Cathe Live Review: Bun Burners, Barre & Ball (#93)
Bun Burners, Barre & Ball is an intense and challenging lower body metabolic workout. Wow was this a tough and different routine and I absolutely loved it. This one also has quite a strong cardio effect and I was pretty soaked by the end.
This is a rather interesting and different lower body strength workout that doesn’t use dumbbells, at all, only your own bodyweight. Don’t let that fool you though my legs were burning out frequently during this one.
The workout consists of three main sections and starts with non-weighted metabolic strength exercises. These are fairly fast paced and really get your heart rate up as you are using big ranges of motion and high reps. I was already starting to feel my legs as there are only short rest breaks, between some of the exercises, and none between others. There are several long series of exercises that you just keep going, changing the move by adding pulses, singles or flowing straight into a different move all together. My only complaint here is that firstly the camera is not always on Cathe, it is constantly moving to the class and when she changes move you have to rely on the class to catch on and I find this a little frustrating. The second thing is that Cathe does a walking lunge series but rather than the usual four steps in one direction, it is eight steps, which I am sure most at home exercises do not have the space for. I certainly don’t and my gym space is a reasonable size so being that this is filmed for at home exercises it seems a little unnecessary to me. So I had to modify and do four steps and turn instead.
The second part of the routine is barre work. Cathe and class use a ballet barre but as I don’t have one or a Fit Tower, I used a chair with no issues. This section was absolutely brutal from the outset. The exercises are very high rep and the plie pulses burned out my legs so badly that they were really screaming by the end of second set and then Cathe says we are doing them again! However, the second set isn’t quite as bad, as you do come up a little in the squat and this helps.
The final section uses the stability ball on the floor. After the previous section, this actually wasn’t quite as rough as I was expecting. It is not quite so high rep but I felt my lower body was finished off nicely though.
Overall, an excellent and intense lower body routine that will burn out that lower body without picking up any weights.
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The Workout
Bun Burners, Barre & Ball is a lower body metabolic strength workout.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Bun Burners, Barre & Ball is 47 minutes long and originally aired on 17th March 2016 (#93). The workout starts with a 5:30 minute warm-up, before moving into the first non-weighted exercise.
Bun Burners – No Equipment
Step out squats (in squat; move one foot out to side 3x) – 8 sets each side
Squat & front kick x4 / hang squats & knee raise x4 – 4 sets (4 of each)
Press down squats (like air squats) – 16x plie position (toes out) & 16x plie position (toes forward)
Forward & back lunges (pendulum lunges) – 2 sets (pulsing x4) & 4 sets (pulsing x2)
Forward leaning lunge & knee lift (on one side only) / static pulse lunge – 16x forward leaning & 16x pulse lunge
Press down squats (like air squats) – 16x plie position (toes out) & 16x plie position (toes forward)
Forward & back lunges (other side) – 2 sets (pulsing x4) & 4 sets (pulsing x2)
Forward leaning lunge & knee lift (other side) / static pulse lunge (other side) – 16x forward leaning & 16x pulse lunge
Alternating side lunges / 4 alternating side lunges & 4 forward diagonal lunges – 12x side lunge & 5 sets (4 of each)
Walking lunges & plie pulses (2x 4 pulses, 2x 2 pulses, 4x singles & 8x plie pulse then turn) – 6 sets
Lunge kicks / static lunge pulses – 4 sets (1x 3 pulses & 2x singles), 4x singles & 24x pulse lunge (1st side). 4x 3 pulses, 8x singles, 2 sets (1x 3 pulses & 2x singles), 4x singles & 24x pulse lunge (2nd side)
Barre Work – Barre or Chair
Pulsing plie squats w/ heels raised – barre - 64 reps each side
Pulsing plie squats w/ heels raised & 1 arm pull downs – barre – 33 reps (1st side) & 32 reps (2nd side)
Crossback lunge & knee raise – barre – 32 reps (pulsing & singles) – 1st side. 36 reps (pulsing & singles) – 2nd side.
High hip pulses – barre – 32 reps
High hip pulses (moving forward x4 & back x4) – barre– 5 sets
High hip pulses (other side) – barre – 32 reps
High hip pulses (moving forward x4 & back x4 – other side) – barre – 5 sets
Straight leg raises (bend forward, hands on barre; raise & lower straight leg behind) – barre – 104 reps (toe pointed, flexed etc) – 1st side. 112 reps – 2nd side
Floor Work - Stability Ball
Hamstring roll-ins – ball & mat – 16 reps
Frog style hamstring roll-ins – ball & mat – 16 reps
1 Leg press hold / ball marching (marching feet on ball) / hamstring roll-ins – ball & mat – 1 leg hold each side, 10x march & 8x roll-ins
Ball toss (lay on back, legs straight in air in V position; toss & catch ball between ankles) – ball & mat – 12 reps
Ball rotations (same position as above; hold ball between ankles & rotate slowly in one direction then other) – ball & mat - 8 reps
Ball knee squeeze (sitting up & ball between knees) – ball & mat – 48x singles & 6x 4 pulses
Outer thigh lifts (leaning on ball) – ball & mat (I used ankle weights instead of ball) – 32x toe pointed, 32x flex & 32x point & flex each side
The workout ends with a 2 minute cool down and stretch.
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If you liked this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Rock Bottoms & Core (#110) – HERE.
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