30 Min Leg Workout – Dumbbell Leg Day is Day 1 in Caroline Girvan‘s 6 week Iron Series. I am very excited to finally be doing this series. It is my plan to do every single workout in the Iron Series so stay tuned! This was a solid lower body strength workout. Caroline moves through each exercise at a slow and controlled pace. Each exercise is done for 2 sets except for deadlifts which are done for 3 sets. Since I love deadlifts I was happy about that! This workout has a long intro (5:47 minutes). That’s because the first 5 minutes Caroline gives an overview of the 6 week Iron Series and she also talks about how she works out. She says that these workouts that she films are her actual workouts. In addition to these workouts, she walks an hour every day and does a HIIT workout on Sundays (in addition to whatever else she films and uploads that day). In fact, she linked to her favorite HIIT workout below this video. I have not done or reviewed that workout nor do I ever plan to! It looks brutal (500 Rep Cardio Challenge). She says she has returned to it several times since filming it.
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 workout is actually only 36 minutes (I had already listened to the intro when previewing this workout so I skipped past it), I used one of Heather Robertson‘s Daily 10 lower body workouts as a finisher: Day 18: 10 Min Leg Workout. I also used Heather’s Leg Day Warm Up Routine as my warm up.
30 Min Leg Workout is 41:47 minutes; 5:47 minute intro, no warm up and 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Suitcase squat (narrow squats holding DBs at sides) (25# DBs)
- Repeat #1
- Static lunge (stationary lunges) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #3 on other side of body
- Repeat #3 & 4
- RDL (Romanian deadlift) (37.5# DBs)
- Repeat #6 two more times
- Rear step lunge (reverse lunges, hold one DB in same side hand as leg that is stepping back) (one 20# DB)
- Repeat #8 on other side of body
- Repeat #8 & 9
- Pause at bottom goblet squat (one 45# DB)
- Repeat #11
- Lateral lunge (stationary side lunges) (one 30# DB)
- Repeat #13 on other side of body
- Repeat #13 & 14
Finisher: (2:30 minutes, no rests/recoveries)
- 1/2 rep goblet squat for 30 seconds (lower to bottom of squat but only raise halfway) (one 45# DB)
- Full range goblet squats for 30 seconds (one 45# DB)
- Full range body weight squats for 30 seconds
- 1/2 rep body weight squats for 60 seconds
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
Yay! I’m glad you’ve started the Iron series! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 🥰
While I long to start Caroline’s Fuel series, it just isn’t for me while I’m dealing with this tennis elbow thing. So until I know what I’m really dealing with and how to truly fix it, I’m (mostly) happy to keep moving along with Heather’s stuff. Today I did her latest 30 min full body HiiT and her latest abs AMRAP. Both were quite excellent workouts! I felt I got a truly full body experience with the HiiT (plus some cardio which Heather is sooo good at incorporating in almost every workout) and the abs were great because I could go at my own pace for the whole 5 min segment (2 segments).
So moving forward I will again look at incorporating body weight workouts to supplement the dumbbell workouts I’m able to do, plus cardio of course. I really have a problem even gripping a (heavy) weight with my right hand (anything more than about 17.5 lb) which affects lower body strength too since I have to hold onto a weight during dumbbell workouts … UGH! … so I’ll just have to experiment with what’s possible.
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I think I will enjoy it. I’ve been jonesing to start it, plus I am getting really burned out on Heather’s 12 Week Program. I have a few more of her workouts to do this week and next then its all Iron Series (except my cardio and recovery days). I never got burned out on Caroline’s EPIC Endgame.
Some of Caroline’s body weight upper body workouts are just as challenging if not more so than a dumbbell workout. Does it hurt your elbow to be in plank a lot or do push up varieties? Because Caroline’s might be too much. Naomi Joy has some really good body weight strength workouts and so does Heather. They might be less brutal on your elbow than Caroline’s. I have both of their workouts that I’ve done broken down in different categories–including bodyweight: https://2lazy4gym.com/naomi-joy/#Bodyweight and https://2lazy4gym.com/heather-robertson/#Bodyweight You can look at the break downs and see if they contain exercises that will (or won’t) exacerbate your elbow.
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My elbow is kind of weird. Standard push-ups are hit-and-miss but are most comfortable if done on my knuckles (neutral grip), but triangle push-ups are totally fine. Go figure. 🤨 Planks are ok most of the time although full arm is more comfortable as long as I don’t lock out. Being on my elbows is no bueno. It’s just really, really frustrating. 🤬
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I am in week 3 of the Iron Series, and I absolutely love it! Wait until you try week 2’s Quad workout. Brutal! This is exactly the kind of weight training I have been looking for. I really hope Cathe’s STS 2 is similar in pace and style.
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I have a few more of Heather Robertson’s 12 Week Program to do but I will be finishing it up next week. I’ll be mixing Caroline’s Iron Series with that but then starting the week after, its all Iron Series! I can’t wait. I’m starting to get burned out on Heather’s program.
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