Cathe Live Review: Kickbox & Barre (#20)
Kickbox & Barre is a cardio kickboxing workout that ends with a short barre section for the lower body.
I enjoyed this workout – it’s definitely not the most intense routine but it is quite fun and the lower body barre work, even though it’s a short section, really worked my legs well. Now with all that said this workout does have some issues. Firstly, the camera work isn’t always great and you can’t always see Cathe during the boxing section. Secondly, Cathe’s counting is really off in this workout – both during the cardio sections and the barre work. For example, she only does jump kicks on one side of the body and some of the punching drills are not done evenly. During the barre work it is even worse, as she frequently does a completely different number of reps on one side to the other. I have noted the rep counts below, for the barre work, so if you want to add on any reps you can. (Just for info, there is time to add the missing 8 reps of the crossback lunge & side knee raise before she goes on to the next thing, just in case you want to like I did! Also I rewound the set of jump kicks so I then did them on the other leg before continuing with the cardio boxing part of the workout. If you want to do the same you need to rewind to 19:10 minutes).
The workout starts with a fairly low key boxing warm-up before moving into some kick drills. The rest of this section is then a mix of punching combos and cardio blasts. As mentioned, there is one set of jump kicks but that’s all for the workout so it’s more cardio boxing than anything else. This isn’t a high intensity section, although it did get my heart rate up a bit, but it is definitely lower intensity than some of Cathe’s other boxing workouts. Also the cardio blasts are more steady state cardio, such as, jumping jacks etc, rather than Hiit blasts so this also keeps it more moderate. I would definitely recommend wearing weighted gloves or wrist weights here, if you want a little more intensity otherwise it would be a pretty light workout.
The next section is a short series of punches using the Heavy Bag (I shadow boxed as usual). Again Cathe’s count isn’t always even here. These are just straight forward punches with no choreography.
The final section is barre work for the lower body. As this is a Live class, there is quite a long break between the Heavy Bag section and the barre work, as you have to wait for them to get the barre out and there is some issues with them being too tall so it does take some time. I just did jumping jacks while I waited. Also if you don’t have a barre at home – don’t worry you don’t need one. I just used a chair and had no issues. Even though you do only five different exercises, for the barre work, it is generally very high rep and you will definitely be feeling your legs and hips. As mentioned, the counts are a little off but even so you still have to do over 100 high hip pulses on each side and then you add on at least another 64 reps of angled raises too! My hips were screaming at the end of these.
Overall, this is a less intense cardio kickboxing workout that ends with a fairly tough barre section for the lower body.
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The Workout
Kickbox & Barre is cardio kickboxing workout with a short barre section at the end.
What You Need to Know
(Rating scale – 1= lowest & 5 = highest).
The Moves
Kickbox & Barre is 53 minutes long and originally aired on 11th September 2014 (#20). The workout starts with a 9 minute warm-up before continuing straight into kicking drills. Only the final combos are shown below but know that they are built up in layers to help you learn the moves before putting them all together.
Cardio Kickboxing
Alternating knee lifts / alternating front kicks
Front kick & back kick / front kick & hammer down
Jump rope
Repeat above on other side
Sumo squat & side kick
Jump rope / jacks
Repeat on other side
Hammer punch lunges w/ knee lift
Double scissors / fast scissors / travelling scissors
Jack & jab
Jacks
Repeat on other side
Jab, cross, hook & upper cut / jab, cross, jab (fast) / slip & upper cut
Sequential power kicks – 6 sets of 4 reps – ONE Side ONLY (to repeat on other side pause or rewind to 19:10 minutes)
Jump rope / jacks
Double hops (forward & back) / jogs / high knee jogs
Jacks
Repeat on other side
Crisscross jack & 4 punches
Speedbag arms
Quick water break at 25:45 minutes & move to Heavy Bag
Heavy Bag at 26:20 minutes
Jab, cross
2 Jabs (high) & 2 cross (low)
Cross (low)
Jab, cross (slower then faster)
Quick water break & get out your barre or chair at 29:20 minutes
Barre Lower Body Work at 30:40 minutes using the barre or a chair
Calf raises (both legs) – lots of reps both slow & fast
1 Leg calf raises – 32 reps (1st side) & 56 reps (2nd side)
Straight leg raises / inner thigh raises – 72 reps (strgt), 32 reps (inner) & 16 reps (strgt) - 1st side. 64 reps (strgt), 32 reps (inner) & 32 reps (strgt) - 2nd side
Crossback lunges with side knee raise – 24 reps (1st side) & 16 reps (2nd side)
High hip pulses / angled leg raises / crossback leg raises – 104 reps (side & front), 8 reps (angle), 8 reps (cross) & 32 pulses (cross) - 1st side. 112 reps (side & ft), 8 reps (angle), 16 reps (cross), 32 pulses (cross) - 2nd side
High & tight (feet together) – 40x pulses, 16x down & up, 4x partials, 8x 2/2 count & hold
The workout ends with a 4 minute cool down and stretch.
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I enjoyed this. I have a fit tower and I love using it as often as possible.