30 Min Full-on Full Body Circuits Workout is Day 9 in Caroline Girvan‘s Fuel Series. This is a solid full body strength workout but I didn’t love it. The time did go by quickly but I didn’t love how some muscle groups didn’t get as much work. That is usually not Caroline’s style but in this workout the only work your back get is during Makers and, of course, the weights you use for Makers are limited by what you can use for an overhead press. I can use much heavier dumbbells for back work than what I can use for shoulder work. However, my chest, lower body, core, shoulders and arms were all nicely worked. Though the triceps get more attention than the biceps. But it was still a solid workout with a metabolic factor.
This workout is done circuit fashion. There is one circuit of 10 exercises. You do that circuit twice. The third time you repeat the circuit, it changes. You are doing similar exercises but they change slightly. They either become body weight or drop to a version that uses only one dumbbell or if it was already a single dumbbell exercise then you use the dumbbell differently. All of the exercises in this workout are done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest. Except for the last 2 exercises in the last circuit. Those are done to different interval times and that is noted in the break down below. There is a timer in the upper right 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.
30 Min Full-on Full Body Circuits Workout is 36:57 minutes; 1:39 minute intro, no warm up and 2:40 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair or step and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33.1 pound and 10kg/22 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- High squat (DBs are held at shoulders) (27.5# DBs)
- Chest press (30# DBs)
- Deadstop lunge (static/stationary lunge, at bottom of lunge, back knee is on the mat briefly before rising to top of lunge) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #3 on other side of body
- Shoulder press (arms are in goalpost at bottom of press) (20# DBs)
- Bulgarian lunge (static/stationary lunges with back leg is elevated on chair/step behind you) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #6 on other side of body
- Frontal raise (hold one DB in both hands and do a straight arm front raise) (one 20# DB)
- Toe reach to leg lower (lay on back holding one DB in both hands, DB is extended to ceiling w/ arms straight, do an upper body crunch, pushing DB up towards feet then lower straight legs until they are a few inches off mat) (one 20# DB)
- Maker (start in plank, do one renegade row each arm, jump feet into DBs so you are in squat, do a double arm bicep curl, stand w/ DBs at shoulders, do one overhead press, squat and place DBs on the floor, jump feet back to plank and do one push up) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #1-10
- Repeat #1 but this time you are holding one DB goblet style (one 40# DB)
- Tricep push ups
- Body weight lunge (static/stationary lunge)
- Repeat #14 on other side of body
- Push press (overhead double arm shoulder press, use lower body to assist pushing DBs overhead) (20# DBs)
- Body weight Bulgarian lunge (static/stationary lunge with back foot elevated on chair/step behind you)
- Repeat #17 on other side of body
- Standing diamond press (hold one DB in both hands by bar in front of chest, push DB straight in front of you then pull it back to chest) (one 20# DB)
- Toe reach to leg lower for 90 seconds (lay on back with shoulders elevated, raise straight legs to ceiling, crunch upper body reaching hands to feet, lower straight legs until they are a few inches off the mat)
- 30 second rest
- Plank burpees for 60 seconds (start standing, place hands on floor, jump feet out to plank, jump feet back in, stand and jump; Caroline also shows a low impact alternative, with no jumping and stepping feet out to plank)
For more info on Caroline Girvan’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
