Cathe Live: Push Pull Total Body Heavy Weight

Yes! Another awesome heavy weight strength workout from Cathe! Please Cathe! Keep creating these! I knew I would love this workout before I did it. I did it this morning–LOVED IT! #309 Push Pull Total Body Heavy Weight is a total body strength workout from Cathe Live using the push-pull method. Push-pull is a training technique in which you alternate strength exercises for your “push” muscles (chest, triceps, quads, calves, shoulders) with strength exercises for your “pull” muscles (all back muscles, biceps, hamstrings, obliques and trapezius (a back/shoulder muscle)). Since the shoulders are made up of many muscle groups, Cathe splits the shoulders between push (anterior delts) and pull (lateral and rear delts). This is a very balanced total body strength workout. I especially love how she starts with large muscle groups (lower body, chest and back) and works her way down to smaller muscle groups (shoulders, biceps and triceps) then ends with core. And she works the entire core, front to back. I prefer to give the large muscle groups 100% my effort before I start fatiguing so the structure of this workout felt perfect to me. She comments after the first bicep exercise that she might do some more bicep work afterward (for herself–not part of this workout). The chest and back do get more work than smaller muscle groups but I have no problems with that. Your biceps and triceps work as ancillary muscles during exercises for larger muscle groups. So if you are truly challenging yourself with heavy weight for your fitness/strength level then they are also getting plenty of work when you are doing those back and chest exercises since the are assisting. So a few focused bicep and tricep exercises at the end are all that is needed in a total body strength workout. But that is just my opinion. I personally prefer to put the most focus on my back, shoulders and lower body.

This workout will definitely be part of the strength rotation I am creating. I will eventually be posting this rotation. I plan to start it late October and I won’t post it until I complete it–so end of November. I’m pretty excited about it because in the short time that I have been doing Cathe’s live heavy weight workouts, I have already noticed the strength in my left arm increasing. This morning I lifted heavier with my left arm than I have since the surgery. The few exercises that I didn’t lift heavier (chest) I still felt stronger. I have already created weight charts for all of Cathe’s live heavy weight workouts so I can track and increase my weight during the rotation.

For majority of the exercises you are doing 12 reps. Cathe gives you adequate time for your muscles to recover from lifting heavy and also to swap out weights. So challenge yourself and track your weights!

***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. Also, at the beginning of the rotation I did all of the push ups on my knees. This was my final strength workout of the rotation and I did all 16 push ups on my toes.***

Push Pull Total Body Heavy Weight is 44 minutes; 5:30 minute warm up and 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: full step at 12 inches (4 risers), fitness mat, resistance tube with handles and various dumbbells. At the end of the warm up, Cathe does a warm up set of squats and deadlifts using 15 pound dumbbells. The weights listed below are what Cathe used for each exercise. I lifted the same weights as Cathe unless otherwise noted.

1. Squats (25# DBs)
2. Deadlifts (30# DBs/end of rotation 35# DBs)
3. Chest press (Cathe is using 25# DBs; I used 15# DBs/end of rotation 22.5# DBs)
4. Single arm row (one 30# DB)
5. Close grip sumo squats (one 40# DB/end of rotation one 50# DB)
6. Wide stance deadlifts (30# DBs/end of rotation 35# DBs)
7. Close grip bench press (Cathe is using 25# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
8. Double arm bent over row (25# DBs)
9. Narrow stance squat (20# DBs/end of rotation 25# DBs)
10. Stiff leg narrow deadlift (Cathe is using 20# DBs; I used 30# DBs/end of rotation 35# DBs)
11. Chest fly (Cathe is using 25# DBs; I used 15# DBs/end of rotation 18# DBs)
12. Band posture pulls (fold band in half, hold one end in each hand, pull band wide in a straight arm chest fly motion, do full and partial reps)
13. Alternating side lunges, touch DB to floor when lunging, pass DB hand to hand when alternating sides (one 15# DB/end of rotation one 20# DB)
14. Stand on resistance tube, criss cross band and hold a handle in each hand, hands press handles to hips, alternate lifting legs straight out to side
15. Overhead press (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs/end of rotation 14# DBs)
16. Upright rows (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 10# DBs)
17. Rear delt press (stand on resistance tube, one handle + one DB in each hand, hinge forward, raise arms straight behind you and press straight arms/DBs/band up to ceiling) (Cathe is using 10# DBs; I used 8# DBs)
18. Straight arm front raise (one 15# DB)
19. Overhead tricep extension (French press) (Cathe is using one 30# DB; I used one 25# DB/end of rotation one 30# DB)
20. Bicep curls (15# DBs)
21. Tricep kickbacks (12# DBs)
22. 8 point drop curls (raise DB to top of curl and do partial lowers, going lower each time until on the 8th one you are at the bottom of the curl) (Cathe is using 15# DBs; I used 12# DBs/end of rotation 13# DBs)
23. Push ups
24. Prone total body complex with a 5 pound dumbbell (on all 4s you will do a one arm delt fly while raising the opposite leg straight behind you)
25. In straight arm plank, bring one knee under body toward opposite elbow, straighten leg (but don’t put it back on floor) bring knee to same side elbow on outside of body, straighten leg again then bring it under body a second time toward opposite elbow–these are all done using the same leg and this equals one rep, alternate legs
26. V ups into bent knee boat pose
27. Banded superman (lay on stomach, hold band in both hands with about 18 inches between hands, arms/band are extended in front of you, raise and lower arms and legs in traditional superman but when you raise arms, pull band open and also open legs)
28. Banana holds (or hollow holds), 8 reps (hold for 4 counts the first 5 reps then for 8 counts the final 3 reps)