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

[BigButtons]

New thread!

I did a dumbbell cardio from Endgame day 20, only one sprawl (which I hate), mostly manageable exercises. CG HIIT is often impossible exercises that I cannot manage more than 2 of in the time. But this was good. Did a 30 min upper body from Tracy Steen yesterday, I like the way she combines exercises which use more than in muscle group at once. Although my form was probably shit.

Tomorrow if I get back before wine time I’ll do endgame day 19 full body. I did the cardio before that as it was a wfh day where I barely managed 300 steps all day, and that was mainly to the fridge and back. At least when I go to the office there’s the hike from the station to the office, so I feel I’ve done my cardio for the day and could probably add a weights session on. Not that it happens much.

i saw her Iron Pro 1 on YouTube, I sat through it (while munching truffle crisps with my aperitif), it’s only 3 exercises in practice. Does she use wedges now instead of the yoga block? I will try it at some point, but not terribly excited.

@Melassa she uses wedges mostly now- but you don’t need them

I liked IronPro Day 1 and have done it a few times @Melassa Including this morning again. Love staggered RDL, and the lack of thrusts/bridges, and the fact you can queue up other youtube stuff with it. By dint of wearing both ankle weights on one arm and looping my weights together, managed to do the staggered RDL with about 24.5kg per side. DH was laughing at me quite a bit. I can't wait to have proper heavy weights again.😆

Oh my, that’s a scary looking contraption you’ve created there @Gobacktotheworld

I’ve just shelled out on a 24kg kettlebell that was going on Vinted, I look forward to
using that for the hip thrusts instead of precariously balancing 2 dumbbells on my thighs.

i haven’t got a barbell, i was going to invest in one but I have no room to store the larger plates. I would probably need to move the cat furniture. Oh the joys of not having actual rooms.

@SpaceRaccoon thats shitty luck getting injured from a procedure. Thats the thing, sure you can control some of your health through lifestyle but there’s also a lot of luck involved and good genes. Some people are dealt a real crap hand.

@Melassa ive been thinking of Torres truffle crisps all day thanks to you 😆

it’s my birthday this weekend and there’s a deli beside the parkrun we go to that sells them. Definitely going there and loading up.

@Gobacktotheworld that is quite the contraption!

Iron pro day 32 for me this morning - running a bit behind this week. Shoulders, chest and biceps. Thought I'd get an upper body one in as I have a run to do today (also behind on that schedule!). It seems the entertainment season has started early, it's usually a social desert around my way but some of my friends are starting to emerge from their families a bit now the kids are getting older.

Doing weights first thing makes me very procrastinate-y at work. I feel like my day is done already.

It can feel like that.

Upper body planned for this evening but will likely rest due to what I assume is hellish premenstrual fatigue. I might jump back into IronPro with those of you doing it on Sunday as it is "back and chest"- my favourite type of upper body workout and one she doesn't offer us very often, does she? I didn't notice that they were a bit of a feature of this programme!

Ugh to the fatigue. I went back on the progesterone only pill a few months ago, it took a couple of months of non stop bleeding to settle down but now I feel like I no longer have a womb. Bliss! My week long pre-menstrual rage seems to have disappeared too. My periods had been coming roughly every three weeks which was far too bloody often!

I've been pretty lazy about the sunday workouts as that's the day of my longer run but maybe i'll give it a go this week.

I'm so old I can't even remember what it's like to have a period! Sorry to anyone suffering with pre menstrual tension but it won't be forever, you've got the menopause to look forward to 😂

Today was quad day and I did the excellent Day 3 or PE. Managed to hold a 10kg dumbell for the step ups, the first time I've done them with a weight. Why doesn't Caroline use them?

well done to those session. @Gobacktotheworld that dumbbell contraption is hilarious!
Sorry you are suffering with the old PMT though. I am on hrt so I only get the odd twinges ( Like now when i feel bloated and sluggish.
An epic three shoulders and arms today- Jesus though- how much harder is that series than anything she has done on the app. Bloody brilliant. I had to lower my weights. 46 minutes of supersets with 20 seconds rest between each one!
Every pro session I look at now looks exactly the same as the last on for that body part. I am enjoying this change in pace with epic three.I am roughly doing one push, one pull, one legs and one glutes/hamstrings.

She used to use dumbbells for step ups, didn't she @samthebordercollie ! Same as curtsey lunge- she mainly uses 1 x 10kg now, but unless feeling extra sluggish, using 2 dumbbells feels like a better challenge. Are you doing the whole of PE for a fourth time?

@BigButtons brilliant workout on Epic III. Looking back at this year's app stuff of Rev, Max and IronPro, everything has honestly been pretty cruisy compared with Epic III. Seems there are more murmurings on Facebook about people missing cardio, too.

@Fibrous so much fecking blood, where does it all come from? It's like a slasher film suddenly.

I did Max Day 38 this morning because back rows and curtsey lunges appealed and I was too tired for anything longer. I appreciated the 25sec breaks as they didn't give me time to bow out of the workout haha and think 60 sec is excessive for unilateral stuff in IronPro. Managed to pile up various things for hip thrusts amounting to ~37kg but it's quite a hairy moment when it all suddenly lurches sideways in your lap mid-set. Respect to those routinely stacking up dumbbells for hip thrusts. My nerves got a workout!😀

@Gobacktotheworld really! Epic three thrashes them all . I did an epic three glute session today but it bored me shitless so I stopped at 80%

I’ve got a 24kg kettlebell I use for hip thrusts! It fits quite snugly in my lap but I still like to have a cushion under. I use it for deadlifts and sumo squats as well. Weirdly, I find it really hard to hold ‘by the horns’ for squats even though I can squat with two 15kg dumbbells!

It’s got ‘iron man’ written on it. I keep meaning to get a marker pen and adding a ‘wo’. 😁

I see knobhead Kearney has written an article about why he is relevant- couldn’t make it up

Can I just ask... cat furniture?😄

Not clicking on silly boy's onanistic mirror-snogging article. I know some people see the value in psychobabble, and more and more of those people are turning to Chat GPT, which apparently churns out reassuring bafflegab that runs rings around human psychologists and therapists. I feel desperately sorry for the artists, writers, thinkers, teachers, musicians who are having their life's work replicated and bastardised by the new technology, but it's hard to muster much sympathy for the charlatans peddling the type of pseudo-scientific quacky wank that this prick comes out with.

Onanistic? Every day is a school day. Also definitely going to start using bafflegab at work, that’s exactly what our marketing team are now churning out with their lazy arse chat gpt usage.

i hope you are some sort of wordsmith in real life @Gobacktotheworld - your compositional craft is perfection.

I did parkrun this morning and got myself a ten year PB so pleased with that. Consistency seems to be paying off. Not sure I’ll catch up with my younger selfs PBs but never say never.

I'd struggle to write a sentence on why he's relevant, never mind an article'

Epic II Day 25 Full Body Cardio Complexes with 2 x 10kg has utterly destroyed me this morning. It was the burpees at around 60% that got me-- the heart rate never seemed to recover, and the seemingly endless snatches, double thrusters overhead presses, push presses, squat to press, then push ups, chest press... This one was incrementally so tough on the shoulders as well as the heart. Amazing sixty minutes and almost have a runner's high type feeling after slogging through it! I can also avoid training the shoulders guilt-free for the coming week.🙂 I REALLY recommend this one for anyone with a free hour.

@Fibrous sadly not; in an age when only TV slebs and royals get book deals, writing is neither appreciated nor a viable way to put food on the table (though my kids and dog constantly tell me they are starving, so am clearly failing there anyway😁). I am sorry you are suffering with colleagues who have outsourced their brain power to a primitive pattern-matching computer program. It's unbearable for anyone who still cares to use their brain, isn't it?

@Anjelika haha. As AA Gill said about someone forgettable, "An ant could safely puddle in his knowledge but a giraffe would drown in his self regard." He could have been writing about silly boy short-shorts!

@Gobacktotheworld I have to say that session looks bloody horrendous!😂
I did a temp week back and biceps just now- excellent session, loved the tempo work- took my weights down a bit as were rowing for hours with only 20 second rests.

It was pretty horrendous.😃 Today I did the 20 min cgx app one "4 × 3 new exercises for the upper body" which is push ups, trx rows and diagonal raises. Quite good, long 45sec rests which was welcome after yesterday. I followed with this Courtney Andersen 30 min Animal Flow. Definitely had to modify some of it- jumping into handstands? Rolling from plough to push up position? Haha no. But overall it was a great core, cardio and mobility workout, quite reminiscent of Jillian Michaels's Body Revolution. I liked the kick thrus, push ups, lizard and crab / reverse tabletop and recommend it to any fellow masochists.

Iron pro day 37 for me today, shoulders. It went pretty quickly. I also felt the burn a couple of times which is rare for me as I don’t lift heavy. Only two weeks left after this one. It’s gone surprisingly quickly - I’ve never finished a program. I think because I’m freelance all except two days a week these days, being able to choose when to workout rather than shoe-horn it in around a 9-5 means I’m a lot more likely to get it done. especially coming into winter when the energy levels are low. I forget every year how dark it gets so quickly when the clocks change! You’d think after forty something years it wouldn’t be a surprise.

Didn’t fancy more Endgame today so did a Tracy Steen Barre strength and Pilates workout which was fun and had the combined moves I like.

I did look at the Animal one @Gobacktotheworld but it reminded me a bit of CG’s burpees where I can get one in for every 5 CG does. I have bookmarked it and will save it for a day I’m feeling energetic. Which may not be until Spring, I too am suffering from low ish energy these days. Too much life admin and too much work.

I did an epic three all squats session today. Not often easy on my back, especially the close stance ones- BUT I matched her weights which I could never have done first time round. My arse hurts like fuck. Epic three has to be the best she has ever done. I also loved heat and endgame..
I have fallen of the pro train cos it was boring me.
I am dong a full body split over the week and just choosing what i like.
It is bonfire season here in sussex so mental work- far worse than Christmas business!

I had a day off proper exercise yesterday, just did a yoga one from Charlie Follows. Quite challenging for the balance with revolved half moon, warrior three, etc. I was contemplating buying a Charlie Follows short program at New Year (you get permanent access to 20 workouts on a particular theme like strength or flexibility or inversions for £70ish) instead of renewing the cgx app but Charlie has released an absolutely imbecilic short reel overnight saying "don't lift big weights, you'll get bulky!" and it's really annoyed me. Let's all fall over during tree pose and break a hip and decline and die because a YouTuber didn't want us to look bulky, osteoporosis risk be damned. Fucksake. I always like these people more when I just see their workouts and am not hearing their spurious reckons.😃

I think I will do Caroline's TEMPO week off YouTube this week, though probably supplementing with extra cardio as my rest heart rate seems to have crept up the last few months. Not sure if that is another joyful peri thing

Thanks for this recommendation--I enjoyed this workout.