Cathe Live Review: Upper Body Ball-Tastic (#261)
Upper Body Ball-Tastic is a pure strength workout, focused on the upper body, and using the stability ball. This was a really nice workout and worked my upper body and core effectively.
The workout is structured by body part so you perform a number of different exercises, for a particular muscle group, and then move onto the next grouping, for a different muscle group. There is less repetition, in this routine, than some of Cathe’s other recent upper body workouts and I liked the variety. The workout focuses on biceps, shoulders, back, triceps and then chest.
All of the upper body exercises, with the exception of push-ups (for chest), use the ball – either to lay on, sit on or use for support. Cathe uses slightly lighter weights, in this routine, as the exercises are generally quite high rep. The exercises also use various tempos and rep patterns but are generally at a controlled pace so you could go heavier, if you wanted to. (Although it may be more challenging to go really heavy - given the level of instability offered by the ball). I did increase my weights on a few exercises and in future would go even heavier, particularly on biceps and chest. The workout was quite deceptive – the first few groupings you do really high reps but for the later groupings it is not quite so high rep - so I could have gone heavier for those ones. Therefore, the workout for me wasn’t quite as tough as I was expecting but if I increased the weights I think this could be very challenging in future.
The workout ends with a short core section using the stability ball. This provided a nice variety of interesting exercises and challenged my core from different angles, which was nice. Again this wasn’t the most challenging core section but it was a nice way to round out the routine.
Overall, this was an effective and enjoyable upper body strength workout. The use of the stability ball increases the balance challenge to give your core a little extra work here too. This is definitely one I will heavy up on in future to really feel the burn!
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The Workout
Upper Body Ball-Tastic is a pure strength upper body workout, using the stability ball and moderate weights. If you don’t have a stability ball, you could use a full size step instead. The workout consists of five exercise groups – one for each muscle group – and ends with a core section using the ball.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Upper Body Ball-Tastic is 52 minutes long and originally aired on 15th August 2019 (#261). The workout starts with a 4 minute warm-up, which includes the use of 5# dumbbells towards the end. You will need to make sure you have all of your dumbbells and stability ball handy, as you move between the exercises reasonably quickly.
Group 1 – Biceps
Incline bicep curls – two 10# dumbbells (I used 12’s) & ball – lots of reps (single / both arms & various tempos)
Hammer curls – two 12# dumbbells & ball – 8 reps
Sweeper curls – two 12# dumbbells & ball – 8 reps
Isolation curls – two 10# dumbbells (I used 12’s) & ball – partial reps & bringing dbs in & out
Concentration curls – one 15# dumbbell & ball – 8 reps & slow descent & hold (2nd side – 10 reps)
Preacher curls – two 12# dumbbells & ball – 12 reps
Group 2 – Shoulders
Incline front raises / incline shoulder arcs – two 8# dumbbells & ball – 14 reps (1 arm front raise) & 8 reps (arcs)
Lateral raises – two 5# dumbbells & ball – single & both arms
Lateral raises & shrugs – two 5# dumbbells & ball – singles & high ends
Seated overhead press – two 10# dumbbells & ball – lots of reps of various patterns (single / both arms)
Scarecrows & overhead press – two 5# dumbbells & ball – 12x scarecrows, 6x w O/H press, 2x 3 O/H press & 4 scarecrows
Group 3 – Back
1 Arm row – two 10# dumbbells & ball – 16 reps each side
Pullovers – two 12# dumbbells (I used 15’s) & ball – 16 reps (2/2 count)
1 Arm back fly – one 10# dumbbell (I used 1x12) & ball – 12 reps each side
Pullovers – two 12# dumbbells (I used 15’s) & ball – 9 partial reps
Supermans (straight arm & hand behind head) – ball – 15 reps of each
Group 4 – Triceps
Narrow grip chest press – two 12# dumbbells (I used 15’s) & ball – 16 reps
Narrow grip chest press – two 15# dumbbells & ball – 10 reps (slower)
See saw push-ups – ball – 8 reps (2/2 count) & 4 reps (partials)
Narrow grip chest press – two 15# dumbbells & ball – 4 reps (partials) & 4 reps (singles)
Lying tricep extensions – two 8# dumbbells (I used 10’s) & ball – 14 reps & 4 reps (down 2 counts, hold, up 4 counts)
Seated overhead tricep extensions – two 8# dumbbells (I used 10’s) & ball – 17 reps
Group 5 – Chest
Push-ups – mat – 6 sets (1x 2/2 & 2x singles)
Chest flys – two 12# dumbbells (I used 15’s) & ball – 12 reps
Bench press – two 12# dumbbells (I used 15’s) & ball – 12 reps (reasonably fast)
Push-ups – mat - 4 sets (1x 2/2 & 2x singles)
Chest flys – two 15# dumbbells & ball – 12 reps
Bench press – two 15# dumbbells & ball – 12 reps (reasonably fast)
Core
Ball exchange – ball
Sit-up & twist with knee raise – ball
Windshield wipers (lying on back with straight legs & ball held between feet, rotate down to one side then over to other) – ball
Banana holds (ball held overhead in straight arms) – ball
Sit-up & flutter kick legs – ball
Roll-outs (with elbows on ball & roll out / in) – ball
Knee roll-ins (with shins on ball & roll ball under body / back out) - ball
The workout ends with a 2 minute cool down and stretch (not using the ball).
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