The lower body day arrives with a lunge you have not met yet and a hip exercise to sit beside it. Four 15-second intervals - lunges on the right, side leg raises on the right, lunges on the left, side leg raises on the left - three, five or seven sets, one minute of rest. Both halves of the session stay on one side before switching.
The lunge here is the forward-stepping version: step out, drop the rear knee toward the floor, push back to standing, repeat. Unlike the reverse lunge of Day 2 or the fixed split lunge of Day 10, this one travels forward, which loads the front leg on the way in as well as on the way up. The side leg raise then shifts the work to the outer hip - standing tall, the leg sweeps out to the side and returns under control. It is the smallest movement in the session and the one that keeps your pelvis level every time you take a step in real life.
Step far enough forward that your front knee stays behind your toes, and push back off the front heel rather than the toes. On side leg raises, stay upright and resist the urge to lean away from the lifting leg - the height of the raise matters far less than the hip doing the raising. Keep the toes pointing forward, not up.
Big movement, small movement, same hip - and the small one is the one you will feel tomorrow.
Make it Harder: Keep the raised foot off the floor between reps for the whole side leg raise interval - no touching down until the fifteen seconds are up.
Make it Easier: Hold onto a chair back for the side leg raises and take the lunges to a comfortable depth.
