Cathe Live Review: Hearts on Fire
Hearts on Fire is the Cathe Live workout filmed on Valentine’s Day so both Cathe and many of the class are decked out in red / pink / hearts etc. This is a pure cardio workout focused on three different cardio styles. The workout starts with kickboxing then moves into ten Hiit intervals before finishing off with Hi / Lo cardio. This was such a fun workout and offered a nice variety of different movement patterns so you never have the chance to get bored.
When I first previewed this workout, I thought this was going to be a pretty tough workout – having seen both burpees with frog style heel clicks and burpees with tuck jumps in it! However, when actually doing the workout it was far less intense than I expected. Don’t get me wrong it was a good workout and I was definitely breathing hard during the hiits but it just wasn’t the most intense workout I have done. The Hiit training is a combination of both high and low impact intervals and this helps to keep the workout a little more moderate. Also the pace is better – you are not going all out at a crazy pace and you do get a little breather in between the hiits to regroup. Best of all none of the hiits are repeated (except if you have to do them move starting on the other leg). Cathe also doesn’t rep you out on the intervals – just enough to be breathing hard but not enough to completely exhaust you! The moves are all straight forward so no choreography involved at all.
The workout starts with kickboxing. Cathe and some of the class are wearing boxing gloves but she says this is optional. I wore wrist weights and this helped to increase the intensity a little, as overall this is quite a light section. There are no real blasts, except in one combo you do the burpees with frog style heel clicks although there are not too many and they are a little slower than usual. In addition, most of the moves are not jumping moves unlike how Cathe often does it. So it was a little more moderate intensity. This section is a mix of punching and kicking moves – many are familiar from Cathe’s other workouts - Fit Split Boxing Bootcamp and LITE Rev’d Up Rumble (for a detailed review of Rev’d Up Rumble click HERE and for details on the whole LITE (Low Impact Training Extreme) Workout Series click HERE).
After a water break, you then move into the hiit drills. The final section is Hi / Lo cardio. This section is pretty much lifted straight from Cathe’s New Lite workout Cardio Party (for a detailed review of this workout click HERE). The moves are all very straight forward and the choreography is not too complex. This section was definitely the least intense of the workout. Cathe states that this section will start low then move into high and then back to low in order to cool down. However, I didn't really find that it ever really got to ‘high’ intensity – the main moves that got the heart rate up, a little in that section, were jack variations. The rest of the moves were not very intense.
Overall, this was a really fun cardio workout and I did enjoy it very much. However, it was definitely less intense than I was expecting and at only 45 minutes, I felt I wanted to do something else as well - so I followed it with Cathe Live: Leg Day and this was the perfect complement to this workout. (For a detailed review of Leg Day click HERE).
(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 230 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
Hearts on Fire is a solid cardio workout consisting of three different sections – kickboxing, hiit and Hi / Lo cardio. The only equipment you need for this workout is an optional pair of boxing gloves or wrist weights and a mat (this is optional too).
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Hearts on Fire is 45 minutes long and originally aired on 14th February 2019. The workout starts with a fairly low key 10 minute warm up. Cathe and crew then take a quick water break before getting into the main workout.
Kickboxing
The kickboxing consists of a number of different combos – often focusing more on punching or more on kicks rather than mixing the two together. Between the moves you are often jumping rope or shuffling. Cathe builds up the combos slowly so you have a chance to learn the moves and then you put them all together for a number of reps before moving onto the other side. The moves include:
Jabs
Jab, jab, over the top (repeat other side),
2 Slow hooks, upper, hook, upper, hook
Walk up & back x4 while punching
Wide stance burpee with heel clicks (starts with just standing at the top & changes to jumping while bringing the heels together)
Jabs
Double upper cuts
Flurry upper cuts
Speedbag
Double jab forward then 2 jump ropes
2 High jabs, 2 low cross punches
Jab, cross punch
Jab, cross, jab & jump switch
Jab, cross x5 fast & jump switch
Jacks & jack / jab
2 Lateral sumo squats
2 side steps & step together, side kick
Front kicks
Side kicks
Back kicks
At 20 minutes you get a water break, remove your gloves / wrist weights and get out a mat for the Hiit section. The mat is placed horizontally in front of you. (I don’t use a mat for these exercises, as I find that I am far more likely to trip on it than anything else. In addition, I don’t really think it’s necessary to do the workout effectively but this is obviously just a personal preference).
HiiT Intervals
Football run forward & back, touching the mat at each end
7 Knee repeater off each side of mat
Half circle shuffle sprints (shuffle, shuffle, drop circling around the mat)
Wide burpee & tuck jump – 10 reps
Galloping jacks
Lateral burpees (feet jump to one side then other) – 16 reps
Squat to lunge with little hops in between
Grapevine & 6 power scissors
Double pulse lunges
At 30 Minutes – water break and put the mat away.
Hi-Lo Cardio
Walk forward & back
Walk forward & back – adding a knee lift at front & back
V-step x 3 & step knee
V-step to front & V-step to back, shuffle to front
Mambo front & back
Repeater knee
1 Arm speedbag forward, punch & 2 steps back
Jacks (1/4 arms, circle arms & double jacks)
2 Heels while hopping & single swings
Double hops, changes to pony’s, change to single swing (hip to hip with arms) then corner to corner arms
Side steps
Chasse side to side
Grapevine x4 – side to side then angle forward & back
Side steps angled forward & back, add chasse at each end
Step, hamstring curls (singles & doubles)
Up & back
Step touches (singles & doubles)
The workout ends with a 2 minute cool down and 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 230 live workouts in the archive for you to access at any time.
If you enjoyed this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Hiit it, Strike it, Crunch it - HERE.
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Lots of fun. The Hi-Lo was lifted from Lite. A great lighter day workout!