#171 Fit Tower Total Body with Weights is yet another excellent total body strength workout from Cathe Live using her Fit Tower. I love how that tower works my back! This is another workout that you can only substitute a chair for some of the moves. In order to get the full value of the workout, you need a Fit Tower. And like most of Cathe‘s other Fit Tower workouts that I’ve done, she does an excellent job thoroughly working every muscle group in the body to full fatigue.
I mentioned in the first live Fit Tower workout I did, Tone & Tighten, that if you aren’t accustomed to doing all of the pull up variations using the tower, your hands may cramp, but in time, your grip with strengthen and stop hurting. That happened to me when I did Mark Lauren‘s 90 Day Challenge and it has happened again with all of the Live Fit Tower workouts I have been doing recently. My hands cramped the first few workouts but I noticed today during this workout–no hand cramping at all. So as long as you are doing these exercises on a regular basis, your hands will get strong. That is something I need to keep in mind because the exercises that cause the cramping are excellent, effective exercises. No reason not to include them frequently in a workout rotation–and besides, who wouldn’t want to strengthen their grip? All good things! Which is why I am buying most of the Live Fit Tower workouts I have tried so far. I now feel I need to do at least one Fit Tower workout each week. Not only are they excellent total body workouts but they hit the back like nothing else.
You can do Cathe’s live workouts by subscribing to her streaming site or purchasing the individual downloads. Here is a video clip of this workout.
Fit Tower Total Body with Weights is 55 minutes; 6 minute warm up, 7 minutes of core work and 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: Fit Tower, 6 foot resistance band, dumbbells and fitness mat. The workout starts with Cathe and class standing beside the tower with one hand on bar. Your bar is at a level 8. I used the same weighs as Cathe did for everything except deadlifts and that is noted in the breakdown below.
- Stand facing bar, one leg is bent and raised behind you, hold one DB in hand (same side as leg that is raised), other hand is on bar in front of you, hinge forward slightly so DB is reaching down toward ground, do low end single leg squats; changes to pulses at bottom of squat (Cathe uses one 12# DB)
- Deadlifts to various tempos (Cathe uses 15# DBs; I used 25# DBs)
- Stand facing the tower, hands on bar and legs together, raise onto toes and lower into a pulsing barre squat keeping spine straight; continue pulsing in a deeper barre squat; alternate between 8 pulsing reps of shallow barre squats and 7 pulsing reps of deep barre squats
- (lower bar to level 4) Face away from tower and, with hands on bar behind you, do tricep dips; changes to pulses at bottom of tricep dips
- Drape resistance loop over top of the tower, face tower, standing close to it and hold one end of band in each hand high enough on band so that hands are at chest level, keeping elbows close to sides, pull band down, bringing hands to hip level, do singles first then pulse at bottom of move
- Repeat #4 & 5
- (lower bar to level 3) With hands on bar, do 16 push ups
- (lower bar to level 2) Do 16 more push ups
- (lower bar to level 1) Do 12 more push ups
- (raise bar to level 8) Face the tower, hands on bar, heels together with toes turned out, raise onto toes and lower into a barre plie squat with knees turned out to sides, do shallow pulsing plie squats; continue pulsing in deeper plie barre squats; alternate between 8 pulsing reps of shallow plie barre squats and 7 pulsing reps of deep plie barre squats
- Holding one DB in both hands, do pulsing curtsy lunges, first 15 pulses then 7 pulses 4x then 3 pulses 4x then 8 singles, ends with 15 pulses (Cathe is using one 15# DB)
- Sit cross-leg beneath tower and hold bar in an underhand grip, do pull ups in this position
- Sweeper/supination curls, 12 reps (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Repeat #12
- W (wide) bicep curls, 8 reps (Cathe is using 12# DBs)
- Sit on bottom under bar with legs extended and knees bent, hands on bar in an overhead grip, keeping feet on ground, do pull ups in this position, 3 sets of 8 reps (body is in crab/tabletop position) (these are “Let Me Ups” if you are familiar with Mark Lauren workouts)
- Sit with legs extended straight and wrap resistance band around feet, criss-cross band and hold one end of band in each hand, open arms out straight to side into T pulls, 16 reps; open straight arms up higher into Y pulls, 16 reps
- (Cathe lowers the bar to level 6) Repeat #16 for 10 reps
- Traveling wide plie squats, 4 steps to each side (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Pulsing wide pie squats, alternate sides, 3 pulses to each side; changes to singles (still alternating sides) (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- Push press (squat with single arm overhead press, alternate arms); changes to 3 double arm push presses, lower DBs to sides and repeat this pattern 3x (Cathe is using 10# DBs)
- (bar has been raised back to level 8) Stand facing the tower, one hand on the bar, the other hand holding an 8# DB, step one foot back into lunge and do 3 single straight arm side raises, step foot back into start, 4 reps of this pattern; changes to singles (just doing one straight arm side raise before stepping back in), 4 reps
- Repeat #22 on other side of body
- Repeat #22 but do 4 singles first then 2 reps of the 3 single arm raises while in lunge, then hold in lunge while doing 7 single straight arm raises
- Repeat #24 on other side of body
- Lay on mat, knees bent and feet raised off floor, do chest flys to a 2/2 count in this position; add bicycling legs when doing the chest flys; pattern changes to lowering the DBs to count of 4 then 2 reps to a 2/2 count then raise to a count of 4 then 2 reps to 2/2 count (you are no longer bicycling the legs, just keeping them raised with knees bent) (Cathe is using 15# DBs)
- Tricep push ups on knees to 2/2 count, 4 reps; changes to lowering to bottom of push up raising halfway, lowering back to bottom of push up 2x (2 partials at bottom of push up) then raising all the way, 3 reps of this pattern; 4 more tricep push ups to a 2/2 pattern
Core (7 minutes; starts at 45:00):
- (lower bar to level 6) Loop resistance band over the top of the tower and sit on mat beneath tower, hold one end of band in each hand, lay back on mat (but head shoulders are still raised) with legs extended straight under bar, lift torso in a partial sit up while opening straight arms/band out to side while also lifting one straight leg until shin taps bar, alternate legs
- In same starting position as #1, but now you are sitting more upright, lean back and pull band down to side, tapping elbow to mat beside you, alternate sides
- (lower bar to level 3) Over/Unders (lay on back, knees bent and feet raised off floor, hands behind head, do a basic crunch, when crunching extend legs straight under bar then bring knees in to chest then extend legs straight over bar–alternate going over and under with each crunch); changes to just pushing legs under the bar with each crunch
- Lay on mat with one leg extended straight and area just above heel resting on bar, other leg is extended straight on floor, crunch upper body, raise floor leg, tapping insole of working leg to heel of foot on bar, lower leg back to floor then lower upper body; changes to raising and lowering leg as you crunch (single count)
- (keep bar at level 3–Cathe raises it to level 4 then immediately changes her mind) In straight arm plank with hands on bar, alternate tapping one toe in under body, 8 reps then hold plank isometrically for 8 counts; raise same leg out to side of body (toward elbow) 4 times before repeating on other side 4x, repeat this on each leg one more time; hold plank isometrcally for 8 counts
