40MIN Lower Body Unilateral Strength + Sprint // Day 34: HR12WEEK 5.0

40 Min Lower Body Unilateral Strength + Sprint is Day 34 in Heather Robertson‘s HR12Week 5.0 program.

This lower body workout focuses on your quads and inner thighs; your calves also get some work. Heather uses a lot of pulsing in this workout to burn out the muscle group you are working. And it works! The heel lift & pulse in circuit one also cramped my feet. Not sure if it is just the nature of the exercise or the fact I have metal in my heels, but my feet were starting to cramp by the end of the circuit. And the finisher! OMG–wall squats followed by jump squats. The burn!

During the intro Heather tells you to have a yoga block handy but a yoga block is never used in this workout.

The exercises are done interval style. The strength intervals are done for 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of recovery. For the sprint finisher, the exercises are done for 30 second of work followed by 10 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. During the sprint finisher, Heather shows a low impact modification for the jump squat during the preview.

40 Min Lower Body Unilateral Strength + Sprint is 38:43 minutes; 35 second intro, 4:40 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather recommends 35 to 55+ pounds. The weights listed below are what I used.

Circuit 1:

1. Heel lift & squat (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, one heavy DB rests on one shoulder, lower into sumo squat while also lifting heel of DB leg) (one 30# DB)
2. Heel lift & pulse squat (same starting position as #1, lower into squat, keep heel raise and pulse at bottom of squat) (one 30# DB)
3. Repeat 1 & 2 w/ DB on other shoulder and other heel raised
4. Repeat #1-3 two more times

30 second rest

Circuit 2:

1. Reverse lunge (step back lunge, hold one heavy DB on same side shoulder as front/working leg) (one 30# DB first set, one 25# DB last 2 sets)
2. Static lunge pulse (stationary lunge, DB is still on shoulder of front leg, lower to bottom of lunge and pulse) (one 30# DB first set, one 25# DB last 2 sets)
3. Repeat #1 & 2 on other side of body
4. Repeat #1-3 two more times

30 second rest

Sprint:

1. Ghost rope (hop with jump rope arms)
2. Repeat #1
3. Wall sit (wall squat held isometrically)
4. Repeat #3
5. Jump squat
6. Repeat #5

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