This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page. For such a short workout, this is very thorough. This was the second workout I did today. I started with Iron Program Day 27: Back & Alternating Curl Biceps so my back and biceps were already well worked and very fatigued when I came to this workout. In fact, their fatigue illustrated how single arm chest presses work more than your chest! My biceps were struggling by the last set! I also had no idea how effective cobra push ups are. Between the two workouts I did, my triceps got the least amount of work, so when we to the finisher, my triceps felt fresh and at first I barely felt the cobra push ups but by the very end (they are the final exercise you will do in this workout) my triceps were actually getting pretty fatigued! Of course, they were assisting in everything else I did previously but they did feel fresh at the beginning of the finisher. If you are looking for something short but thorough, this is the upper body workout for you.
This is a unilateral superset workout. In each superset, you will do an exercise for 45 seconds on one side of the body then repeat the exercise on the other side of the body for 45 seconds. Then you get a 30 second rest/recovery. 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 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 visual cues as well as “dings” to keep you on track.
Upper Body is 24:22 minutes (this time does not include the optional 5:53 minute warm up or the 2:11 intro, also optional) with a 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, bench and a fitness mat. Caroline is using one 15kg/33 pound, 10kg/22 pound, and 7.5kg/16.5 pound dumbbell. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Single arm chest press (hold a DB in each hand but only chest press with one arm, other arm remains extended to ceiling) (30# DBs)
- Repeat #1 on other arm
- 30 second rest
- Repeat #1-3 two more times
- Single arm momentum row (hinge forward with one knee and non-working hand resting on bench, row DB up with force and lower slowly) (one 50# DB)
- Repeat #5 on other arm
- 30 second rest
- Repeat #5-7 two more times
- Single arm shoulder press (in kneeling lunge, do a single arm overhead shoulder press) (one 22.5# DB)
- Repeat #9 on other arm
- 30 second rest
- Repeat #9-11 two more times (one 20# DB)
Finisher: (3 minutes; each exercise is done for 45 seconds w/ no rest/recovery between exercises)
- Hammer curl (20# DBs)
- Cobra push ups (lay on mat, hands under shoulders, do push ups cobra-style)
- Repeat #1 &2
