BRAWNY Back and Biceps Workout + Abs & Core | EPIC Endgame Day 8

Brawny Back and Biceps Workout + Abs & Core is Day 8 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Endgame. Another tough upper body strength workout from Caroline. She hits everything hard in this workout–back, biceps and abs. She was really burning out during the ab work and during the finisher. The ab work was killing me, too! The staple in this workout is single arm renegade rows using a yoga block. You do it a total of 4 times. Caroline also uses pauses and isometric holds in this workout to make some of the exercises even tougher. My back and biceps feel well worked!

The back and bicep 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 side of the screen, counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries 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 core work at the end (before the finisher) is also done to intervals but they are different than the back & bicep intervals. Each core exercise is done for 60 seconds with no rest/recoveries. When there is 4 seconds left of an exercise a video appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen previewing the next exercise.

Brawny Back and Biceps Workout + Abs & Core is 46:56 minutes; 1:50 minute intro, no warm up and 2:15 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a yoga block and fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pound and 8kg/17.6 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Double arm bent over row (30# DBs)
2. Repeat #1
3. Single arm renegade row (one hand hold a DB and other hand is on yoga block) (one 25# DB)
4. Repeat #3 on other arm
5. Rotation single arm row (bent over row, at bottom of row palm faces behind you, while pulling DB up, rotate wrist so palm is facing forward at top of row) (one 35# DB)
6. Repeat #5 on other arm
7. Repeat #5 & 6
8. Repeat #3 & 4
9. Paused pull over (pause briefly when DB is in line with shoulders) (one 35# DB)
10. Repeat #9
11. No pause pull over (one 35# DB)
12. Repeat #11
13. Repeat #3 & 4
14. Sweep with pause at top (hinge forward holding one DB in one hand, sweep arm/DB up behind you keeping arm close to side and pause briefly at top of lift) (one 10# DB)
15. Repeat #14 on other arm
16. Repeat #14 & 15 but with no pause
17. Repeat #3 & 4
18. Double arm hammer curls (16.5# DBs)
19. Hammer curls>hold>curl (15 seconds of hammer curls then hold isometrically for 10 seconds with arms bent at 90 degrees, last 15 seconds is hammer curls) (15# DBs)
20. Repeat #18
21. Wide bicep curls (15# DBs)
22. Wide curls>hold>curl (15 seconds of wide curls then hold isometrically for 10 seconds with DBs lifted halfway, last 15 seconds is wide curls) (15# DBs)
23. Repeat #21
24. Alternating supination curls (at bottom of curl palms face body, rotate wrist when curling so at top of curl palm faces shoulder) (16.5# DBs)
25. Repeat #24

Abs: (intervals change to 60 seconds, no rests/recovery between exercises; when there is 4 seconds left of an exercise a video appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen previewing the next exercise)

1. Tuck sit ups (sit on bottom on mat w/ knees bent and feet elevated off mat, torso is leaned back, lower torso while also extending legs straight, return to start, arms remain extended at sides close to body, tap ankles when knees are bent)
2. Toe reaches (lay on back with legs extended straight to ceiling, crunch upper body, reaching hands to feet)
3. Reverse crunches (raise straight legs overhead while also raising hips, lower straight legs until they are a few inches off the floor, keep hands behind head w/ shoulder elevated throughout)
4. Toe taps to extension (lay on back on mat, knees are bent and toes touching mat, straighten knees then bend knees again, tapping toes to mat)
5. Alternating leg lowers (lay on back, hands behind head and shoulder elevated, straight legs are raised to ceiling, alternate lowering and raising straight legs)
6. Single leg sit up reach (lay on mat with legs extended straight on mat, sit up while also raising one straight leg, touch same side hand to foot)
7. Repeat #6 on other side of body

30 second rest

Finisher: 100 hammer curls (hold one DB in both hands) (one 15# DBs)

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