Cathe Live Review: Fit Tower Total Body w Weights (#171)

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Cathe Live Review: Fit Tower Total Body w Weights (#171)

Fit Tower Total Body w Weights is pure strength total body workout using the Fit Tower. This was a great routine and worked my muscles well.

Cathe and class use a Fit tower for this workout, as I don’t have one, I used a chair and just made a few modifications, using dumbbells in place of chin-ups / pull-ups, and altered a few of the core moves. All modifications are shown in ‘The Moves’ section below.

I really enjoyed this workout so don’t be put off if you don’t have a Fit Tower. This one isn’t quite as brutal as some of Cathe’s other Fit Tower / barre workouts, as it is not quite as high rep, but I still got a great workout. Cathe uses dumbbells, a resistance band and your own bodyweight to challenge all of the different muscle groups. The workout alternates groups of lower body exercises with those for upper body so you have a chance to recover a little in between. I enjoyed the variety of the different moves and the workout flew by as you move quickly from one thing to the next. This also kept the workout a little metabolic throughout.

The lower body exercises are a mix of barre-type exercises and more traditional lower body exercises using dumbbells. The upper body exercises mainly use the band and your own bodyweight with just a few exercises using the dumbbells. This isn’t completely comprehensive strength training, for the upper body, as you don’t do enough exercises for each body part to really fatigue it but Cathe does hit every muscle group, at least once, so it provides more moderate toning.

The workout ends with a short core section. This was also less challenging than Cathe usual tough core sections as you get breaks, in between the exercises, and they are not done for as many reps as she usually does. This was just a nice lighter core section to finish out the routine.

Overall, this was a really nice and effective total body workout that will provide a nice challenge without totally burning out your muscles. As it’s not as high rep - there is definitely no dread factor here and it is a great and different way to work your whole body.

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The Workout

Fit Tower Total Body w Weights is a pure strength workout, for the whole body, using the Fit Tower, dumbbells and a medium tension resistance band. The workout starts alternating groups of exercises for lower and upper body and ends with a core section on the floor. If you don’t have a Fit Tower, you can use a chair, dumbbells, resistance band and a step (optional).

What You Need to Know

(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).

The Moves

Fit Tower Total Body w Weights is 55 minutes long and originally aired on 2nd November 2017 (#171). The workout starts with an 8:30 minute warm-up using the Fit Tower or chair. Below I have only listed the Fit Tower as equipment but you can also use a chair like I did. I have detailed below where I made modifications for not having a Fit Tower.

The Fit Tower bar is set to hole No. 8 at the start of the workout.

Lower Body

• Push dips – one 12# dumbbell & Fit Tower – 16 reps, 1x 15 pulses & 2x 7 pulses (2nd side has 20 reps to start)

• Deadlifts – two 15# dumbbells (I used 20’s) – 16 reps (2/2 & 3/1 counts)

• High & tight (feet together) – Fit Tower – 4x 15 pulses & 22 pulses

Chest & Triceps

Change Fit Tower bar to hole No. 4

• Tricep dips – Fit Tower (I did these on the step with 3 risers but you could do them on the seat of the chair) – 12 reps & 4x 7 pulses

• Band pull downs - resistance band looped over top of Fit Tower (I used the band & did lat pull downs) – 8 reps, 4x 7 pulses & 24 pulses

• Tricep dips – Fit Tower (I did these on the step with 3 risers) – 16 reps & 2x 7 pulses

• Band pull downs - resistance band looped over top of Fit Tower (I used the band & did lat pull downs) – 8 reps, 1x 15 pulses & 2x 7 pulses

• Incline push-ups – Fit Tower bar at hole No. 3 (I did these on the step with 3 risers but you could do them on the floor) – 16 reps

• Incline push-ups – Fit Tower bar at hole No. 2 (I did these on the step with 2 risers) – 16 reps

• Incline push-ups – Fit Tower bar at hole No. 1 (I did these on the step with 1 riser) – 12 reps

Lower Body

Change Fit Tower bar to hole No. 8

• High & tight in second position (heels together) - Fit Tower – 4x 15 pulses, 16 reps & 2x 8 reps

• Crossback lunges – one 15# dumbbell – 2x 15 pulses, 4x 7 pulses, 4x 3 pulses, 8 singles & 1x 15 pulses

Back, Chest & Biceps

• Chin-ups (underhand grip) – Fit Tower (I used two 15# dumbbells & did bicep curls) – 16 reps

• Sweeping curls – two 15# dumbbells – 12 reps

• Chin-ups (underhand grip) – Fit Tower (I used two 15# dumbbells & did bicep curls) – 8 reps & 6 reps

• W Curls – two 12 # dumbbells – 8 reps

• Pull-ups (overhand grip) – Fit Tower bar at hole No. 7 (I used two 15# dumbbells & did Dead Rows) – 3 sets of 8 reps

• T Band pulls – band & mat – 16 reps

• Y's with Band – band & mat – 14 reps

• Pull-ups (overhand grip) – Fit Tower (I used two 15# dumbbells & did Dead Rows) – 10 reps

Lower & Upper Body

• Lateral plie walks – two 10# dumbbells – 8 sets

• Push press (single arms) – two 10# dumbbells – 8 reps, 4x 3 pulses & 8 reps

• Push press (both arms) – two 10# dumbbells – 3 sets of 3 pushes

• Rear lunge & 1 arm lateral raise (all reps on one side at a time) – one 8# dumbbell & Fit Tower – 4 sets x3 lat raises & 4 singles

• Chest flys with leg extensions – two 15# dumbbells & mat – 16 reps & 4 sets of down 4, up 2, down 2

• Tricep push-ups (on knees) – mat – 10 reps (partials & 2/2 count)

Core at 45:10 minutes on the mat

Change Fit Tower bar to hole no. 6

• Sit-ups raising 1 leg at a time (band over top of FT & held in each hand) – resistance band & Fit Tower (I used a 10# dumbbell & did sit-ups raising the db to foot each time)

• Russian twists (band over top of FT & held in each hand) – resistance band & Fit Tower (I just used a 10# dumbbell held horizontally between the hands & twisted side to side)

• Over under crunches (lying on back, crunch knees in then extend legs over and under the FT bar) – Fit Tower bar at hole No. 3 (I did these on the mat just simulating the same move without the bar)

• Heel tap crunches (lying on your back, 1 leg resting on the bar, turn out foot on floor - lift & lower it to meet other foot) – Fit Tower (I just did these holding my top leg in the air)

• Straight arm plank toe taps (toes in under body) / knee-ins (knee to shoulder) / plank hold – hands on bar of Fit Tower (Cathe says hole No. 4 then change her mind to 3. I did these with my hands on the floor but you could use the step, if you wish)

The workout ends with a 2:45 minute cool down and stretch using the Fit Tower with the bar at hole No. 8 (I just used the chair).

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