FEARLESS Full Body Dumbbell Workout / Complex | EPIC II – Day 45

Fearless Full Body Dumbbell Workout / Complex is Day 45 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC II program. Wow! What an excellent, thorough and incredible total body metabolic strength workout. It is long one though. The workout itself is 65 minutes but with no warm up and a rather inadequate stretch for such a challenging workout. Caroline hits everything hard in this workout. She starts with the largest muscle groups and works her way down to the smaller muscle groups. She also includes a 2:40 minute complex between circuits that serves to spikes the heart rate while also giving you more total body strength work. And the calf raises near the end! OMG–they go on for infinity it seems with no breaks! I had to drop my DBs near the end of the never-ending circuit just to finish with Caroline. Another amazing workout from Caroline!

This workout is done interval style: each exercise is done for 40 seconds followed by 20 seconds of recovery–with the exception of the very first exercise; Caroline does that one for 50 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds or recovery. In addition, in circuit 3 when doing the calf raises, you get no recoveries. After every circuit, you do a 6 exercise complex (or 3 exercises that are repeated on other side of body) for 2:40 minutes. That complex is also the finisher but when it is done as the finisher, you do it with two dumbbells. There is a timer in the upper left hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery, the next exercise is previewed. 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.

As usual, Caroline has no warm up. I have been using her EPIC warm up but this morning I tried one of her other (earlier, pre-EPIC, I think) warm ups and I really liked it, too. Here is a link to that 5 minute warm up routine. Since it is the weekend and I can workout longer, I also tacked on Naomi Joy‘s 7 Min Stretching Session. But all of that increased my workout time to a total of 78 minutes.

Fearless Full Body Dumbbell Workout / Complex is 65 minutes; 2:15 minute intro, no warm up and 3 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a yoga block or book (or a step) and a fitness mat. Optional: bench or chair for bent over rows. I had a bench that I also used for all of the exercises where you are laying on your back. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pounds and 9kg/20 pounds dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Circuit 1:

1. Bent over single arm row (50/10) (one 30# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other arm
3. Repeat #1 & 2 but for 40/20 (one 30# DB)
4. Renegade rows, alternate arms (25# DBs)
5. Repeat #4
6. Foot elevated lunge (stationary/static lunge, front foot is on yoga block/book) (15# DBs)
7. Repeat #6 on other side of body
8. Repeat # 6 & 7
9. Deadlifts (35# DBs)
10. Repeat #9

Complex (2:40 minutes): (one 18# DB)

1. Static/stationary lunges, 5 reps (done to a brisk pace, holding one DB at same side shoulder as front leg)
2. Staggered RDL, 5 reps (single leg deadlift w/ back leg in kickstand, brisk pace not raising DB above knee at top of move)
3. Squat to single arm overhead press, 5 reps (when squatting keep DB at shoulder)
4. Repeat #1-3 on other side of body

Circuit 2:

1. Chest press (20# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Chest fly (15# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Heels elevated front squat (heels are elevated on yoga block/book and DBs are held in front of you at chest level) (20# DBs)
6. Repeat #5
7. Repeat #5 but for 1.5 reps (lower into squat, raise halfway, lower back into squat, raise all the way)
8. Repeat #5 but only half reps (lower into squat but only raise halfway every time–the instructions at the bottom of the screen and the preview show you repeat #7, but when Caroline actually does the exercise she is doing all half reps)
9. Staggered squat (single leg squat, non-working leg is in kickstand, DBs are held in front of you at shoulder level) (20# DBs)
10. Repeat #9 on other leg

Repeat 2:40 minute complex

Circuit 3: (for all of the calf raise exercises–no recoveries! I had to drop my DBs and do it bodyweight only near the end)

1. Arnold press (15# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Alternating lateral raises (8# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Slow calf raises (raise and lower heels) (20# DBs)
6. Hold with heels raised for 20 seconds
7. Fast calf raises
8. Repeat #6
9. Pulsing calf raises (super fast, heels never actually touch floor)
10. Repeat #6
11. Repeat #7
12. Repeat #6
13. Repeat #5

Repeat 2:40 minute complex

Circuit 4:

1. Skull crushers (10# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Hammer curls (5# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Static/stationary lunges (15# DBs)
6. Repeat #5 on other side of body
7. Repeat #5 & 6
8. Repeat #7 but only holding one DB (one 20# DB)

Finisher Complex (2:40 minutes) but this time with 2 dumbbells: (15# DBs)

1. Static/stationary lunges, 5 reps (done to a brisk pace)
2. Repeat #1 on other side of body
3. RDL 1/2 rep, 5 reps (deadlift pulses, never raising DBs above knees)
4. Squat to overhead press, 5 reps

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