Cathe Live Review: Booty Max (#193)
Booty Max is a strength endurance workout focusing on the lower body. This is an amazing and tough routine that really worked me hard. This routine is tough from a leg endurance perspective but also provides a pretty good metabolic / cardio challenge too, even though there are no actual cardio moves included. Throughout the workout, you are moving pretty quickly from one thing to the next and some of the exercises are also done at a faster pace so that heart rate stays elevated the whole time. I was completely drenched at the end of this workout and pretty fatigued too!
The workout consists of four rounds of three exercises, which are then repeated, once more, before moving onto the next round. The routine includes the use of a high step, for some of the exercises, and this serves to increase the intensity a little further too.
All of the exercises are pretty challenging and the moves using the barbell are also very high rep. The rep counts for the other moves vary from 12 – 20 reps or more. Many of the exercises also use varying tempos and rep patterns so it keeps you focused even when you are doing lots of reps. I really felt the push dips – there were so many pulses at the end that I was starting to feel it in my knees and not in a good way. In future, I might substitute elevated lunges here instead. I also felt this workout rather a lot in my lower back, as there are a lot of deadlifts and moves that challenge the lower back all in quick succession. This wasn’t the most fun lower body workout I have done but you will definitely be feeling the work.
Cathe and class use moderate to heavy weights, including a barbell and various dumbbells. I just used dumbbells and substituted a kettlebell for the barbell during plie squats. I only increased my weights on one exercise (shown below) and could not have increased further, on anything, as I was really feeling it. The tempo, for some exercises, is also quite fast so you may need to slow them down a little if you want to go heavier.
Overall, this was a very challenging workout - not necessarily the most enjoyable - but definitely highly effective. So if you are looking for a workout to fry your lower body and work up a bit of a sweat then this could be the perfect workout.
(**Update: I was still feeling the DOMs from this workout three days later!!)
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The Workout
Booty Max is a strength endurance workout for the lower body with a strong cardio effect. The routine consists of four rounds of three exercises that are each repeated before moving onto the next round. Cathe and class use a barbell, dumbbells and a high step. The barbell is set at 30 pounds at the start of the workout and increases to 40 pounds for deadlifts. If you don’t have a high step -you can use a full size step here. Also I don’t like to use a barbell so I used dumbbells and a kettlebell instead.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Booty Max is 54 minutes long and originally aired on 12th April 2018 (#193). The workout starts with a long 11 minute warm-up, including a traditional Cathe warm-up and then you pick up dumbbells, to start doing some lower body exercises, to warm you up a little further. These moves are also detailed below so you know which weights are used for each. You will need to have your barbell and dumbbells nearby (Cathe’s barbell starts at 30 pounds) and the high step, with 3 risers, off to one side.
Extended Warm-up Weighted Moves
Pivoting sumo squats – one 15# dumbbell
Squat toss – one 10# dumbbell
Calf raises & back lunges – two 15# dumbbells
Round 1
Squats – 30# barbell (I used two 15# dumbbells) – lots of reps with varying tempo / rep patterns
Static lunge – two 15# dumbbells – 16 reps
Alternating side lunges – two 10# dumbbells – 20 reps
Repeat Above Moves
Round 2
Step ups – two 12# dumbbells & high step with 3 risers – 16 reps
Plie squats – 30# barbell (I used 35# kettlebell) – lots of reps with varying tempo / rep patterns
Leg abduction & front swing – one 8# dumbbell (I used 1x10) & high step with 3 risers – 16 reps
Repeat Above Moves
Round 3
Push dips – two 12# dumbbells & high step with 1 riser - 16 singles & 2x 7 pulses
Diagonal lunges – two 12# dumbbells – 16 reps each side
Deadlifts (2/2 & 3/1 counts) – 40# barbell (I used two 20# dumbbells) – 12 reps (1st set), 16 reps (2nd set – with feet close together)
Repeat Above Moves
Round 4
Squat off side of step – one 15# dumbbell & high step with 3 risers – 16 reps each side
Wide stance deadlifts – 40# barbell (I used two 20# dumbbells) – 14 reps (1st set), 16 reps (2nd set – with legs in position of your choice – Cathe does narrow legs again)
Crossback lunges – one 15# dumbbell – 16 singles & 2x 7 pulses (1st set), 12 singles, 4x 3 pulses, 2x 7 pulses, 2x 15 pulses & 8 singles (2nd set)
Repeat Above Moves
The workout ends with a 3:30 minute cool down and stretch.
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If you enjoyed this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Oh My Glutes - HERE.
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