Cathe Live Review: Cardio Leg Block Party
Cardio Leg Block Party is another excellent cardio and strength workout, focusing on the lower body. Recently, Cathe is really excelling at producing fun and effective lower body workouts that I just love! (Being that I am not a huge fan of lower body workouts – that is saying something!)
This routine consists of three blocks of cardio and lower body strength exercises – hence the name. The workout starts with a very active warm up that includes a few cardio intervals, which Cathe usually includes as low impact hiit drills in other workouts, (although slightly less aggressively here) so your heart rate really starts to rise even before you start the main workout.
The cardio is hi-lo type cardio, however, it is not difficult choreography – it tends to be just a few moves strung together in a little combo, which is then repeated starting on the other side. They are also all very familiar Cathe moves so nothing too complex here. I found these really fun and they got my heart rate up nicely.
The strength work is three or four exercises that are then repeated before going back to cardio. These were also pretty metabolic and my heart rate stayed elevated throughout the workout. I was definitely drenched by the end! The lower body exercises use dumbbells and a barbell, however, as I don’t like using a barbell, I used dumbbells throughout and had no issues. A high step is also used for some of the exercises and you can substitute a full size step here if you don’t have one. The lower body work is quite fast paced but generally not too high rep, often 10 – 16 reps, so you can go reasonably heavy on these (and you can always slow down the moves if you need to). I felt the work but it was never to the point of failure.
The workout ends with a fun low impact cardio cool down from LITE Cardio Party (for a detailed review of this workout click HERE or for information on the full LITE series click HERE), including mambos, V-steps, 1 arm speedbags etc before moving into the stretch segment.
Overall, I really loved this workout. It was great fun and worked my lower body nicely. I would count it more as a cardio / metabolic routine than a real strength workout for the lower body. However, if you are using it in your rotation in conjunction with more targeted strength work, for the lower body, this makes a really great addition.
(In case you are not familiar with Cathe Live – it is a streaming service from veteran fitness professional Cathe Friedrich, where she provides access to her live classes filmed at her gym in Jersey. Currently, there are over 250 workouts available in the archive, which you can access at any time and a new class is recorded nearly every week. More details are provided at the end of this article).
The Workout
Cardio Leg Block Party is a cardio and lower body strength workout consisting of three blocks. Each block consists of approx. 3-4 minutes of hi-lo cardio and 3 or 4 lower body exercises (these are repeated once). Cathe and crew used dumbbells, a barbell and high step (I just used dumbbells and the high step). If you don’t have a high step, you can easily substitute a full sized step, with 3 risers each side.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Cardio Leg Block Party is 55 minutes long and originally aired on 30th May 2019 (#250). The workout starts with an active 9:30 minute warm-up, which includes quite a few cardio moves, including ice breakers (lifting on toes), line taps and jacks, before moving straight into the first cardio sequence that starts with jacks. Cathe has a barbell supposedly set with one medium and one large plate (35#), however, in reality, hers also has a small plate on each side making a total of 40#. She only realises half way through the workout – so you can choose if you want to follow the class or Cathe’s weight. Cathe stays with 40# throughout but the class increase to 40# for the last strength block only (for both sets of deadlifts).
Block 1
Jacks
Twist travel & 4 jacks
Jacks
Low kicks & knees up (hopping)
Jacks & angle scissors
Half time scissors & single scissors (travelling)
2 heels (arms up) / 2 heels (speedbag arms) / knee smashes
Insoles up / hamstring curls / high kicks
Squats off side of step – one 15# dumbbell & step with 3 risers – 16 reps (2nd set – 12 reps)
Static lunge – two 15# dumbbells – 16 reps (2nd set – 12 reps)
Squats – 35# barbell (I used 20# dbs) – 1.5’s & singles (2nd set – 4/4 & 2/2 counts)
Side lunges (putting down & picking up dbs) – two 10# dumbbells – 10 reps (2nd set – 8 reps)
Repeat strength moves above
Water break (at 22:30 minutes)
Block 2
Heels together - hopping
3 Side leaps & 1 jack
3 Power hops forward & 4 block jacks back
Puddle jumpers / lateral skates
Repeat on the other side
Plie squats – 35# barbell (I used 20# dbs) – 16 singles, 4x 1.5’s, 4x 1.5(3x) & 8 singles (2nd set – 24 singles & 4x 1.5’s (x3))
Marching sumo squats (turning 360 degrees one way & other) – one 15# dumbbell
Push dips – two 10# dumbbells & step with 1 riser – 12 reps each side
Repeat strength moves above
Water break (at 35:30 minutes)
Block 3
Jump rope / double hops / single jogs / hike knee on 4 / rock pendulum to front
Pendulum (side to side)
Pony
Shuffle (arms – hip to hip) & turn
Shuffle (arms - corner to corner)
Jump rope
Repeat starting on other side
Deadlifts – 40# barbell (I used 20# dbs) – 12 reps
Front lunges – two 12# dumbbells – 12 reps each side (2nd set – 10 reps)
Wide deadlifts – 40# barbell (I used 20# dbs) – 12 reps
Rear lunges off the step – two 12# dumbbells & step with 3 risers – 12 reps
Repeat strength moves above
Cardio Party Cool Down – 3 minutes
Walk forward (x4) & tap / walk forward (x4) & knee lift (sweeping arms up)
3 V-steps & 1 step knee / V-step forward & back, shuffle
Mambo cha cha to front & back
1 Arm speed bag to front & 2 steps back
Repeater knee to front
Repeat starting on the other side
The workout ends with a 2:30 minute stretch.
Take Action
Try it today! Cathe Live is a streaming service available from Cathe.com – you can subscribe to monthly ($9.99 pm), six monthly or yearly plans and has over 250 live workouts in the archive for you to access at any time.
If you liked this workout, check out my review of Cardio Leg Crush – HERE.
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