Brutal HIIT Workout! // Legs, Glutes + Thighs

What an awesome workout! By the end of this workout my legs felt weak and I was really pushing through. Heather also seemed to be gassing out by the very end. Brutal HIIT Workout! // Legs, Glutes + Thighs is a cardio + strength workout from Heather Robertson. This workout uses a technique called contrast training. If you love Cathe‘s Ripped with HIIT: Lift It Hit It Legs, then you will love this workout. Cathe’s workout also uses contrast training and is what introduced me to the training modality. Contrast training is when you super set a strength exercise that uses heavy resistance with an unweighted explosive plyometric move that mimics and uses the same muscle groups as the strength exercise you just finished. Why perform contrast training? Contrast training causes something called post-activation potentiation (PAP). PAP enhances neuromuscular efficiency. Neuromuscular efficiency refers to the ability of your nervous system to communicate with your muscles. Contrast training can help you to create greater force/power, engage the force/power faster while also expending less energy doing it. That’s why athletes perform contrast training: to improve athletic performance. But it is of great benefit to the home exerciser, too. It enhances muscle building and gives the metabolism a boost. This translates to building muscle while burning fat. Something we all want, right?

Though this workout uses the same training modality, it is very different (and shorter) than Cathe’s. It’s been a while since I’ve done Cathe’s workout but I actually think I like this one better–and I love Cathe’s workout! So that’s saying a lot. The reason for that is because it is so much shorter than Cathe’s workout and I love stacking these short but intense workouts. That is my new thing–stacking YouTube workouts and getting so much variety in a single workout session. Due to the length of this workout (21 minutes), I stacked it with other workouts this morning, though in the future it is the perfect length for a doubles workout. It has a thorough stretch at the end of the workout (which is very much needed!) but no warm up. However Heather has an excellent Leg Day Warm Up that I will start with when I use this as a doubles workout. This morning, I started with her Leg Day Warm Up then I did her HIIT Booty Bootcamp (another awesome 30 minute lower body workout) and ended my workout session with this workout. My legs are seriously fried and still humming.

This workout is made up of 4 supersets. Each exercise is done for 30 seconds followed by 10 seconds of recovery. Heather really fries your lower body by repeating each superset 3 times. There is a counter in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, counting down your intervals. During the 10 second recovery, a rectangle appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen, previewing the next exercise.

Brutal HIIT Workout! // Legs, Glutes + Thighs is 21 minutes; 45 second intro, no warm up (she recommends her Leg Day Warm Up which is 7 minutes) and a 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells. I used one 30 and one 25 pound dumbbell. The weights listed below are what I used. Heather used one heavy dumbbell for everything. I have now done a lot of her workouts and it is probably a 25 pound dumbbell since that is what she uses for most of her heavy resistance work. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Goblet Squat (one 50# DB)
2. Jump Squat
3. Repeat #1 & 2 two more times
4. Alternating Curtsy Lunges (one 30# DB)
5. Speed Skater (tapping one hand to floor)
6. Repeat #4 & 5 two more times
7. Alternating Reverse Lunges (one 30# DB)
8. Lunge Hops (alternating plyo jump lunges)
9. Repeat #7 & 8 two more times
10. Sumo Squat (one 60# DB)
11. In + Out Squats (squat jacks–jacking from narrow squat to wide squat)
12. Repeat #10 & 11 two more times

For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.