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 tough! It is basically one of Caroline’s bodyweight workouts but wearing a weighted vest and it kicked my butt. It kicked Caroline’s butt, too. In the intro she notes that the upper body is significantly more challenging than the lower body. And this is true but the lower body was no joke either! I was glad to see Caroline taking as many personal breaks during both the upper and lower body intervals as I was! This is a total body workout. Because you are not using dumbbells or a barbell, the biceps and shoulders do not get any focused work but they are assisting in all of the upper body exercises, so they worked, too. The back, chest and triceps are hit the hardest. And the lower body, too, of course. Push ups, inverted rows and tricep dips are so much harder wearing this vest. I already use a band assist on my dip bars for tricep dips and the vest made them exponentially harder, even with the assist! The added vest weight really reduced the amount of reps I could do for all of the upper body exercises. I wore a 25 pound vest for this workout. My next weighted vest increment is 15 pounds and I had that one at the ready in case I couldn’t handle the 25 pound vest for an entire hour but I did it. This workout made me rethink the way I workout. Since I do struggle with grip strength when I am lifting really heavy, I really need to start adding my vests to workouts rather than increasing dumbbell weight.
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. If no time is listed then it is a 75 second interval or a 30 second recovery. 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.
The warm up used with this workout is an upper body warm up which I thought was odd. The upper body does need some warming up but so does the lower body. When I repeat this workout I will probably substitute one of her YouTube warm ups. This workout was pretty metabolic. I burned over 500 calories (that includes the warm up and a short additional stretch I added onto the end).
Weighted Vest Full Body Session is 62:23 minutes (this time does not include the optional 3:55 minute warm up or the 2:20 minute intro, also optional) with a 1:45 minute stretch. Equipment: weighted vest, dip bars, chair or bench, heel wedges, yoga block, glute/booty band and a fitness mat. Optional is pus up bars. Caroline’s weighted vest is 10kg/22 pounds. I used a 25 pound weighted vest.
- Paused Bulgarian Lunge (stationary lunges, back leg is elevated on chair or bench, pause at bottom of lunge)
- Repeat #1 on other leg
- Repeat #1 & 2 to a regular tempo (no pause)
- Paused dips (using dip bars, lower to bottom of dip and hold briefly before pushing back up)
- Paused static lunge (stationary lunge, lower to bottom of lunge and pause briefly, front foot is elevated on on yoga block)
- Repeat #5 on other leg
- Rear step curtsy lunge (cross back lunges, front foot is elevated on yoga block)
- Repeat #7 on other leg
- Slow eccentric inverted row (sit under/between dip bars holding a bar in each hand, legs are extended out straight, pull chest up between bars then lower slowly back to start keeping body straight throughout)
- Rear step lunge for 90 seconds (step back reverse lunge, front foot is elevated on yoga block)
- 15 second rest
- Static lunge (stationary lunges w/ front foot elevated on yoga block)
- Repeat #10-12 on other leg
- Push ups (Caroline is using push up bars to go deeper, I used DBs)
- Paused heel elevated squats (heels are on heel wedges, lower to bottom of squat and hold briefly before rising)
- 1/2 reps (same as #15, lowering to bottom of squat but only raise halfway)
- Inverted row (same as #9 but done at a normal tempo)
- Paused x1 leg hip thrust for 85 seconds (lean back against chair/bench, one knee is bent at 90 degrees w/ foot on floor and heel in line with knee, other leg is raised, lift hips/glutes and hold briefly before lowering)
- 10 second rest
- Repeat #18 on other leg
- 15 second rest
- Regular tempo hip thrusts for 90 seconds (same as #18 but done at a normal tempo–no pausing)
- Repeat #21 & 22 on other leg
- Dips (repeat #4 to a regular pace/tempo–no pauses)
- Time in hole elevated squats (heels are elevated on wedges, same as paused squats (#15) except when you rise out of squat you quickly lower back into squat, keeping tension in the legs)
- Heel elevated squats to a regular tempo (heels still elevated on heel wedges)
- Tricep push ups
- Paused banded hip thrust for 90 seconds (band is around thighs above knees, lean back against chair/bench, knees are bent at 90 degrees and feet are on floor, slowly raise and lower hips/glutes while also opening legs so there is constant tension on the band, pause briefly at top of thrust)
- Repeat #28 to a regular tempo for 60 seconds (no pauses)
- Repeat #27
- Banded squats (band is around thighs above knees, stand with legs wide so there is constant tension on band)
- Squat jumps or 3/4 rep squats (either squat jump or regular but squats only raising 3/4 of the way so there is constant tension in legs)
- Squats
- Incline push ups (hands are elevated on bench or step)
Finishers: sprawls for 75 seconds (full burpee, lowering body to floor at bottom–but no jumping at top)
