Cathe Live Review: Bands & Bodyweight Travel Workout (#150)
Bands & Bodyweight Travel Workout is a cardio and strength workout set up in rounds. This was a really good cardio challenge and I enjoyed it. As the title says it is also great for travel as you just need resistance bands for this routine.
The workout is a mix of cardio and higher rep muscle endurance exercises. Each round consists of two cardio drills, some of which also use the resistance loop or band. These are then followed by a few strength exercises for lower, upper and / or core. Many of these are compound moves and some have a good cardio effect too. This really helps to keep the heart rate up throughout and I was pretty drenched by the end.
The cardio moves are generally straight forward plyometric type moves and are done for just the right amount of time to get you breathing a little harder without exhausting you. You don’t repeat any of the drills so there is lots of variety here and I really enjoyed these moves.
The strength work is generally all high rep with various rep patterns, including lots of pulsing. These exercises are either using your own bodyweight or using added resistance with loops, bands or tubing. You will definitely be feeling some of these and it gave my body a different kind of challenge than just using dumbbells. The shoulder pumps, with the loop around the wrists, was as usual absolutely brutal! Some of the moves though I felt were a little awkward, for example, the bicep curl / overhead press move with the band. I find these very difficult with my band so I just substituted dumbbells here instead.
Overall, this is a fun and different workout that was very varied and just flew by. It’s always good to work your body in different ways and this was a nice cardio and strength challenge without using heavy weights. As mentioned, it’s also a great one for travel – as it requires very little equipment.
(For more information about Cathe Live, how to sign up & to see all of my Cathe Live reviews, click HERE).
The Workout
Bands & Bodyweight Travel Workout is cardio and strength workout consisting of seven rounds. Each round includes two cardio drills and a number of strength moves for lower, upper and core. Cathe used a medium tension resistance loop, band and tubing. As I don’t like using the tubing, I used the band and loop only and had no issues.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Bands & Bodyweight Travel Workout is 59 minutes long and originally aired on 25th May 2017 (#150). The workout starts with a 4:30 minute warm-up before moving straight into the first cardio drill. Cardio moves shown in bold italics below. All of the resistance band exercises below are high rep with varying rep patterns (pulsing etc).
Round 1
Plyo jacks – 24 reps
Fast scissors over band – 12 sets of 4 reps
Forward leaning lunges – 30 reps
Bicep curls (both feet on band) – resistance band – 4 reps & 28x pulses
2 bicep curls / 1 overhead press - resistance band (I used two 10# dumbbells) – 4 sets
1 bicep curl / 3 overhead press - resistance band (I used two 10# dumbbells) – 5 sets
1 bicep curl / 1 overhead press - resistance band (I used two 10# dumbbells) – 4 sets
Bicep curls – resistance band – 30x pulses
Elbow plank & rotate to side plank (alternating sides) – mat – 16 reps
Round 2
Line taps – 56 reps
Lateral hops down the band x4 then jog back – 9 sets
Plie pulses & small hops / plie pulses with heel raises – lots of reps
Push-ups – mat - 20 reps (down 3 / up 1 then singles)
Russian twists – resistance band & mat
Round 3
Plie jacks – 4 sets of 7 reps
Travel twisting hops / jacks – 6 sets
Squat kick, squat lunge – 8 reps, 8x squats & 8 reps (other side)
Shoulder circles – resistance tubing – 32 reps
Upright rows – resistance tubing – 8 reps
Shoulder circles the other way – resistance tubing – 32 reps
Wide upright rows – resistance tubing – 10 reps
1 leg sit-ups (straight arms with loop around hands & sit-ups raising 1 leg at a time) – resistance loop – 28 reps
Round 4
Jump forward, back and 2 attacks – 8 sets
Jacks and scissors – 2 sets
Pendulum lunges pulsing forward and back – 5 sets of 4’s, 4 sets of 2’s & 8x singles
Tricep kickbacks (straight arms & bent arms) – resistance tubing – lots of reps (pulsing & singles)
Leg thrusters – mat – 28 reps & 32 reps
Round 5
4 jacks / 4 air jacks – 4 sets
Lateral skates – resistance band – 64 reps
Side squats with posture pulls with loop & band – resistance band & loop – 24 reps
Shoulder pumps (loop around wrists & pulling arms apart) – resistance loop – lots of reps
Reverse crunches (band over legs) – resistance band
Round 6
T-jumps – 6 sets
Shuffle, shuffle, drop – 20 reps
W curls – resistance band – 8 reps & 16x pulses
1 arm bicep curl – resistance band – 16 reps each side
Tricep push-ups – mat – 8 reps (on toes) & 2 sets of 4x partials (on knees)
Side plank clam extensions – mat – 20 reps each side
Round 7
High reaching pop squats (2 & 10 o'clock) – resistance loop – 12 reps & 16 reps
4 reaching tap outs / jacks / jump rope – 4 sets
Side steps & walking forward / back on an angle – resistance loop
Outer thigh presses (lying on back, loop around ankles - legs straight up in air and pull band apart) – resistance loop – 32 reps
Outer thigh presses with band (same as above but with band around feet) – resistance band – 14 reps, 7x pulses & 2x 3 pulses
T-band pulls – resistance band & mat – 14 reps & 2x 7 pulses
Y-pulls – resistance band & mat – 16 reps
Supermans (loop around ankles & band in hands. Lie on front and pull feet and hands apart as you raise up) – resistance loop, band & mat
Flutter kicks (resistance loop around ankles) – resistance loop & mat
The workout ends with a very brief 2 minute cool down and stretch. Unfortunately, Cathe didn’t really stretch out the upper body so I added my own stretches on the end again.
Take Action
Try it today! Find out more about how to subscribe and to check out all of my Cathe Live Reviews - click HERE.
If you liked this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Fit Tower Inferno – HERE.
If you enjoyed this review, please share it using the links below.