IRON Series 30 Min Arms and Abs Workout – Biceps, Triceps | 5

30 Min Arms and Abs Workout – Biceps, Triceps is Day 5 in Caroline Girvan‘s Iron Series. This was a great arm and core workout. Caroline pumped up my arms then burned out my core. We’ll see if I am sore after this. My chest is still sore from Iron Series Day 2–we’ll see if my triceps and abs are sore after this workout. My abs rarely get sore anymore but they were actually feeling sore while I was doing the core exercises. That feeling is gone now, but while doing the exercises it was definitely frying my abdominal muscles! For the tricep dips Caroline uses a dip bar. A video remains onscreen the entire interval showing her doing tricep dips using a chair, since most home exercisers (including myself) do not own a dip bar. But it is clearly much more advanced to do tricep dips with a dip bar. Caroline was burning out fast and frequently whereas she never burned out once in the chair video. Since this workout is 38 minutes, I used Heather Robertson‘s Toned Arms Tabata as a finisher. It is such an excellent finisher for any upper body workout but especially one focused on the arms and shoulders.

All of the bicep and tricep exercises in this workout are done interval style: 60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. The abs/core work is done interval style, too, but with no rest/recoveries: 60 seconds of work followed by 30 more seconds of work. 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. During the core section, when there is 10 seconds left of the exercise a video appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen, previewing 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.

30 Min Arms and Abs Workout – Biceps, Triceps is 38:02 minutes; 3 minute intro, no warm up and 1:45 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair and fitness mat. Caroline is using 12.5kg/27.6 pound and 8kg/17.6 pound dumbbells. She also uses dip bars for a the tricep dips instead of a chair, however throughout the exercise there is a video onscreen showing her using a chair. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Palms up bicep curl (20# DBs)
2. Repeat #1
3. Diamond press (lay on back, one DB in each hand and pressed together over chest, push DBs to ceiling then lower back to chest) (20# DBs)
4. Repeat #3
5. Dips (Caroline is using dip bars, but most of us will do tricep dips using a chair)
6. Repeat #5
7. Wide bicep curls (16.5# DBs)
8. Repeat #7
9. Tricep press (narrow chest press) (20# DBs)
10. Repeat #9
11. Skull crushers (one 25# DB)
12. Repeat #11
13. Hammer curls (20# DBs)
14. Repeat #13

Core:

1. Straight leg reverse crunch for 60 seconds (lay on back, keeping legs straight do a reverse crunch lifting hips while pushing legs overhead, then lower straight legs until they are a few inches off the floor)
2. Bent leg reverse crunch for 30 seconds (with knees bent, do a reverse crunch lifting hips off floor, when you lower hips back to floor, push legs out straight in line with hips)
3. Large arc crunch for 60 seconds (still on back with hands behind head, knees bent and feet on mat, crunch upper body, rotating upper body in a circle first one way and then the other)
4. Crunch for 30 seconds (basic crunch)
5. Small tuck toe tap for 60 seconds (lay on back with knees bent, keep knees bent at same angle throughout, do a reverse crunch then lower legs so toes tap mat)
6. Small tuck for 30 seconds (still laying on back with knees bent, do small reverse crunches)
7. Alternating toe reaches for 60 seconds (lay on back with straight legs raised to ceiling, crunch upper body reaching hand to opposite foot, alternate sides)
8. Heel reaches for 30 seconds (lay on back with knees bent and feet on mat, arms are extended close to sides of body, upper body/shoulders elevated, touch heel with same side hand, alternate sides)
9. Alternating leg lowers for 60 seconds (lay on back with hands behind head and head/shoulders elevated, scissor straight legs)
10. Leg lowers for 30 seconds (same position as #9, but raise and lower both straight legs at same time)
11. Plank saw for 60 seconds (in forearm plank, push body forward and back using toes)
12. 30 second rest

Finisher: (2 minutes, no rests/recoveries)

1. Tricep push ups for 60 seconds
2. Alternating rotational curls for 60 seconds (hold DBs at sides with palms facing thigh, when curling, start as a hammer curl then rotate wrist so it is in traditional bicep curl position at top of curl) (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.