CGX: Max Program Day 17: Plenty of flexion at the knee joint for the hammies!

This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page.

This workout is done mostly PHA style. For more information on PHA, see Day 1’s post.

This is a higher rep workout so I used lighter than usual weights for the squats. Caroline does, too, and does the squats at a brisker than normal pace. This does fatigue the quads pretty quickly. And as mentioned above, this is done PHA style but one of the upper body exercises is a triset–3 minutes of shoulder work. That doesn’t feel very PHA-like but then you get 1:45 minutes of rest (lower body is squatting) before you return to the shoulder triset. Like many of the Max workouts, this is a full body workout only in the sense you are working both the upper and the lower body. Lots of muscle groups are not worked but that’s fine because most were hit hard yesterday and others will be hit later in the week. By the end of the week everything is worked.

This workout is done interval style. The exercise interval times vary and are noted below in the breakdown. Each interval is followed by 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 along the bottom of the screen, counting down the workout time as a percentage. For the stability ball roll outs Caroline shows several alternate exercises you can do using sliding disks or no additional equipment.

Day 17 is 37:34 minutes (this time does not include the optional 9:18 minute warm up or 2:56 minute intro, also optional) with a 1:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, chair/bench, heel wedges, stability ball and fitness mat. You are also using a glute band and light dumbbells for the warm up. Caroline is using 4kg/8.8 pound dumbbells. For the actual workout Caroline is using 10kg/22 pound, 5kg/11 pound and 4kg/8.8 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Stability ball roll outs for 75 seconds (lay on back on mat, heels on stability ball, raise hips and keep them elevated, roll ball toward glutes then back out)
2. 30 second rest
3. Single arm diagonal sweep for 75 seconds (one knee and same side hand rest on bench, hold one DB in other hand, keeping elbow slightly bent, sweep DB up behind you and away from body on a diagonal) (one 10# DB)
4. 30 second rest
5. Repeat #3 & 4 on other arm
6. Repeat #1-5 two more times
7. Heel elevated squats for 75 seconds (heels are elevated on heel wedges, DBs at shoulders) (25# DBs)
8. 30 second rest
9. Lateral raise for 60 seconds (8# DBs)
10. (no rest) Frontal raise for 60 seconds (actually an arc raise: double arm front raise, palms face each other, arc DBs at top of raise so ends come together) (8# DBs)
11. (no rest) Rear delt row for 60 seconds (sit on bench, torso is hinged forward over thighs, row arms/DBs leading with bent elbows, palms face behind you, arms out to sides) (12# DBs)
12. Repeat #7-11 two more times

Finisher:

1. Stability ball roll out for 30 seconds (lay on back on mat, heels on stability ball, raise hips and keep them elevated, roll ball toward glutes then back out)
2. (no rest) Hold for 15 seconds (same position as #1, ball is rolled in close to glutes, keep hips raised isometrically)
3. (no rest) Repeat #1 & 2 two more times
4. Repeat #1