Dumbbell Leg Day Workout // Pyramid Sets // EPIC II Day 18

Dumbbell Leg Day Workout // Pyramid Sets is Day 18 of Caroline Girvin‘s Epic II fitness program. Another tough lower body strength workout and this one is long, too. This is more of a high rep, endurance level workout so I was a bit conservative with my dumbbell choices. Caroline still burned my legs out. This was very metabolic, too. I burned nearly 500 calories in the hour! Another excellent, burnout workout from Caroline. Since I have been doing a lot of Caroline’s workouts, and she never includes warm ups, I have been experimenting with different warm ups I found on YouTube, So far my favorite lower body warm up is still Heather Robertson‘s Leg Day // Warm up Routine. For upper and total body workouts, I still prefer Caroline’s EPIC warm up. But I like variety so I am going to keep sampling warm ups and when I find good ones I’ll include them in the review I used them with.

The exercises in this workout are done reverse pyramid style: you will do an exercise for 20 seconds then for 40 seconds then for 60 seconds then back down to 40 seconds and finish doing it for 20 seconds. Between each interval, regardless of length, you get 20 seconds of recovery. 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.

Dumbbell Leg Day Workout // Pyramid Sets is 60:22 minutes; 2 minute intro, no warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 12.5kg/27.5 pound dumbbells. All of the exercises below (except the finisher) are done reverse pyramid style (as described above).

1. High squats (front squats–holding both DBs at chest in front of shoulders while squatting) (20# DBs)
2. Alternating reverse lunges (15# DBs)
3. Deadlifts (30# DBs)
4. Stationary/static curtsy lunge (hold one DB in same side hand of working leg) (one 20# DB)
5. Repeat #4 on other leg
6. Suitcase squat (narrow squat holding DBs at sides) (20# DBs)
7. Stationary/static lateral/side lunge (holding on DB in both hands at chest level) (one 25# DB)
8. Repeat #7 on other leg
9. Calf raises (20# DBs)
10. Stationary/static lunge (hold one DB in same side hand as front leg) (one 20# DB)
11. Repeat #10 on other side of body

Finisher: (no rests/recoveries)

1. Sumo squats with 2 DBs for 20 seconds + sumo squat pulses with 2 DBs for 20 seconds (20# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 with one DB (one 20# DB)
3. Repeat #1 body weight only

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