A Cathe Live Review: Low Impact Blast Off Circuit Live.
If you are looking for a little bit of everything - cardio hiit, lower, upper and core resistance training in a short amount of time - then this workout is perfect for you. Best of all it’s even low impact! (Although you could easily modify to higher impact if required).
(In case you are not familiar with Cathe Live - it is a streaming service from veteran fitness professional Cathe Friedrich, where she provides access to her live classes filmed at her gym in Jersey. Currently, there are over 200 workouts available in the archive, which you can access at any time and a new class is recorded nearly every week. More details are provided at the end of this article).
This Cathe Live was a really nice workout and particularly good to do on a day where you really don’t feel like working out. At only 41 minutes, it gets a lot accomplished in a short amount of time, I really enjoyed it and the time flew by. My heart rate also stayed pretty elevated throughout, particularly as it moves from one thing to the next quite quickly and many of the moves are compound (so working multiple muscle groups at one time).
The Workout
The workout is structured into two sections after the warm up. The first section, approx. 10 minutes, is low impact cardio hiit blasts with short rests in between each blast. None of the moves are repeated unless they need to be done on the other side. The second section is resistance training circuits for upper and lower body. The strength training is all straight forward reps – no pulsing. The workout ends with a situp pushup combo that will really get your heart racing again!
What you need to know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Low Impact Blast Off Circuit is 41 minutes long. It aired on 8th Nov 2018. It begins with a 4:40 minute warm up and then transitions into the first blast. The weights Cathe used are included for each move below.
Low Impact Blasts
1. Step touch & jump shot (or just raising on toes) – changes to lateral skates
2. Double pulse lunge reaching arms up & into guard stance
3. 4 Ice breaker & 4 long reach lunges (6 sets to each side)
4. Attacks (8 reps to front, 8 reps to side, 8 reps to front & 8 reps to other side)
5. Swinging elbow to knee lunges
6. Lateral skates (narrow & wide)
7. 4 Squat digs & 4 galloping jacks. Ends with just squat digs that transitions into the next move.
8. Alternating apple pickers
9. 3 Rope climbs & 1 elbow smash
After a brief water break (at 14 minutes into the workout) the routine moves into circuits of upper and lower body moves.
Lower Body
1. Squat kick squat lunge – one side then the other. 12 reps each side (two 5# dbs)
Biceps & Triceps
2. Bicep curls – 8 reps in 2/2 count (two 15# dbs)
3. Tricep overhead extensions – 8 reps in 2/2 count (two 12# dbs)
4. Repeat 2. & 3. for another 8 reps
Lower Body
5. Squat down & jump to overhead press with two tricep extensions – 10 reps (two 10# dbs)
6. Side lunge to crossback lunge (Cathe starts doing a squat to side & then changes it to a lunge). One side and then the other. (one 15#db)
Shoulders
7. Upright row – 10 reps (two 12# dbs)
8. Overhead Press – 10 reps (two 12# dbs)
9. Repeat 7. & 8. two more times for 8 then 6 reps
Back
10. Kettlebell style swing into lat pull down (two 8# dbs)
11. 1 Arm row – 16 reps (one 15 & one 5#db to make 20#)
12. Rear delt flys – 10 reps (two 10# dbs)
13. Lateral raises – 16 reps (two 5# dbs)
14. Repeat 12. 13. & 14
Lower Body
15. Static lunge – 15 reps each side (two 15# dbs)
16. Deadlifts – 10 reps (two 15# dbs)
17. Repeat 15. & 16
Chest & Core
18. Situp pushup combo - 5 situps & then flip over and do 5 pushups – this combo is repeated five times. (These are fast - so if you need to go at your own pace just count 5 sets at your own speed).
The workout ends with a 3 minute cooldown and stretch.
Cathe does jokingly say at the end that maybe they should repeat the blasts again – so if you are so inclined – go for it!
Overall, a nice feel-good workout that works the whole body in a short amount of time.
Take Action! Try it today! Cathe Live is a streaming service available from Cathe.com – you can subscribe to monthly ($9.99 pm), six monthly or yearly plans and the service offers over 200 live workouts in the archive for you to access at any time.
If you like this workout then I recommend you try Cathe Live: Hiit it, Strike it, Crunch it, too.