Cathe Live Review: Leg Day
Leg Day is a pure strength lower body workout from Cathe Live. This is probably my perfect version of a leg workout as there is tons of variety, it’s not too high rep and none of the exercises are repeated! So no dread factor, at all, as you know that once something is done you won’t have to do it again (until the next time you do the workout of course!) The workout moves at a good pace and there are only very brief rest periods in between exercises. The rep count is generally not too high but definitely enough to feel the work.
I found this routine to be very metabolic and my heart rate stayed elevated throughout the whole workout. I was breathing hard in paces and worked up a good sweat! I really enjoyed this workout and felt it worked all of the muscle groups in my lower body effectively. The exercises are all performed standing and are a combination of traditional lower body exercises, including some from her new LITE series (for more details on her new Low Impact Training Extreme (LITE) workout series click HERE for your Ultimate Guide or HERE for details on the particular DVD they are from - LITE Strong Body Stacked: Lower).
The workout uses more moderate rather than heavy weights, to get the job done, and as you are moving at a faster pace I think it would be difficult to go a lot heavier without slowing down the pace. I generally used the same weights as Cathe and got a good workout. I only increased on a few exercises like squats and deadlifts (detailed below). Overall, an excellent lower body workout that I will be returning to frequently.
(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).
The Workout
Leg Day is a metabolic lower body strength workout. It consists of 20 standing lower body exercises using moderate to heavy dumbbells.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Leg Day is 46 minutes long and originally aired on 7th February 2019. The workout starts with a long lower body focused 7:30 minute warm up, followed by a quick water break, before moving into the first lower body exercise.
· Squat off side of step – one 15#db & high step with 3 risers (16 reps each side)
· Static lunge – two 15# dbs (16 reps each side)
· Side slide lunge – one 15# db & one gliding device (2/2 count & 2 singles repeated 7x)
· Alternating cross tap lunges – two 12# dbs (16 reps)
· Squat toss (passing dumbbell from hand to hand while squatting) – one 10# db (16 reps)
· High rep lunge taps – high step with 3 risers & one gliding device (one hand on step for 8 counts & arms folded for 8 counts – repeat 3x)
· Elevated lunges – two 10# dbs & high step with 1 riser (8 singles, 3 pulses x4, 1.5’s x4 & 15 pulses)
· Plie squats – picking up & setting down dumbbells – two 15# dbs (8 alternating & 15 pulses – repeat starting with other hand)
· Crossback slide lunges – two 10#dbs & one gliding device (16 singles & 15 pulses)
· Push dips – two 10# dbs & high step with 1 riser (8 singles, 3 pulses x4, 4x slow singles)
· Slide back lunges – two 10#dbs & one gliding device (16 reps each side)
· Single leg deadlifts – two 10#dbs (I used 12’s) (4x 2/2 count & 4x 3/1 count – repeat)
· Squat & leg abduction with upright row – one 10#db & high step with 3 risers (16 reps)
· Squats & deadlifts – two 15#dbs (I used 20’s)
· Alternating side to side sumo squats – one 15#db
· Alternating pivoting sumo squats – one 15# db
· Diagonal lunges – two 12# dbs (16 reps)
· Alternating Side / crossback / side lunge combo – one 15#db (10 reps)
· Squat to lunge & overhead press – one 10#db (I used 12) (8 reps each side)
· Calf raises – two 15#dbs (I used 20’s) (30, 25, 20 reps with small break in between)
The workout ends with an 3 minute stretch and cool down.
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 has over 200 live workouts in the archive for you to access at any time.
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