This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page.
Wow! This was a burner! Those first supersets fried my hamstrings. Doing the single leg RDL immediately after the Bulgarian lunge was much more intense than I expected. I usually feel my hamstrings working during an RDL but after the forward leaning Bulgarian lunge? Wow! Since I use heavier dumbbells for RDLs than I do for lunges, I was worried that the dumbbell I was using would be too light for the RDL but nope, after finishing the Bulgarian lunge it felt plenty heavy! I also did not come to this workout fresh. I had just finished CGX: 25 Minute Leg Circuit, so my legs were already very warm. This workout definitely finished them off. After doing those two workouts back to back, I needed a better stretch than what this gave me so I did a longer YouTube lower body stretch session after finishing this workout. Though the stretch in this workout is lacking, this is otherwise an excellent lower body strength workout.
This is a superset workout. The exercises in this workout are done interval style: 45 seconds of work followed by another 45 seconds of work (90 seconds total). Then you get 30 seconds of rest. 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.
Hamstring Workout is 21:35 minutes (this time does not include the optional 8:59 minute warm up) with a 1:20 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair or step and a fitness mat. Caroline is using one 15kg/33 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Forward leaning Bulgarian lunge (stationary lunges, back foot is elevated behind you on chair/step, hold one DB in same side hand as back leg, hinge torso forward over front leg as you lunge) (one 27.5# DB)
- Staggered RDL (single leg deadlift, back/non-working leg is in kickstand, hold one DB in same side hand as back/kickstand leg) (one 27.5# DB)
- 30 second rest
- Repeat #1-3 on other leg
- Repeat #1-4
- Forward tilt step up (no DBs; place one foot on step/chair, step back foot up to tap the step, then tap foot back down on floor, torso is hinged forward over leg on step/chair the entire time)
- Repeat #6 on other leg
- 30 second rest
- B/W forward lean Bulgarian lunge (repeat #1 but w/out DBs)
- Repeat #2 but holding DB in same side hand as working leg (one 30# DB)
- 30 second rest
- Repeat #9-11 on other side of body
- Repeat #9-12
- Repeat #6 & 7
