This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page.
This workout fried my lower body. Caroline does all of the exercises at a very slow and controlled pace and if you follow her pace like I did, it burns! The first half of the workout got pretty metabolic, too–for me at least.
The exercises in this workout are done interval style: 60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. If the interval/recovery time is different it is noted in the breakdown below. 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 bar along the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage.
For the stability ball roll outs Caroline gives the option of doing hamstring bridges with a barbell/dumbbell.
Zero Stretch Reflex Lower Body is 48:10 minutes; (this time does not include the optional 5:55 minute warm up or the 2:36 minute intro, also optional) with a 2:40 minute stretch. Equipment: barbell and/or dumbbells, bench or step, glute/booty band, a yoga block, heel wedges, a stability ball and a fitness mat. Caroline’s barbell is at 58kg/128 pounds and and she also uses 20kg/44 pound and 15kg/33 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.
- Static lunge (stationary lunge) (30# DBs)
- Repeat #1 on other side of body
- Repeat #1 & 2 two more times
- Banded hip thrust (lean back against your bench or step with barbell on hips, knees are bent and heels are in line with knees, glute band is around thighs just above knees, legs are open wide enough so there is constant tension on band, raise and lower hips slowly) (barbell @ 105#)
- Repeat #4 two more times
- High squat (DBs are held at shoulders) (30# DBs)
- Hip thrust (repeat #4 but without glute band) (barbell @ 105#)
- Repeat #6 & 7 two more times
- Heel elevated squat (narrow squats, heels are elevated on wedges, hold one DB in both hands in front of chest/under chin) (one 35# DB)
- Stability ball roll out (lay on back on mat with both heels on ball, raise hips/glutes, roll ball out then back in)
- Repeat #9 & 10 three more times
- 3/4 static lunge for 75 seconds (no DBs, stationary lunges with front foot elevated on yoga block, lower to bottom of lunge but only raise 3/4 of the way)
- 15 second rest
- Repeat #12 & 13 on other side of body
- 15 second rest
- Forward tilt lunge for 75 seconds (no DBs, stationary lunges with front foot elevated on yoga block, torso is hinged forward over front leg)
- Repeat #15 & 16 on other side of body
15 second rest
Finisher: (4 minutes)
- Crunch, 20 reps (basic crunch, lay on back with knees bent and feet on mat, crunch upper body)
- Heel reaches, 20 reps (lay on back, knees bent and feet on mat, raise head/shoulders off mat, alternate tapping fingers to heels)
- Repeat #1 & 2 as many times as possible in 4 minutes
