GALVANISED Glute Workout / Band Optional | EPIC Heat – Day 21

Galvanized Glute Workout is Day 21 of Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC Heat program. Holy crap this was tough! My glutes were burning from the very beginning of this workout. And at the end–I was walking funny! I can walk normal now (about an hour later) but they feel weak. I wonder if I will be sore tomorrow? Anyway, this was an excellent lower body workout with a laser focus on the glutes. But I felt it in other lower body muscle groups, too. This workout kicked Caroline’s butt. She had to take multiple mini breaks to thaw her own legs out. I remember when I watched Caroline’s intro to her EPIC Heat program she said these would be shorter workouts–around 30 minutes. They seem to be pushing (and sometimes exceeding) 40 minutes and this one is the longest yet! 47:26 minutes! What happened to these workouts being shorter workouts? I’m not really complaining about the length. This is a good length for me since I have to add on a warm up. Many of her workouts I also have to add on a stretch because her stretches are so short or inadequate. So with the addition of a warm up and stretch, her EPIC Heat workouts usually equal close to an hour for me anyway. This workout has a thorough 5 minute stretch. That right there is an excellent reason to extend the length of the workout.

The exercises in this workout are done superset fashion. You will do 2 exercises back to back, each for a minute (2 minutes of work total) before you get a 30 second rest. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen, counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Caroline previews the next exercises. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage. This workout is done to music with plenty of visual cues as well as “dings” to keep you on track. During the intro Caroline gives form pointers. At the beginning of all of her workouts that include booty band work for the glutes, Caroline stresses the importance of always keeping tension on the band. This is so important. It makes an enormous difference on how the exercise feels. It is the proper use of this band that engages so many more muscles than just doing the hip thrusts alone. The workout starts with the band around your thighs. About 8 or 10 minutes into the workout, you remove the band but continue the hip thrusts. The difference in the way the same exercise feels with and without the booty band tells the whole story–it gets easier. Even with a 40 pound dumbbell still on my hips. I could feel that less muscles were engaged.

Galvanized Glute Workout is 47:26 minutes; 2:19 minute intro, no warm up and 5 minute stretch. I used Heather Robertson‘s Leg Day Warm Up. Equipment: dumbbell(s), chair or bench, yoga block and a booty band/resistance loop. Optional: a towel to protect your hips. Caroline is using one 25kg/55 pound dumbbell. I used one 40 pound and one 50 pound dumbbell. I used my weight bench for the hip thrusts where my back is elevated and my high step at 12 inches for the hip thrusts where my feet are elevated. I also used the high step topper for the elevated lunges (#32-35 below) rather than a yoga block.

1. Seated abduction (place booty band around thighs above knees, sit on floor with back against chair/bench, knees bent and heels close to glutes, open and close thighs)
2. Continue #1 but 1.5 reps (open legs all the way, close them halfway, open them all the way, close them all the way)
3. 30 second rest
4. Hip thrust (booty band is still around around thighs, lean back against your chair/bench, knees bent and open so there is tension on band, and feet on floor, raise and lower hips)
5. Add abduction at top of hip thrust
6. 30 second rest
7. Repeat #4 but this time with DB on hips (one 40# DB)
8. Hold isometrically at top or thrust for approx 10 seconds (there is a beep alerting you when you can lower your hips) (one 40# DB)
9. 30 second rest
10. Remove booty band and repeat #7 & 8
11. 30 second rest
12. Staggered hip thrust (repeat #7, except only one foot is flat on the ground, the other foot is out further with toe raised and heel on floor so that most of the weight is on the flat foot) (one 40# DB)
13. Hold isometrically at top of thrust for approx 10 seconds (there is a beep alerting you when you can lower your hips) (one 40# DB)
14. 30 second rest
15. Repeat #12 & 13 on other leg
16. 30 second rest
17. Body weight single leg hip thrust (set DB aside and get into same position as #4, one foot is on floor and other leg is elevated for hip thrusts)
18. Repeat #17 on other leg
19. 30 second rest
20. Repeat #17 & 18
21. 30 second rest
22. Sumo squat (one 50# DB)
23. Body weight half reps (lower all the way to bottom of squat but only raise halfway)
24. 30 second rest
25. Repeat #22 & 23
26. 30 second rest
27. Sumo deadlift squat (sumo squat but torso is hinged forward deadlift style) (one 50# DB)
28. Body weight half reps (repeat #27 w/out a DB and only doing bottom half of sumo deadlift)
29. 30 second rest
30. Repeat #27 & 28
31. 30 second rest
32. Forward leaning rear step lunge (reverse body weight lunges, front foot is elevated on yoga block and torso is leaned forward over front thigh)
33. Static/stationary forward leaning lunges (front foot is still elevated on yoga block)
34. 30 second rest
35. Repeat #32 & 33 on other leg
36. 30 second rest

Finisher: (4 minutes, no rest/recoveries)

1. Single leg bridge (lay on mat, glutes close to chair/bench, one heel on chair/bench, other leg is raised, raise and lower hips) (60 seconds)
2. Repeat #1 on other leg (60 seconds)
3. Frog pumps (still laying on back on mat, soles of feet are together on mat, knees open, heels close to glutes, raise and lower hips) (60 seconds)
4. Pulse at top of frog pumps for 30 seconds
5. Repeat #3 for 30 seconds

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