IRON Series Finale 30 Min Arms, Abs and Core Workout | 30

30 Min Arms, Abs and Core Workout is Day 30 in Caroline Girvan‘s Iron Series. I’m so sad! The Iron Series is over. I loved it so much! At the end of the workout (before the stretch), Caroline’s dogs run out–her cute beagle and a precious little Dachshund puppy! So cute! They hung around for the stretch, scampering in and out of the video. This was another excellent arm and core focused workout. The workout begins with a long intro during which Caroline shares that this is a program you can repeat over and over again to grow stronger. And I plan to! Just one time through this program has increased my strength. She also points out that when more than one set of an exercise is done, lifting heavier even for just the first set is an accomplishment. Which is what I did with a few of the exercises in this workout. On 3 of the exercises I challenged myself with a heavier weight than what I normally use. On one of the exercises I was able to complete both sets but on the other two, the second time we did the exercises I had to drop to a lighter weight. Still–it’s progress! And I do plan to return to the Iron Series workouts; maybe next time I do this workout I will be even stronger.

The exercises in this workout are done interval style: the arm exercises are all done for 60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. The core exercises are done for 60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of more work, so no rest/recoveries. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the arm exercises, Caroline previews the next exercise during the recovery. During the core exercises, when there is 10 seconds left of an exercises, a video appears in the upper right hand corner 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.

Instead of doing a finisher with this workout, I used Heather Robertson‘s No Equipment Arm Workout as a warm up then added on a long upper body stretch at the end. I have done every single workout in this series. Click here to see all of my reviews for the Iron Series. Stay tuned! Now that I have finished this series, I plan to put together a rotation using the Iron Series and some of Caroline’s other more strength focused workouts. I will be working on it over the next few weeks. I will post it a week before I start it, then anyone who is interested can do the rotation with me.

30 Min Arms, Abs and Core Workout is 38:30 minutes; 4:23 minute intro, no warm up and 1 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, tricep dip bars or a chair and fitness mat. Caroline is using 12.5kg/27.6 pound and 8kg/17.6 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Triceps:

1. Tricep dips (Caroline is using tricep dip bars, alternative is tricep dips using a chair)
2. Repeat #1
3. Tricep press (lay on back w/ a DB in each hand, palms facing each other, push DBs to ceiling keeping arms close to sides) (20# DBs)
4. Repeat #3
5. Skull crushers (using one DB in both hands) (one 25# DB)
6. Repeat #5 (one 20# DB)

Ab & Core Work: (no rest/recoveries)

1. Basic crunch for 60 seconds
2. Crunch pulses for 30 seconds
3. Repeat #1 & 2
4. X arm sit up for 60 seconds (full sit up, knees bent and feet on mat, arms crossed in front of you)
5. Hollow to V sit for 30 seconds (lay on mat, arms straight and extended along sides, legs straight a few inches of the floor (this is hollow), raise torso and bring knees into chest, tapping fingers to heels then return to hollow)
6. Repeat #4 & 5
7. Small tuck to chest for 60 seconds (lay on back, legs raised and knees bent at 90 degrees, do a small reverse crunch)
8. Reverse crunch for 30 seconds (lay on back, arms on floor at sides, extend legs out straight in line with body, a few inches off the floor, raise legs to ceiling, lifting hips off mat into reverse crunch)
9. Repeat #7 & 8
10. Plank feet walk out for 60 seconds (in elbow/forearm plank, walk feet a few steps forward then a few steps back)
11. Plank saw fr 30 seconds (in forearm plank, push body forward and back with feet)
12. Repeat #10 & 11

15 second rest

Biceps:

1. X body curl (hammer curl, bringing DBs together in front of body at top of curl) (16.5# DBs)
2. Repeat #1
3. Hammer curls (18# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 (16.5# DBs)
5. Alternating bicep curls (16.5# DBs)
6. Repeat #5

Finisher: (80 seconds; each exercise is done for 20 seconds, no rest/recoveries)

1. Tricep dips (Caroline is using tricep dip bars, alternative is tricep dips using a chair)
2. Palms up bicep curl (16.5# DBs)
3. Repeat #1 & 2

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