Cathe Live Review: All About Legs (#3)
All About Legs is a really fun, metabolic strength workout focused on the lower body with a few cardio blasts mixed in.
I absolutely love this routine – it is one of my all-time favourite Cathe Lives. It’s not the toughest workout but does have tons of variety and even though it is over an hour long, the time just flies by. I felt I got a good workout and that all areas of the lower body were hit nicely. This one reminds me of Cathe’s XTrain Legs workout, which is also a really good routine, however, the DVD is a much tougher routine than this one.
The workout consists of six different sections each using different equipment. The routine starts with alternating strength exercises, using 10 pound dumbbells, with cardio intervals. There are only three intervals, each of which you do three sets. There are also two intervals, using the resistance loop, later on but that is all of the cardio moves. Therefore, I would hesitate to call it a real cardio and strength workout, as the cardio moves just to get the heart rate up a little rather than provide a real cardio challenge.
You then move onto two exercises using dixie cups (you can always use light weights or other small objects, if you don’t have any). Next you put the resistance loop around the ankles for a mix of strength moves and cardio moves, including jacks and plie jacks. The fourth section uses a gliding device, for a number of different gliding based exercises, before getting out the ballet barre (or I used a chair instead) for the fifth section, which is barre work for the lower body. The barre exercises were all reasonably high rep moves and Cathe had a little trouble with counting here so the two sides of the body are not always worked evenly. I have noted the differences below. You also use the resistance loop again here for hamstring kickbacks and curls. This section I felt worked the legs the hardest but none of it is too challenging.
The workout ends with stability ball work on the floor, including outer thigh lifts, hamstring roll-ins, knee squeeze and ball toss.
(My only issue with this routine is that there are such long breaks between the Barre work and the rest of the workout, as the class have to get out and put away the ballet barre and it takes them forever. So you can either fast forward here or do some jumping jacks, like I did, to stop the body from cooling down too much).
Overall, this is a really nice, long feel-good workout for the lower body, using a wide variety of different equipment. This is one I return to often and particularly when I need a bit of a ‘pick-me-up’ kind of workout.
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The Workout
All About Legs is a metabolic strength workout for the lower body incorporating standing and floorwork.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
All About Legs is 69 minutes long and originally aired on 22nd May 2014 (#3). The workout starts with an 11 minute warm-up, before moving into the first strength exercise using the dumbbells. Cardio moves shown in bold italics below. (For the barre work I only list the barre for equipment but know that you can substitute a chair here instead).
Standing Lower Body
Squats (holding one Db horizontally in hands) – one 10# Db – 15 reps
Pop squats - 3 sets of 8 reps
Squat press – two 10# Dbs – 4x singles, 4x 3 pulses, 8x 1 arm, 2x 3 pulses & 4x 1 arm
Jump forward & back / 2 jumps in place - 3 sets of 4 reps
Lateral plie walks – two 10# Dbs – 8 sets
Plie jacks - 3 sets of 16 reps
Static lunges – two 10# Dbs – 6x 2/2, 8x singles, 4x 1.5’s, 8x singles & 1x 15 pulses each side
Side lunge to curtsy lunge – two dixie cups – 13 sets each side
Alternating forward leaning lunges – two dixie cups – 16 reps, 8 sets (hand to hips) & 8 reps (hand to quad)
Jacks - resistance loop (around ankles) – 32 reps
Side steps x4 / walk forward & back on diagonal x4 - resistance loop
Jacks - resistance loop (around ankles) – 24 reps
Side steps x4 / walk forward & back on diagonal x4 - resistance loop
Jacks – resistance loop - 8 reps
Tap outs / jacks – resistance loop – 16 reps / 16 jacks / 16 reps (other side)
Jump forward & back / 2 plie jacks – resistance loop – 6 sets & 8 reps (plie jacks only)
Side slide lunges – one gliding device – 16 reps each side
Crossback lunges – one gliding device – 2x 15 pulses, 2x 7 pulses, 4x 3 pulses & 8x singles (1st side). 2x 15 pulses, 4x 7 pulses, 4x 3 pulses & 8x singles (2nd side).
Warrior lunges – one gliding device – 1x 4/4, 6x 2/2, 1x 4/4 & 6x 2/2 counts on each side
Long water break & get out barre or chair at 40:05 minutes
Barre Lower Body at 42:10 minutes
Side kicks – barre – 12x 2 kicks, 8x 3 kicks, 16x straight kicks (holding leg out to side) & 32x fast kicks (1st side). 12x 2 kicks, 8x 3 kicks, 4x straight kicks (holding leg out to side) & 48x fast kicks (2nd side).
Calf raises – barre – 16x singles & 58x pulses down. 8x singles, 16x 1 leg, 20x other leg & 32 fast pulses up
Hamstring press (toe flexed) / hamstring curls (toe pointed) – resistance loop (around ankle & under 1 foot) & barre – 40 reps (press) / 32 rep (curl) & 8x 3 pulses (curl) each side
Straight leg lifts / inner thigh lifts (tilt toe outwards) – barre – 32x point, 30x flex, 32x inner thigh & 16x pt & flex (1st side). 48x point, 32x flex, 32x inner thigh & 32x pt & flex (2nd side).
High & tight (feet facing forward, legs together & up on toes – pulse down) – barre – 63x pulses, 8x down / up & 4x 3 pulses
Long water break, put barre or chair away & get out mat for floorwork (have ball handy) at 58:50 minutes
Floorwork With Stability Ball at 60:50 minutes
Outer thigh raises – stability ball (I used ankle weights instead of stability ball) & mat – 32x point, 32x flex & 16x point & flex (hands off the ball) – 1st side. 32x point, 40x flex & 16x point & flex (hands off) – 2nd side.
Hamstring roll-ins – stability ball & mat - 3 sets 16 reps (for last 2 sets - last 8 reps of each are fast)
Ball knee squeeze – stability ball & mat – 48x singles, 8x 3 pulses & 16x singles
Ball toss (lay on back & raise legs straight to ceiling.; toss ball & catch between feet) – stability ball & mat - 11 reps & 7x 3 count hold
Ball rotations (with ball between feet from above, rotate legs slowly from one side to other) – stability ball & mat – 8 reps
The workout ends with a 2:30 minute cool down and stretch using the ball.
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If you liked this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Lower Body Confusion (#203) – HERE.
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