CGX: 10 Week Iron Program

The 10 Week Iron Program is a strength training workout program by Caroline Girvan. It is only available on her CGX app. It is not free like her 6 week Iron Series is. That one is available to everyone for free on YouTube. I have done the YouTube Iron program several times and loved it, so I was very excited about this longer program. I came to this after doing Cathe Friedrich‘s STS 2.0 for 6 months. I got excellent results from that program but after 6 months of it, I was starting to plateau strength-wise and needed to mix things up. This program was the perfect antidote to my strength plateau. In fact, the first week I was so sore! So it definitely worked my muscles in a different way than STS 2.0 did, even though many of the same exercises are done in that first week.

I have reviewed each workout separately but this post is to review the program as a whole. First I will give a summary of my overall impression of this program then I will break it down week by week. Each week you do 5 strength workouts; 2 upper body, 2 lower body and one total body. The workouts for that week will be linked in the week’s review.

Overall Summary: The program starts with straight sets done to 60/30 intervals. But as the program progresses Caroline mixes things up. The beauty of her doing this is that you can still make strength gains without ever increasing the weight of your dumbbells. This is beneficial for the home exerciser who probably has a limited amount of dumbbells. Plus, there is a point in any strength program where you will plateau if you are constantly doing the same exercises–which is what happened to me after 6 months of STS 2.0. So Caroline manipulates the training variables (rest/recovery times) to help you continue to grow. This is one of the many forms of progressive overload. You do not always have to increase your weight. You can vary reps and rest periods, and since these workouts are all interval based, Caroline does that by playing with interval and recovery times. You can also play with the sequencing of exercises and she does that, too. I definitely made strength gains but even more satisfying is muscle growth. Now, I know I cannot give this program all of the credit. STS 2.0 was already doing a great job but it has become much more noticeable since doing this program. My biceps are rocks. Even at rest my husband makes comments about them. They are they easiest of my muscle groups to see the results. I am not like Caroline and other trainers who do this for a living. I have body fat so most of my other muscles are not showing the same definition, but they have all grown. However my arms are looking pretty ripped. This is an excellent program that I will definitely be returning to in the future.

Week One: This first week is a good introduction to basic strength training. The workouts are pretty straightforward. You will do 2 straight sets of each exercise with pretty uniform intervals–the majority of the time you do 60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of recovery. This gives you a basis for what is to come and lets you determine how heavy you can lift at the beginning of the program. I was sore all week from these workouts–especially the upper body workouts.

Day 1: Leg Day (35:30 minutes; 44:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 2: Upper Body (33 minutes; 39 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 3: Glutes! (33 minutes; 42 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 4: Full Body (43:45 minutes; 55:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 5: Shoulders & Triceps (34:30 minutes; 40:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Two: The second week Caroline slowly starts mixing things up. The first workout (day 6) she throws in a giant set. Day 7 she starts messing with interval and rest times–just a little. Day 9 is a circuit workout that is very metabolic with short and no rests and Day 10 she throws in 6 minutes of cluster sets to burn out your biceps. And though Day 8 (glutes) stuck mostly with 60/30 straight sets, she threw in different exercises to make it much harder than Day 3 Glutes.

Day 6: Time for the Quads (37 minutes; 46 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 7: Upper Body (36 minutes; 42 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 8: Glutes & Hamstrings (37 minutes; 46 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 9: Full Body (43 minutes; 53:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 10: Back & Biceps (32:30 minutes; 38:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Three: For the third week, Caroline gives you circuits. All of the workouts except Day 11 are circuit based. This was a tough week for me–especially with the lower body workouts. I wasn’t feeling well for Day 13 and had to reduce my weights and Day 11 was just really challenging!

Day 11: Leg Day (35 minutes; 44 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 12: Chest, Shoulders & Triceps (35 minutes; 41 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 13: Glutes & Abs (36 minutes; 47:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 14: Full Body Circuit Plus Abs (41:30 minutes; 53 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 15: Back & Rear Delts (35 minutes; 41 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Four: Caroline mixes things up this week with deadstop exercises, supersets and more focused isolation. In fact, for Day 20 you get an entire workout focused solely on the shoulders. My biceps and triceps were sore after Day 17 and my quads were sore after Day 16. My favorite workout in the entire program (so far at least) appeared this week as well–Day 18 Posterior Chain in which you work your back, glutes and hamstrings. **At the end of the program, this is still my absolute favorite workout.**

Day 16: Lower Body Including Calves (34:45 minutes; 43:45 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 17: Deadstop Chest & Triceps (31:30 minutes; 37:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 18: Posterior Chain (39 minutes; 50:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 19: Straight & Supersets Full Body (34:30 minutes; 46 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 20: Bi & Unilateral Shoulders (33:30 minutes; 39:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Five: This week you are doing a little of everything. Day 21 you get supersets for your lower body. Day 22 is an excellent circuit based upper body workout. Day 25 Caroline fries your biceps and triceps with more isolation work. Day 23 is another excellent glute and hamstring workout and Day 24 is a very metabolic total body circuit workout using the PHA technique. Day 24 also throws in some more deadstop exercises. This week my biceps were brutally sore but I do not think it is from Day 25. That same day I also did her CGXmas Day 12: Biceps & Back which introduced me to a new bicep exercise I had never done before called “drag curls”. I think that exercise is the reason for my severe bicep DOMS but I am sure following that workout up with Day 25 only added to the severity.

Day 21: It’s a Leg Day! (39:30 minutes; 38:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 22: Complete Upper Body (36:30 minutes; 42:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 23: Glutes & Hamstrings (36 minutes; 45 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 24: Full Body (39 minutes; 50:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 25: It’s Arm Day! (35 minutes; 41 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Six: This week Caroline splits your upper body up a little differently; Day 27 is Back & Biceps and Day 30 is Shoulders, Chest & Triceps. So between the two workouts your entire upper body gets well worked. Day 27 you have some long intervals but it is unilateral work so it is not as bad as it seems. But Day 30 has supersets that will burn out the muscle being worked. And both of the lower body workouts were brutal but for different reasons. Day 26 slowed everything down and contained isometrical holds–but thankfully she gives you longer recoveries. Day 28 is the opposite. We are back to circuit work and the rests are short. Finally, for Day 29 we get a full body workout that includes a brutal ab finisher. The nice thing about Day 29 is it starts with shorter intervals, giving you the opportunity to lift heavier and test any strength gains you have made in the past 6 weeks.

Day 26: Slow Eccentric Lower Body (37 minutes; 46 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 27: Back & Alternating Bicep Curls (34:30 minutes; 40: 30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 28: Glute Focused Circuit (42 minutes; 51 minutes w/ optional warm up

Day 29: Full Body (42 minutes; 53:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 30: Shoulders, Chest & Triceps (32:30 minutes; 38:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Seven: This week Caroline really kicked my butt with Day 31 Drop Set Leg Day and Day 32 Upper Body. Part of it was because I had donated blood a few days prior but it was also due to the techniques used in those two workouts: drop sets, cluster sets, supersets and trisets. I was also lifting heavier so overall, those two workouts were brutal for me. Day 35 is another back and biceps workout that doesn’t use any special techniques but still works the upper body well. Day 33 Lots of Unilateral Glutes plays with interval times and recoveries and Day 34 Full Body is a straight forward metabolic strength workout. Mostly straight sets with a few supersets at the end. But it worked me very well, too. It was a great week that really challenged me. I worked to lift heavier on most of the exercises which really kicked up the intensity for me.

Day 31: Drop Set Leg Day (37:30 minutes; 46:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 32: Upper Body (39:30 minuted; 45:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 33: Lots of Unilateral for Glutes (38 minutes; 47 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 34: Full Body : Every Major Muscle Group! (38:30 minutes; 50 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 35: Rows, Pulls & Curls: Back & Biceps (33 minutes; 39 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Eight: This week Caroline really mixes things up. For one, your glutes and hamstrings get a lot of work. First with Day 36; it focuses on glutes and hamstrings and but instead of hip thrusts, you do lots of bridges. But don’t worry–you still get hip thrusts on Day 38 when she works the posterior chain again. This one is much more challenging than Day 18/Week 4’s posterior chain workout. She uses lots of different techniques to really challenge the muscles: supersets, short rests, unilateral work and no rests. You also get some isolation workouts: Day 37 is Chest & Triceps and Day 40 is Solo Shoulders. For Day 37 you return to circuit training and it gets intense. For Day 40 Caroline shortens the intervals but keeps the rests at 30 seconds so you can really challenge yourself to lift heavier. Day 39 is another full body workout but this time it is all unilateral work. The rests are short so it gets metabolic. The back, shoulders and lower body get the most work which continues the theme of your posterior chain getting a lot of focus this week.

Day 36: Bridges & RDLs: Glutes & Hamstrings (33:45 minutes; 43:45 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 37: Chest & Triceps (36 minutes; 42 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 38: Posterior Chain (40 minutes; 51:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 39: Full Body (40 minutes; 51:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 40: Solo Shoulders (32:30 minutes; 38:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Nine: This week starts out with two pretty straight forward strength workouts–Day 41 Leg Day and Day 42 Upper Body. For both of the workouts the intervals are shorter (45 seconds) with the standard 30 second recovery. This gives you the opportunity to see how far you have come strength-wise in the past 8 weeks by testing how heavy you can lift. This week also gives you a lot of abdominal/core work with Day 45 and Day 43. Day 45 is a unique and challenging workout. It is a circuit workout that supersets back exercises with core exercises. However, many of the core exercises and the back exercises are compound exercises working both the core and the back at the same time. An intense and very effective workout. Day 43 is another circuit workout. The bulk of it is a circuit of glute exercises. You are only doing 3 exercises both with and without a glute band. Caroline manipulates interval and rest times to really fry your glutes. You get 7:30 minutes of ab work at the very end before the finisher; it is also done as a circuit. Day 44 is another full body workout but the focus is lower body and shoulders, though everything does get worked in some fashion.

Day 41: Leg Day! (36:30 minutes; 45:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 42: Upper Body (37 minutes; 43 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 43: Glutes & Abs (39 minutes; 48 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 44: Full Body (40:45 minutes; 52:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 45: Back & Core (39:30 minutes; 45:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Week Ten: The final week! And Caroline starts you off with a burner! Day 46 throws cluster sets into the hip/glute thrusts to really fry them. The cluster sets return in Day 50 to fry your shoulders and triceps. In fact, in that workout (the finale), she gives long intervals followed by cluster sets. Day 47 is an upper body workout that is more straight forward. It has some unilateral work in it and does a good job fatiguing the upper body. Day 48 will really fatigue the quads but also works the entire lower body. It is primarily straight sets but she throws a triset in there. And finally, the finale for me, Day 49, the last full body workout. And it was intense. The cluster sets return to really burn out the muscles. She also hits the glutes with more bridge work.

Day 46: The Glutes & Hamstrings (38:30 minutes; 47:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 47: Upper Body (35:30 minutes; 41:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 48: The Quads! (35:45 minutes; 44:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 49: Full Body (40 minutes; 51:30 minutes w/ optional warm up)

Day 50: Shoulders & Triceps (36 minutes; 42 minutes w/ optional warm up)