45 Min Upper Body Workout / Dumbbells & Bodyweight | EPIC II – DAY 3

Epic 2 Day 3: 45 Minute Upper Body Workout is another brutal strength workout from Caroline Girvin. This is only Day 3 of her EPIC II program! I am not doing her EPIC workouts in order–nor do I plan to do all of them. I have already done Days 23, 34 and 37 of her EPIC II program and they were all very tough workouts. Caroline is a beast. Just looking at the weights she used–33 and 19 pound dumbbells for everything in this workout–is astounding to me. I was dropping my weight quicker than I expected to due to the way the workout is structured. And Caroline does warn you of that during her intro–that your muscles will burn out fast. Even she burned out in the middle of a few exercises–including the Burnout Finisher at the end. By the time we were 40% into the workout my upper body muscles were trembling during the exercises. So yeah–an excellent and very thorough upper body workout. Caroline targets your large muscle groups first. The first 65% of the workout you work the chest, shoulders and back. She does not introduce exercises that isolate the biceps and triceps until you hit that 65% part of the workout. (I know this because she has a bar at the bottom fo the screen, counting down the workout time as a percentage.) You start doing 4 sets of each exercise, then you drop to 3 sets of each exercise, then 2 sets of each exercise, then 1 set. This is a very functional way to work your upper body. Your biceps and triceps are being worked with every exercise you do for your back, chest and shoulders so they do not need nearly as much isolation work as your larger muscle groups need.

The exercises are done interval fashion: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds or rest. There is a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery, the next exercise is previewed in a small video in the upper left hand corner of the screen. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage. This workout is done to music with plenty of visual cues as well as dings to keep you on track.

Epic 2 Day 3: 45 Minute Upper Body Workout is 51:32 minutes; 2:15 minute intro, no warm up and 2:30 minute stretch. I used Caroline’s 5 minute warm up. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 33 and 19 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below in the breakdown are what I used. I also used my weight bench for all of the exercises where you are laying on your back to give me greater range of motion (except for #8, since you are doing a bridge with your lower body; I did that on my fitness mat).

1. Lying chest press (20# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 three more times
3. Standing shoulder press (palms facing forward) (10# DBs)
4. Repeat #2 three more times
5. Bent over single arm row (one 30# DB)
6. Repeat #5 on other arm
7. Repeat #5 & 6
8. Decline chest press (lay on back, knees bent and feet on floor, hips/glutes are elevated in bridge while doing chest press) (15# DBs)
9. Repeat #8 two more times
10. Alternating overhead press (palms facing forward) (10# DBs)
11. Repeat #10 two more times
12. Pullovers (one 25# DB)
13. Repeat #12 two more times
14. Lying chest fly (15# DBs)
15. Repeat #14
16. Standing overhead shoulder press (palms are facing each other) (12# DBs)
17. Repeat #16
18. Renegade row (alternate arms) (25# DBs)
19. Repeat #19
20. Lying chest fly (15# DBs)
21. Arnold press (12# DBs)
22. Alternating bent over rows (20# DBs)
23. Bicep curl into overhead press (12# DBs)
24. Lying narrow chest press (15# DBs)
25. Alternating supination bicep curls (15# DBs)
26. Single arm overhead press (palm faces forward) (12# DBs)
27. Repeat #26 on other arm
28. Bent over rear delt flys (8# DBs)
29. Dive bomber push ups
30. Skull crushers (10# DBs)
31. Tricep push ups to ladder (start in straight arm plank, do one tricep push up, lower to forearms then return to straight arm plank)
32. Single arm lateral raise (8# DBs)
33. Repeat #32 on other arm
34. Double arm partial lateral raise (only raise DBs about 1/2 to shoulder level) (8# DBs)
35. Wide bicep curls (12# DBs)
36. Frontal to chest press (holding one DB in both hands, do a straight arm front raise, when DB is at chest level, pull DB into chest, push DB back out in front of you and lower straight arms) (one 15# DB)
37. Push press (double arm overhead press, palms facing forward, bend knees when DBs are at shoulders and straighten legs, using the power from the lower body to assist in pushing your DBs overhead) (15# DBs)

Burn Out Finisher: push up holds (do 20 seconds of push ups; lower halfway to floor and hold partial push up for 20 seconds; 20 more seconds of push ups)

For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.