Cathe Live: Total Body Reps

Total Body Reps is the other Cathe Live workout that I believe is based on her DVD High Reps workout. The other one is High Reps Total Body, which I did on Monday. To prep for both workouts I did the DVD High Reps on Saturday. They are all excellent total body strength workouts but I think I like this one the best of the Live versions. I felt like it did a better job of hitting every muscle group evenly (so they were all pretty burned out) and there was no possible unevenness in working both sides of the body. Just like the other two, this is a high rep/endurance level workout. Also just like the other two she uses lots of tempo changes for all of the exercises, both upper and lower body. You even get tempo changes on tricep dips! Overall, I found it tough and effective with the right weights. Like High Reps Total Body I created my workout card in advance, so the weights listed below in the breakdown are just the weights Cathe used. However, I will say that on a few exercises I was over-ambitious! There are a lot of reps and those tempo changes burn the muscle out quick. So on a few (shoulders and biceps) I had to adjust the weight on my barbell so I could continue! On others, I came close to failure but was able to complete all reps w/ good form. And that’s a good thing (muscle failure). It is several hours since I finished the workout and I have several areas on my body that are still nicely burning from this workout: quads, hamstrings, shoulders, chest and back!

Total Body Reps is 59 minutes long; 5 minute warm up, 4 minutes core and 1:30 minute stretch. Equipment needed: a step at 10 inches, various dumbbells, a barbell with enough plates for deadlifts and a fitness mat. It aired live on 9/25/14 and here is the video clip.

Exercises:

1. Barbell squats (Cathe uses 25#)
2. Heavier Barbell squats (Cathe uses 35#)
3. Barbell plie squats (Cathe uses 35#)
4. Unweighted split squats/elevated lunges (one foot on step behind you)
5. Barbell bicep curls (Cathe uses 25#)
6. Concentration curls (one minute each arm) (Cathe uses 12# DB)
7. Supination bicep curls (Cathe uses 12# DBs)
8. Barbell static lunges (Cathe uses 25#)
9. Barbell overhead shoulder press (Cathe uses 15#)
10. Barbell upright rows (Cathe uses 15#)
11. Scarecrows (arms in goal post, lower forarms to chest level and return to goal post) (Cathe uses 5# DBs)
12. Barbell wide upright row (Cathe uses 15#)
13. Arcing shoulder raise (hold ends of DBs together, palms facing the ceiling, circle DBs around to shoulder level and turn them as if pouring them) (Cathe uses 5# DBs)
14. Barbell overhead press (Cathe uses 15#)
15. Barbell deadlifts (Cathe uses 40#)
16. One arm rows; 16 reps  (Cathe uses one 12# and one 10# DB held together)
17. Barbell deadrows (Cathe uses 40#)
18. Rear delt flys; 2 sets of 10 reps (Cathe uses 12# DBs)
19. Pull overs (15# DBs)
20. Push ups w/ hands on step
21. Repeat #19
22. Repeat #20
23. Chest flys (Cathe uses 12# DBs)
24. Tricep dips off step (3 sets)
25. Barbell lying tricep extensions (Cathe uses 25#)
26. Standing overhead tricep extensions; 3 sets (Cathe uses 10# DBs)
27. Pulsing plie squats, passing one DB from hand to hand (Cathe uses one 10# DB)
28. Plie squats holding one DB in both hands–alternate a bicep curl w/ an overhead swing (Cathe uses one 10# DB)
29. Pulsing plie squats holding one DB in both hands (Cathe uses one 10# DB)

Core (4 minutes) (all of the core work is done on the step except the final exercise):

1. Bicycle
2. Bringing bent knees to chest, pulse hands toward feet then extend legs straight and arms overhead
3. Crunches w/ legs raised and knees bent
4. Hold legs in “L”; pulse up once, then twice, then 3 times, then 4 times
5. Bring bent knees to chest, reaching hands toward feet then straight legs and raise arms straight overhead
6. Pulsing crunches w/ legs raised and knees bent
7. Sit up on step, leaning torso back, and thrust legs in and out
8. Get into elbow plank on floor/mat and hold for one minute

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