Cathe Live Review: Legs Express: Moderate Weight (#323)
Legs Express: Moderate Weight is a highly enjoyable and metabolic lower body strength workout. This is yet another fantastic workout from Cathe Live that I really loved! It was so much fun and the time flies by, as there is no repetition and lots of variety. Obviously, I would have loved for it to be longer, as it’s only 36 minutes, but even so it was still a wonderful routine.
The workout consists of two sections – the first section includes lots of different standing lower body strength exercises and the second section is all floorwork. I loved the variety of this routine and using moderate weights was a nice change, as I have been doing a lot of heavier weight lower body routines recently. Cathe used 10 to 15 pounds and as I wanted a more moderate weight workout too, I used the same and that worked well for me. It wasn’t super intense but due to the nature of the standing moves, I was definitely nice and sweaty by the end! The standing exercises all move at a good pace, with short rest breaks, and they really keep the heart rate up nicely. However, if you did want to go heavier, you could easily slow the moves down a little, if you needed to. This is definitely a fantastic workout, which lends itself to either moderate or heavier weights, as the moves could all be done with much heavier dumbbells, if you wished. I think I will definitely try that next time I do this workout and then as there is so much packed into the 36 minutes, I think it would be a little reminiscent of Cathe’s new Perfect30 Perfect Pump: Lower Body workout (review HERE).
The standing moves are all traditional lower body exercises, such as, squats, deadlifts, lunges and lateral walks. They are not too high rep, generally between 8 and 16 reps, but are enough to get the muscles working nicely.
The workout ends with a short section on the floor using a stability ball. This includes lots of different formats of hamstring roll-ins, including faster tempos, hip lifts etc. This definitely had my hamstrings talking to me, particularly by the last set of fast roll-ins! Cathe also includes hamstring roll-ins with a lat pull downs with the arms. I found these virtually impossible to keep my balance and even Cathe had a few issues with this one. She at least managed most of them very gracefully, for me though, I think I need more practice! I believe engaging the core is the key here. I was definitely trying to do that but unfortunately without much success. In the end, I just did straight hamstring roll-ins instead so I could at least get some work in my legs rather than just flailing about! The routine ends with ball toss and then outer thigh work, leaning on the ball. As this position aggravates my hips I just did these on the floor, with ankle weights on, instead.
Overall, a fast and effective lower body workout using moderate weights and a stability ball. This is definitely one I will return to frequently.
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The Workout
Legs Express: Moderate Weight is a metabolic strength workout focusing on the lower body. The workout starts with standing exercises with dumbbells and then moves to the floor using a stability ball.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Legs Express: Moderate Weight is 36 minutes long and originally aired on 19th November 2020 (#323). The workout starts with a 7 minute warm-up, before a quick water break and then moving into the first standing exercise.
Standing Lower Body
Lateral walks – two 10# Dbs – 8 sets
Static lunges – two 15# Dbs – 16 reps each side
Side to side & pivoting sumo squat combo – one 15# Db – 32 reps
Static lunge pulses – two 15# Dbs – 3x 15 pulses (1st side). 1x 8 pulses & 2x 15 pulses (2nd side)
Squats / deadlifts – two 15# Dbs – 2 sets (16x squats & 8x deadlifts)
Forward & back lunges (pendulum lunges) – two 10# Dbs – 10 sets each side
Side lunges (touching Db to foot) – one 15# Db – 12 reps each side
Wide stance deadlifts / crossback lunges – two 15# Dbs – 2 sets (8x deadlifts & 8x 3 pulse crossback)
Alternating front lunges – two 12# Dbs – 16 reps
Marching sumos – one 15# Db - 32 reps
Alternating back lunges – two 12# Dbs – 16 reps
Marching sumos – one 15# Db - 34 reps
Floorwork w/ Stability Ball on Mat
Hamstring roll-in w/ hip lift / hamstring roll-in – ball & mat – 8x hip lift, 10x roll-in & 2 sets (2x hip, 4x roll-in)
Hamstring roll-in w/ lat pull down (pulling arms down while rolling ball in & out. Shown in photo at top of this page) – ball & mat – 8 sets
Hamstring roll-ins (fast) – ball & mat – 16 reps
Ball toss – ball & mat – 16 reps & 32x pulses
Side leaning outer thigh lifts (leaning on ball; lift outer thigh) / leg circles – ball & mat (I used ankle weights & no ball) – 32x toe pointed, 32x flex (w/ arms lifted), 8x circles fwd & 8x circles back on 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: Legs w Weights & Stability Ball (#41) – HERE.
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