Unilateral Leg Workout is Day 2 in Heather Robertson‘s 14 day Fierce 2.0 program. This is an excellent lower body strength workout in which Heather focuses on one side of your body for the first half of the workout then you hit the other side of your body for the second half of the workout. But it is also deceptive if you are not cognizant of what is going on. Heather has another workout like this that she messed me up on in the past, so I was ready for it this time. Heather does not mirror the viewer. This is not an issue for most of her workouts but in workouts like this it makes a difference. If you are mirroring Heather on the exercises in which she faces you but following the screen directions on the exercises she doesn’t face you, then you will not give one side of your body the focused work that the workout is created to give it. Even though I was prepared for it, I still stumbled and didn’t end up doing it the way I’d planned. Let me explain. Heather has you do all of the exercises on the right leg then when you repeat the circuit you do all of the exercises on your left leg. I wanted to mirror her, so I had planned to swap–when the screen said we are working our left leg, I would work my right leg so that all of the exercises where Heather is facing the viewer, I mirrored her. Unfortunately, I work out very early in the morning and for the first exercise, she did not face the viewer. So I worked my right leg as the screen told me to. It was early and I wasn’t thinking–just working. So that meant for the rest of the workout, when she faced the screen, I had to work the opposite leg that she was working. For me, that made the workout mentally uncomfortable. However, even with all that said, I still got a great lower body workout. I added a little something to one of the exercises to get a better range of motion. On the Single Leg Glute Bridge (#13 below), I used my square step at 8 inches under my working foot, which gave my glutes and hamstring a little extra work.
Unilateral Leg Workout is 43:35 minutes; 45 second intro, 2:20 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather is using 20 and 30 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what I used. The exercises are all done interval style: 40 seconds of work followed by 20 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.
- Reverse lunge (20# DBs)
- Repeat #1
- Lateral lunge (stationary side lunge holding one DB goblet style) (one 35# DB)
- Repeat #3
- Stand up (hold one DB in both hands, step back into reverse lunge lowering knee all the way to floor, when you stand, bring knee in front of you into a knee raise) (one 25# DB)
- Repeat #5
- Side lift (in modified straight arm side plank (on one arm and knee, top arm reaching to ceiling, top leg is extended straight, raise and lower top leg)
- Repeat #7
- Curtsy lunge (static/stationary cross-back lunge) (20# DBs)
- Repeat #9
- Single leg deadlift (hinge torso forward into deadlift while raising non-working leg straight behind you) (one 40# DB)
- Repeat #11
- Single leg glute bridge (lay on mat, knees bent and feet on mat close to glutes, one heavy DB on hips, raise one leg and keep it raised throughout interval while raising and lowering hips) (one 45# DB)
- Repeat #13
- Heel lift & pulse (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, lower into wide plie squat, raise one heel and pulse downward)
- Repeat #15
- Side leap & shuffle (stand at one end of mat, lateral leap to other end of mat then while lowered into partial squat, lateral shuffle back to start)
- Repeat #17
- 30 second rest
- Repeat #1-18 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.
