Cathe Live Review: Upper Body Sculpting (#10)
Upper Body Sculpting is a fairly tough, upper body strength workout that ends with a short core section on the floor.
The workout consists of five grouping of exercises, by muscle group, and ends with a sixth set of exercises for the core. You start with shoulders, then back, chest (including a little more back), triceps and biceps. The groups of exercises are a mix of moves using both the dumbbells, your own bodyweight and resistance tubing. This provides nice variety to how you work the different muscle groups and each group was fairly comprehensive. You often repeat the exercises for another set and the reps are reasonably high, including partials and pulsing on many of them. Some of the moves using the tubing are, as usual, very high rep, including 124 narrow grip band pulls! I did modify some of the exercises, which used both the tubing and the dumbbells, as I find this awkward so just used dumbbells instead (shown below). Cathe used moderate weights and I generally stayed the same and got a very good workout. With the right weights, this is a fairly challenging routine and I was definitely feeling it, particularly on shoulders and biceps.
The routine ends with a giant set of exercises for the core. These target the whole of the core effectively, as you start with lower back, doing supermans, then move into two types of sit-ups and finally elbow and side planks. This was a great way to end the workout.
Overall, this is a straight forward, fairly high rep, upper body strength workout that will definitely have you feeling the work. It’s not necessarily the most fun routine but it does get the job done.
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The Workout
Upper Body Sculpting is a pure strength workout focused on the upper body and core.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Upper Body Sculpting is 51 minutes long and originally aired on 3rd July 2014 (#10). The workout starts with a 6 minute warm-up, before moving into the first exercise for shoulders. You pick up two 5 pound dumbbells part way through the warm-up. The step, with three risers on each side, is set up horizontally in front of you at the start of the workout and is only used as a weight bench.
Shoulders
Overhead press – two 15# Dbs - 12x 1 arm (alternating), 8x both arms (holding at bottom of move for 3 counts) & 8x 1 arm (alternating)
Rear delt flys – two 10# Dbs - 3 sets of 10 reps
Lateral arc raises (dbs in front of thighs, palms facing forward, arc dbs up to shoulder height) / 1 arm front raises – two 8# Dbs – 3 sets.12 reps / 16 reps (front raise). 8 reps / 12 reps (front). 8 reps / 8 reps (front)
Narrow grip band pulls – resistance tubing – 19 reps & 124 reps
Shoulder circles – two 5# Dbs – 2 sets of 12 reps forward (4 low, 4 middle, 4 high) & 12 reps backwards (4 high, 4 middle, 4 low)
Back
1 Arm rows – Cathe used one 15 & one 10# Db in one hand (I used 1x 20) – 16 reps each side
T-Band pulls – resistance tubing & mat – 16 reps & 8x 3 pulses
1 Arm rows – Cathe used one 15 & one 10# Db in one hand (I used 1x 20) – 16 reps each side
Posture pulls – resistance tubing – 6x 2/2, 3x 4/4, 4x hold out for 4 counts & 2x hold out & come in 1 inch, hold, another inch, hold, 1 more inch & hold, then open arms back out wide
Pullovers – two 15# Dbs & step – 1x 4/4 & 8x 2/2 counts
Chest (& a little bit of Back)
Chest flys – two 15# Dbs & step - 8 reps, 4 counts down /5 partials, 2 count down/5 partials, 4 count down/5 partials
Push-ups – mat – 16 reps
Pullovers – two 15# Dbs & step – 1x 4/4 & 8x 2/2 counts
Chest flys - two 15# Dbs & step - 6 reps, then fly to slow 4 count down/3 partials, 2 count down/3 partials, 4 count down/3 partials
Push-ups – mat – 16 reps
Triceps
Lying tricep extensions – two 10# Dbs (I used 12’s) & step - 12 reps (2/2 count)
Lying tricep extensions – two 10# Dbs & step – 4 sets of 2 counts down, 2 partials, 2 counts up
Tricep dips – step – 22 reps & 32 reps
Standing overhead tricep extensions – two 10# Dbs – 8 reps (2/2 count) & 3 sets (down 2 counts, 2 partials, up 2 counts)
Tricep kickbacks – resistance tubing – 3x row & kickback, 8x kickbacks & 24x pulses
Incline tricep push-ups (hands on end of step) – step & mat - 6 sets (1x 2/2 & 2x singles)
Biceps
Bicep curls – two 5# Dbs & resistance tubing (I used 2x 12# Dbs only) – 6x 2/2 count & 13x singles
W Curls – two 5# Dbs & resistance tubing (I used 2x 12# Dbs only) - 16 reps
Hammer curls – two 10# Dbs (I used 15’s) – 5x 2/2, 4x 4/4 & 4x 2/2
Sweeping curls – two 10# Dbs (I used 15’s) - 12 reps (2/2 count)
Bicep curls – two 8# Dbs & resistance tubing (I used 2x 15# Dbs only) – 7 reps (2/2 count)
W Curls – two 8# Dbs & resistance tubing (I used 2x 12# Dbs only) - 12 reps
Concentration curls (sitting on step) – one 15# Db & step - 40 seconds each side
Core on mat at 43:50 minutes
Supermans – mat – 20 reps & 16 reps (keeping head still) – 1st set. 8 reps & 16 reps (keeping head still) – 2nd set
Ankle grabber sit-ups – mat – 16 reps
Butterfly sit-ups (soles of feet together) – mat (Cathe also used 1x 15# Db on her feet) – 15 reps
Elbow plank hip drops (rolling hips down towards floor on each side) – mat – 20 reps
Side elbow plank hold – mat – 8 count (1st side) & 10 count (2nd side)
Side elbow plank hold & leg lift (raise top leg & hold) – mat – 16 count hold on each side
The workout ends with a 1 minute cool down and stretch.
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If you liked this workout, check out my review of Cathe Live: Buff Upper Body (#163) – HERE.
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