Peaked Full Body Workout – Pyramid Training is Day 34 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Endgame program. This was a very challenging endurance level total body strength workout. Caroline works your entire body and fries each muscle she targets. I was burning out on most of the exercises by the end of the pyramid (usually at some point during the 60 second interval) but the biggest burn for me was the Bulgarian lunges. OMG–I kept feeling the bite in my glutes and hamstrings! And the finisher–wow! 100 reps of renegade rows. I usually use 25 pound dumbbells for renegade rows but since we are doing 100 reps, I decided to use 20 pound dumbbells for the finisher and I was still struggling by the end. Something super freaking weird happens at the beginning of this workout. During the intro when Caroline is talking about the equipment you need–the camera quickly zooms in on the chair as someone says “Boo” then zooms back out. Caroline continues on as if nothing happened. Kind of freaky!
The exercise intervals in this workout are done pyramid style: you will do an exercise for 20 seconds then for 40 seconds then for 60 seconds then back down to 40 seconds and finish doing it for 20 seconds. Between each interval, regardless of length, you get 20 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the upper left hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery, the next exercise is previewed in a small video in the upper right hand corner of the screen. 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.
Peaked Full Body Workout – Pyramid Training is 49:10 minutes; 2:35 minute intro, no warm up and 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair, a yoga block and fitness mat. Caroline is using 10kg/22 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
Remember, each exercise will be done for the full pyramid described above.
- Clean to squat (do a swinging/momentum hammer curl, bringing DBs to shoulders, do one squat and swing/lower the DBs back to start) (16.5# DBs)
- Lateral partials (lateral raises but only lift DBs halfway before lowering) (9# DBs)
- Heels elevated 1.5 rep squats (heels are elevated on yoga block, DBs are held at shoulders, lower to bottom of squat raise halfway, lower to bottom of squat, raise all the way) (25# DBs)
- x1 arm shoulder press (single arm shoulder press) (one 16.5# DB)
- Repeat #4 on other arm
- Forward leaning Bulgarian lunge (stationary lunges with back leg is elevated on chair and torso hinged forward over front leg, hold one DB in same side hand as back leg) (one 20# DB)
- Repeat #6 on other side of body
- Diamond press (lying chest press with DBs pressed together over chest) (16.5# DBs)
40 second rest
Finisher:
- Single arm renegade rows, 25 reps (yoga block is under non-working hand) (one 20# DB)
- Repeat #1 on other arm
- Alternating renegade rows, 50 reps (20# DBs)
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
