UNFORGIVING Full Body Workout with Dumbbells | EPIC Heat – Day 14

Unforgiving Full Body Workout is Day 14 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Heat program. Another tough and awesome workout! Caroline works you entire body very well in such a short amount of time. The breaks are short for the lower body but you are supersetting everything so the muscle group you just worked gets some recovery while you work the opposing muscle group. She includes some really tough exercises in this workout (for me at least). The deadstop lunges, which have really highlighted for me that one of my legs is stronger than the other. And something called an L-sit lift which I struggled with. Much harder than it sounds, or even looks.

This total body strength workout is split into two parts. You work the lower body first. Each exercise is done for 50 seconds followed by 10 seconds of recovery. Then you work the upper body. Each upper body exercise is done for 45 seconds followed by 15 seconds of recovery. This is also a superset workout. Each superset is done twice before moving on to the next superset. There is a timer in the upper left hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Caroline previews the next exercise. 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 there is no warm up and the stretch at the end is very skimpy. I used Caroline’s 10 Minute Full Body Low Impact Warm Up which is an excellent and thorough total body warm up. I used MadFit’s 5 Minute Full Body Stretch at the end.

Unforgiving Full Body Workout is 38:26; 2:15 minute intro, no warm up and 1:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a yoga block and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pound dumbbells and 8kg/17.6 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. I used 8 pound dumbbells rather than a yoga block to elevate my heels. I also used the topper to my square high step (4 inches) to elevate my foot during the deadstop lunges.

Lower Body (50 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of recovery):

1. 1.5 rep heel elevated squats (heels are elevated on the yoga block, DBs held at chest level in front of you, lower all the way to bottom of squat, raise halfway, lower all the way to bottom of squat then raise all the way) (25# DBs)
2. 1.5 rep RDL (lower to bottom of deadlift, raise halfway, lower to the bottom of deadlift then raise all the way) (30# DBs)
3. Repeat #1 & 2
4. 1/2 rep elevated body weight squats (heels elevated on yoga block, lower into squat and only raise halfway the entire interval)
5. 1/2 rep RDL (lower to bottom of deadlift but only raise halfway the entire interval) (30# DBs)
6. Repeat # 4 & 5
7. Elevated deadstop lunge (front foot is elevated on yoga block, do stationary/static lunges, lowering back knee all the way to mat before raising to top of lunge) (15# DBs)
8. Staggered RDL (single leg deadlift–same leg as front leg in #7) (one 30# DB)
9. Repeat #7 & 8 on other side of body
10. Sumo 1.5 rep (lower all the way to bottom of squat, raise halfway, lower all the way to bottom of squat then raise all the way) (25# DBs)
11. L sit holds or lifts (sit on mat, legs extended in front of you and hands on the mat beside thighs, raise both legs off mat and hold them isometrically the entire interval)
12. Repeat #10 & 11

Upper Body (45 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of recovery):

1. Double arm bent over row (30# DBs)
2. Diamond press (lay on mat, knees bent and feet on mat, press DBs together over chest and do chest presses, keeping DBs pressed together the entire time) (15# DBs)
3. Repeat #1 & 2
4. Alternating renegade rows (25# DBs)
5. Push ups
6. Repeat #4 & 5
7. Arnold press (15# DBs)
8. Pullovers (one 25# DB)
9. Repeat #7 & 8
10. Bicep curls (15# DBs)
11. Tricep press (narrow chest press) (15# DBs)
12. Repeat #10 & 11

Finisher (each exercise is done for 20 seconds, no rest/recoveries):

1. Squats (front squat with DBs held in front of you at chest/shoulder level) (30# DBs)
2. RDL (30# DBs)
3. Double arm bent over rows (30# DBs)
4. 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.