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

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New thread!

Silly me 😆

Jesus- the swimming trunk creature. I am so glad I hardly see his posts. There was one where you could see the outline of all his teeny tiny meat and 2 veg . I said it was inappropriate and I didn’t want to see a man’s genitalia. I was told I was being unkind.
just done day 19. Matched cg expect for the biceps- had to drop to 6 kg as I literally could not lift the 7.5 after 4 sets. The pullovers were tough but I managed to stick with 16. The rows were not hard as we switched sides.

Evening all
i I just wanted to say thank you to all for your kind words about my goldie 💔
I just did the Pyramid workout Play day 15
it was good to have a different style and structure
I just read that Reddit thread and I’m horrified, I didn’t realise people behaved like that. When I first joined the FB group when it first started I was pmed by some random stranger and I just ignored it. If I was CG I would remove the whole thing- but I suspect it’s bringing in the money of course otherwise why would she put her name to it? She used to comment on peoples posts back in the day so I guess now she pays others to moderate it
it will all come down to money at the end of the day!

You don't have to be scabby, you just gotta follow the light

She definitely says that and I for one find it inspiring.

Online stalking is fucking weird. I had an old man stalker at my allotment, he would stare at me all the time. Then he would message me and ask me why I was in a mood with him as I wasn't talking to him enough up there. In the end, I quit the allotment, as he was just annoying me. Now he posts on my instagram business page all the time, especially under anything with my face on, telling me I look nice and stuff. Fuck off you old man! Take your wife out for dinner or something and be more appropriate! I've had a few creeps who thought I was fair game in my time, but a bit of avoiding them usually does the trick. I find with the age of social media you just can't get away from them now. And because I have my own business, I can't not post. I have been meaning to do some organised workshops where I share some of my (rather niche) knowledge but I know he would bloody turn up! So I'm being robbed of an income stream.

My boyfriend thinks it's all in my head and that all the contact can be taken at surface level but you know when someone is stalking you - women's intuition is strong. I am a friendly person so it's not like I am suspicious of all contact - I chat to most people.

This has really upset me
Trust your instincts
if you feel something is not right - it’s not

Yeah, I think some men just exist in some weird bubble where they think any attention they dole out is going to be lapped up. It really isn’t.

one of my friends in France, who was a very introverted girl at the best of times, was stalked by a man at work. I’d look out and see him hiding in the bushes looking in at our lab. She ended up developing really bad anorexia and I blame him. I was too immature to do anything sensible about it at the time but it makes me very angry thinking back over it now.

:( aw ffs Fibrous, how fucking nightmarish. It's upsetting that your other half chooses not to believe you and help you though- wtf?

Consider, do you have brothers, a colleague, neighbour who could go and have a word with this creep? Or maybe would you feel comfortable having a chat with the police? Very hit and miss but some of them do get it.

These men make me fucking sick.

@Fibrous the is awful. Sorry it is happen or you. Men just don’t understand the insidious nature of harass from other males because it never happens to them.

yeah I think men just don’t get it. My OH is very (very) non confrontational (and I think on the spectrum) and isn’t the type I’d use to help fight any battles with anyone, but I have others around I could ask if it did get out of hand. One of my exes lives nearby and he’d step in if needed.

mostly I just ignore the guy and hope he gives up! It was always complicated because I enjoyed chatting to him when I was in the mood for it but then the weird messages would come if I wasn’t feeling chatty. He was clearly much more invested in our relationship than I was - to me he was just one of the dudes on the allotment alongside all the other ones I’d say hello to and chat about onions!

Anyway, I think the internet just fuels these weirdos.

I need to do some exercise but have a crazy day today so it might have to wait until tomorrow. Might try that day 20 full body if I can squeeze it in.

Hi all. I’ve not posted on here for ages (actively trying to use my phone less).

I still haven’t got the app. I finished all the YouTube series at the end of last year and am currently mixing and matching different workouts. I might repeat a series I’ve already done as I realise it’s helpful to not have to think about what to do next and just do the next workout.

I’m still not lifting particularly heavy compared with lots of you - 10kg for lower body and 4-5kg for upper body. I’m not sure why I’m not making more progress but I’m trying to remind myself that it’s got to be better than not even trying!

I’ve seen a few comments on some other threads saying that CG workouts are not ‘strength’ workouts and are more ‘cardio with weights’. Has anyone else seen these comments and have any thoughts about this?

Anyway, sorry for being missing for so long and I’ll try and check-in here a bit more regularly.

@Cherryblossom81ah, so nice to see you back! Don’t be embarrassed about your weights, you do you as Caroline says, it takes years to get to the weights that Caroline lifts! As for cardio with weights, I don’t think Caroline fits into that category. Les Mills. Orange theory, in fact all group classes yes,they weights are rarely over 6kg and there is no rest. OTOH CGis not the traditional lifting heavy, 2-5 reps with 2 miniutes minimum rest between sets. For me she is medium, so 8-12 reps or 20 ish with 4kg back and shoulder exercises. On the App she is progressively increasing the rest periods compared to the YouTube programmes. You can build muscle equally as well with Caroline’s workouts and there is less risk of injury than lifting ‘heavy’. Ignore the haters! We don’t all have access to gyms and I’d like to see a lot of the critics on other threads actually try a CG workout, I’m not sure they’d find it easy 😂

A lot of her best stuff is more on the metabolic side of strength training (less rest, more endurance), but almost all her workouts are strength training. She encourages you to challenge yourself with weights and incorporate progressive overload over time. They are workouts primarily for hypertrophy ie. muscle building, but her old youtube programs also had real conditioning benefits too.

The bulk of her work is not cardio in the sense of being good aerobic training, to improve your v02 max, letting you run for a mile or five without conking out or whatever. To get those cardio benefits you would need to run or do other kinds of fitness classes.

They are also not workouts for either maximising your strength or for packing every bit of muscle onto your frame. You won't be a competitive power lifter, a kettlebell master or a stage-ready bodybuilder from the workouts. For those you would need access to a gym and specialist programs.

But for general fitness and building a good amount of muscle while focusing on largely functional lifts that will help you in your daily life? Her YouTube workouts are top drawer.

Her newer workouts on her app are still good for hypertrophy but less good for general fitness and mobility / movement.

You won't look like her from doing her workouts though lol

Thanks for the welcome back @samthebordercollie and the encouragement.

@samthebordercollie and @Gobacktotheworld2 - your comments are reassuring. It was a while ago I saw a few of the negative comments when people were suggesting CG workouts on a few general exercise threads and a few ‘expert-sounding’ people were making it sound like we wouldn’t see much benefit from doing CG workouts. I had meant to ask you at the time, but then not been on Mumsnet much since then. I’m not trying to be a bodybuilding or power-lifter! I just want to gradually change my body composition (I’m 5ft2, BMI 22 but a bit too much body fat!).

I will continue with CG workouts and hopefully will be able to increase my weights soon. I can’t really justify the cost of the app (I know it’s not particularly expensive!) so will repeat a YouTube series. If any of you were going to repeat a program what would you do? I’m thinking maybe just repeat in the order I did them? Iron was my first program.

After lots of recommendations on here I did a Heather Mills today, one of her ‘power hour’ workouts. Really enjoyed it, not sure about the two camera angles. She did pullovers and skull crushers with her feet in the air which felt a bit weird! Had some of the same songs as Caroline. Interesting that she doesn’t give her weights, just heavy, medium and light. But I suppose you don’t need to know the weights unless you’re some massive male meat machine who gets off on bragging using heavier than Caroline on her own FB page.

I find knowing her weights very very useful as a guide for me. I avoid trainers who don’t give their weight ref. If Caroline chooses a certain weight if is for a reason- she doesn’t lift the same weights for the same moves depending on the set up of the session. Terms light light, medium and heavy are so subjective and relative as to be meaningless to me!

I like that she specifies the weights. I don’t lift heavy either although if I could be bothered to track, maybe I’ve had some slight improvement over the last six months. I usually go for half or two thirds her dumbbell weight but I don’t have a barbell so all those are just my heaviest weight of 15kg propped on my lap on a cushion. Possibly pointless but I think I can still feel it.

I did play day 15 today. It was the 10x10 upper body session. I did it while making some soup so the lack of faffing around with different setups suited me. I was still totally bored by the end but one more ticked off thankfully.

I had a freelance job interview yesterday that I think went well and will mean I’m out of the house two more days a week with an hour commute. I’m going to have to up my motivation to keep on track with everything as I’ve got too used to working from home. And I need to start batch cooking!

@Minesril do you mean Heather Robertson, or has Heather Mills made a foray into online fitness? 😄

Heather Robertson lists the weights within the range. I'm doing on her new series at the moment, and the full body workout I did today said medium 9-12kg and heavy 12-14kg. So I just go with what I have within those ranges, which I think is fine. Sometimes she will say medium weights but she will list a different range, tailored to the workout. People can go lighter or heavier depending on how they feel.

She used to list the specific weights she used, but she stopped a while ago. I think people were getting a bit competitive on the Facebook group,.when ultimately people need to use the weight that works for them.

Lol yes heather robertson! What are the names of her different series? It’s sometimes difficult to tell on YouTube.

unless you’re some massive male meat machine who gets off on bragging using heavier than Caroline on her own FB page.

😂😂😂

It's even funnier when they do this and then complain later that they overdid it. Like well done that man, you hurt yourself egolifting to outmuscle a woman 2/3 your height and half your bodyweight! Slow hand clap.

Heather's Power Hour workouts are the best! You make me want to do one tomorrow. Which one did you do Minesril?

I did Play Day 20 full body on Saturday morning and it was all right- probably not one I'd repeat as the full body split day 3 is very similar in format but includes rear stepping lunges, back rows, curtseys and arms, and you do two sets of hip thrusts at a time rather than one, so getting down and set up for those makes me bitch less. For an 15 extra mins of workout time, you pack in a lot more and really do hit everything in your body. And there is less rest overall, so the calorie burn is a lot higher. Not supposed to care about that, but some of us have jeans we dream of fitting into again. :D

Skimmed Caroline's weekly word salad. Mourning those lost seconds.

Day 21 leg day today. Matched CG weights and it was absolutely do able- tedious at time- the mostly all are.. I do not get the hysteria on the app/fb group etc about it being super hard. people sweating buckets and getting massively out of breath. They must have very poor endurance/ stamina.

It was strength and cardio with dumbbells. There were three circuits and each circuit was done 3 times. Also adverts between each circuit which gave a bit of extra rest 😁 did one of her dumbbell hiits this morning which I also really enjoyed. Think I’ll do Play during the week, and HR for the weekends!

Play day 20 here this eve. I enjoyed it. My arms are now aching. I didn’t fancy a leg day as I want to run in the morning and I don’t need an excuse to sack it off. Motivation is low for running at the moment. I think because I keep trying to combine it with dog exercise and they are a pain to run with. But finding the time to do both is hard as I’ve got a lot of work on. Also I’m not eating as well as usual and that affects my running. I hate running with food in my belly.

Running with dogs is such a pain. There is a man here with long flowing locks like a Greek God who runs along followed faithfully by his kelpie. My dog... would so not do that.😆

BigButtons I think Caroline excited some of them on the group with her bullshit "Transformations" app feature, because there has definitely been an uptick in gormless selfies and gushing. One woman posted a post-workout selfie in makeup, fancy necklace and a peephole bra, modelling fiercely. Toe curling.

I'll be off doing Heather and Daniel PT for a few more days at least (looking at this week's Play schedule). See you ladies on the new thread when our hostess makes it. Thanks for this sane little corner, BB 😎

www.mumsnet.com/talk/exercise/5484848-caroline-girvan-2026-sore-but-still-scrolling