Lifting with Caroline Girvan- keeping it real and having a laugh along the way!

[BigButtons]

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@BigButtonsthats why I love PE so much, there are dedicated back and biceps days every 4 days, dedicated chest, shoulder and triceps every 4 days so you get the body parts regularly worked on.
@GobacktotheworldI use whatever Caroline uses so usually 5kg although she’s used 7,5 occasionally. I confess I have problems making the difference between the rows and flyes sometimes! I can never get my elbows as high as Caroline does with rows.
did Day 5 Intent today, 2 leg circuits including step ups. I subbed out the single leg hip thrusts for rear step lunges because I prefer them!

I am so impressed that you match her weights. I used to mange half but sometimes I am up to 2/3rds of her weights. I really struggle with shoulder stuff.

this sounds a bit bitchy - but she is such a naturally beautiful woman - has she had fillers or whatever in Iron Pro? She looks slightly less natural which is a shame as she was utterly gorgeous as she was!

i am still struggling to fit in longer workouts so have done more of the older 20 minuters. They are excellent

Yeah. She's been having it for a while, but hopefully she stops before she just has the same face as all the others who go that route.

OMG at that picture, she’s beginning to look like Madonna!

She is naturally pretty and has a lovely smile. It must be hard to have to keep this image up. There is so much hair and make up and whatnot going on now. I mean would she make as much money if she wasn’t dolled up and filled in? Probably not.
I was pulling bonfire barrels last night and didn’t get to bed until 2am . I am shattered so no weights or anything much at all for me today.

I also love the old 20 minute ones. I need to decide what to do today... fourth coffee and still haven't got started yet. I was thinking a quad/calf one from Epic III, but should just do a shorter one. Think she has a twenty minute quad one on the app if I can bloody find it! Perhaps she could divert some of the money from her beauty salon fund to paying a developer to sort out her search on the app. <grumpy>

Good luck with your traditional rituals there BB. So intriguing. Just been reading a murder mystery involving a load of Morris dancers and swords. Love all that Wicker Man stuff but very ignorant of it!

And I did do this one because I couldn't be arsed to find another.

Jesus Christ. Nearly caved during the wall sits with calf raises and had to stop and shake out my legs constantly. She was not fucking around in the YouTube days. This was one of the hardest workouts I have done in months.

Bloody love epic three

She obviously has a broad demographic who follow her, and I don't want to generalise, but I do think many find her highly aspirational and love her quite polished look, so there's probably pressure to go that route, which is sad.

Ah love a bit of pagan stuff! Spending half my childhood in rural Ireland it runs through my bones. I love this time of year. The countryside does start to feel a bit spooky around Halloween. Last year there was a real heaviness to the atmosphere. We always set an extra place at the dinner table on Halloween to welcome souls lost back into the home. I put out my old dog’s bowl too. And light candles and the fire to guide them through.

I got out on the moors this morning for a long run. Might do today’s iron pro this evening as it’s an upper body and abs one so leaves my aching legs alone.

botox and fillers reminds me of smoking - something I’ll look back on in years time and feel smug I resisted that peer pressure. So many of my friends have gone that route and yeah they look great but at some point you tip over into that phase of looking like you’ve got someone else’s face laid over the top of yours. And it’s just a lot of money and id rather work fewer hours than pay for that shit.

Omg those cheeks - I don’t think I would have recognised her (from Ultimate Beginner which I am doing). She was so gorgeous, why do they do it 🤯

I read the weekly HQ article. I have no idea what it was about. Something about saying no and yes. At least we have an article by silly boy to look forward to.

I am deffo getting to the stage where the format of the prog is irritating me. It happens with pretty well all of them by this stage . They get so predictable - I swear to god we are doing the same sessions every couple of weeks. I think 6 weeks is much better.
I did like the original iron though and pe. I really think that the posters both on fb and the app are a huge turn off for me.

I still valiantly try to skim-read her stuff but that was an impenetrable Joycean stream of consciousness word salad even by her standards.😁

I do wish she would not write about diet and food at all. She has this sort of strawman fat woman she likes to refer to who is a big stupid hippo of a woman, panicking she can't shift below her set point (a concept Caroline blithely dismisses), crying that Caroline has it easy for not having 'food noise,' etc. Caroline has even previously referred to body fat as "excess stored energy" or some other ridiculous euphemism, as though the f-word were too terrible to utter. She plainly thinks fatties (which is practically everyone compared with her) just need more discipline and it makes my toes curl a bit

She is on much solider ground with her workouts. I did the "4 rounds of 3 new exercises" cgx one today which is just push ups, inverted rows and diamond raises. 20 mins and superb. I might do the 20min Christmas abs one from youtube tonight if there's time.

I don't read any of her stuff without checking on here first, so I can have descriptions like 'impenetrable Joycean stream of consciousness word salad' there to amuse me in the background 😁.

I am loving her physique in Iron Pro- I think she's a little less lean and she looks great! Still completely unattainable for the rest of us! As for the filler, I have some myself so I'll stay quiet 😂

I always wonder who these women are that she mentions speaking to in her HQ! Would love to hear from her past in-person clients.

She wrote one thing on the app a while back bout menopause. She basically said that if she started to put on weight she would adjust her food intake accordingly. Oh were it that simple- she really should shut up about stuff like that. She will find out in time.
i was pointed towards a podcast by the lovely Jennifer batts- one made for active women in mid life.

There was one guy who was some sort of sport / food/ diet expert and he was completely baffled when his very fit, active and slim wife started to inexplicably gain weight in her late forties. He had to admit that he was having to rethink all he believed and had learned about weight gain in peri and meno. What was happening to his wife made no sense to him, but he could not deny it was happening and it certainly wasn’t as as simple as eat less and move more because she already was.

@BigButtons I couldn't make much sense of this week's article either! I think she's an incredibly disciplined person and I don't think she fully acknowledges just how much work is required to look how she does! I'm sorry but she must do way more abs than is in these programmes (some don't have any in them). I am about 20 years older than she is and yes, it will be interesting to see whether she changes her tune on the menopause when she gets there! I managed to lose some weight a couple of months ago but only because I was ill and couldn't face eating anything other than a cup a soup for a good few days.

I just read her latest post. It's quite insulting to those of us with chronic illness who have also led a life of fitness and good diet. Not all chronic illnesses are avoidable, Caroline, and lucky you not to have one!

I did iron pro 30 glutes - I think it was the same as a couple of weeks ago. I'm not really that fussed though, I can cope with samey.

Reading the blog is much harder work than doing the workouts - should be 30s rest between paragraphs imo 😅

@Fibrous I'm glad I didn't bother reading that. My lifestyle was great and my health was perfect until an iatrogenic injury.
I do feel lucky that I can still work out but it's not as easy and uncomplicated as before.

Lol Norma

You know, she hasn't a clue, @Fibrous and @SpaceRaccoon- about anything much outside of workouts. Shame she doesn't appear to have anyone IRL telling her to wind her neck in because she comes across as out of touch, ignorant and sometimes a bit smug on certain subjects. Please don't read the comments; some of her fans are just plain odious.

I am treating myself to a KPop and ABBA dance workout session on YouTube tomorrow. Excellent cardiovascular health is specifically what is linked to helping stave off some of the conditions she mentions, notably Alzheimer's, so you'd not be doing yourself any favours just slavishly following her programming anymore. I actually thought about a comment to that effect, but don't want end up banned like Sam.😃

I climb hills on the way to work every day so I do get some cardio in. I am missing the cardio element of her workouts though. Not the throw yourself on the floor after lifting stuff she does but the proper cardio days.
it is a push day today and it looks just like the last push day🥱🥱
I might do one of my favourite you tube cardio sessions of hers. I would look for other people but I am lazy.
The chances are I am not going to complete this series because I am bored already. There were some face pulls in yesterday’s back session - thank the lord - a different move!

I need to shake things up a bit so returned to my all time favourite series- epic three. Day 17 legs day- ab bloody brilliant. Sweaty- heart rate up the entire time with the 15 second rest- pre exhausts and I matched her weights/ years ago I was happy to do 2/3! My glutes were literally cramping. Fun moves too.
Maybe I should do an epic three each week as a swap out for iron pro !

Hills are vicious beasts. I don't think I properly appreciated how mostly-flat the last place we lived was.

And yay Epic III @BigButtons ! Perfect program to reinject some interest and variety into whatever else you are doing . Later this week I plan day 2 upper from Epic III- it has tate press!

My upper body is really achy from the push ups, TRX rows and diagonal raises from the short cgx one yesterday. Had a pre-dawn walk/jog to a gorgeous rose garden with the dog, amazed to see how much was still in bloom.

And envious of the woman on Facebook whose husband bought her a huge pink Smith machine! Though mine did nab some brand new 5lb wrist weights at the charity shop for me for £3. Think that's about 2kg each? Should add some frisson to my leg or full body day tomorrow.