CGX: 40 Min Unilateral Glutes and Hamstrings

This is a workout from Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. For more info on Caroline’s App, see the CGX App page.

Another awesome glute workout from Caroline! This one is very enjoyable and not as painful as some of her others that I’ve done. Or maybe doing all of her stability ball hamstring workouts last week toughened up my hamstrings! I found the first part of the workout the most challenging. The rest of the workout did work my hamstrings and glutes well, but I didn’t experience the burn out I often do when doing her glute workouts. For the booty band exercises, I think I might need a new strong/heavy band. I have the same one Caroline uses but I have been using it in her workouts for nearly 2 years. It probably isn’t as strong as it used to be. I really liked the stretch at the end of this workout. The actual stretching was forward folds and yogi squats. The rest of it was mobility moves. I did not count it as my stretch. After this workout was over I did her CGX: 5 Min Quad Finisher, which surprisingly had an excellent stretch at the end for something so short, then finished everything off with a longer lower body stretch on YouTube.

The exercises in this workout are done interval style but the interval and recovery time varies so that will be noted in the breakdown below. There is a timer in the upper right hand side of the screen counting down your intervals and recoveries. During the recovery Caroline previews 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.

40 Min Unilateral Glutes and Hamstrings is 44 minutes (this time does not include the optional 9 minute warm up or the 2:31 minute intro, also optional) with a 2 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a booty band/resistance loop, a yoga block, a chair or bench, and a towel to protect your hips. Caroline is using one 30kg/66 pound dumbbell and one 15kg/33 pound dumbbell. The weights listed below are what I used.

1. Staggered hip thrust for 45 seconds (back is leaned against chair/bench behind you, one heavy DB is on hips, one foot is on floor with knee bent at 90 degrees (all of your weight is in this leg) and other foot is a few inches in front of it with heel in floor, raise and lower hips/glutes) (one 55# DB)
2. 15 second rest
3. Repeat #1 & 2 on other side of body
4. Repeat #1-3
5. 1/2 rep staggered hip thrusts for 40 seconds (same position as #1, raise hips/glutes but only lower halfway) (one 55# DB)
6. 20 second rest
7. Repeat #5 & 6 on other leg
8. Repeat #5-7
9. RDL for 40 seconds (single leg Romanian deadlifts, back/non-working leg is in kickstand, hold DB in same side hand as front/working leg) (one 40# DB)
10. 20 second rest
11. Repeat #9 & 10 on other leg
12. Repeat #9-11
13. FWD tilt elevated lunge for 40 seconds (static/stationary lunge, front leg is on yoga block, torso is hinged forward over front leg) (one 27.5# DB)
14. 20 second rest
15. Repeat #13 & 14 on other side of body
16. Repeat #13-15
17. Repeat #9-12 for 40 seconds but hold DB in same side hand as non-working leg (one 40# DB)
18. Bodyweight forward tilt step lunge for 45 seconds (step back reverse lunges, front leg is on yoga block, torso is hinged forward over front leg)
19. 15 second rest
20. Repeat #18 & 19 on other side of body
21. Repeat #18-20
22. Banded walk for 40 seconds (loop is around thighs above knees, lateral walk to one side for approximately 1/2 the interval then repeat in other direction)
23. 20 second rest
24. Repeat #22 & 23 three more times
25. Single leg hip thrust for 45 seconds (remove booty band; back is leaned again chair/bench behind you, one foot is on floor with knee bent at 90 degrees and other leg is raised, raise and lower hips/glutes)
26. 15 second rest
27. Repeat #25 & 26 on other leg
28. Repeat #25-27
29. Diagonal step for 45 seconds (place band around thighs above knees, stand with knees slightly bent, step one foot out behind you on a diagonal then step it back in)
30. 15 second rest
31. Repeat #29& 30  on other leg
32. Repeat #29-31
33. Single leg hamstring thrust for 45 seconds (same position as #25 (no band), but floor leg is out further away and knee is bent at about 45 degrees, toe is raised so heel is pressed into floor)
34. 15 seconds
35. Repeat #33 & 34
36. Repeat #33-35

Finisher: (place band around thighs just above knees; 60 seconds with no rest/recoveries)

1. One side abduction for 20 seconds (step one foot out to side then back in)
2. Repeat #1 on other leg
3. Lateral walk for 20 seconds (lateral walk 5 steps to one side then repeat lateral walk in other direction)