We are entering my third week on the IRON Series! Except I’m not going to be following Caroline’s schedule for this week either… I had a look at the videos and, though I don’t love the look of any of them, there are only two videos that I absolutely want to replace.
While I was debating on the videos that I wanted to do instead, and I was originally thinking of pulling a couple of videos from days 15-19, but ultimately decided I would like to stick with next week’s schedule as is. Sooo… for the two videos I don’t want to do, I’ll be going back to basics. With Caroline’s Beginner EPIC :D
I still love the Beginner EPIC from what I remember of the two rounds I did of it before. I feel like it really helped push my strength to the next level so I’d like to see if I’ve made any improvement since then. And if not, then I’ll know I need to keep pushing myself even harder.
So this week, my schedule will look like this:
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
| BE 1 | BE 2 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Rest | Day 14 | Rest |
I’m excited to see how this week goes!
Week Three
5/2 – BE Day 1: Completed 11:12.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, Beginner EPIC Day 1.
Wooo! I thoroughly enjoyed the workout today. It was amazing to actually feel a difference this week verses when I last did this video. It was still crazy difficult, but this time I could feel muscles working where I previously didn’t. I was also able to go longer before falling down in pain.
The biggest change for me was probably the hamstring walk and the glute exercises at the end. I was able to do 4 hamstring walks (total, not on each side!) before collapsing for a quick rest, after which I continued a hamstring dead stop. Last time, I was barely able to do one on each side before collapsing to simply rest for the rest of the timer.
I was also able to do more of the leg raises and donkey kicks on my left side, and this time I was able to feel my left glute muscles working! I was also significantly more stable while doing the exercises on my left side. I felt my hamstrings working for the single leg chair bridges as well, which was very exciting for me. Last time I did it, I couldn’t feel any hamstring muscles and — well, I could barely even lift myself up at all haha.
Overall, I enjoyed this video a lot more than when I did it the first two times, probably because I was actually able to do all the exercises this time.
5/3 – BE Day 2: Completed 13:25.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, Beginner EPIC Day 2.
Whoooo my arms are in pain! I can feel improvement in my workout today though – I was able to feel my left tricep working during the cobra pushups and keep all my weight on my arms. My form looked better (not perfect, but certainly better) and it feels like I was able to keep going with the cobra pushups for the full duration of the timer.
That said, I still feel there’s a lot of room for improvement and I wasn’t able to complete all exercises for the full timer. I am impressed that I was able to concentrate on working my arms as I simultaneously watched coverage on the Depp v Heard trial, and Amber’s disaster of a first witness was testifying at the time. It was a whole ordeal.
Ultimately I enjoyed this workout and wouldn’t mind trying it again. However, I recently checked out Caroline’s Epic Heat program and it looks fantastic – also only 30min per day and looks next level challenging. It’s definitely something I’d like to try once I get stronger (I looked at the day 9 calisthenics video… and um, pushups with your feet elevated on a chair is a big phat nope from me).
I am looking forward to the next IRON Series video tomorrow… as well as an absolutely fiery cross examination from the Depp team!
5/4 – Day 13: Completed 12:50.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, IRON Series Day 13.
Alrighty – slight change to the schedule. I stupidly put two arm days back to back, and yes I am feeling sore in the arms today, so nope I was not about to do another arm day immediately after. I decided to do day 13 today instead, and I’ll do day 12 tomorrow instead.
I really enjoyed today’s workout that focused on my back, glutes and hamstrings, and I felt much stronger today. That does align with my monthly cycle, to be fair – usually I’m weaker shortly before my period starts, and after it starts I tend to feel stronger. In case it’s not already obvious, I started my period in the night lol.
I started off with a 5lb dumbbell today for the back workout and could really feel muscles in my back working. For the pullovers, I actually felt my triceps working as well, which is just so exciting for me because usually I can’t feel anything.
After the pullovers, I felt like I could go heavier so picked up my 8lb dumbbells for the first set of RDLs – and yes I actually felt my hamstrings and glutes working! For my left leg too! I decided to drop back to 5lb dumbbells for the held RDLs / single leg RDLs.
I picked up the 8lb dumbbell again for the first set of sumo squats… and then increased to 10lbs for the rest of the workout – including the hip thrusts! I still felt all the energy in my glutes and hamstrings despite the weight increase and used a light resistance band today. My form also improved as I was able to thrust up fully today.
My left leg was quaking and is already starting to feel sore. My whole body is probably going to ache tomorrow, but I just need to push through one more arm workout before I can rest. It’s so exciting for me to feel both stronger, and the right muscles working when doing the same movements week after week. I loved the workout today.
5/6 – Day 12: Completed 12:58.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, IRON Series Day 12.
This entry was written on 5/7. I was supposed to do this arm workout on Thursday, but I woke up with a headache that left me feeling nauseous and wouldn’t subside all day. I was still sore from the previous workouts anyway, so ended up taking an extra rest day.
That worked out really well as it enabled me to go harder for the workout when it finally came time to exercise. I started off with 8lb dumbbells for both sets of chest presses before dropping down to 5lb dumbbells. However, by the time we got to the skullcrushers, I realised that the 5lb dumbbells weren’t really challenging enough, so did the final set with an 8lb dumbbell.
Tricep dips I did one set on a table with my legs in a seated position before doing cobra pushups because my triceps are ridiculously weak. I did one set of pushups on an incline against my coffee table before I had to switch to a higher incline against the back of my dining chairs instead because my triceps were exhausted.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad workout, but I’m not sure if I did as well as I could have – there were some exercises I feel like I could have used heavier weights, but the final burnout absolutely destroyed my arms. I’m still pretty sore today.
I was planning to do day 14 today, but we were out almost all day, both for errands and for pleasure (watched the new Dr. Strange movie! It was great), so I’m taking another much needed rest day today. Hopefully Jacky and I will be able to get the workout done tomorrow though. If not, I’ll do it next week. I’m not in a rush anyway.
5/8 – Day 14: Completed 21:23.
Videos completed: 5min Warm Up, IRON Series Day 14.
I am officially on 8lb dumbbells for the arm movements (aside from renegade rows – those I still use 5lb dumbbells because I still lack core strength) and I am very excited about it. I didn’t really love today’s workout though. You can see from the completed time that it was a late workout for me, which is rare.
Half way through the workout, I started developing a mild headache that affected my performance. I also realised fairly belatedly that I wasn’t using core properly, so I wonder if the majority of the workout was partially wasted or compensated.
I know I felt more of my calves and thighs this time instead of my glutes and hamstrings for the lower body movements, and I felt more of my right side muscles working even when I was lifting with my left. That disappeared after I started using my core properly.
I must admit I’m starting to get a little bored/tired of this series because of the repetition. I know that hypertrophy is necessary for muscle growth, but I’m just not digging it. I would like a bit more variety, but I have clearly seen myself get stronger lately. My proudest moment was when I did 9 incline pushups on my coffee table during the finisher.
While I’m not as excited about this series anymore, Chloe is releasing her next challenge in a week so I may as well just finish up next week with this series, and pick and choose the videos I want to do. Most of the week 4 videos look good and are targeting the muscles I want to work on, so let’s see how it goes!
Muchos love,