Strong Glutes & Toned Thighs Workout

Strong Glutes & Toned Thighs Workout is an excellent lower body strength workout from Heather Robertson. It’s not perfect (though it could have been) but it is tough, thorough and effective just the same. The warm up in this workout is 20 minutes! It is actually “glute activation” so it is broken down below. And trust me, by the end it does not feel like a warm up. Of course, I did something a little different than Heather did during the glute activation. She used a one rubber booty band/resistance loop. I prefer to use a cloth/elastic booty band around my thighs and a rubber resistance loop for exercises below the knees. Since during the glute activation you have the loop around your ankles for some exercises and around your thighs for others, I just kept both loops on. For exercises where Heather had the loop around her ankles I had two loops on (one above the knees and one around my ankles). For exercises where Heather had her loop around her thighs, I just removed my loop from one foot so it was loose around one ankle. My main reason for doing this is that 10 seconds is a very short recovery time. Too short to change bands. If you are using one band for everything then 10 seconds will hopefully be long enough for you but since I wanted different bands, this made it easier/quicker for me. The bonus was that it really increased the burn on some some of the exercises.

After 20 minutes of glute activation you do 20 minutes of weighted lower body strength work that really finishes the lower body off. This workout burned my lower body out big time. But this was not the only workout I did this morning. I actually did Heather’s Intense No Repeat Fat Burning HIIT // Strength + Cardio first, which is a total body cardio + strength workout with a strong focus on the lower body. So my legs had already been well worked before even coming to this workout. Had I come to this fresh would it have fried my lower body so thoroughly? I don’t know. But by the end of this workout my legs were done. Finished. Heather only gives you a 2 minute stretch so I added on a long and thorough lower body stretch. This is a really excellent lower body stretch routine on YouTube that I have been using for years.

The exercises in this workout are done interval style. Each exercise is done for 40 seconds followed by 10 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the lower right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Heather previews the next exercise. This leads me to how this workout could have been “perfect.” Longer recoveries. Even 5 seconds would make a difference (15 second recovery). In the first part of this workout it would give more time to change the loop position. When you are using rubber loops they roll and when rushing, it can get frustrating to try to straighten them out. When they are rolled they cut into your body. Longer intervals will also give you more time to swap weights out. I used heavy dumbbells (for me) for this workout. Rushing to swap heavy dumbbells could lead to injury plus, it doesn’t leave you with much of a real recovery. And finally, a longer and more thorough stretch. As you can see, I found work arounds for most of these issues (except the dumbbell swapping issue–I just moved quickly). I still found it to be and excellent workout that I will definitely return to.

Strong Glutes & Toned Thighs Workout is 43:27 minutes; 20 minute warm up/glute activation, 20 minutes of dumbbell lower body strength work and 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, booty band/resistance loop and a fitness mat. Optional: chair for balance (Heather uses the wall). Heather does not share the weight of the dumbbells she is using but during the workout I was able to read the dumbbell weight and she is using 20 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used.

Warm up/Glute Activation:

1. (booty band is around thighs/above knees) Squats
2. (lower booty band to ankles) Side steps (squat when stepping, 2 steps to each side)
3. Side lift (lift one straight leg out to side)
4. Rear leg lift (lift one leg straight behind you)
5. Repeat #3 & 4 on other leg
6. (booty band is around thighs/above knees) Donkey kick (get on all 4s, push one bent leg up behind you, sole of foot to ceiling then bring knee back under body)
7. Repeat #6 on other leg
8. Glute bridge (lay on mat, knees bent and feet on floor close to glutes, raise and lower hips)
9. Single leg drop (raise hips into bridge and hold isometrically entire interval, extend one leg straight, raise and lower straight leg)
10. Repeat #9 on other side of body
11. Bridge pulses (raise hips into bridge and hold isometrically entire interval, open and close thighs)
12. Repeat #1-11

30 second rest

Glutes & Thighs Circuit:

1. Goblet squat (one 40# DB)
2. Deadlift (35# DBs)
3. Stationary lunge (hold DB in same side hand as back leg) (one 25# DB)
4. Repeat #3 on other side of body
5. Sumo squat (one 50# DB)
6. Stationary curtsy lunge (cross back lunge holding one DB goblet style) (one 25# DB)
7. Repeat #6 on other side of body
8. Alternating side lunges (holding one DB goblet style) (one 25# DB)
9. Kick stand (single leg deadlift, back leg is in kickstand) (one 35# DB)
10. Repeat #9 on other leg
11. Glute bridge (lay on mat, knees bent and feet on floor close to glutes, DB(s) on hips, raise and lower hips) (one 40# DB)
12. In & out squats (no DBs) (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)
13. Repeat #1-12

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