Cathe Friedrich's LITE PHA 2 Workout

I loved this one too. My glutes, lats, and pecs were sore for 2 days afterwards. I also like that they only repeat the rounds once. When I do PHA #1 I normally do the premix where you only do two rounds. Although in PHA #1 there are only do 6 exercises per round whereas PHA #2 there are eight exercises per round. ChelePA is right with the side lateral raises, they alternate bringing the weights to the side of the hips and to the front of the hips. I was confused at first as I expected a side raise alternating with a front raise and it took a few reps for me to realise what they were doing.
 
Did PHA this morning. I enjoyed it. I feel worked out but not killed. I am at a stage in life where I just like to feel worked but not overdo it. I like that she only repeated once. I am confused on the shoulders, I did side lat raised for all but it seems like your going to the side then front but it didn't seem like Cathe was doing that so I stuck with side raises. I hate to say but the lady by Brenda (is her name Nicole) was having bad form on the shoulders.

Hi rcsaros! So glad you enjoyed PHA 2. The pattern for that shoulder exercise is to bring the arms out to sides in a lateral raise and then lower the arms down just in the front of the thighs/hips, then extend the arms out laterally again and lower the arms to the outsides of the thighs/hips (instead of the front of the thighs/hips). So the movement is a side-to-front LATERAL raise as opposed to a lateral raise alternated with a front raise. Bringing the arms down to the front of the thighs vs the sides provides just a little more challenge since there is a little more range of motion to work against on the way up. Hope this helps.
 
I loved this one too. My glutes, lats, and pecs were sore for 2 days afterwards. I also like that they only repeat the rounds once. When I do PHA #1 I normally do the premix where you only do two rounds. Although in PHA #1 there are only do 6 exercises per round whereas PHA #2 there are eight exercises per round. ChelePA is right with the side lateral raises, they alternate bringing the weights to the side of the hips and to the front of the hips. I was confused at first as I expected a side raise alternating with a front raise and it took a few reps for me to realise what they were doing.

Perfect Hazlady! There are many pre-mixes and or options to make these "your" perfect workout. I'm glad you finding those options and using them :)
 
I did this workout yesterday scrambled with abs after each round. I went a little heavier on most of the lower body exercises and I was dripping by the end. My glutes are so sore tonight (in a good way of course) that tomorrow is definitely an upper body day!
 
First time with PHA 2 today. I loved PHA one and use it very often, just some great strength with some cardio conditioning. I liked the format of PHA 2 even better, just awesome!
 
Fast paced, got my heart rate up, sweating throughout. I liked that this workout was short and to the point. Good moves. I was a little sore the next day. I never lift heavier that Cathe, but I did match her weights in this one. I did cheat and do all the push-ups on my knees. I can't do push-ups on my toes. Another winner.
 
This is the one workout in LITE I haven't tried yet and am planning to do it tomorrow. I've been working out most of my life (I started with Jane Fonda, that's how long ago - I'm 57 years old!) but I almost stopped completely for about a year because life just got on top of me. I've been getting back into it past 12 months and I have to admit that I had to google PHA - had no idea what it was :D I'm not up to standard with heavier weights yet - 10s are a struggle. So I'm looking forward to trying this to see what PHA feels like. I think this class uses a step so I think it's going to be fun - I like steps - ...not expecting to ace it the first time but if you don't try you never know...
 
This is the one workout in LITE I haven't tried yet and am planning to do it tomorrow. I've been working out most of my life (I started with Jane Fonda, that's how long ago - I'm 57 years old!) but I almost stopped completely for about a year because life just got on top of me. I've been getting back into it past 12 months and I have to admit that I had to google PHA - had no idea what it was :D I'm not up to standard with heavier weights yet - 10s are a struggle. So I'm looking forward to trying this to see what PHA feels like. I think this class uses a step so I think it's going to be fun - I like steps - ...not expecting to ace it the first time but if you don't try you never know...
You will love it, it's great workout. Have fun...
 
Confession is I still haven't got round to doing it...the day I planned to I just didn't feel like weights so did Cardio Party :D Going to try it tonight because I just got OnDemand and have been very interested in the Strong & Sweaty series (did the Cardio Slam couple of days ago, it was perfect for my level and progression, pushed me just that bit out of my comfort zone but was do-able for me). So, I want to try the LITE PHA before I try the S&S one because :
- I currently cannot safely use much more than 10lbs -( well, I'm in the UK and our dumbbells are in kgs so I'm really talking about 5kg which I think is somewhere between 10 and 11 lbs.)
-my cardio fitness is way more progressed than my strength.
-I watched some bits of PHA 1 and I'm fairly sure I saw Cathe use 35lbs - for me, that is almost umimaginable at the moment!

So, I think the PHA 1 might be too much for me at the moment so I MUST get round to trying the Lite one now!
 
Confession is I still haven't got round to doing it...the day I planned to I just didn't feel like weights so did Cardio Party :D Going to try it tonight because I just got OnDemand and have been very interested in the Strong & Sweaty series (did the Cardio Slam couple of days ago, it was perfect for my level and progression, pushed me just that bit out of my comfort zone but was do-able for me). So, I want to try the LITE PHA before I try the S&S one because :
- I currently cannot safely use much more than 10lbs -( well, I'm in the UK and our dumbbells are in kgs so I'm really talking about 5kg which I think is somewhere between 10 and 11 lbs.)
-my cardio fitness is way more progressed than my strength.
-I watched some bits of PHA 1 and I'm fairly sure I saw Cathe use 35lbs - for me, that is almost umimaginable at the moment!

So, I think the PHA 1 might be too much for me at the moment so I MUST get round to trying the Lite one now!

Hi Pippi, I live in New Zealand where we also use kg rather than lbs. I have done both S&S PHA and LITE PHA and the heaviest dumbbell I use is 5kg, which I use when Cathe's weight is 15lbs or more. For 10-12lbs I use 4kg, 8lbs I use 3kg and 5lbs I use 2kg. I find I get a good workout with these weights. Another modification you can make is lowering the step height. My step only came with 2 risers per side so that is what I use.
 
Confession is I still haven't got round to doing it...the day I planned to I just didn't feel like weights so did Cardio Party :D Going to try it tonight because I just got OnDemand and have been very interested in the Strong & Sweaty series (did the Cardio Slam couple of days ago, it was perfect for my level and progression, pushed me just that bit out of my comfort zone but was do-able for me). So, I want to try the LITE PHA before I try the S&S one because :
- I currently cannot safely use much more than 10lbs -( well, I'm in the UK and our dumbbells are in kgs so I'm really talking about 5kg which I think is somewhere between 10 and 11 lbs.)
-my cardio fitness is way more progressed than my strength.
-I watched some bits of PHA 1 and I'm fairly sure I saw Cathe use 35lbs - for me, that is almost umimaginable at the moment!

So, I think the PHA 1 might be too much for me at the moment so I MUST get round to trying the Lite one now!
I’m also much more advanced cardio versus weights. The Lite series was perfect for me in this area. I can increase my weights slightly on the metabolic one but PHA 2 I use the same weights. I also have S&S. I actually got rid of the PHA workout because I found it too repetitive. But I love all the other workouts. My upper body strength is no where near Cathe for the advanced routines. Enjoy!!! And let us know what you think.
 
I did it yesterday! It is repetitive but I didn't mind because I found it helped me to feel the movements, feel which muscles were firing and think about my form, especially as the moves aren't performed too quickly. It got my heart rate up somewhat, but as I currently don't own any weights heavier than 5kg (which I think equates to 11lbs or so) I wasn't lifting as heavy in some of the moves so as I go heavier my heart rate will go higher. I have one of the old Reebok step benches which aren't easy to raise and lower quickly (you can't just lift the top off and remove the odd riser with those old ones) but I had it on its highest setting and just used the top off my mini step when Cathe lowered hers. I liked PHA, it's an interesting one.

I have some heavier weights on order - I went for a 7kg and an 8kg set - so I'll start integrating those. I suspect I might have to do drop sets when I first start . The 8kg is about 17lbs so I probably won't even touch them for a few weeks yet!
 
I did this one for the first time this morning, and matched Cathe's weights (a rarity) except for the body weight on push-ups (on my knees, not toes). But those elevated push dips off the step - OMG, those were rough. I took longer to finish those, and know I'm going to be sore. This is such a well thought out full body with cardio workout, great for grabbing when you want a bit of each without complete exhaustion and are short on time. No dread factor, and a great addition to total body workouts. Muscle Max and STS Total Body and the others can be a bit much at times. (Many times.)
 
I've done this one a few times and am pretty close to matching the weights used now, and going slightly heavier on occasion - I'm using some 11s and 13s and integrating 17s (but only holding for lower body exercises, not lifting 17s yet). Aside from the benefits of PHA, I'm finding it to be a really great workout for someone like me who is an intermediate trying to use more weight on upper body - because it's not too fast paced and the switch from lower to upper gives your arms time to recover from lifting heavier.
 
Did this this morning and I loved it! I was leery of it because I almost always do either upper/lower or total body working 1 muscle group as a time. This was amazing and I found I truly like this method. Time for me to try the other PHA!! Lol.
Thanks Cathe and crew
 

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