CGX: Day 1 of 3 Full Body Split

This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page. This was an awesome and excellent total body strength workout. Caroline hits every muscle in the body and works them well. Most of this workout is done PHA style. PHA stands for Peripheral Heart Action. What this means in training terms is you alternate between upper and lower body resistance exercises, allowing as little rest as possible between each movement. The lack of rest and recovery keeps your heart rate elevated for cardiovascular and fat burning benefits, while switching between upper and lower body exercises maximizes blood flow to all parts of the body and reduces build up of lactic acid. It also gives the muscle group you just worked a longer recovery time before you hit it again (upper body rests while lower body works). I did say PHA “style”–meaning, it is not following the PHA protocol rigidly. Caroline is still giving you 30 second rests between each exercise; nevertheless, if you are challenging yourself with your weight choices, the workout will still be metabolic. It is a long workout (70 minutes with the warm up) and I burned 479 calories in that time, so not bad!

What is really great about this particular workout is that, had it not been done PHA style, I am not sure I would have been able to maintain the same weights for all 3 sets, but because the muscle group gets plenty of rest before returning to the exercise, I was able to maintain the same weight for all 3 sets. Which brings me to the basic structure. The majority of the workout is done superset style, meaning she pairs an upper body exercise with a lower body exercise. You will do 3 sets of that pairing before you move on to the next superset. But again, these are not pure supersets since you are getting 30 seconds of rest between exercises. That is, until the end of the workout when she does true supersets to really fry your shoulders. In fact, this workout feels like it has 2 finishers. First the shoulder supersets then the plank based complex at the very end. And that plank finisher seriously fried my shoulders. As I said, overall excellent total body strength workout. Another major winner!

This workout is done interval style. Most of the exercises are done for 75 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of recovery. If the the interval/recovery time is different, then it is noted below in the breakdown.There is a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Caroline previews the next exercise. There is also a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, counting down the workout time as a percentage. During the intro Caroline explains how the 3 days of the Full Body Split mini series will work.

Full Body Split (Day 1) is 64:46 minutes (this time does not include the optional 4:41 minute warm up or the 4:21 minute intro, also optional) with a 3:50 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, chair/bench, glute/booty band, yoga block and a fitness mat. Caroline’s barbell is at 58kg/127.8 pound. Caroline is using 17.5kg/38.5 pound, 15kg/33 pounds, 10kg/22 pound and 4kg/8.8 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. RDL (Romanian deadlifts) (hex deadlift bar @ 105#)
2. Chest press (barbell @ 75#)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 two more times
4. Slower eccentric banded hip thrust (lean back against your bench or step, place barbell on hips, knees bent and feet on floor in line with knees, band is around thighs just above knees, knees are open wide so there is constant tension on the band, lower hips slowly and lift hips at normal speed) (barbell @ 105#)
5. Pullover (one 40# DB)
6. Repeat #4 & 5 two more times
7. Paused squats (hold DBs at shoulders, lower to bottom of squat and hold briefly before returning to standing) (30# DBs)
8. Paused shoulder press (seated in chair, elbows drop lower than goal post so DBs are almost in line with shoulders, pause in this position briefly then push DBs to ceiling) (20# DBs)
9. Repeat #7 & 8 two more times
10. Static lunge (stationary lunge with front foot elevated on yoga block) (25# DBs)
11. Repeat #10 on other leg
12. Single arm row (one knee and non-working hand rest on bench) (one 50# DB)
13. Repeat #12 on other arm
14. Repeat #10-13
15. Repeat #10 & 11
16. Side to side banded step for 90 seconds (glute band is around thighs just above knees, step one leg out to side then back in, repeat on other leg)
17. 15 second rest
18. Paused seated lateral raise for 75 seconds (seated lateral raise, pause briefly at top of raise) (8# DBs)
19. (no rest) Partials for 15 seconds (seated lateral raise but only lift arms/DBs partway) (8# DBs)
20. 15 second rest
21. Slow eccentric rear delt fly for 75 seconds (sit on bench or chair, torso is hinge forward over thighs, do a rear delt fly with palms facing behind you, raise at normal speed but lower slowly) (8# DBs)
22. (no rest) Partials for 15 seconds (same position as #21, but only lift arms/DBs partway) (8# DBs)
23. 15 second rest
24. Partial laterals for 45 seconds (seated lateral raise but only lift arms/DBs partway) (8# DBs)
25. (no rest) Partial rear flys for 30 seconds  (same as #22) (8# DBs)

30 second rest

Finisher: (4 minutes)

1. Dolphin to plank, 10 reps (start in forearm/elbow plank, push hips back into dolphin pose then return to forearm/elbow plank)
2. Side to side plank, 10 reps (start in forearm/elbow plank, rotate into side plank, alternate sides)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 as many times as possible in 4 minutes