15 Min GLUTES and HAMSTRINGS WORKOUT at Home with Dumbbells

Though the title of this says 15 Min Glutes and Hamstrings Workout, there is more to it than that. Caroline Girvan does give you the promised 15 minutes of lower body workout (if you include the stretch it is 15 minutes) but she ends this workout with a 4 minute plank challenge. I think that should be mentioned somewhere–either in the title or the info below the workout but nope. Nowhere! So–surprise! It was actually tougher than I expected. I held the plank for 1:30 minutes before I had to take my first break. After that I had to take a short break every 30 seconds or so.

As for the point of this workout and the reason I did it–as a lower body finisher–it was excellent. I loved it. It required some prep work before doing it though because of the fast pace. This workout is done in supersets. You do one lower body exercise that is always superset with a Romanian deadlift (RDL). I had a full step set up nearby and my deadlift weights rested on it so I could grab them quickly. Since everything is superset you get no time between the exercise you just finished and the deadlift. However, Caroline (as usual) is using heavy dumbbells so it takes her a few seconds to get into position for the deadlifts which was almost always enough time for me to drop whatever weights I was using and grab my deadlift weights. I am fortunate that I have gym flooring in my home gym because sometimes I literally dropped the dumbbells. They just bounced. (o: This workout is done interval fashion. You do each exercise for 30 seconds, after each superset (60 seconds), 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 recovery, Caroline previews the next exercises. Caroline gives a lot of good deadlift form pointers during the intro.

This was another excellent finisher/add workout from Caroline. When I return to it in the future I will skip the 4 minutes of planking. 4 minutes seems a bit excessive and being able to hold a plank for that long is not a goal of mine.

15 Min Glutes and Hamstrings Workout is 21:20 minutes; 2:25 minute intro, 13 minutes of lower body work, 4 minute elbow plank hold and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair or bench for hip thrusts and a fitness mat. Optional: a towel to protect your hips during hip thrusts. Caroline is using 15kg/33 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Sumo squat (one 50# DB)
2. RDL (Romanian deadlift) (35# DBs)
3. 30 second rest
4. Sumo RDL (30# DBs)
5. RDL (30# DBs)
6. 30 second rest
7. Alternating curtsy lunges (20# DBs)
8. RDL (35# DBs)
9. 30 second rest
10. Staggered RDL (single leg deadlift) (one 35# DB)
11. RDL (35# DBs)
12. 30 second rest
13. Repeat #10 on other leg
14. RDL (35# DBs)
15. 30 second rest
16. Kneeling glute squeeze (kneel on both knees on mat, holding one DB in both hands at chest level, lower glutes to heels then raise glutes so body is straight from head to knees and squeeze glutes) (one 30# DB)
17. RDL (35# Dbs)
18. 30 second rest
19. Slow hip thrust (lean back against your bench or chair, one heavy DB on hips, knees bent and feet on floor, raise and lower hips) (one 40# DB)
20. RDL (35# DBs)
21. 30 second rest
22. Faster paced hip thrusts (one 40# DB)
23. RDL (35# DBs)
24. 30 second rest
25. Single leg hip thrusts (no DBs) (one ankle is crossed over other thigh)
26. Repeat #25 on other leg

4 Minute Plank Challenge (just like it sounds–hold an elbow plank for 4 solid minutes)

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