BEASTMODE BACK AND BICEPS – Intense Upper Body Workout | Day 6

Back & Biceps – Intense Upper Body Workout is Day 6 in Caroline Girvan‘s Beastmode Series. Wow! What an excellent upper body strength workout. Caroline worked my back so thoroughly. I love this workout! She fried my biceps, too, but I love working my back and she really worked it well. I had to drop to lighter dumbbells by the time we got to the finisher. Caroline was really struggling during the finisher, but of course, she did not drop to lighter weights. I will definitely be returning to this workout. Since this workout is only 39 minutes, I used a short Heather Robertson upper body workout as a finisher: At Home Arm Toning Workout // With Weights. Between the two workouts my entire upper body was nicely worked.

This workout is done interval style. Most of the back exercises are done for 45 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest; the landmine rows and the bicep exercises are done for 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery 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.

***The Beastmode workouts are an important part of the 7 Week Rotation I created. There are 2 Beastmode weeks in the rotation. So below, I am documenting the increase in weights I was able to lift the second and final time you revisit the workouts in the rotation. The first weight listed is frequently already heavier than what I lifted the first time I did the workout in September 2021. When I returned to it at the beginning of the 7 Week Rotation, I updated my weights in this review. So the first weight listed is what I used at week 3 of the rotation and the second weight (with the date 12/22/21) is what I used the 6th week of the rotation. If there is no date then I used the same weight both weeks.***

***10/10/22 I used this workout in yet another rotation so there are more dated weight updates below. The ones dated 10/10/22 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.***

Back & Biceps – Intense Upper Body Workout is 39:12 minutes; 55 second intro, no warm up and 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Caroline is using 17.5kg/38.6 pounds and 8kg/17.6 pounds dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Back:

1. Single arm bent over row (one 37.5# DB; 12/22/21 one 40# DB) (10/10/22 one 42.5# DB)
2. Repeat #1 on other arm
3. Repeat #1 & 2
4. Single arm supine row (palm facing forward) (one 35# DB) (10/10/22 one 37.5# DB)
5. Repeat #1 on other arm
6. Repeat #1 & 2 (one 30# DB; 12/22/21 one 35# DB) (10/10/22 one 37.5# DB)
7. Landmine row (hold one DB by bar with both hands, hinge forward and row DB to chest) (one 50# DB) (10/10/22 one 55# DB)
8. Repeat #7 three more times
9. Pullovers (one 35# DB; 12/22/21 one 40# DB first set, one 37.5# DB 2nd set, and one 35# DB last 2 sets) (10/10/22 one 40# DB all 4 sets)
10. Repeat #9 three more times (one 35# DB for first 2 sets and one 30# DB for last 2 sets; 12/22/21 one 40# DB first set, one 37.5# DB 2nd set, and one 35# DB last 2 sets) (10/10/22 one 40# DB all 4 sets)
11. Deadstop single arm row (do a full row but at bottom of row, set DB on floor and release grip briefly) (one 35# DB; 12/22/21 one 40# DB) (10/10/22 one 42.5# DB)
12. Repeat #11 on other arm
13. Repeat #11 & 12

Biceps:

1. Palms up bicep curls (16.5# DBs) (10/10/22 18# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 three more times
3. Alternating hammer curls (16.5# DBs) (10/10/22 18# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 three more times
5. Wide bicep curls (15# DBs)
6. Repeat #5 three more times (15# DBs for first 2 sets and 13# DBs for last 2 sets) (10/10/22 15# DBs all 4 sets)

Finisher: (45 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest) (13# DBs) (10/10/22 15# DBs)

1. Palms up curl (bottom>top>full range) (do a bicep curl lifting only halfway for 15 seconds, for the next 15 seconds start at top of raise and lower halfway, for final 15 seconds do a full range bicep curl)
2. Repeat #1 but hammer curls
3. Repeat #1 but wide curls

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