Cathe Live: Burn Sets Express Legs Heavy Weight

#305 Burn Sets: Express Legs Heavy Weight is a Cathe Live lower body strength workout. There are 3 workouts in Cathe‘s Burn Sets Live workouts–a Back, Chest & Shoulders workout, a Biceps & Triceps workout and this workout. The idea behind all of the Burn Sets Live workouts is lifting heavy. You are only doing each exercise for 12 reps and she gives you adequate rest time between sets so that you can lift heavy for each exercise. And she delivered another excellent workout. Just like Burn Sets Live Back, Chest & Shoulders, I loved this workout. And I was able to really challenge myself with this workout because my left shoulder isn’t an issue for most lower body exercises. I thought it might be and was conservative on some of the exercises but when I had no problem and felt like I could have lifted heavier, I started matching Cathe for most of the exercises except squats. But I think the next time I do this workout I will match her for squats. I also think I could have worn a weighted vest in this workout and increased the intensity even more. I still got an excellent lower body workout. Due to the fact you are working your lower body with heavy weights, it is more metabolic than the upper body Burn Sets Live workouts. I burned 237 calories in 35 minutes. Not bad at all for a pure strength workout. Since I workout for an hour every morning and this workout is only 35 minutes, I finished this workout off with one of AngieFitnessTV‘s 15 Minute to Fit workouts–Quick Kickboxing. Overall, I got an excellent workout this morning!

There are 5 circuits in this workout and each circuit has one squat variation, one lunge variation and one deadlift variation. By changing these exercises in some fashion each time you do them, Cathe manages to hit most of the large muscle groups in your lower body nicely. As I already mentioned, you are doing 12 reps of each exercise. However in Circuit 2, Cathe keeps wanting to do stationary lunges again (Circuit 1) so she starts you over on both sides, so in that instance you are doing more than 12 reps. However when you actually do the correct exercise, you do only 12 reps of it. And one other exercise she purposely gives you bonus reps–Circuit 5 exercise #1. I think you do 16 reps but I am not positive. It is definitely more than 12 reps.

***11/28/20 Update: This workout was used as part of my 6 week Cathe Live Heavy Weight Rotation. Because of that I am updating this review for anyone interested. In the breakdown below, I show what I lifted at the beginning of the 6 weeks and what I lifted at the end of the 6 weeks. This shows any strength gains I made by the end of the 6 weeks.***

Burn Sets Express Legs Heavy Weight is 35 minutes; 1 minute intro, 4 minute warm up and 4 minute stretch. Equipment: various dumbbells and barbell plates (to elevate heels/toes). Cathe’s weights range from 12 pound dumbbells to 40 pound dumbbells. If just the weight is listed then I used the same weight as Cathe.

Warm Up Circuit:

1. Squats (12# DBs)
2. Repeat #1 but increase your DBs (15# DBs)
3. Deadlifts (15# DBs)
4. Stationary lunges (15# DBs)

Circuit 1:

1. Squats (Cathe is using 25# DBs; I used 20# DBs/last week of rotation 25# DBs)
2. Stationary lunges (20# DBs/last week of rotation 25# DBs)
3. Deadlifts (30# DBs/last week of rotation 35# DBs)

Circuit #2:

1. Heel elevated squats (heels elevated on barbell plates) (Cathe is using 25# DBs; I used 20# DBs/last week of rotation 25# DBs)
2. Reverse lunges (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 15# DBs/last week of rotation 20# DBs)
3. Wide deadlifts (30# DBs/last week of rotation 35# DBs)

Circuit #3:

1. Wide leg sumo squats (one 40# DB/last week of rotation one 50# DB)
2. Side lunges (one 20# DB/last week of rotation one 25# DB)
3. Single leg deadlift (Cathe is using one 30# DB; I used one 25# DB/last week of rotation one 30# DB)

Circuit #4:

1. Plie squats (20# DBs)
2. Cross-back/rear curtsy lunges (20# DBs)
3. Stiff leg deadlifts (legs close together) (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 30# DBs/last week of rotation 35# DBs)

Circuit #5:

1. Plie pick up squats (starts with legs wide and DB on floor between legs, squat and pick up the DB with one hand and stand, squat and place DB on floor again, alternate which hand is picking up the DB with each squat) (one 40# DB/last week of rotation one 50# DB)
2. Front lunges holding one DB on both hands on front of chest (Cathe is using one 25# DB; I used one 20# DB/last week of rotation one 25# DB)
3. Deadlift with toes elevated (use barbell plates to elevate toes) (30# DBs/last week of rotation 35# DBs)