15 Minute TARGETED Glute Workout – Dumbbells | Caroline Girvan

15 Minute Targeted Glute Workout is a short but tough glute focused workout from Caroline Girvan. It amazes me the torture she is able to squeeze into 15 minutes! The bulk of the workout is hip thrusts. Long intervals and short recoveries. The burn! Since this workout is so short, I used it as a finisher workout after doing a tough lower body strength workout from Heather Robertson (Fierce 14 Day 4: Booty Builder // Glute Workout). So I came to this workout with my lower body well warmed up and already fatigued. Between the two workouts my lower body and especially my booty, is fried! Using the booty band during the hip thrusts is always killer but this morning–wow! I was pushing my legs out against it throughout the hip thrusts and I felt it burning my entire leg–from booty to calves! Like I said, that is probably because I had just finished a tough 42 minute booty focused workout, but still–that booty band amazes me during hip thrusts. It recruits so many more muscles then when you do the exact same exercise without it. When you take it off, the hip thrusts definitely feel easier–even with the dumbbell still on your hips! This is an excellent and tough lower body finisher workout.

The exercises are done interval style: 50 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. There is a timer in the upper left 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. The intro is short but Caroline gives excellent form pointers and also tells you what she wants you to focus on during the workout.

15 Minute Targeted Glute Workout is 20:44 minutes; 1:45 minute intro, no warm up and 2:10 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a booty band/resistance loop, a chair or bench and a fitness mat. Optional is a towel to protect your hips during hip thrusts. Caroline is using one 25kg/55 pound dumbbell. I used one 40 pound dumbbell for all of the weighted hip thrusts and one 50 pound dumbbell for all of the weighted sump squats. I used my weight bench for the hip thrusts.

1. Hip thrusts full range (place booty band around thighs, lean back against your bench or step, one heavy DB on hips, knees bent and open so there is tension on band, and feet on floor, raise and lower hips)
2. Hold (thrust on beep) (the same as #1, but hold isometrically at top of lift until you hear a beep (every 10 seconds), then lower hips and raise them again)
3. Small pulses (keep hips raised isometrically at top of thrust and pulse hips upward)
4. Half reps (raise to top of hip thrust but only lower halfway)
5. Staggered thrust (remove booty band, step one foot out away from other foot so the majority of the weight is all on foot closest to you, raise and lower hips in this position)
6. Repeat #5 with leg positions swapped
7. Bodyweight single leg hip thrust (set DB aside and get into same position as #1, one foot is on floor and other leg is elevated, raise and lower hips)
8. Partials (same position as #7, keep hips raised and pulse hips up higher)
9. Repeat #7 & 8 on other side of body
10. Bodyweight banded thrust (place booty band around thighs again, lean back against your bench or step, knees bent and open so there is tension on band, and feet on floor, raise and lower hips)
11. Sumo deadlift squat (pause at bottom) (hinge torso forward deadlift style while doing sumo squats)
12. Repeat #11 two more times

30 second rest

Finisher: (one minute–each exercise is done for 30 seconds w/ no break/rest between exercises)

1. Sumo half rep w/ DB (lower to bottom of sumo squat but only raise halfway)
2. Repeat #2 w/ no DB

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