Cathe Live Review: Legs w Weights & Barre (#99)
Legs w Weights & Barre is another excellent metabolic workout for the lower body.
The workout starts out with strength exercises, for the lower body, mixed with three cardio intervals. The cardio moves all use the resistance loop, around the ankles, for jacks, jump ropes and forward back attack jumps. These got the heart rate up nicely and also provide additional work for the lower body. The strength moves are a mix of exercises using dumbbells, the resistance loop and a gliding device. Cathe used 10 pound dumbbells for all of the weighted exercises. As this is a more metabolic routine the moves are generally faster than usual and you may struggle to go too much heavier. I did increase on a few and would probably increase a little further next time though. My heart rate was pretty elevated throughout and you move very quickly from one thing to the next so you will need to ensure that you have all of your equipment handy. This section worked my lower body nicely and from a variety of different angles. It isn’t the toughest routine but I felt I got a reasonable workout, as the reps are reasonably high too with lots of pulsing.
The next section is barre work for the lower body. As I don’t have a barre, I used a chair with no issues. As usual, when the Live classes are using the barre, there is a long break while they put away their equipment and get out the barre. This is a little frustrating but you could always do jacks or jog in between. There are only five exercises in this section so it’s not the most comprehensive barre routine. However, it is reasonably high rep so I was starting to really feel some of these by the end but it’s not really brutal unlike some of Cathe’s other barre routines. The only challenge, with this part of the routine, is that Cathe really struggled with counting on every exercise that requires you to repeat the move on the other side. So you are definitely not working each leg evenly. Normally the second side gets lots more reps than the first. I have noted the differences below in case you want to add them on or alternately, as I will do, just start on the other leg next time you do the workout.
Overall, this is an effective and fun metabolic workout that provided a nice variety of challenges for the lower body. This is definitely one I will return to.
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The Workout
Legs w Weights & Barre is a metabolic workout focused on the lower body. The routine starts with standing lower body strength and cardio intervals, and ends with a barre section.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Legs w Weights & Barre is 53 minutes long and originally aired on 28th April 2016 (#99). The workout starts with an 8:30 minute warm-up, before moving into the first exercise. Cardio moves shown in bold italics below.
Weighted Lower Body
Squat & overhead press / marching sumos – one 10# db – 12x press & 16x march. 3 sets of 4x press & 8x march
1 Arm clean & press - one 10# Db – 12 reps each side
Pulsing back lunges – two 10# Dbs (I used 12’s) – 4x 7 pulses
Static lunges (put both Dbs in one hand) - two 10# DBs in one hand (I used 1x 20) – 2 sets (4 reps & 1x 7 pulses) each side
Reverse lunge into front kick (lunge kicks) – two 10# Dbs – 7 kicks on each side. 2 sets of 4 kicks & 7 lunge pulses each side
Jacks & fast scissors / jacks & tap outs – resistance loop (around ankles) – 16x jack, 8x scissor, 12x jack & 4 scissor / 4 sets (4x jack & 4x tap)
4 Side steps (firewalkers) – resistance loop (around the ankles) – 8 sets
Lateral plie walks / pulsing plie squats – two 10# Dbs (I used 12’s) – 2x walk, 2x 7 pulse, 2x walk, 4x 3 pulses & 4 sets (1x walk & 2x 3 pulses)
8 Jump ropes & 4 jacks / jump forward, back & 2 attacks – resistance loop (around ankles) 2 sets (jump & jack) & 8 sets (jump & attack)
4 Side steps (firewalkers) – resistance loop (around the ankles) – 6 sets
8 Jump ropes & 4 jacks / jump forward, back & 2 attacks – resistance loop (around ankles) – 2 sets (jump & jack) & 8 sets (jump & attack)
Walking lunges & plie pulses / plie pulses only – two 10# Dbs – 4 sets. 2 sets & 24x pulses
Alternating side lunges / squats – two 10# Dbs (I used 12’s) – 2 sets of 8x side lunge, 4x squats, 7x pulse squats. Then 8x side lunge & 4x squats (then put one Db down & go to hover squats)
Hover squats – one 10# Db (I used 1x 15) - 2 sets of 15 pulses
Side slide lunges – one gliding device – 4 sets of 8 reps & 2 sets of 16 reps
Single leg deadlifts - two 10# Dbs (I used 12’s) – 12 reps (2/2 count) each side
Warrior lunges – one gliding device – 8 reps, 8 reps (staying low arms folded) & 8 reps (low & pumping the arms) each side
Crossback lunges – one 10# Db (I used 1x 15) – 2x 7 pulses, 2x 15 pulses, 2x 7 pulses, 4x 3 pulses & 12x singles
Quick water break & get out barre or chair at 34:25 minutes
Barre at 35:45 minutes (I used a chair for this section)
Reverse straight leg raises (leaning forward, raise & lower straight leg behind you) – barre – 64 reps (toe pointed & flexed)
1 Leg push dips (same position as above, bend raised leg & bend & straighten standing leg) – barre – 8 reps, 8x pulse, 4 reps, 8x pulse, 4 reps & 8x pulse
Reverse straight leg raises (other leg) – barre – 64 reps (toe pointed & flexed)
1 Leg push dips (other leg) – barre – 8 reps, 8x pulse, 4 reps, 8x pulse, 4 reps & 8x pulse
Calf raises – barre – 14 reps, 16x 1 leg, 16x other leg, & 32x pulse down
High hip raises – barre – 64 reps (1st side) & 80 reps (2nd side)
Hamstring press (foot flexed) / hamstring curl (toe pointed) – resistance loop (around ankle & under 1 foot) & barre – 28 reps (press) / 32 reps (curl) / 8 sets (1 of each) – 1st side. 40 reps (press) / 40 reps (curl) / 8 sets (1 of each) – 2nd side.
High & tight (toes facing forward & legs together) – barre – 32x pulses, 8x slower low reps & 4 sets of 7 pulses
The workout ends with a 1:30 minute cool down and stretch.
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If you liked this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Fit Tower - Cardio Legs (#167) – HERE.
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