HIIT Pilates Legs & Glutes // Fusion Flow: DAY 1

HIIT Pilates Legs & Glutes is Day 1 in Heather Robertson‘s Fusion Flow series. Heather’s Fusion Flow is a week of “yoga, Pilates and barre inspired movements with my favorite HIIT exercises.” There are 7 approximately 30 minute workouts in this series. I was really looking forward to doing this series after several months of advanced and challenging workouts (EPIC Endgame, HR12Week 2.0 and Iron Series) and this was perfect. It is a lower body strength workout that is all body weight strength work–not equipment needed. It worked my lower body very nicely but was not advanced or killer. It did have a few burn out moves during the mat work but overall it worked my lower body nicely without killing me. The first circuit is all mat based lower body work and the second circuit is all standing lower body work. The standing lower body work has some balance challenges so I had a chair nearby to steady myself. Since this workout is only 32 minutes, I paired it with Fusion Flow Day 2: Barre Arms & Abs for a total body workout that clocks in at one hour.

HIIT Pilates Legs & Glutes is 32:12 minutes; one minute intro, 2:30 minute warm up and 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: fitness mat. I also had a chair nearby to steady myself during the balance work. The exercises are all done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of recovery. There is a timer in the lower right hand corner of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recoveries Heather previews your next exercise.

Circuit 1:

1. Side leg lift (lay on side and do a single straight leg lift)
2. Bicycle leg (still laying on side, extend straight leg in front of you, bend knee and when you straighten the leg, push the leg out straight behind you)
3. Large circles (still laying on side, draw large circles with straight leg; halfway through the interval you change directions)
4. Small circles (still laying on side, draw small circles with straight leg; halfway through the interval you change directions)
5. Inner lift (still laying on side, top knee is bent and sole of foot is on mat in front of bottom thigh, raise and lower straight bottom leg)
6. Clamshell kick (lay on side, both knees are bent, bottom knee is on floor and both feet are raised off mat with insoles pressed together, from this position, open top knee (keeping insoles together) then kick top leg to ceiling, bend knee bringing insoles together again and close knees, feet remain elevated the entire time)
7. Repeat #1-6 on other side of body

30 second rest

Circuit 2:

1. Lunge & drive (reverse lunge reaching one arm overhead (same side arm as back leg) and when raising out of lunge, bring back leg forward into a knee raise, bringing elbow of raised arm down to tap knee)
2. Repeat #1 on other side of body
3. Airplane & curl (hinge torso forward into airplane w/ back leg extended straight behind you and both arms extended straight in front of you, hold and bend leg bringing heel to glute, straighten leg again, when you return torso upright, bring back leg forward into knee raise–you are balancing on one leg the entire time)
4. Repeat #3 on other side of body
5. In & out squat (stand with feet together, step out into side squat reaching both arms straight in front of you, when you straighten out of squat, step feet together again, alternate sides when squatting)
6. Plie squat (legs wide, toes turned out, reach arms in front of you at bottom of squat)
7. Heel lift & pulse (still in wide plie squat, lift one heel and pulse at bottom of squat, one arm is extended straight out to side–same side arm as heel that is lifted)
8. Repeat #7 on other side of body
9. Hip twister (squat hop, at top of hop, twist hips to one side, alternate sides, hands are held together in front of chest with elbows raised to shoulder level)
10. Repeat #1-9

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