Cathe Live: Vertical Loading

The name “vertical loading” is from an article in Cathe’s blog that came out the same week as this workout aired live. This is a circuit workout made up of exercises that start from the top of your body and work down in a vertical fashion. You start with shoulder exercises and end with lower body exercises. So it is a total body strength workout. Cathe says the structure of the workout is 3 circuits of 6 exercises each and each circuit is repeated once. But the first circuit only has 5 exercises and (as usual) it is the back that was short-changed. Let me clarify–the back was not completely shortchanged in the workout. She does work the back in the other circuits but the first circuit (that is repeated) only has 5 exercises rather than 6 and the back is the missing muscle group.

I prepped for this workout by viewing the entire workout before doing it and writing the breakdown below. For some reason I expected, after watching it, a much harder workout–something along the lines of Total Body Giant Sets (intensity level, not structure). In fact, I decided before hand to use the same weights as Cathe except for lower body exercises. I ended up with a lot of mental up arrows and about halfway through, I just started using heavier weights for some of the exercises. So it wasn’t nearly as challenging as I was expecting it to be. Because I am way behind on workout card creation, all of this will be noted below for my information when I do finally create the workout card.

I feel like everything I wrote above makes it sound like I didn’t care for this workout. That is not true. I actually liked it a lot and feel like I still got a very good workout, even if I did use lighter weights than I normally would for some of the exercises. With the right weights, I think this definitely is a keeper. During this workout, Cathe held out on how many reps you were going to do and also did uneven reps. She worked both sides of the body evenly, but rather than doing the expected “even” number of reps (8, 10, 12)–she sometimes did 11, or 19. My rep count below is close but I think sometimes my mind rounded to an even number, then when I did the actual workout, it was an odd number. Not that it matters, but Cathe actually called attention to the reps being varied several times.

Vertical Loading is 52 minutes long; 5 minute warm up and 3 minute stretch. Various dumbbells are used, ranging from 5-15 pounds and a fitness mat. It aired live on 11/03/16 and here is the video clip. As noted below, I am listing the weights Cathe uses, the weights I used and if I plan to increase the weight the next time I do the workout.

Circuit 1:

1. Overhead press (alternate arms once then 2 reps both arms; 6 reps of this combo then 4 double arm) (12# DBs)
2. Bicep curls, 15 reps (15# DBs) (increase to 17.5#)
3. Bent over tricep kickbacks, 16 reps (10# DBs)
4. 20 push ups
5. Walking lunges (pulse 4x with each step, 3 steps, the turn and do 4 plie pulses), 6 reps of this combo (10# DBs) (increase to 12#)

Circuit 2:

1. Overhead press, alternate arms, 22 reps (15# DBs)
2. W bicep curls, 12 reps (12# DBs) (increase to 15#)
3. Bent over tricep kickbacks, 12 reps (12# DBs)
4. Push ups (lower to count of 4, drop to knees and into child’s pose then back to straight arm plank), 8 reps
5. Walking lunges (pulse 4x with each step, 3 steps, the turn and do 4 plie pulses), 4 reps of this combo; 4 plie squats to 2/2 count, 8 plie pulses (12# DBs)

Circuit 3:

1. Front raise + side raise (2 sets single arm, 4 sets double arm; repeat) (8# DBs) (increase to 10#)
2. Hammer curls, 12 reps (15# DBs) (increase to 17.5#)
3. Overhead tricep extensions, 12 reps (12# DBs)
4. Rear delt flies, 1 set 10 reps, 1 set of 9 reps, 1 set of 8 reps (10# DBs)
5. 10 push ups to 2/2 count
6. 4 squats, 2 deadlifts, 6 reps of this combo (15# DBs) (I used 25#–increase to 30#)

Circuit 4:

1. Side raise to front, back to side and lower (4 reps), front raise to side to front and lower (4 reps), do 4 more reps of last combo but w/ palms down; circle DBs low 4x then high 4x and repeat (5# DBs)
2. Hammer curl but turn DBs to traditional curl at top, 10 reps (15# DBs) (increase to 17.5#)
3. Overhead tricep extensions (lower DBs, 2 partials, then raise DBs), 6 reps w/ this pattern then 2 more to a 2/2 count (12# DBs)
4. Rear delt flies, 1 set 10 reps, 1 set of 9 reps, 1 set of 8 reps (10# DBs)
5. Release push ups, 10 reps
6. 2 squats, 1 deadlift, 10 reps (15# DBs) (I used 25#, increase to 30#)

Circuit 5:

1. Upright row, 19 reps (15# DBs)
2. Isolation curls (hold DBs halfway to count of 8 then raise to top to count of 2 and lower to count of 6), 4 reps of this combo, then 8 single bicep curls (10# DBs) (increase to 12#)
3. 14 tricep push ups to various tempos
4. One arm back fly, 10 reps (10# DB) (I used 12#, increase to 15#)
5. 10 chest flys to 2/2 count, then chest fly open then hold for 2 counts and raise to slow 4 count, 2 reps of that combo (knees are raised the entire time) (15# DBs) (increase to 20#)
6. 16 alternating side lunges + 16 alternating reverse lunges (10# DBs) (increase to 12#)

Circuit 6:

1. Upright row, 22 reps (15# DBs)
2. Isolation curls (hold DBs halfway to count of 8 then raise to top to count of 2 and lower to count of 6), 4 reps of this combo, then 8 single bicep curls (12# DBs)
3. 18 tricep push ups to various tempos
4. One arm back fly, 10 reps (12# DB) (I used 15#)
5. Chest flys, 12 reps w/ bicycle legs, 4 reps pushing both legs in and out in time w/ chest fly (15# DBs)
6. 8 alternating reverse lunges then pulse 15x each leg + 18 alternating side lunges (12# DBs) (increase to 15#)

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