***Just like w/ 5 Best Butt Blasting Exercises, this review will eventually be double posted. It is available for free on YouTube (this review) but it is also part of Linda Wooldrigde‘s 5 Best Exercise Series DVD which contains 11 mini workouts. I am using the DVD version but I am posting individual reviews of the workouts so others can also enjoy them on YouTube. the DVD review will post eventually, tho. ***
5 Best Hips Exercises is 13 minutes long. Just like Butt Blasters, this mini workout fried my legs. It is lower body barre and mat work that focuses on the hips, but works your glutes and outer thighs, too. There is no warm up or stretch, which I really like because I am using these 5 Best Workouts as add ons. This morning I did Cathe Live: Hard Strikes Low Impact Boxing, so my legs hadn’t just been worked hard though I was definitely warmed up. This still burned my hips out. Every time I do one of Linda’s strength or barre or mat workouts she fries whatever muscle she is working so thoroughly they do not function properly immediately after the completion of the workout. This one was no different. But to counter that, I finished this workout off with a 10 minute hip opening flow from The Yoga Collective which was actually the perfect way to finish this off. It was gentle but deep yoga that gave my hips, outer thighs and glutes some nice relief after this painful little workout. You can use this and all of her other 5 Best Exercises workouts the same way–either as add ons like I do, or repeat the circuit for double the torture, or stack several of them together. She works everything in the 5 Best Exercises series–upper body, lower body and core. So put several together and create your own workout of various lengths. Btw–Linda has a playlist on YouTube that has all 11 of the 5 Best Exercises workouts, just like owning the DVD.
Equipment needed: exercise mat and chair. As the title states, there are 5 exercises; each exercise is done for one minute. You do all of the exercises on one leg, then repeat them all on the other leg.
- Curtsy lunge to side leg raise
- Lower into plié squat then raise up onto toes; in this position, tuck hip up to side, never raising out of raised heel plié squat
- Get onto all 4s and raise one leg out straight to side, toe on floor; from this position, raise leg then bend knee, tapping heel to bottom, straighten leg again and lower
- Attitude pulses: still one all 4s, lift leg behind you and bend knee in attitude–pulse
- Back to side leg sweeps: in plank or on knees, sweep one straight leg to the side then behind you (Linda does it on her knees–and so did I)
For more info on Barlates and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
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