Cathe Live: Upper Body Challenge w/ Ball

Upper Body Challenge w/ Ball is another excellent upper body strength workout from Cathe Live. There are so many things I love about Cathe Live but her upper body muscle split workouts are one of the major bonuses. She works the entire upper body in this workout and works it well. I feel like no muscle group was short changed. I was especially pleased at how well she covered the back. Another bonus of this workout is that it is not a high rep workout, which means you can lift heavier. Now, Cathe does not lift heavy in this workout and because of that, unfortunately, her rep speed is sometimes a little brisk for going really heavy, but I still made it work. Below in the break down I will list what dumbbells Cathe uses, what dumbbells I used and, if I think I can go heavier next time I do this workout, I will also list that. Due to the fact I didn’t know if this would be an endurance workout or not, I was conservative on my weights at times. For the most part, Cathe works both sides of the body evenly. However, I think on one of the tricep band exercises she worked one side a lot more than the other. Also, the music runs out during the core section while you are doing banana holds and Cathe had to run and restart it, but she kept the exercise going smoothly. There was something particularly irritating in this workout. I mention it in the Cathe Live overview but it was worse than usual in this workout. Camera shots. During the core segment the camera man spent an excessive amount of time focused on one woman–who was not Cathe! It was as tho he set his camera down and walked away! I hate that. It is Cathe Live and 95% of the time the camera should be on her!

Upper Body Challenge w/ Ball is 63 minutes long; 6 minute warm up, 9:30 minutes core and 2 minute stretch. Equipment needed: various dumbbells, a stability ball, a resistance band w/ handles and a fitness mat. You will need 8 pound dumbbells for the warm up. It appeared live on 2/09/17 and here is the video clip.

1. Chest press on ball, 12 reps (Cathe used 15#DBs. I used 20# DBs, I will increase to 25# DBs)
2. Repeat 1 but to tempo: down to 2/2 count then 2 singles 4 reps
3. Chest fly on ball, 2 sets of 8 reps (Cathe used 15#DBs. I u,sed 20# DBs, I will increase to 25# DBs)
4. Push ups w/ shins on ball. 8 reps to 2/2 count
5. Repeat #4 but to tempo: one 2/2 count + 2 singles, 4 reps
6. Push ups on floor, 1 set 16 reps
7. Chest fly on floor w/ legs pressing in and out w/ each fly, 1 set of 8 reps (Cathe used 10# DBs, I used 20# DBs)
8. Pullovers on ball, 7 reps to 4/4 count + 4 reps 2/2 count (Cathe used 12# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
9. Repeat #8, 4 reps to 4/4 count + 4 reps to 2/2 count
10. Seated rear delt flys on ball, 3 sets of 8 reps (10# DBs, in the future I’ll use 12# DBs)
11. One arm rows w/ one hand on ball, 10 reps (Cathe used one 15# & one 8# DB held in one hand, I used one 30# DB)
12. One arm horizontal rows w/ one hand on ball, 10 reps (Cathe used one 15# DB, I used one 25# DB)
13. One arm rear delt fly, one set of 10 reps (one 10# DB, in the future I’ll use one 12# DB)
14. Seated T pulls w/ band, 2 sets (sitting on floor)
15. Seated Y Pulls w/ Band, 1 set (still sitting on floor)
16. Seated overhead press (on ball), 12 reps (12# DBs)
17. Incline arcing front raises (on ball), 8 reps (8# DBs)
18. Repeat #16
19. Incline alternating front raise on ball, 8 reps (8# DBs)
20. Repeat #16
21. Repeat #17 (5# DBs)
22. Repeat #19 (5# DBs)
23. Straight arm lateral raises on ball (Cathe used 5# DBs, I used 8# DBs)
24. Bent over straight arm push back w/ band (palms face the ceiling), 2 sets
25. Pulsing band pulls (band in both hands, a foot of space between hands and elbows locked to sides)
26. Narrow chest press on ball, 16 reps (Cathe uses 12# DBs, I used 20# DBs)
27. Lying overhead tricep extensions on ball, 12 reps (Cathe used 10# DBs, I used 12# DBs)
28. Repeat #26 for 12 reps (Cathe used 15# DBs, I used 20# DBs)
29. Repeat #27 for 10 reps
30. Seesaw tricep push ups on ball, 8 reps to 2/2 count + 6 reps to 4/4 count
31. Fold band in half, grip handled end in one hand and press that hand against opposite shoulder, grip doubled band in other hand and pull arm down straight (sitting on ball)
32. Bent over tricep kickbacks w/ band
33. W bicep curls on ball, 12 reps (12# DBs, in the future I will use 15# DBs)
34. Incline hammer curls on ball, 12 reps (Cathe used 10# DBs, I used 15 DBs)
35. Repeat #33 for 8 reps
36. Repeat #34 for 10 reps
37. Preacher curls on ball, 8 reps (Cathe used 10# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
38. Single arm preacher curls on ball, 8 reps (Cathe used one 10# DB, I used one 15# DB)
39. Standing bicep curls w/ 5# DBs and band, one set of 10 reps, one set of 8 reps, one set of 6 reps (in the future I will use 8# DBs)

Core (9:30 minutes):

1. Standing side bends w/ band under one foot and held in same side hand along w/ a one 5# DB, other hand behind head (I used one 8# DB w/ band)
2. Russian Twists w/ ball
3. Crunches w/ feet/calves elevated on ball
4. Sit ups w/ flutter legs at top
5. Ball pass (passing ball from between feet to hands and back)
6. Banana holds, hold ball in hands a few inches off floor
7. Reverse crunches w/ knees bent and raised and ball on shins
8. Elbow plank hold