I was 25kg for a dumbbell hip thrust but 56kg with a barbell. It’s the same for all the other lifts too, you can squat and chest press a lot more with 2 hands on a bar than with 2 individual dumbbells. Don’t get a les mills type barbell as you can’t slide under it easily for hip thrusts it’s better to get one with bumper plates, much easier to roll it on and off your lap when on the floor.

@Gobacktotheworldthanks for mentioning the Speedy Eccentrics workout, that one had completely passed me by, it looks good fun, definitely a full body workout to try soon!

Thanks @samthebordercollie - I will need to do a lot more research I think

@Clearingaspace I wish I had for a shorter Olympic barbell- I get stuck under mine if I go over 50kg. I need to find some big enough bumper plates- some of the 10 lg ones are ironically no bigger in diameter than the plates I already have. I am mindful of my back anyway( and my growing arse).
well I did today’s posterior session and am very surprised that I enjoyed it- fan on full blast.
i also surprised myself with my weights.
my high one for RDL was 20kg- I made sure I was very very careful with my movements- never gone that high before.
I also managed 20kg for one set of rows then dropped to 17.5 and then 15.
i like the longer rest periods. It didn’t feel like and hour and the set up made it very do able . So a surprise all round/
The thrusts with elevated feet was tricky with what I have in my sitting room.
a Facebook lady relatively near to me is selling me her bench. At the moment I use the hard soda bed in the sitting room!

Where is the speedy eccentrics?
thanks @Gobacktotheworld - will be interesting to see what anterior one is like. My arse bloody hurts already !