38 Min Lower Body Strength is Day 1 in Heather Robertson‘s HR12Week 5.0 program. Heather has a new studio and it looks really nice! She talks about it in her intro and it sounds like she did a lot of the renovation herself!
This was a tough lower body workout. That first long circuit of goblet squats is deceiving. You do not realize until the third circuit that a goblet squat is actually a total body exercise. Holding a heavy dumbbell in that manner for so long, I felt it in my core and my shoulders and my arms as well as my lower body. And it really gets your heart rate elevated! My Apple Watch shows that I spent a good bit of time in my peak heart rate zone during this workout, so it was very metabolic.
This is a circuit based workout. There are 3 circuits and each circuit is done 3 times. The exercises are 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 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.
38 Min Lower Body Strength is 40:30 minutes; 3:30 minute intro, 4:25 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a yoga block and a fitness mat. Heather recommends heavy dumbbells–25 to 40 pounds. The weights listed below are what I used.
Circuit 1:
- Goblet squat (one 45# DB)
- 1.5 goblet squat (lower to bottom of squat, raise halfway, lower to bottom of squat, raise all the way) (one 40# DB)
- Goblet squat pulse (lower to bottom of squat and pulse) (one 35# DB)
- Repeat #1-3 three more times
30 second rest
Circuit 2: (one 50# DB for everything)
- Elevated bridge (lay on back on mat, one foot rests on yoga block with knee bent, other leg is raised, hold one DB at hip of working leg, raise and lower hips into bridge)
- Repeat #1 on other leg
- Bridge pulse (lay on back with knees bent and feet close to glutes, rest one heavy DB on hips, raise hips into bridge and pulse upward)
- Repeat #1-3 two more times
30 second rest
Circuit 3: (one 35# DB for everything)
- Static lunge (stationary lunge holding one DB at same side shoulder of working leg)
- Repeat #1 on other leg
- Alternating squat & lunge (hold one DB goblet style, one squat + one reverse/step back lunge, alternate legs when lunging)
- Repeat #1-3 two more times
For more info on Heather Robertson’s workouts and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
