Cathe’s Pyramid Upper and Lower Body

Just when I think Cathe has done it all, I try another new-to-me Cathe workout and am again surprised and impressed. Cathe’s strength workouts generally focus on building muscle strength or building muscle endurance; the pyramid technique focuses on both strength and endurance in a single workout. It is also a workout that you need to take notes during. You should be doing that during all strength workouts if you want to make gains, but some people don’t record the weight they’re lifting. For this workout however, it is a necessity. Just like all strength workouts, I consider the first time through a “trial run” to see what weight I need to lift the next time I do it for optimal results. Because of the way this workout is set up, you definitely need to be using the right weight. If you aren’t using the proper weights for your body, you will find that you are doing either a strength or an endurance workout—and not getting all that Pyramid is designed to give you.

Cathe performs her pyramids in the standard fashion: high reps (12) with a light weight, moderate reps (10) with a moderate weight and low reps (8) with a heavy weight—then she pyramids right back down. So you do 5 sets of each exercise in all:

1^st set 12 reps of a light weight

2^nd set 10 reps of a moderate weight

3^rd set 8 reps of a heavy weight

4^th set 10 reps of a moderate weight

5^th set 12 reps of a light weight

Cathe also adds an extra element—she supersets all of the upper body work and some of the lower body work. This not only completely burns the muscle group out, but it also keeps the workout more interesting. I have read various reviews of this workout. Some people love it, others find it boring because you are doing so many sets of the same exercise. The supersets help to alleviate the boredom, but apparently not enough for everyone. It worked for me tho! This is a very fast paced strength workout and time flew.

Pyramid DVD contains two workouts—a split set workout routine: Pyramid Upper Body and Pyramid Lower Body. This workout was originally released on VHS in 2002—so each workout was available individually. I feel fortunate I discovered it on DVD because I got both workouts on one DVD, plus I got Cathe’s amazing premixes. And this one has a real bonus (she even names it that on the DVD menu screen). In addition to the premixes individual to each workout, you get a the two workouts mixed together, giving you a full body Pyramid workout.

On to the reviews:

Pyramids Upper Body is 58 minutes long; 1:30 of intro from Cathe, 3 minute warm up, 42 minutes of strength work, 8 minute abs and 4 minute stretch. You will need a club step at 14 inches to lie and sit on, a wide range of dumbbells and a stability ball and mat for the abdominal work and stretch. The warm up contains a lot of dynamic movement that will completely warm up your upper body. Each muscle group is done individually, though remember, the exercises are superset. So, for the chest you do both chest flys and chest presses. You start with your light weights and do set one of chest flys and one set of chest presses before you move up to your moderate weight for set two. And like I mentioned before, it moves fast, so no real rest between sets. The longest “rest” you get is swapping out dumbbells for the next set.

Chest (7 minutes):

Chest flys

Chest press

Back (9 minutes):

Pullovers

Double arm rows

Shoulders (8:30 minutes):

Rear dealt fly

Side lateral raises

Front raises

Triceps (7 minutes):

Tricep kickbacks

Overhead tricep extensions

Biceps (10:30 minutes):

Hammer curls

Regular bicep curls

I don’t usually give much description of the abdominal work in a workout unless I really like it. Well, I really liked the abdominal work in this workout—it was tough! The abdominal work is done with a stability ball. The first section is a variety of sit ups with the ball above your head. You’ll do sit ups, half sit ups, then some much tougher ones where your raise your feet and touch the ball. There is oblique work, first on the floor twisting the ball from side to side, then you sit on the ball and twist side to side while holding a dumbbell. It ends with the toughest—plank work with feet/shins on ball. The first move is hard enough—“prone planks” where you roll the ball in and out with your feet (hands on ground), then you do Pike Planks where you keep your legs straight so when you pull your feet in your butt goes straight up in the air. These are brutal! She does these in Kick, Punch & Crunch and I still haven’t mastered them. The ball still rolls away from me half the time. Plus, when the ball stays put, they are hard and they hurt!

Upper Body premixes: Pyramid up only (3 sets of each exercise) 40 minute, Pyramid down only (3 sets of each exercise) 41 minutes. Both premixes include abdominal work.

Pyramid Lower Body is a 50 minute workout; 5 minute warm up, 41 minute strength training and 4 minute stretch. Just like Pyramid Upper Body, there is a intro by Cathe (making the total length actually 52 minutes) that you can fast forward through. Also, this workout has two parts: standing legs with a barbell is 28 minutes and floor work with a stability ball is 13 minutes.

Holy cow! This workout was brutal! I had suspected it would be after doing the upper body. Luckily Cathe starts you out with, in my opinion, the hardest move to pyramid on—high step climbs. Of course, it wears you out immediately, but I cannot imagine doing that move at the end when she’s already burned your lower body out. My glutes, hamstrings and inner thighs are more sore immediately post-workout than I can ever remember them being. The odd part is that the pyramid aspect is sneaky. As usual, I used the same weight as Cathe for the first time doing the workout. Other than the high step climbs, I felt I could go heavier than Cathe did on all the other exercises… yet I am more sore than ever. That could be due to part two of this lower body workout. The stability ball exercises finish completely burning out the muscles she hammered in the standing exercises. BTW—this is a very fast-paced workout. Just like in the upper body workout, she gives you little to no rest between each set—just enough time to change weights. This is a little more complex with lower body since rather than dumbbells you are using a barbell. If you don’t have a barbell and are substituting dumbbells then you definitely get a longer rest between exercises. However, I was fighting the clock and on a few sets I had to hit pause or she would already be doing the move while I was still changing plates on my barbell.

Equipment needed: high step at 14 inches, you will also use the 4 inch top for calf work, barbell, stability ball and mat.

Just like in Pyramid Upper Body, Cathe performs her pyramids in the standard fashion: high reps (12) with a light weight, moderate reps (10) with a moderate weight and low reps (8) with a heavy weight—then she pyramids right back down. So you do 5 sets of each exercise in all:

1^st set 12 reps of a light weight

2^nd set 10 reps of a moderate weight

3^rd set 8 reps of a heavy weight

4^th set 10 reps of a moderate weight

5^th set 12 reps of a light weight

Standing Legs:

Leg presses (6:30 minutes)

Static lunges (6:30 minutes)

Superset: squats & plie squats (6 minutes)

Deadlifts (5 minutes)

Calf work (4:30 minutes): that’s all for the pyramiding, but not for the strength work! You will use the top of your tall step and your barbell, but the barbell is just for balance as you do calf raises off the edge of the step topper.

Floor work (12:30 minutes):

Hamstring/glute raises—one heel on ball, other leg straight up in air

With both heels on ball and hips raised, roll/pull ball in and out

With both heels on ball and hips raised, roll/pull ball in and out—this time feet open/toes facing out (works inner thighs)

Place ball between thighs for ball squeezes

Head and shoulders on ball and weight on heels (toes raised)—hip raises

Outer thigh work: lay on your side, upper body supported on the stability ball and resting on one knee, raise outer leg to side.

The floor work was brutal after the standing pyramid work—I felt every rep (and there were a lot of reps). The worst was the final exercise—the outer thigh work on the ball. I got through the first set, but then we change sides and the leg I had just battered didn’t want to support me! I am not joking, I had to keep stopping the leg lifts on the other thigh—not because the working leg was giving out, but the supporting leg I had just worked did not want to cooperate!

Lower Body premixes: Pyramid up only (3 sets of each exercise) 40 minute, Pyramid down only (3 sets of each exercise) 39 minutes. Both premixes include stability ball work.

Bonus Pyramid Total Body: I rarely review the premixes unless they are adding something new (like a bonus segment) to the workout. That doesn’t mean I don’t do them! I love the premixes and do them frequently. But this split series is so unique and so tough, that I wanted really wanted to give it a try. In fact, I really like the way I used the Pyramid DVD to structure my Pyramid week: Pyramid Upper Body on Monday, Pyramid Lower Body on Wednesday and Pyramid Total Body on Friday. So I decided to go ahead and review the premix, too.

This is a premix combining two workouts, so obviously there are some differences. The first is that you only pyramid up. So you will only do 3 sets of each exercise:

1^st set 12 reps of a light weight

2^nd set 10 reps of a moderate weight

3^rd set 8 reps of a heavy weight

The second difference is there is no abdominal work and no lower body stability ball work. I will admit, I missed that, but it obviously would have made the workout very long. The final difference—all of the exercises are done once, except Leg presses—she returns to those and gives you two fun Leg press sessions. I was glad for that. Without the stability ball leg work the legs aren’t hit as hard—however doing a total of 60 leg presses helps make up for that.

You will be doing the warm up and stretch from Pyramid Lower Body. I adored this premix. I cannot decide which I like best—the split workouts or the total body premix. In fact, I think in the future I will always do a pyramid week so that I can reap the benefits of all three.

Bonus Pyramid Total Body premix is 53 minutes; 5 minute warm up, 44 minute strength training, 4 minute stretch. Though you need a lot of equipment for this workout, you do not need a stability ball. You need a the club step to lay on for upper body work, but you also need a 14 inch high step for lower body work. When I did the split workouts, I used my club step at 12 inches for upper body and my high step at 14 inches for lower body. But that is too much rearranging of equipment/steps for the total body workout. I just used all of my risers and used the club step at 14 inches for everything. You need the barbell with lots of plates for the lower body  moves and lots of dumbbells for the upper body moves.

Lower Body:

Superset squats/plie squats
Leg presses

Chest:

Chest flys
Bench press

Back:

Pullovers

Double arm rows

Lower Body:

Leg presses
Static lunges

Shoulders:

Rear delt flys
Side lat raises
Front raises

Lower Body:

Deadlifts
Calf raises

Triceps:

Tricep kickbacks
Seated overhead tricep press

Biceps:

Hammer Curls
Traditional bicep curls