40 Min Power Pilates with Weights is Day 59 in Heather Robertson‘s HR12Week 5.0 program.
Like all of Heather’s other power pilates workouts, this was tough! She fried my shoulders! This is a full body workout but the focus is shoulders, chest and lower body. You also get core and bicep work.
There are 2 circuits and each circuit is done 3 times. The exercises are done interval style: 45 seconds of work followed by 15 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. For moves with impact, Heather shows a low impact version during the preview.
40 Min Power Pilates with Weights is 40:04 minutes; 30 second intro, 4:40 minute warm up and 3:50 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells and fitness mat. Heather recommends light to medium dumbbells (5 to 25 pounds). The weights listed below are what I used.
Circuit 1:
- Plie & around the world (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, lower into a wide plie squat, palms facing forward and hands in front of thighs, as you return to standing, keeping arms straight, raise DBs out to sides then overhead, lower DBs out to sides and back in front of thighs as you lower back into plie squat) (8# DBs)
- Plie & squeeze (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, holding DBs in front of thighs with palms facing in front of you, lower into plie squat and hold isometrically while you extend arms out to sides in a T then pull elbows behind ribs, push elbows back out to a T, as you lower arms/DBs raise out of squat) (5# DBs)
- Heel lift & squeeze (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, lower into a wide plie squat and hold isometrically, arms are extended out to sides in a T, raise one heel while also pulling elbow of same side arm into ribs, lower heel while pushing arm back out to side, repeat on other side of body) (5# DBs)
- Plie pulse (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, hold a DB in each hand, arms/DBs hang between legs, lower into squat and pulse) (25# DBs)
- Heel clicks (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, lower into squat, jump out of squat clicking heels together)
- Repeat #1-5 two more times
30 second rest
Circuit 2:
- Chest press bicycle (lay on back with legs raised and knees bent at 90 degrees, do chest press while doing bicycle maneuver with legs) (25# DBs)
- Side clam & kick (lay on side on one hip and same side elbow, top arm is holding a DB and extended straight to ceiling, lift hips while opening top knee while also keeping soles of feet together, hold this position and kick top leg straight, bend knee again bringing soles of feet together again, close knees and lower hips back to mat) (one #10# DB)
- Repeat #2 on other side of body
- Single leg rocket push up (do a push up while lifting one leg up behind you, lower foot back to mat as you push back up to plank then push glutes back to heels while keeping knees elevated off mat, alternate legs when doing the push up)
- Climber hop & press (start in plank with a DB in each hand, do 4 mountain climbers then jump feet into hands/DBs, stand and do a hammer curl into an overhead press) (16.5# DBs)
- Repeat #1-5 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.
