Fit Body by Julia: Heavy Volume Glute Lift w/ Squat Jumps

Wow! Heavy Volume Glute Lift w/ Squat Jumps might be the best glute workout I have ever done. It is definitely one of the most focused. My glutes were burning by the middle of the first set! Even more impressive–Julia shares at the beginning of the workout that she is almost 11 weeks pregnant and I know (since I subscribe to her YouTube channel) that she is continuing to create these workout videos and she is a lot further along then 11 weeks now! You can see her baby bump in her recent videos. But you can’t see anything in this workout. This workout isn’t attributed to anyone else either, so this must be a Julia creation and I found it impressive. It has actually made me rethink next week’s rotation. I want to swap this out for the Fit Body by Julia workout I had planned for next week but I can’t decide. Her Deadweight Legs looks pretty awesome, too, and is calling to me.

This workout is set up in 5 circuits and each circuit is separated by a set of 20 banded squat jumps. Banded just means you have a resistance loop (firewalker band) around your thighs, above your knees. The first circuit is a giant set of hip thrusts that you repeat 5x and it majorly burns your glutes out. The next 3 circuits are supersets; the first two are repeated 4x and the 4th circuit is repeated 3x. The final superset is repeated 5x. This was very intense. I was drenched in sweat and got an awesome cardio workout with my very intense and focused glute workout–and according to my Fitbit, I was even in my peak heart rate zone several times!

A lot of equipment is used in the workout and by the time I was finished, my workout room was a mess! Here is the equipment Julia used: dumbbells, a resistance loop (firewalker), 16 inch plyo box, stability ball, sandbag and ankle weights. Julia’s sand bag was filled to 52.5 pounds. I used my weight bench for circuits 1 and 5. I used my step @ 14 inches for the other circuits. I used a resistance loop, 2.5 pound ankle weights, dumbbells, a mat and a stability ball.

Heavy Volume Glute Lift w/ Squat Jumps is 55 minutes long, no warm up or stretch, and no music. The breakdown below was copied from Julia’s YouTube page. I only made some formatting adjustments and explained any exercise that isn’t obvious from the name. The weights listed below are what I used. Julia didn’t tell us the weight she used when using dumbbells but she has mentioned before that the heaviest her adjustable dumbbells go is 24 pounds, so unless she has a new dumbbell set that goes higher, I am assuming that any time she used dumbbells they were 24 pounds. And as mentioned above, her sand bag is 52.5 pounds. I don’t remember if she said how heavy her ankle weights were–but if she did, I don’t remember.

Circuit 1: Hip thrusts, repeat 5x: (I did this w/ my back on my weight bench; you also have your resistance loop around your thighs, just above your knees; for the weighted hip thrusts I placed one DB on my hips w/ my folded mat under it to protect my hip bones and Julia used her sand bag)

1. Banded Body weight, 15 reps
2. Weighted, 10 reps (one 35# DB)
3. Still weighted, 8 reps with pulses (one 35# DB)
4. Body weight hip Thrust hold Adductors (holding hips high, open and close thighs), 15 reps

**20 banded squat jumps**

Circuit 2: repeat 4x

1. 16 Squats +  step ups (step @ 14 inches + 15# DBs; Julia’s box was at 16 inches and she used her sandbag)
2. 15 Sumo deadlifts (I used 25# DBs & Julia used her DBs)

**20 banded squat jumps**

Circuit 3: repeat 4x

1. 15 Hamstring curls w/ feet on stability ball
2. Reverse lunge weight touchdowns, 10 reps each leg (touch DB to ground at bottom of lunge) (one 20# DB & Julia used her DB)

**20 banded squat jumps**

Circuit 4: repeat 3x

1. Deficit curtsy lunges, 15 reps per leg (step @ 14 inches + 15# DBs; Julia’s box was at 16 inches and she used her sandbag)
2. 1 & 1/2 RDL (straight leg deadlifts, 1 full + 1 half equals one rep), 10 reps (I used 30# DBs, Julia used her sandbag for the first circuit then changed to her DBs for the last 2 circuits)

**20 banded squat jumps**

Circuit 5: repeat 5x

1. 50 frog pumps (lay on back, knees bent and open, feet together, lift and lower hips fast)
2. Donkey kickbacks, 15 reps per leg (kneeling on bench, kick one leg out straight behind you then bring back in under body (bench & ankle weights)

**20 banded squat jumps**

For more info on Fit Body by Julia and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.