40MIN Lower Body Strength Supersets // Day 6: HR12WEEK 5.0

40 Min Lower Body Strength Superset is Day 6 in Heather Robertson‘s HR12Week 5.0 program.

This is a solid lower body strength workout. Heather hits all of the major muscle groups in the lower body. Use heavy enough weights and she will burn them out, too! Especially with all of the pulses an half reps. I did have to use lighter weights than I normally would for many of the exercises for that reason. In this workout Heather has forward lunges. These are great for your quads but can cause stress on your knees. I have never in my entire life had knee problems until the past few months. Now I get intermittent knee pain. Because of this I substituted reverse lunges for front lunges to protect my knees.

There are 5 supersets and each superset 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.

40 Min Lower Body Strength Superset is 40:20 minutes; 50 second intro, 4:40 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, yoga block and fitness mat. Heather recommends medium to heavy dumbbells–20 to 45 pounds. The weights listed below are what I used. I also used heel wedges instead of a yoga block.

1. Elevated squat (heels are elevated on yoga block (or heel wedges), hold one DB goblet style) (one 45# DB)
2. Alternating front lunges (20# DBs)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 two more times
4. Butterfly bridge (lay on back, knees are bent and open w/ soles of feet together, place one heavy DB on hips, raise and lower hips) (one 50# DB)
5. Butterfly bridge pulse (same position as #4, keep hips lifted at top of bridge and pulse upward) (one 50# DB)
6. Repeat #4 & 5 two more times
7. 1.5 deadlift (lower to bottom of deadlift, raise halfway, lower to bottom of deadlift, raise all the way) (30# DBs)
8. Stiff leg deadlift (full range) (35# DBs)
9. Repeat #7 & 9 two more times
10. 30 second rest
11. Alternating stationary side lunges (hold one DB goblet style) (one 35# DB)
12. Hover lunge (bodyweight/no DBs, stand with legs wide, do alternating side lunges while staying low even when changing sides)
13. Repeat #11 & 12 two more times
14. 1.5  sumo squat (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, hold one DB in both hands, lower to bottom of squat, raise halfway, lower to bottom of squat, raised all the way) (one 50# DB)
15. Sumo pulse (same starting position as #14, lower to bottom of squat and pulse)
16. Repeat #14 & 15 two more times (one 50# DB)

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