Glutes & Thighs is Day 17 in Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week 4.0 program. This is another enjoyable and effective lower body strength workout. I expected the ankle weight circuit to be harder than it was, but I think it seemed easier because the standing exercises are not as hard as the mat based exercises. Who knows? Maybe I’m just getting stronger. The stretch at the end was wonderful. The perfect length and she stretched everything out nicely.
This workout contains 4 circuits; an ankle weight circuit and 3 strength circuits. The exercises are done interval style. In the ankle weight circuit the exercises are done for 45 seconds followed by 15 seconds of recovery. For the strength circuits the exercises are done for 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 the next exercise. At the bottom of the screen during the preview, there is a small graphic with a weight recommendation–light, medium or heavy.
Glutes & Thighs is 37:13 minutes; 35 second intro, 2:30 minute warm up and 5 minute stretch. Equipment: medium and heavy dumbbells, ankle weights, yoga block and a fitness mat. After warm up is complete, Heather already is wearing ankle weights, so put yours on quickly or pause the workout. You only have 15 seconds to get them on! The weights listed below are what I used.
Ankle Weight Circuit: (I wore 4# ankle weights)
- Side lift (standing and holding onto something for balance, do a side leg lift with foot flexed, when you lower leg, bring foot/leg behind other leg)
- Rear pulse (still standing, lift leg up behind you and pulse leg upward)
- Hamstring curl (on hands and knees, lift one leg up behind you and keep leg raised, bend knee to 90 degrees then extend straight again)
- Clamshell & kick (lay on side on one hip and same side elbow, lift hips while opening top knee, keeping soles of feet together, hold this position while kicking top leg straight, bend knee again bringing soles of feet together again, close knees and lower hips back to mat)
- Front lift (lay on side with bottom leg bent, top leg is extended straight in front of you, lift and lower top straight leg with foot flexed)
- Repeat #1-5 on other leg
30 second rest
Strength Circuit 1:
- Sumo squat (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, hold one heavy DB by bar with both hands, squat lowering DB toward ground) (one 75# DB)
- Sumo deadlift (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, hold a DB in each hand with palms facing each other, hinge forward into a deadlift) (one 75# DB)
- Sumo pulse (no DBs, stand with legs wide and toes turned out, lower into sumo squat and pulse lower)
- Repeat #1-3
Strength Circuit 2:
- Elevated hip thruster (lay on back, one heel rests on yoga block, other leg is extended to ceiling, one DB rests on hips, lift and lower hips) (one 70# DB)
- Repeat #1 on other leg
- Glute bridge pulse (lay on back, knees bent and feet on mat, one heavy DB on hips. lift hips into bridge and pulse hips upwards) (one 70# DB)
- Repeat #1-3
Strength Circuit 3:
- Side lunge (stationary side lunge, hold one DB in one hand, side lunge while reaching DB toward opposite foot) (one 35# DB)
- Repeat #1 on other leg
- In & out hop (squat jacks, when legs are wide toes are turned out into a sumo squat, when you jump feet in together toes face forward)
- Repeat #1-3
For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
