IRON Series 30 Min Glute Workout – Dumbbell Lower Body | 3

30 Min Glute Workout – Dumbbell Lower Body is Day 3 in Caroline Girvan‘s Iron Series. Caroline is the very best at working your glutes and this workout was a glute burner! Since she gives you longer rests than she normally does in her glute workouts, I challenged myself with some heavier weights. My glutes were fried by the end of this workout. Since this workout is so short (less than 40 minutes), I had a finisher workout picked out to add on to the end of this but my glutes were so fried after the finisher in this workout (3 solid minutes of banded hip thrust variations) I didn’t think I could handle any more! But I paused this workout after the finisher, put away all of my workout equipment and set up my workout room for tomorrow’s workout. By then my glutes had thawed sufficiently that I decided to do the additional finisher I had chosen: Heather Robertson’s Standing Side Booty Mini Band Workout. I also had a longer stretch lined up but when I returned to this workout for Caroline’s stretch, I was impressed. Not only was it longer and more thorough than what she usually gives us but she included pigeon pose in the stretch and held it a good amount of time! I love a good pigeon pose after a tough glute workout. This workout is a major winner!

All of the exercises in this workout are done interval style: 60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest. However during the first part of the workout (“Activation”), you get no rest/recoveries. There is a timer in the upper left hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Caroline previews the next exercise. During Activation, when there is 15 seconds left of an exercise, a video appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen, previewing the next exercise. There is also a little bar at the bottom of the screen that counts down the entire workout time as a percentage.

30 Min Glute Workout – Dumbbell Lower Body is 38:24 minutes; 2:07 minute intro, no warm up and 4:20 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, chair, glute band and mat. Optional is a towel to protect your hips from the heavy dumbbell. Caroline is using one 30kg/66 pound dumbbell and one 15kg/33 pound dumbbell. I used my weight bench for the hip thrusts. The weights listed below are what I used.

Activation: (no rests/recoveries until the end–#4)

1. Abduction for 60 seconds (lay on mat with booty band around thighs just above knees, knees are bent and feet on mat close to glutes, open and close knees)
2. Bridge for 30 seconds (same position as #1, raise and lower hips keeping legs open so there is tension on the band)
3. Upright abduction for 60 seconds (repeat #1 but with torso lifted and hands on mat behind hips)
4. 30 second rest

60/30 Intervals: (60 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest/recovery)

1. Banded hip thrust (pause at top) (lean back against your bench or step, knees bent and open so there is tension on band, feet on floor, keep legs open so there is constant tension on the band, raise and lower hips, pausing at top of lift) (one 45# DB)
2. Repeat #1
3. Hip thrust (pause at top) (remove booty band and repeat #1) (45# DB)
4. Repeat #3
5. Staggered hip thrust (lean back against your bench or step, knees bent and feet on floor, one foot is flat on floor and other foot is extended out further so most of the weight is on flat foot, one heavy DB on hips, raise and lower hips) (one 45# DB)
6. Repeat #5 with leg positions swapped
7. Sumo deadlift squat (pause at bottom) (with legs in sumo position, hinge torso forward deadlift style as you squat) (one 55# DB)
8. Repeat #7
9. Bulgarian lunge (stationary lunge, back leg is elevated on chair behind you, hold one DB in same side hand as working leg) (one 25# DB)
10. Repeat #9 on other side of body
11. Repeat #9 & 10
12. Body weight single leg hip thrusts (lean back on your chair/bench, one foot is on floor and other leg is raised, raise and lower hips/glutes)
13. Repeat #12 on other side of body
14. Repeat #12 & 13

Finisher: (3:30 minutes, each exercise is done for 30 seconds, no rest/recoveries)

1. Full range body weight banded hip thrust for 30 seconds (band is around thighs, 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)
2. 1/2 reps for 30 seconds (same position as #1, lift hips to top but only lower halfway)
3. Repeat #1
4. Pulses for 30 seconds (same position as #1, keep hips raised at top of lift and pulse hips upward)
5. Repeat #1
6. Hold isometrically at top of lift for 30 seconds
7. Repeat #1

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