Proper Leg Day Workout with Dumbbells is Day 1 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Endgame program. This was a tough lower body strength workout! Since this is the first workout in her Endgame program, Caroline gives an overview of the program during her intro. The big news for this program–every workout ends with a 100 rep finisher. I am pretty excited about that! As I already mentioned, this was a tough workout. The intervals are long (60 seconds) and Caroline uses those long intervals to do every rep of every exercise that uses dumbbells to a slow and controlled pace. Follow Caroline’s pace, go as deep into the exercise as you can, and you will definitely feel the burn. The workout ends with body weight exercises. She does those at a brisker pace. 60 seconds of lunges done at a brisk pace starts to burn! Finally, the finisher! It is 100 reps of body weight squats with your heels elevated. Wow–burn out! Caroline was burning out, too! This was an excellent and thorough lower body strength workout.
All of the exercises in this workout are done interval style: 60 seconds of work followed by 30 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. Since this is the first workout in the Endgame program, the first 2 minutes of the intro Caroline gives an overview of what to expect over the next 10 weeks. The final minute of the intro discusses this workout.
Proper Leg Day Workout with Dumbbells is 46:10 minutes; 3:05 minute intro, no warm up and 2:50 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a yoga block and fitness mat. Caroline is using 10kg/22 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Heel elevated squat (heels are elevated on yoga block and DBs are held at shoulders) (30# DBs)
- Repeat #1
- RDL (Romanian deadlift) (42.5# DBs)
- Repeat #3
- High squat (basic squat w/ DBs held at shoulders) (30# DBs)
- Stationary lunge (25# DBs)
- Repeat #6 on other side of body
- Foot elevated lunge (stationary lunges w/ front foot elevated on yoga block) (25# DBs)
- Repeat #8 on other side of body
- Repeat #5
- Staggered RDL (single leg deadlift w/ back/non-working leg in kickstand) (one 40# DB)
- Repeat #11 on other side of body
- 1/2 rep RDL (staggered RDL/single leg deadlift, lower to bottom of deadlift but only raise halfway) (one 30# DB)
- Repeat #13 on other side of body
- Repeat #5
- Lunge to RDL (one single leg deadlift + one reverse lunge) (one 25# DB)
- Repeat #16 on other side of body
- RDL to staggered squat (one single leg deadlift + one single leg squat–back/non-working leg is in kickstand for both exercises) (one 30# DB)
- Repeat #18 on other side of body
- Repeat #5
- Body weight lunge (static/stationary lunge)
- Repeat #21 on other side of body
- Foot elevated lunge (body weight static/stationary lunge w/ front foot on yoga block)
- Repeat #23 on other side of body
Finisher: Body weight heel elevated squats, 100 reps (heels are elevated on yoga block)
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
Yesterday I did this “proper leg day workout” on the strength of your recommendation, and I loved it! There’s nothing like lifting heavy at a controlled pace. Plus I hate Bulgarian lunges and there were none in this workout, lol. I couldn’t squeeze out 100 reps though. I settled for “do the squats, at whatever pace, the whole time that Caroline is doing them.” I’ll be doing this workout again for sure. I have to figure out a better way to organize my youtube library! I do ok with creating playlists for a day or a week, but how to keep track the ones I really liked? That gets tougher as I do more and more youtube workouts.
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Meant to also say: that’s one reason your blog is so useful! I am not as good as you about taking notes, but I can just use YOUR notes to help me keep track. 🙂 Thanks!
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I’m so glad my blog is helpful! That is why I created it–because I cannot keep track of all of the workouts! And even if I do not return to a workout frequently I still tend to return to workouts–even years later. So it is so helpful to have all of the info in one place. Have you checked out Caroline’s trainer page I created? https://2lazy4gym.com/caroline-girvan/ The trainer pages really help me keep things straight.
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YES! I love your trainer pages. I have found so many good workouts to try. Plus sometimes I just read your overview for a trainer to get myself motivated for the day’s workout. 🙂 Thanks for keeping up this blog, it makes a big difference to me and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
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Yay, you started the Endgame workouts! 😁😁😁 I’ve done most of the strength ones and I’ve really enjoyed all of them. She has so much variety in pacing, exercises and tempo that it keeps things fresh and interesting. The 100 rep finisher is the best part IMHO.
Today I had a hard stop for my workout so I had an hour tops. I did Heather’s H2.0 Day 26 super back sculpt. Her pace was quick (45/10) so there were maybe 4 exercises where I could lift heavy. She has quite a few body weight exercises (think: TYI and supermans) which I found to be deceiving in terms of difficulty due to the short rest. My back is definitely tired.
The snowpocalypse has started. That said, it’s only a light snow now. Not sure if we will end up with the foot they were forecasting unless it picks up quite a bit and is sustained. Joy. 🤨
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So far I am really enjoying Endgame. I will also be doing Heather’s 12 Week program interspersed with Endgame. And of course anything Naomi Joy creates.
We got lots of snow with more coming. Which is good for us–the freezing rain is bad here, so snow is welcome. Though it shuts everything down in the state. I used to get snow days before teleworking. No more snow days for me! But that’s okay–I love teleworking so I accept the trade off.
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The snowpocalypse was a bust. We got maybe 4”. Hubs snowblowed the driveway while I shoveled the walks. Both vehicles doors were frozen shut!
My company has been tickled pink with the teleworking. They closed down the location I worked at which saved like $3M/yr. If we have to go into the office (which is now a 45 min drive), we don’t have assigned desks. We just have unassigned and you take an open one. People are more productive at home and are able to work a wider range of hours, they found. I love working from home! I used to have cleaning ladies come once every other week but now I don’t need that because I can do stuff in between meetings or whatever, and I’m not overwhelmed on the weekend having to do a million things. 😁
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I work for the government. When COVID hit, their first response was that we are not capable of teleworking. Then about a week later they figured it out and sent everyone home. Just in my office that was nearly 500 people–nationally? I cannot even comprehend. And many of those offices are still teleworking over a year later. I know we are! But some people moved back to working in the office. However, the majority of us (in my office that is–I don’t know about nationally) continue to telework.
It definitely works for me! My commute round trip was a little over an hour–that has netted me an extra hour of sleep. I’m much less stressed. My job is very stressful but at home, I can scream and cuss and no one hears me except my husband and dog. Plus I am just so much more comfortable. I am an introvert anyway, so this definitely works for me. The down side? I miss audiobooks, which filled my commutes. I still read every day but I tend to read-read more non-fiction and I listened to fiction. So I am not getting nearly as much fiction as I used to. And I do miss that. But I also rarely wear make up which is better for my skin and I wear yoga pants every day now which I love.
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