UNSTOPPABLE Upper Body Workout – Arms, Shoulders & Back | EPIC Heat – Day 46

Unstoppable Upper Body Workout is Day 46 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Heat program. This is a no repeat giant set workout. There are 8 giant sets, so 32 different exercises, and it was brutal. I have been making some progress in lifting heavier for my upper body but this workout humbled me. I lifted lighter or the same across the board and I was burning out. Caroline burned out a lot, too, so it wasn’t just me getting my a$$ kicked but she was also using much heavier dumbbells than I am capable of lifting. I do need to mention that during Caroline’s intro, she states that due to the nature of the giant sets even she wasn’t lifting as heavy as she normally does. That is the beauty of workouts like these, where the trainer previews the exercises for you. During the preview I make the decision about what I am going to lift and when I see multiple shoulder (or bicep) exercises, done one after the other with no rest… well, I am not going to grab for a heavier dumbbell than what I normally lift. And during Giant Set 7–the 12 pound dumbbells felt like 50 pounds because my bicep muscles were on fire. In spite of all this, I do think this is an excellent upper workout that will help me to lift heavier in other workouts.

This workout is made up of giant sets, which is 4 exercises done back to back without any rest. Each exercise is done for 45 seconds. Between each giant set you get 45 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen counting down your intervals 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 done to music with plenty of visual cues as well as “dings” to keep you on track. Caroline gives a lot of excellent and important form pointers in the intro to help you get the most out of this workout.

Unstoppable Upper Body Workout is 38:11 minutes; 2:30 minute intro, no warm up and 3 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a yoga block and fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pounds and 8kg/17.6 pounds dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Giant Set 1:

1. Double arm bent over row (30# DBs)
2. Alternating renegade rows (25# DBs)
3. Double arm bent over supine rows (palms facing forward) (25# DBs)
4. Landmine row (bent over row holding bar of one heavy DB in both hands) (one 45# DB)

Giant Set 2:

1. Shoulder press (arms in goalpost) (15# DBs)
2. Arnold press (15# DBs)
3. Curl to hammer press (bicep curl to shoulder then do a shoulder press with palms facing ears) (15# DBs)
4. Frontal raises (8# DBs)

Giant Set 3:

1. Single arm renegade row (other hand rests on yoga block) (one 25# DB)
2. Single arm bent over row (one 30# DB)
3. Repeat 1 & 2 on other arm

Giant  Set 4:

1. Single arm overhead press (one 15# DB)
2. Single arm push press (use lower body to assist in pushing DB up) (one 15# DB)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 on other arm

Giant Set 5:

1. Single arm bent over rear delt fly (one 10# DB)
2. Sweep (hold one DB on one hand, hinge forward, keeping arm straight, lift DB behind you keeping arm close to side) (one 10# DB)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 on other arm

Giant Set 6:

1. Double arm lateral raises (8# DBs)
2. Alternating single arm lateral raises (8# DBs)
3. Partial lateral raises (only raise about 1/2 way) (8# DBs)
4. Figure 8 (hold one DB in both hands, draw a figure 8 in front of you with arms at approx shoulder level) (one 10# DB)

Giant Set 7:

1. Hammer curls (15# DBs)
2. Hammer pulses (keep DBs raised with elbows bent at 45 degrees and close to sides, pulse DB upward) (12# DBs)
3. Supination curls (15# DBs)
4. Bicep curl hold (palms facing ceiling, DBs raised with elbows bent at 45 degrees, hold isometrically) (12# DBs)

Giant Set 8:

1. Single arm curl to press (hammer curl into Arnold press) (one 16.5# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other arm
3. Diagonal press (hold one DB by bar in both hands, push DB in front of you on an angle upward) (one 16.5# DB)
4. Tricep press standing (same position as #3 but push DB straight in front of you at chest level) (one 16.5# DB)

Finisher: (each exercise is done for 30 seconds)

1. Alternating overhead press (arms in goal post) (16.5# DBs)
2. Bent over alternating single arm rows (16.5# DBs)
3. Alternating supination curls (16.5# DBs)

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