Day 5 Home Workout Challenge // TABATA + BOOTY Workout (No Equipment)

Tabata & Booty Workout is Day 5 in Heather Robertson‘s Home Workout Challenge. The Home Workout Challenge is 7 days of no equipment workouts that Heather created in May 2020 during the pandemic. (Here is the playlist if you are interested.) Until today, I had only done Day 7, which is a stretch and recovery workout, but now I plan to try a few more of these workouts. I didn’t like this one as much as I expected to. I think it was due to the fact that you do the same exercise for an entire tabata circuit (4 solid minutes of 8 intervals, one right after the other). It got a little monotonous even though it was intense and worked me well. With that said, this is a very effective workout. Its not a big calorie burner (I only burned 165 calories in 36 minutes) but I was still working hard. The first part of this workout gives you some cardio and body weight strength work. You will work your lower body plus your chest and back. The second part is all lower body strength work. The warm up in this workout was longer and more thorough than what Heather usually gives you and I really enjoyed that. She stretches out your lower body very nicely at the end. This was an effective workout but I didn’t love it.

As the title indicates, the first part of this workout is done tabata style: 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of recovery; repeat this 20/10 interval 8 times for a 4 minute tabata circuit. There are 4 tabata circuits in this workout. This is the first 16:30 minutes of the workout (not including the warm up). The final 9 minutes of the workout is lower body mat based strength work. The exercises in the lower body mat portion are each done for 30 seconds, no rests. There is a timer in the lower right hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the lower body portion, where there is no recovery, during the last 10 seconds of the interval a video appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen, previewing the next exercise. During the tabatas, you are doing the same exercise all 8 rounds. Heather previews the exercise during the first 10 seconds before the tabata circuit starts.

Tabata & Booty Workout is 36:32 minutes; 1 minute intro, 5 minute warm up, 16:30 minutes of tabata, 9 minutes lower body and 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: fitness mat.

Tabata 1:

1. Prisoner squats (body weight squats with hands behind head and elbows out to sides)
2. Repeat #1 seven more times

20 second rest

Tabata 2:

1. Lay down push up (start in straight arm plank, lower body to mat, keeping body straight from shoulders to heels, extend arms straight in front of you and raise arms and legs superman-style, lower legs and place hands under shoulders, push back up to plank, keeping body straight from shoulders to heels)
2. Repeat #1 seven more times

20 second rest

Tabata 3:

1. Curtsy jump squat (alternating curtsy lunges with a squat jump when changing sides)
2. Repeat #1 seven more times

20 second rest

Tabata 4:

1. Bear hop burpees (start in straight arm plank, jump feet in under body, knees hovering a few inches off the mat, jump feet back out to plank, jump feet in to hands, stand and jump, reaching arms overhead)
2. Repeat #1 seven more times

30 second rest

Lower Body:

1. On all 4s on mat, lift bent leg out to side in hydrant + lift bent leg up straight behind you, pushing heel up to ceiling
2. Still on all 4s, lift bent leg up behind you and pulse heel up to ceiling
3. Still on all 4s, lift bent leg out to side in hydrant, hold isometrically and pulse leg upward
4. Lay on mat on side, lift and lower straight leg
5. Still laying on side, legs are bent, keep insoles of feet together, raise feet while keeping bottom knee on mat, in this position, open and close top knee
6. ln modified side elbow plank with both knees bent and top arm raised to ceiling, lower hips to floor then raise hips while also kicking top leg out high and straight
7. Single leg bridge (lay on back, one knee is bent, foot on mat close to glutes, other leg is raised straight to ceiling, raise and lower hips)
8. Hold single leg bridge pose isometrically, lower raised leg until knees are aligned then raise it back to ceiling
9. Figure 4/reclining pigeon stretch
10. 20 second rest
11. Repeat #1-9 on other side of body

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