Upper Body Workout – Powerful Push & Pull is Day 2 in Caroline Girvan‘s Epic III program. This is an excellent and thorough upper body workout. Caroline hits everything in this workout and she hits it well. I love this workout! My upper body feels well worked and pumped. There are lots of push up variations but at least it is the staple exercise. This means you do some sort of push up every 5th exercise. But you only do one set before moving on to the next exercise. Every other exercise in this workout is done for 2 sets. All of the exercises in this workout are done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the upper left hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. Caroline previews the next exercise during the recovery. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage. I used her new EPIC III warm up again for this workout. I really like how she takes the time in this new warm up to also warm up your wrists.
Upper Body Workout – Powerful Push & Pull is 44:27 minutes; 1:35 minute intro, no warm up and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 17.5kg/38.5 pounds and 8kg17.6 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used my weight bench for all of the lying down exercises.
- Double arm bent over row (32.5# DBs)
- Repeat #1
- Chest press (27.5# DBs)
- Repeat #3
- Wide push ups
- Alternating renegade rows (27.5# DBs)
- Repeat #6
- Palms facing chest press (chest fly but when arms are open, elbows are bent like you are doing a chest press) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #8
- Deadstop push up to superman (start in straight arm plank, lower body to floor, do one superman, place hands under shoulders and push back up to plank)
- Landmine row (hinge forward holding one heavy DB with both hands by bar, row DB to chest in this position) (one 55# DB)
- Repeat #11
- Diamond press (lay on back, hold one DB by bar with both hands above chest, push DB to ceiling in this position) (one 35# DB)
- Repeat #13
- Diamond push ups (tricep push ups, hands are together under chest so that fingers and thumb form a diamond shape)
- Pullover 1.5 reps (laying on back holding one DB in both hands, lower DB overhead until DB is a few inches off floor, lift halfway, lower it again until it is a few inches off floor, then return DB to starting position) (one 35# DB)
- Repeat #16
- Flys 1.5 reps (chest flys, open arms in a full fly, close arms halfway, open arms in full fly again then bring DBs together over chest) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #18
- Leaning push ups (tricep push ups, toes are pushing body forward)
- Close to open press (start with arms in goalpost, keeping arms at shoulder level, rotate arms/DBs bringing DBs in front of face so palms are facing you, return arms to goalpost and do an overhead press) (18# DBs)
- Repeat #21
- Arnold press (18# DBs)
- Repeat #23
- Pike push ups
- Diagonal raises (straight arm raises with arms open on a diagonal–you are raising arms in a V formation) (10# DBs)
- Repeat #26
- Frontal raise to tricep extension (hold one DB on both hands, do a straight arm front raise, lifting DB to chest, bend elbows pulling DB into chest, push DB back out straight in front of you then lower) (one 18# DB)
- Repeat #28
- Dive bomber push ups
- Skull crushers (13# DBs)
- Repeat #31
- Tate press (lay on back, arms extended straight to ceiling with palms facing the direction of your feet, in this position, bend elbows bringing ends of DBs to chest) (13# DBs)
- Repeat #33
- Tricep push ups
- Hammer curls (18# DBs)
- Repeat #36
- Wide to narrow curls (do one traditional bicep curl but stop DBs at top of curl, rotate DBs out to sides of body and lower DBs, raise DBs in a wide bicep curl but stop DBs at top of curl and rotate DBs in front of you, lower DBs back to start) (15# DBs)
- Repeat #38
- Regular push ups rep it out (fast 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.
Caroline has really outdone herself with Epic III. I love how she moved the push-ups to be the staple exercise – you get the benefits of push-ups without feeling like you’re doing them forever.
I did the abs/glute one this morning. You’ll love 2/3 of it only because I know you aren’t big on abs and especially if it’s all mat. I’ll comment more once you post your review.
I also added on her 10 min upper body isometric workout (https://youtu.be/PwqWZs7Nlac). Caroline’s strength is simply impressive. At the end she does a handstand with bent elbows!
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I’m curious what her pacing is in a workout like this. Single count? 2/2 pace? I know I could go my own pace since it’s a timed interval, but I’m wondering what her speed is. I just finished a month of Slow & Heavy from Cathe and then went back to Live. While I adore the Live atmosphere, I really prefer a slower pace where I can concentrate on form.
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Caroline’s pace for her strength workouts is generally slow and controlled but not like Slow & Heavy–not that slow. Caroline lifts heavy dumbbells and never uses momentum so she cannot lift fast and maintain control. She tends to move slower during the eccentric portion of the move. This is in reference to her strength workouts. Her dumbbell HIITs are a different story. She is using lighter weights (for her that is–usually still heavier than I can manage) and she does brisk reps. But for her strength training the reps do not seem fast to me. I do not count whether it is 2/2 or single count though. I just know that the weight I choose, I can usually keep her pace with good form (no momentum). And every exercise is different. I do generally count reps. This morning, during the 40 seconds I think I averaged 8 reps for most of the exercises but for some exercises I was able to do more. On the 1.5 rep exercises I think we did 6 reps. So every exercise is different. I feel like I am able to focus on form during Caroline’s workouts, which is why I love them so much.
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This sounds good. What I want doesn’t have to be as slow as Slow & Heavy but certainly slower than the pace of Live which is usually more metabolic. I will have to give it a try!
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