Full Body FUSE Workout | EPIC Heat – Day 4

Full Body Fuse is Day 4 of Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Heat program. This workout is no joke. It felt non-stop to me. I was surprised when I looked at my FitBit stats and I was never in my peak heart rate. I was working so hard I expected something more than the rather uneventful graph my FitBit showed. Caroline was seriously challenging herself and hit muscle failure herself several times. This workout is done interval style/triset fashion: 3 exercises done back to back, the first for 40 seconds, the second for 20 seconds and the 3rd for 40 seconds. That is 100 seconds or 1 minute and 40 seconds of nonstop work. After each 100 second triset you get 20 seconds of recovery. Trust me, 20 seconds doesn’t seem like much at all. Especially during the hip thrusts. My glutes were on fire! This is a total body strength workout; even though some muscle groups do not get any isolation exercises, you are still work all of the smaller muscle groups when working your large muscle groups. And Caroline hits all of the large muscle groups hard. I had plans before starting these EPIC Heat workouts. Due to the length I thought they would be perfect to add finishers onto the end of. These may be shorter workouts but she packs a lot into the shorter time frame. I am so “finished” by the end of these workouts, there is no way I can give a finisher the kind of energy it deserves. However, I might start doing the short add on first rather than at the end of the workout.

There is a timer in the upper right hand side of the screen, counting down the intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Caroline previews the next exercises. She gives low impact modifications for any of the jumping. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage. During the 3 minute intro Caroline gives some excellent form pointers on how to get the most out of the exercises.

Full Body Fuse is 39:22 minutes; 3 minute intro and 3 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a booty band/resistance loop and fitness mat. Optional: a chair or bench for hip thrusts/glute bridges and a towel to protect your hips. Caroline is using two 15kg/33 pound dumbbells and one 25kg/55 pound dumbbell. The weights listed below are what I used. The workout starts with the booty band around your thighs, just above your knees.

Triset 1:

1. 1/2 rep squats (booty band/no DBs) (lower all the way in squat but only raise halfway)
2. Squat jumps
3. Repeat #1

20 second recovery

Triset 2:

1. Low squat walk (booty band/no DBs) (hold squat isometrically while stepping side to side)
2. Squat jumps
3. Repeat #1

20 second recovery

Triset 3:

1. 1.5 rep squats (booty band/no DBs) (lower all the way in squat, raise halfway, lower all the way into squat then raise all the way to standing)
2. Squat jumps
3. Repeat #1

20 second recovery

Triset 4:

1. Hip thrust (booty band is still around thighs, back is resting against chair or bench, feet on floor and heavy DB on hips, raise and lower hips) (one 40# DB)
2. Hold isometrically at top of thrust
3. Repeat #1

20 second recovery

Repeat Triset 4 two more times then repeat it a third time but remove booty band

20 second recovery

Triset 5:

1. Uneven push up to single arm swing (holding a DB in one hand, start in straight arm plank, do one push up, jump feet into hands, do one single arm kettlebell swing with the DB, place DB on floor and jump feet back out to plank) (one 20# DB)
2. Cross-body mountain climbers (aim knee toward opposite elbow)
3. Repeat #1 with DB in other hand

20 second recovery

Triset 6:

1. Single arm renegade row (one 25# DB)
2. Bent over single arm row (same arm as #1) (one 25# DB)
3. Repeat #1

20 second recovery

Repeat Triset 6 on other arm

Repeat Triset 5

Triset 7:

1. Chest press (20# DBs)
2. Tricep push ups
3. Repeat #1

20 second recovery

Repeat Triset 7

Repeat Triset 5

Triset 8:

1. Full burpees (with a push up)
2. Plank to hover (start in straight arm plank and jump feet in so you are in beast pose with knees hovering a few inches off the floor then jump feet back out to plank–hold each position briefly)
3. Repeat #1

Finisher: (1:40 minutes–each exercise is done for 20 seconds)

1. Plank burpee (no push up)
2. Mountain climbers
3. Plank to tuck (in straight arm plank, jump feet into hands then back out to plank)
4. Push ups
5. Hot feet (fast feet run)

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