Giant Killer Upper Body Workout is Day 32 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Heat program. This was another incredible upper body workout. Caroline completely fries your upper body in this one. All of my upper body muscles feel pumped after this workout. I used Heather Robertson‘s No Equipment Arm Toning Workout as my warm up and got an all around excellent upper body workout this morning. I’m so glad a reader pointed me in the direction of purchasing a set of 16.5 pound dumbbells. That has really made a big difference in my workouts. (Thanks rcf90!)
As the title indicates, this workout is a giant set workout. This means you will be doing 4 different exercises, each for 45 seconds, back to back with no rest/recovery between exercises. That is 3 minutes of work before you get a 45 second rest. There is a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen counting down each 45 second interval and recovery. During the recovery Caroline previews the next giant set. 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 set to all music, no verbal cuing. However, there are lots of beeps and on screen graphics to signal you when to change exercises within the 3 minute giant set. This is obviously very helpful during exercises such as bent over rows, renegade rows, supermans and push up variations.
***11/02/22 I used this workout in a rotation I created so there are dated weight updates below. The weights dated 11/02/22 are for Caroline Girvan Strength & Muscle Building Rotation. I only added a date and weight when I lifted heavier than the last time I did the workout.***
Giant Killer Upper Body Workout is 36:34 minutes; 2 minute intro, no warm up and 1:20 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair or bench and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 8kg/17.6 pounds and 15kg/33 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used my weight bench for all of the sitting/laying down exercises.
Giant Set 1:
- Seated shoulder press (arms in goalpost) (16.5# DBs) (11/02/22 22.5# DBs)
- Lateral raise (8# DBs) (11/02/22 10# DBs)
- Face pulls (similar to a bent over row, at bottom of move palms are facing behind you, as you pull up raising DBs to shoulder level, rotate palms so they are facing each other/your face) (15# DBs)
- Pike push up (feet are on the floor, or elevated on chair)
- 45 second rest
- Repeat #1-5
Giant Set 2:
- Bent over row (30# DBs)
- Renegade rows, alternate arms (25# DBs) (11/02/22 30# DBs)
- Superman
- Pullovers (one 35# DBs) (11/02/22 one 40# DB)
- 45 second rest
- Repeat #1-5
Giant Set 3:
- Chest press (20# DBs) (11/02/22 30# DBs)
- Diamond press (lay on mat, hold a DB in each hand, press the DBs together and do a narrow chest press) (16.5# DBs) (11/02/22 20# DBs)
- Chest flys (16.5# DBs) (11/02/22 20# DBs)
- Push ups
- 45 second rest
- Repeat #1-5
Giant Set 4:
- Clean to press (hammer curl into Arnold press) (16.5# DBs) (11/02/22 18# DBs)
- Hammer curls (16.5# Dbs) (11/02/22 18# DBs)
- Alternating cross body curl to Arnold press (with palm facing body, curl DB to shoulder into an Arnold press) (16.5# DBs) (11/02/22 18# DBs)
- Skull crushers (#12 DBs) (11/02/22 13# DBs)
- 45 second rest
- Repeat #1-5
Finisher: (2 minutes; each exercise is done for 30 seconds, no rests)
- Tricep dips (hands on chair behind you, legs extended straight)
- Alternating supination curls (15# DBs)
- Repeat #1 & 2
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
I envy you using 25s for renegade rows! I’ve been dabbling in Caroline’s workouts and that’s the one exercise that gives me the most trouble. My problem is that my hands hurt holding onto the dumbbells in plank position, even with high quality lifting gloves on. Putting my hands on the floor or on a yoga block in between reps helps somewhat but since Caroline’s workouts are timed every second counts. Any tips or suggestions?
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I wish I had a tip for you but my hands don’t hurt when doing renegade rows. I do wear gloves when lifting weights. I love it when Caroline does renegade rows on one side of the body and you use the yoga block to increase your range of motion of the working arm. If the workout contains 2 sets of alternating renegade rows, you could do one set on one arm and one set on the other arm and use the yoga block on your non-working hand to release some of the pressure. Since Caroline’s workouts are usually done interval style, if there is only one interval, you could split the intervals. For example, if the interval is 40 seconds, do 20 seconds on each arm. But I always find needing to see the TV during plank based moves awkward. In some of Cathe’s workouts, she does single arm renegade rows with the non-working hand on the step. I am guessing the higher your hand is, the less pressure on your hand/wrist. I am only assuming that because push ups are easier when your hands are elevated on a step.
Anyway, I feel like I am rambling but maybe you could try doing the one arm row idea using a step.
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Nah, I don’t feel like you’re rambling! I’ve actually done everything you mentioned and all of those work well, but I was just curious if you had any secret tricks with supporting the hands on the dumbbells. For now I’ll just do them with the hands on yoga blocks or the step, and in my own time I think I’ll just have to build up the core and grip strength to be able to hold myself up onto the dumbbells.
Thanks anyways, and keep the excellent reviews coming! I plan to try your 6 week Caroline rotation sometime in the future.
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I hope you enjoy the rotation! Though it really is hard to stick with a set rotation when this amazing trainers keep coming out with such wonderful workouts. I get behind! Right now I am doing a Heather Robertson catch up but that puts me behind on Caroline’s workouts! And she just started EPIC 3. At least I never run out of excellent workouts to do.
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