Cathe Live Review: Fit Tower – Cardio Legs (#167)
Fit Tower – Cardio Legs is a fantastic, tough cardio and strength workout for the lower body. I loved this workout and felt I got a really good lower body challenge too.
The routine consists of rounds of barre based cardio drills then barre lower body exercises followed by weighted lower body moves using dumbbells. The workout ends with a few high rep isolation moves, including on the floor. There is so much variety in this workout that even though it is pretty high rep the time flew by. You are moving quickly from one thing to the next, working your lower body in all different ways and providing different types of challenges. The different training approaches also provide some respite, for the legs, so they can recover a little, particularly from the barre based work, as some of these are really tough! I really enjoyed this workout and unlike some of her barre workouts she does not rep you out to utter agony – so there is no real dread factor here. Although Cathe uses a Fit Tower for this routine, I don’t have one and managed with a chair with no issues. The only modifications I had to make were with the floorwork but you can easily just do these moves on the floor or with a stability ball / step (more details given below).
The cardio moves are barre-based cardio, often holding the Fit Tower, or using the resistance loop around the ankles. They are all familiar Cathe moves if you have done any of her other Barre / Fit Tower workouts. The use of the resistance loop also adds to the lower body work and some of them are quite high rep so they do get the heart rate up nicely. I found the whole workout fairly metabolic, as you are moving quite quickly from one thing to the next, and as you are using the lower body you are also using larger muscle groups thereby increasing the calorie burn.
The strength work is a really nice mix of barre and weighted exercises and worked the lower body effectively. For the barre exercises you do one side and then the other. The isolation moves at the end of the workout were pretty tough. I particularly struggled on the one leg glute squeezes – my muscles were already so fatigued from all the other exercises and there are just so many reps…!
(One further note on the strength work, unfortunately Cathe doesn’t always do the same number of reps on each side. So if you are following Cathe, your right leg often gets a few more reps than the left so you may wish to switch starting sides sometimes or add on the extra!)
Overall, this is an excellent lower body cardio and strength workout that really works the body well. I will definitely be returning to this one often.
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The Workout
Fit Tower – Cardio Legs is a lower body cardio and strength workout consisting of rounds of cardio and lower body exercises using the barre and dumbbells. Cathe also uses a resistance loop for some of the cardio and strength moves. If you don’t have a Fit Tower you can easily substitute a chair instead. I also used a high step for some of the mat work but you could always do these on the floor if you don't want to use a step.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Fit Tower – Cardio Legs is 63 minutes long and originally aired on 28th September 2017 (#167). The workout starts with a 6 minute barre-based warm-up with the Fit Tower, bar at hole number 8 or hip height (or a chair), followed by a quick water break before moving into the first cardio drill. (For equipment below I just mention the Fit Tower where you can substitute a chair. Where you need other modifications I have detailed them below). Cardio moves shown in bold italics below.
Plie pulls (jumping) – one hand on Fit Tower - 48 reps & 40 reps
High & tight (feet in second position – heels together) – Fit Tower - 6x 7 pulses, 8x 1.5’s, 1x 15 pulses
Lateral walks (4 walks to each side) – two 10# dumbbells – 8 reps
Lunge to squat (jumping) – one hand on Fit Tower - 2 sets of 20 reps
Straight leg lifts & inner thigh lifts – Fit Tower - 32 reps of each then repeat on other side
Walking lunges & plie pulses – two 12# dumbbells – 8 sets
Plie jacks – resistance loop around ankles & one hand on Fit Tower – 2 sets of 32 reps
Firewalkers (side steps) – resistance loop around the ankles – 4 steps & singles
High & tight pulses / high & tight butterfly pulses – resistance loop around thighs & Fit Tower
Power scissors – one hand on Fit Tower - 3 sets of 16 reps
Outer thigh lifts with arms circles – Fit Tower
Push dips – one 12# dumbbell & Fit Tower – 4x 7 pulses, 4x 1.5’s, 8x 0.5’s (you don’t come up). For the 2nd set you add another 16 pulses on the end.
Jacks & fast angled scissors – resistance loop around ankles – 24 jacks then 8x jacks / 8x scissors for 4 sets
Hamstring kickbacks / hamstring lifts (toe pointed & bring leg towards the glutes) – resistance loop (around ankle & bottom of one foot) & Fit Tower – 32 reps of each & 8 reps alternating
Single leg deadlifts – two 10# dumbbells (I used 12’s) – 12 reps each side
Crisscross jacks – one hand on Fit Tower – 2 sets of 20 reps
High & tight crossback lunges – Fit Tower – 24 reps, 16 reps, 16 reps (1st set) 32 reps, 16 reps & 8 reps (2nd set)
Crossback lunges – one 10# dumbbell & Fit Tower
Isolation Exercises
High hip pulses – Fit Tower – 32x pulses, 6 sets forward & back & 16x pulses (for 2nd set add another 16 pulses on the end)
Calf raises – Fit Tower- 56 reps (feet together & alternating both feet & 1 tucked behind the other) / 32 reps (heels together) / 32 reps (toes in)
Move to mat (Fit Tower at hole 3)
Outer thigh lifts – leaning on Fit Tower & one knee (alternatively you can do these on the floor (like I did) or leaning on a stability ball) – 40 reps (toe pointed), 32 reps (toe flexed) & 24x kick outs (2nd set you add another 8 kick outs)
Glute squeezes – feet on Fit Tower (hole number 1. I used a high step with 2 risers but you can do these with feet on floor if not)
Hip pulses – feet on Fit tower as above
1 leg raises – one foot on Fit Tower – tons of these!
The workout ends with a 2:30 minute cool down and stretch using the Fit Tower (bar at hole number 8) or a chair.
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