CGX: Iron Program Day 40: Solo Shoulders

This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page. This is an excellent shoulder focused workout. Due to the shorter intervals you can challenge yourself with heavier weights, which I did. I had my back ups sitting close by but I only dropped to them once during the partial lateral raise cluster sets. Caroline was struggling! Especially during the finisher. In fact, during the stretch at the end it looked like her shoulders were so fried she couldn’t do the first few stretches very deeply. I have been there before! Usually after a brutal tricep or lower body workout though.

The exercises in this workout are done interval style; most of the exercises are done for 45 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. The cluster sets near the end will be done for 30 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest and those will be noted in the breakdown. 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.

Solo Shoulders is 32:37 minutes (this time does not include the optional 5:52 minute warm up or the 2:58 minute intro, also optional) with a 1:35 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 12.5kg/27.5 pounds, 7.5kg/16.5 pound and 5kg/11 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Seated shoulder press (arms are in goal post) (25# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 two more times
3. Upright row (15# DBs)
4. Repeat #3 two more times
5. Seated bent over rear delt flys (palms face behind you) (10# DBs)
6. Repeat #5 two more times
7. Lateral raise (10# DBs)
8. Repeat #7 two more times
9. Arc raise (straight arm frontal raise, at top of raise the ends of DBs toward each other) (10# DBs)
10. Repeat #9 two more times
11. Rear partial for 30 seconds (seated bent over rear delt flys but only lift arms/DBs part way, palms face behind you) (10# DBs)
12. 15 second rest
13. Repeat #11 & 12 three more times
14. 30 second rest
15. Partial lateral raises for 30 seconds (lift DBs only halfway) (10# DBs)
16. 15 second rest
17. Repeat #15 & 16 three more times (8# DBs)
18. Alternating frontal raises for 30 seconds (10# DBs)
19. 15 second rest
20. Repeat #18 & 19 three more times

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

1. Lateral holds for 30 seconds (do a lateral raise then hold arms isometrically at the top of raise for several seconds) (8# DBs)
2. Straight arm partials for 60 seconds (straight arm side/lateral raises, only lift arms partway) (8# DBs)