Brutal Booty Burn + Tabata Workout!!

What a fabulous little workout from Heather Robertson. I not only liked it a lot more than I expected to but I also found it tougher than I expected. Brutal Booty Burn + Tabata Workout!! is a lower body and cardio workout. The first half of the workout is glute strength exercises using a booty band/resistance loop and the second half is tabata circuits. I have been doing a lot of Caroline Girvan workouts lately and she destroys my glutes. So I did not expect this workout to burn my butt like it did. By the time we got to the mat work my glutes really started burning. The tabata was a slow build but by the 3rd tabata circuit my heart rate was spiking. I didn’t burn a ton of calories because this is a short workout and only half of it is intense cardio, but my FitBit graph shows that near the end my heart rate was spiking into the peak zone. I do wish Heather gave us a longer cool down/stretch.

This workout is made up of 2 circuits of booty band exercises, each circuit is done twice. Each exercise in the booty circuits is done for 30 seconds with no rests. There are 3 tabata circuits in this workout. Each circuit alternates 2 different exercises. Tabata is an HIIT protocol: 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of recovery; repeat this 20/10 interval 8 times for a 4 minute tabata circuit. There is a timer in the lower right hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the booty circuits, where there is no recovery; halfway through the 30 second interval a video appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen, previewing the next exercise. During the tabatas, Heather previews the next exercise during the recovery.

Brutal Booty Burn + Tabata Workout!! is 31:50 minutes; 3 minute warm up and 1:30 minute stretch. Equipment: booty band/resistance loop and fitness mat. Optional: chair for balance (for one of the booty band exercises–Heather uses the wall for balance). As soon as the warm up is over put your booty band around your thighs.

Booty Circuit 1:

1. Squats (band is around thighs)
2. Hold squat isometrically and alternate tapping feet out to sides
3. Standing kickbacks (balance on one leg, other legs is bent, push foot up behind you)
4. Repeat #3 on other leg
5. Squat walk (squat walk forward the length of your mat, then squat walk backwards back to start)
6. Step out squats (one narrow squat, step out with one foot into a wide squat, step back into a narrow squat, step out with other leg into a wide squat, continue alternating sides with a narrow squat between each side)
7. Repeat #1-6

30 second rest

Booty Circuit 2:

1. Glute bridge (band is still around thighs, lay on back, knees bent and feet on mat close to glutes, raise and lower hips, legs are wide enough so that there is tension on the band/loop)
2. Single leg bridge (band is still around thighs, lay on back, one knee is bent and foot is on mat close to glutes, other leg is raised to ceiling, raise and lower hips)
3. Repeat #2 on other leg
4. Bridge abduction (band is still around thighs, lay on back, knees bent and feet on mat close to glutes, raise hips in bridge and hold isometrically entire interval while opening and closing legs)
5. Butterfly bridge (repeat #1 but with soles of feet together and knees open wide)
6. Butterfly bridge pulse (hold isometrically at top of bridge and pulse hips upward)
7. Repeat #1-6

Remove band and stretch for one minute followed by another 40 seconds of rest.

Tabata 1:

1. Cross over hop (stand with legs wide, hinge forward and touch foot with opposite hand, when you rise, jump, reaching arms overhead, alternate sides with a jump between each side)
2. Push climber (in straight arm plank do 4 mountain climbers then push glutes back to heels keeping knees elevated off floor)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 three more times

Tabata 2:

1. Squat driver (squat with hands clasped together and behind head with elbows to ceiling, stand and raise one knee bringing clasped hands to knee, alternate legs with a squat between each side)
2. Can can crab (in reverse bent knee plank (crab), pull one knee into chest + straight leg lift (same leg) tapping foot with opposite hand, alternate legs)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 three more times

Tabata 3:

1. Side-side jump squat (squat + lateral jump landing in squat)
2. X plank taps (in straight arm plank, tap one hand out to side while tapping opposite foot out to side, alternate hand/foot)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 three 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.