UNILATERAL Leg Day / 45 Min Lower Body Workout | EPIC II – Day 8

Unilateral Leg Day is Day 8 in Caroline Girvan‘s EPIC II program. This is a tough but fun no repeat lower body strength workout. Even though you do repeat some of the same exercises multiple times (glute bridges, Bulgarian lunges), when an exercise is repeated you do a different variation of it. So technically, no exercise is repeated. This also made the time seem to fly by. It is not one of her short workouts, yet the constant variety kept it interesting. She also had some unique and new-to-me exercises in this workout. It was metabolically intense, too. I burned nearly 400 calories and spent a total of 11 minutes in my peak heart rate zone.

The exercises are done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Caroline previews the next exercise. There is a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage.

Unilateral Leg Day is 51:22 minutes; one minute intro, no warm up and 3:45 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a chair or high step and a fitness mat. Caroline is using 10kg/22 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. I also recommend having a towel or mini mat handy for your hips. The dumbbell started digging into my hip bones during the hip bridges at the end of the workout. I had to pause the workout and get my mini mat.

1. Curtsy lunge (20# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 on other side of body
3. Lateral lunge (stationary side lunge holding one DB in both hands at chest) (one 35# DB)
4. Repeat #3 on other side of body
5. Kneel to squat (start in kneeling lunge holding one DB in both hands in front of chest, step back leg forward into squat then step same foot back into kneeling lunge) (one 25# DB)
6. Repeat #5 on other side of body
7. Kneel to glute squeeze (one leg is in high kneeling, other leg is extended straight to side with foot flexed and heel on floor, holding one DB in both hands at chest, lower glutes to heel of kneeling leg then raise glutes back to start, squeezing glutes at top) (one 25# DB)
8. Repeat #7 on other side of body
9. Staggered RDL (single leg deadlift, back leg is in kickstand) (one 35# DB)
10. Repeat #9 on other side of body
11. Staggered squat (single leg squat holding one DB in both hands at chest) (one 35# DB)
12. Repeat #11 on other side of body
13. Uneven squat (hold one DB in one hand at shoulder) (one 35# DB)
14. Repeat #13 on other side of body
15. Uneven swing (hold one DB in one hand, hinge torso forward, swinging DB behind you then straighten, swinging DB in front of you) (one 20# DB)
16. Repeat #15 on other side of body
17. Lateral lunge chair (stand beside chair, leg closest to the chair is extended to the side and resting on chair seat, holding one DB in both hands at chest, lower into a single leg squat) (one 35# DB)
18. Repeat #17 on other side of body
19. Deep step ups (one foot remains on chair the entire interval, step up onto chair, tapping other foot to chair beside working leg, then step foot onto the floor, lowering into a deep lunge) (one 25# DB)
20. Repeat #19 on other side of body
21. Rear step lunge (reverse lunges) (20# DBs)
22. Repeat #21 on other side of body
23. Step up to rear lunge (step up onto chair seat, step off chair directly into reverse lunge on floor) (one 20# DB)
24. Repeat #23 on other side of body
25. RDL on chair (single leg deadlift, non working leg is on chair behind you) (one 25# DB)
26. Repeat #25 on other side of body
27. Diagonal forward lunge (one 20# DB)
28. Repeat #27 on other side of body
29. Close Bulgarian lunge (lunge with back leg elevated on chair behind you, you are standing relatively close to chair) (one 25# DB)
30. Repeat #29 on other side of body
31. Forward leaning Bulgarian lunge (same as #29/30 but you are standing further away from chair and torso is hinged forward over front leg) (one 25# DB)
32. Repeat #31 on other side of body)
33. Forward & back lunges (pendulum lunge) (16.5# DBs)
34. Repeat #33 on other side of body
35. Single leg bridge chair (lay on back with glutes close to chair, one foot is on chair seat, other leg is elevated, one DB is on hips, raise and lower hips) (one 35# DB)
36. Repeat #35 on other side of body
37. Single leg hamstring lift (repeat #35 but glutes are further away from chair so knee is only slightly bent) (one 35# DB)
38. Repeat #37 on other side of body
39. Single leg bridge on mat (repeat #35 but foot is on mat rather than chair seat) (one 35# DB)
40. Repeat #39 on other side of body
41. Staggered bridge (repeat #39 except foot that was elevated is now on mat, heel is a few inches in front of working leg, most of your weight is in working leg) (one 35# DB)
42. Repeat #41 on other side of body

Finisher: (3:40 minutes)

1. Bulgarian lunges w/ 2 DBs (20 seconds) (25# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 w/ 1 DB (20 seconds) (one 25# DB)
3. Repeat #1 w/ no DBs (20 seconds)
4. 20 second rest
5. Repeat #1-3 on other side of body
6. 20 second rest
7. Alternating forward lunges (no DBs) (60 seconds)

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