This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page.
In the intro Caroline does not talk about why she gave this workout the title of “Concentric Slowing”. The concentric portion of an exercise is the lifting (eccentric is the lowering). I did not notice Caroline lifting slower than normal. Now, every rep is done at a controlled pace but both the lifting and the lowering. This workout was another endurance workout, similar to Day 9 lower body workout. Long intervals and high reps. I had a wide variety of dumbbells available with the initial intent to go heavy and use the back ups if necessary. However, I went straight to the back ups for everything in this workout. And I am glad I did because even with lighter weights than I’d planned (but not light for me) this workout fried my shoulders. In fact, that is the main focus of this workout. Your chest and triceps get worked nicely and even your back gets a bit of work, but it is your shoulders that bear the brunt of this workout.
This workout is done interval style: 75 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of 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.
Concentric Slowing Upper Body is 45:21 minutes (this time does not include the optional 3:55 minute warm up or the 2:35 minute intro, also optional) with a 1:40 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, chair or bench and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pound, 10kg/22 pound and 4kg/8.8 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Pullover (one 40# DB)
- Repeat #1 two more times
- Rear delt flys (palms behind) (sitting in chair, hinge forward over thighs) (8# DBs)
- Shoulder press (seated in a high back chair, arms in goal post at bottom of press) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #3 & 4 two more times
- Chest flys (20# DBs)
- Diamond press (similar to a chest press except DBs are pressed together over chest and arms are kept close to sides) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #6 & 7 two more times
- Lateral raise (8# DBs)
- Tricep dips (using chair)
- Repeat #9 & 10 two more times
- Alternating lateral raise (8# DBs)
Finisher: (4 minutes)
- Partial rear delt flys, 25 reps (sitting in chair, hinged forward over thighs, palms face behind you, only lift DBs/arms halfway) (8# DBs)
- Push ups, 10 reps
- Repeat #1 & 2 as many times as possible in 4 minutes
