CGX: Iron Program Day 17: Deadstop Chest & Triceps

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 tough upper body workout. I could not use a bench press for this since the only chest press exercise needs to be done on the floor and with dumbbells but the fact she supersetted everything in this workout made me use lighter dumbbells anyway. She fried my chest and triceps in this workout. In fact, in Superset 5, the skull crushers, after doing 60 seconds of skull crushers with 2 dumbbells, then dropping to one dumbbell for another 60 seconds–it seemed like I could feel all of the individual muscle fibers in my triceps firing when doing the skull crushers with one dumbbell. She gives you a longer than usual recovery between each superset, which I definitely needed.

This is a superset workout done interval style. You will do 2 exercises back to back, each for 60 seconds (2 minutes of work total) followed by a 45 second rest. There is a timer in the upper right hand side of the screen, counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Caroline previews the next superset. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage. There are plenty of visual cues as well as “dings” to keep you on track during a superset.

Deadstop Chest & Triceps is 31:41 minutes (this time does not include the optional 6 minute warm up or the 3:38 minute intro, also optional) with a 2:05 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pounds, 10kg/22 pound, and 7.5kg/16.5 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Superset 1:

1. Deadstop chest press (lay on back on floor, at bottom of press the back of the arms/triceps rest on the floor briefly before pushing DBs back to ceiling) (30 #DBs)
2. Deadstop push ups (at bottom of push up entire body rests on floor, lift hands briefly before pushing back up to plank)
3. 45 second rest
4. Repeat #1-3

Superset 2:

1. Neutral grip chest press (palms face each other, similar to a chest fly but elbows bend at bottom like a traditional chest press) (25# DBs)
2. Chest flys (20# DBs)
3. 45 second rest
4. Repeat #1-3

Superset 3:

1. Tricep press (similar to a chest press but arms are kept close to sides) (25# DBs)
2. Deadstop tricep push ups (same as deadstop push ups in Superset 1, except hands are under shoulders and arms are kept close to sides)
3. 45 second rest
4. Repeat #1-3

Superset 4:

1. Diamond press (same as the tricep press in Superset 3 except press DBs together over chest the entire time) (20# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 but holding one DB in both hands (onw 20# DB)
3. 45 second rest
4. Repeat #1-3

Superset 5:

1. Skull crushers (15# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 but holding one DB in both hands (one 15# DB)
3. 45 second rest
4. Repeat #1-3

Finisher: (90 seconds; no rest/recovery between exercises)

1. Cobra push ups for 15 seconds (push ups done cobra style–hands under shoulders, lower body remains on mat)
2. Hold cobra for 10 seconds
3. Repeat #1 & 2 two more times
4. Repeat #1