When lockdown started I bought myself a pair of 5 pound and a pair of 10 pound dumbells and figured I would use them occasionally to work out maybe once or twice a week between my runs. Sure, I knew that resistance training was important for bone health, fat loss, muscle strength, and even improvements in other activities, but I was a cardio junky and I didn’t know how to stray from what I did. Even when I did resistance training, it was usually squats and shoulder presses between sprints.
But you guys, resistance training and weight lifting are super important and when they say you should do it at least three times a week, they aren’t joking, you really should to maximize your benefits. Knowing this, come 2021, I finally pulled off the bandage and tore myself away from the workout plan I had come accustomed to (and honestly it was half just me trying some youtube workouts every day and I wasn’t really getting anywhere with it) and decided to follow a structured resistance training program.
Enter Caroline Girvan.
If you noticed towards the end of 2020 I had started to incorporate more of Caroline Girvan’s workouts into my routine and I was really into it. So when 2021 came and she launched a new program (Epic II, the second in her EPIC series—yes I skipped part 1), I was ready to give the full thing a try.
So today, I want to tell you about my journey through the Epic II program and all my thoughts on it.
What is Epic?
Epic I and Epic II are resistance-based training programs by fitness trainer Caroline Girvan. Both programs are 10 weeks long with 5 workouts each week. Sundays are usually half hour high intensity interval training (sometimes up to 45 minutes), Fridays are one-hour full body days, and the rest of the week usually consists of 2 arm workouts and 1 leg workout, or 2 leg workouts and 1 arm (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) all 45 minutes long. On Thursdays, Caroline encourages you to take your own active day- go for a bike ride, a run, or sometimes she even uploads a cardio video for you to do. Saturdays are rest days.
The only equipment you really need is whatever weights you have or want to use, a resistance booty-band, and a yoga block or book you can use instead.
Both programs are available in their entirety online now, free through youtube in an easy to organize way, making following along every day super easy.
Caroline’s workouts are great, as I’ve mentioned before. Even though she doesn’t explain with words how each exercise is done she always demonstrates each move, gives tips when needed, and encourages you to go your own pace and make your workout your own. She always shows what is coming up next and is so encouraging.
Her workouts are so well planned and you can really tell she knows exactly what she is doing! And her HIIT workouts, are one of the few HIIT workouts I would actually consider high intensity! (Except Les Mills of course). There’s a reason she’s becoming one of the most popular fitness youtubers. Her workouts can be modified to any level, so there really is no reason not to check it out!
My Journey Over the 10 weeks
When I started Epic II, I was using 10 pound dumbells, but two weeks in, I moved up to 12 pound dumbells for almost all of the exercises, sometimes I had to drop down to 10 pounds but overall, I was able to manage through the remaining 8 weeks only using 12 pounds. I’m proud to say that today, I went out and finally bought 15 pound dumbells to try to use moving forward. I really did find a lot of changes in my strength throughout this entire process! While I didn’t lose or gain any weight, and according to my scale my body fat and muscle mass are the same, I do feel like I have more definition in my arms and legs so that’s a bonus for me. The most important thing though is that I feel so much stronger than I was when I started! I’ve loved watching my weight collection grow! (I have 5, 8, 10, 12, and 15 pound weights now!).
One of my favorite things about following this program was that it was 10 weeks of different workouts every time! Each day I woke up I knew there would be a new workout for me to follow that was unlike the one I had done previously. I was never bored and I never felt stuck doing the same thing over and over. Sure, there were a lot of similar moves, but it was never the same workout. I really learned to love resistance training and now I couldn’t imagine going back to my old routine! The resistance training I was so afraid of is here to stay and I couldn’t be happier about it!
How I modified the program to work for my cardio junky stuff
You can add the resistance training, but you can’t take the cardio out of the junky. There are certain things that I did to modify the program to add in more cardio and HIIT workouts and let me keep doing some of the things that I loved while training.
For starters, I pretty much continued my 6 a.m. wake up call so I would be done with my workouts by 7:30 a.m. (after procrastinating in bed and then starting by 6:30 in all reality) and could get ready for work if I had to be there for 9 a.m. If I had a later start for my work time during one of the Monday-Wednesday or Friday workouts, I would usually add in a quick HIIT, cardio, or kick boxing cardio workout just to keep up some extra cardio since I was so used to that. That usually only added about 1 to 2 workouts per week to my schedule.
On Thursdays, I chose dance cardio (from The Studio, of course) as my cardio option so that way I could keep doing the dance workouts I really loved. I am a bit sad because The Studio hasn’t been posting as much lately, so if you know any other great FULL LENGTH dance type workouts I should try, let me know.
Saturdays were Les Mills Grit Cardio days (unless I had to be at work and didn’t have time to recover from being THAT sweaty) and usually either an ab workout or a little less intense second cardio workout. Sometimes you just don’t have it in you to push that extra half hour after a Grit cardio workout.
Sundays, again were HIIT with Caroline, but I would also add one other HIIT workout, either from Caroline or maybe another youtubter I wanted to try out.
So, if you noticed, I didn’t take the recovery days, and I definitely think that you SHOULD take the recovery days because it is really important. I usually took it really easy on dance cardio days as an active recovery day, but this is one of the cases where I encourage you to do as I say not as my recovering addicted to cardio body does.
Do I recommend this Program?
Yes. 100%. Even if you are new to resistance training, this is a great place to go. There’s no bullshit with Caroline’s workouts. She knows what she is doing and it shows. Plus there aren’t terrible clickbait titles telling you will burn 700 calories in an hour or torch fat away! It’s just real and these days, that’s so refreshing! You know you are going to get a great workout every time and walk away better every single day. Plus the community is amazing and so supportive and that’s also very refreshing! So whether you have been resistance training for years or for days, I would definitely recommend Caroline Girvan for helping navigate the wonders of home workouts.
What comes next?
For the time being, Caroline is still posting a weekly schedule of what workouts (composed of past videos) to do each day and that’s been really great at continuing training. However, on April 4th, her new program Epic Heat, which is another 10 week Epic program, but this time with 30 minute, more intense workouts, is launching. I am super excited to see what the shorter duration but bigger intensity workouts are like and I can’t wait to put my strength to the test again!
Have you tried Caroline Girvan’s workouts before? Let me know in the comments below!
Until next time,
Kat
As you guys probably are aware, I have been trying a lot of different workouts throughout this entire COVID thing in an attempt to keep my workouts entertaining and find new ways to workout. I’ve gotten into biking, dance cardio, and sprinting at this time, but I’ve also tried a few resistance training programs as well.
The program does this by 4 cycles with weeks getting progressively more intense as time goes along. Mondays are leg and booty day, Tuesdays are a recovery day, Wednesdays are arms and core day, Thursdays are a “do your own cardio” day, and Fridays are a quick full-body “power-up”. This program lasts 12 weeks with a promise that you will see results in two weeks.
I will be straight up honest about this. This book contains a lot of pictures of skinny, white workout models who I can almost promise you did not do this program at all. They are all super skinny already and all have six-packs and it makes you think that this program is going to make you look just like that, but I can’t guarantee you that a program like this will give results like that because these girls are paid models who make money off of looking this way.
Strength, or resistance training, is a type of exercise that causes the muscles to contract against a resistant force exerted on them. Muscles are caused to slightly tear, and as they regenerate and repair they grow stronger. This muscle breakdown is called catabolism with the regrowth called anabolism. This exercising causes an increase in strength, tone, and mass within these muscles. Resistance training can vary between self-body weight, rubber exercise bands, or actual weights. Resistance training can vary from weight lifting to Pilates depending on what your preferences are.
Getting started can be super intimidating, especially if you go to a gym with a lot of bulky guys who are always using the free weights. There are a lot of ways that you can start getting involved in more strength training.
It can be easy to get stuck in a running rut. Maybe you’re a little burnt out from running races almost every weekend. Or maybe you finally hit that big goal and now you’re having a hard time motivating yourself to move forward. Or maybe you aren’t even sure what’s going on, you just know that it’s been a struggle. It happens.
Maybe while you’re resting your body, you can’t just sit still and not go to the gym. No big deal. Why not try some resistance and weight training instead? Working on your muscle and your body can actually help your running a lot. In fact, it’s actually recommended to work your full body and cardio as an ideal way to burn fat (maybe a blog post on that soon?). So why not change it up?
Ready to get back into running? Try a different type of run. There are so many different types of High-Intensity Interval Training runs available. In fact, I’ve found it to be a great way to work on my running, especially while on the treadmill. It shakes things up opposed to just running for miles at a time, and it helps to train speed and incline! I really enjoy these types of workouts and I think it’s a great way to find a new love for running.
Kat Classics 