Cathe Live Review: Lighten Up: Total Body (#312)
Lighten Up: Total Body is a fun total body strength workout, using lighter weights and resistance tubing. I really liked this routine as there is lots of variety and none of the exercises are repeated. It’s not the most challenging strength workout but I felt nicely worked afterwards and it made a nice change from using heavier weights.
The workout starts with lower body strength moves, then transitions with three compound moves that work both lower and upper body, before moving into upper body and ends with a short core section. I really liked the mix of different moves and as the pace is a little faster, in this one, I found the lighter weights generally worked pretty well. Cathe used 5 and 10 pound dumbbells for all of the weighted moves. However, you could easily use heavier for many of the moves, if you wanted to. For today, I was happy to use the same as Cathe, except for the single leg deadlifts, as she mentioned you could use two weights, and any of the moves that combined tubing with dumbbells I used heavier weights and no tubing. The exercises are all very familiar strength moves and although the pace is faster it is not all out crazy. The reps vary between the different moves, some are between 10 and 16 reps but others are much higher, particularly those using the resistance tubing, such as, band pulls and shoulder circles.
The strength moves target all of the major muscle groups, at least once, and as the reps are sometimes a bit higher, with shorter rest breaks, I did start to feel the work, particularly for the upper body. However, the lower body was quite light and in future I would use heavier dumbbells for some of those moves. For the upper body, you often do several different exercises, one after the other, for the same muscle group, such as, shoulders or triceps and I really started to feel the burn here. The walk-out push-ups were also higher rep than Cathe often does and worked the chest nicely, particularly when combined with the other chest focused moves.
The routine ends with four core moves that include two sit-up moves, which are a little different than usual, side planks and supermans. This provided a nice way to round out the workout but was not overly intense, as they are not too high rep.
(As a slight aside, I was really pleased to see it was just Cathe again for this Live routine. I was expecting that since her gym re-opened this week, the whole class would be back and we would be limited to 30 minutes, as that is apparently how long the classes are this week so that people can used to working out in masks and suitable cleaning can be done between classes. However, she mentioned that everyone needs to get more used to that before they film the Live classes so lucky for us we got another Live with just Cathe! I really love these so much, as the camera stays on Cathe and you can always see her excellent form and what move she is doing.
On a different note, as seems to be more usual now, Cathe skimped again on the stretch and didn’t stretch out the upper body so again I added a few stretches on the end).
Overall, a varied and enjoyable total body strength workout that targets every muscle group. A great workout for when you don’t want to pull out heavy dumbbells but want to feel nicely worked.
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The Workout
Lighten Up: Total Body is a total body strength workout using lighter dumbbells and resistance tubing.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Lighten Up: Total Body is 53 minutes long and originally aired on 3rd September 2020 (#312). The workout starts with a 4:30 minute warm-up, before a quick water break and then moving into the first exercise. You will need to have your dumbbells and resistance tubing / band close by as you transition between moves reasonably quickly.
Squats / deadlifts – two 10# Dbs – 16x squats, 4x D/L & 2 sets 8x squats, 4x D/L
Alternating lunges – two 10# Dbs – 16x alternating, 2x 7 pulses, 4x 3 pulses & 8x alternating
Side to side step out sumo squats – one 10# Db – 16 reps
Side to side step out sumo squats – two 10# Dbs – 4x 3 pulses & 6x 1.5’s
Rowing forward lunge – one 5# Db – 24 reps
Squat & lunge combo – 2 sets of 4 pulses & 4 sets of 2 pulses
Air squats – 16 reps
Walking lunges & plie squat pulses – two 10# Dbs – 4 sets
Air squats – 24 reps
Side lunge & abduct (lifting outside leg) – 4 sets each side
Alternating side lunges – two 10# Dbs – 18 reps
Single leg deadlift – one 10# Db (I used 2x 10) – 6 reps (1st side) & 7 reps (2nd side)
Crossback lunges – two 10# Dbs – 12x alternating & then 8x singles, 4x 3 pulses each side
Calf raises – two 10# Dbs – 60 reps
Alternating rear lunges w/ posture pulls – resistance tubing – 8x singles, 4x 3 pulses, 2x 7 pulses & 8x singles
Bow & arrow lunges (stepping one foot back in lunge while pulling band back) – resistance tubing – 12 reps each side
Sumo squats w/ bicep curls – two 10# Dbs – 11 reps
Bicep curls – two 5# Dbs & resistance tubing (I used 2x 12# Dbs & no tubing) – 24 reps
1 Arm bicep curls – resistance tubing (held in 1 hand) – 12 reps (1st side) & 16 reps (2nd side)
Standing overhead tricep extensions – resistance tubing (I used 2x 12# dbs instead) – 8x singles, 4x 1.5’s & 8x singles
Tricep kickbacks – resistance tubing – 16 reps & 16x pulses
Lying tricep extensions w/ hip bridge (glute squeeze) – two 10# Dbs & mat – 16 reps
Tricep push-ups on knees – mat – 8 reps (2/2 count)
Overhead press – two 10# Dbs – 16 reps
Upright rows – two 10# Dbs – 16 reps
Band shoulder circles – resistance tubing – 32 reps each direction
Narrow grip band pulls – resistance tubing – 16 reps (slow) & 48 reps (fast)
Scarecrows – two 5# Dbs – 16 reps
Walkout push-ups (start standing then walkout to plank; do 7 push-ups then walk back & stand. Repeat with 6 reps, 5 reps etc down to 1 rep) – mat – descending reps from 7 to 1
Chest flys w/ leg extensions – two 10# Dbs & mat – 22 reps
Eccentric push-ups (lower down for 4 counts then push back into childs pose & back up to plank) – mat – 6 sets
1 Arm back flys – one 10# Db – 10 reps each side
Seated T-band pulls – resistance tubing & mat – 16 reps
Seated Y-band pulls – resistance tubing & mat – 16 reps
Seated 1 arm back fly (torso rotation) – resistance tubing & mat – 12 reps
Core on mat at 44:55 minutes
Sit-up w/ bicep curl – resistance tubing (around feet) & mat – 12 reps
Sit-up & overhead press / punch (sit-up & press Dbs overhead; sit-up & punch 1 arm across; sit-up & punch other arm across – that’s 1 set) – two 5# Dbs & mat – 6 sets
Side plank hip dips – mat – 12 reps each side
Supermans w/ lat pull (lying on stomach; lift arms & legs off floor & pull band apart as you open the legs) – resistance tubing & mat – 12x singles & 16x pulses (holding at top & pulsing arms & legs out)
The workout ends with a 2 minute cool down and stretch. I added on some extra stretches for the upper body at the end.
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