Linda Wooldridge has a collection of workouts she calls her “Strength Series.” They are all available for free on YouTube but she also has all 5 of her Strength Series workouts on a single DVD. In addition, you can purchase the individual workouts from Linda through her website via download or DVD. I have already done her Back Strength workout on YouTube and loved it. So I decided to give Lower Strength a try next and I loved it, too! Since I have now done two of Linda’s Strength Series workouts and loved them both, I will eventually try them all.
Lower Strength is exactly what the title says–a strength workout for your lower body. And Linda hits everything but she hits your glutes the hardest. This was a very intense workout. Though Linda’s form always remains perfect she was struggling during parts of this workout–especially #16/17 below. In fact, you might recognize that exercise from Cathe‘s Butts & Guts –Low Pulse Lunges. A great exercise that does the job of polishing off your glutes. Another excellent and intense workout from Linda/Barlates. Since I wanted a total body strength workout today, I followed this up with Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s Body Design Upper Body Strength, which is 16:30 minutes long. So my total body workout, between the two workouts, was 60:30 minutes. And I got an excellent workout!
Lower Strength is 44 minutes long; no warm up and 4:30 minute stretch. Equipment needed: dumbbells and a chair or barre. Linda uses 5kg (10 pound) and 7kg (15 pound) dumbbells. I used a 12, 15, 20 and 30 pound dumbbells.
- Plie squat + wide squat (toes forward) + narrow squat + curtsy lunge (alternate sides for curtsy lunge) (no DBs)
- Holding one DB in both hands do one wide plié squat then turn toes forward and do one wide regular squat, keep alternating between the two squats; changes to doing 4 reps of each before changing (Linda used one 15# DB, I used one 30# DB)
- Three alternating curtsy lunges then pulse 3x in stationary curtsy lunge (Linda used 10# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
- Curtsy lunge w/ knee raise (stay on one leg); add a single leg deadlift and alternate between the two; repeat on other leg (Linda used 10# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
- 3 pulsing plié squats + 2 full plié squats (Linda used one 15# DB, I used one 30# DB)
- Walking sumos + plié pulses (walk forward one step, walk backward one step + 4 plié pulses) (Linda used one 15# DB, I used one 20# DB)
- In plié squat, pulse 4x w/ one heel raised then lower heel and push both hands between legs while pulsing 4x; alternate heel raises (no DBs)
- 3 pulsing lunges + one single leg deadlift; changes to singles (one lunge + one single leg deadlift) (Linda used 10# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
- Do #8 (same leg) pyramid style–1 rear lunge + 1 single leg deadlift, rear lunge pulsing 2x + 2 single leg deadlifts–continue all the way up to 5 reps of each then pyramid back down (Linda used one 10# DB, I used one 20# DB)
- Repeat 8 & 9 on other leg
- Stand beside barre/chair (hand on barre/chair back) and do barre squats, up on toes/heels raised; keeping knees bent, tilt hips in and out
- Raise and lower straight leg in front of you; hold leg up and do small bend/straightens of the knee, keeping toe pointed
- Plie squats–up on toes w/ heels together; keeping knees bent, tilt hips in and out (still on toes w/ heels together)
- Raise and lower one straight leg w/ toe turn out to side; hold leg up and do small bend/straightens of the knee, keeping toe turned out to side
- Hold one DB in both hands and come into a deep lunge, keeping DB close to shin, lunge up and down–DB will lower from ankle to knee, so you never raise up high while in lunge (Linda used one 15# DB, I used one 12# DB)
- Linda changes to a lighter DB (one 10# DB) and does #15 on same leg, except this time you are just pulsing down near your ankle (pulse 7x twice, pulse 15x once, pulse 7x two more times) (I stuck w/ one 12# DB)
- Repeat #15 & 16 on other leg
For more info on Barlates and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
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