Beachbody Programs That I have Done

A little over a year ago, I bought my first Beachbody program. I got it during a huge sale they had in June. I was 290 pounds. I got Les Mills Combat because I liked Martial Arts workouts and this one was pretty inexpensive for what came with the program.

Prior to doing Les Mills Combat, I was doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and various DVDs from my library. I had little focus and lacked an overall plan. I was losing weight slowly, but the whole process was a bit stressful for me because I had to constantly come up with a plan. I had a tendency to pick one thing to do for a week. For example, I would do Leslie Sansone workouts for one week and the next I would do JessicaSmithTV.com workouts.

I was skeptical about doing Beachbody programs for a few reasons. I wasn't sure if I could stick with the same program for two months. I thought I would get bored with the workouts. I also thought the program might be too hard for me at 290 pounds. However, doing a 60 day program gave me 60 days worth of blog posts, so I wanted to give it a try.

I'm so happy that I did. I didn't get bored with the workouts and they weren't too hard for me. They were challenging, but there was a modifier that I could choose to follow if I needed to. I have since fallen in love with Beachbody and I'm now an addict. I love that you get a bunch of different workouts with each program. You also get a calendar that tells you what workout to do on what day. That is huge for me. Once I pick which program is next for me, I don't have to think about what to do next. That takes a ton of stress off of me. I used to sit at the computer for hours just trying to come up with a plan for the following week. Sometimes, I would procrastinate so long that I wouldn't have time to actually workout! Silly, but true.

Once you complete a Beachbody program, you earn a free t-shirt. (It's socks for Cize and shorts for Brazil Butt Lift) It's like getting a trophy. I can't bail on a program because I want my trophy! So far, I'm too big to wear any of my trophies in public, but eventually, I'll lose enough weight that I can wear them in public.

Looking back over the past year, I haven't been on point with my nutrition as much as I would have liked. I started out in July of 2014 at 290 pounds. As I sit here typing this is August of 2015, I'm at 266. Wow. That's only 24 pounds lost in a year. However, I'm so much stronger today than I was a year ago. I can do things I couldn't do then. I can climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. I climbed to the top of Tumalo Mountain! No way I could have done that a year ago. I'm less tired and more happy. I'm back on track with my nutrition now, so the fat is just going to melt away now!

I know here are plenty of other people like me out there who are significantly overweight. You may have watched an infomercial on a Beachbody program and wondered if it was something you could do. I'm here to say that you can do it if you set your mind to it. You don't necessarily have to follow the calendar exactly. If you wake up the next day and your body hurts so bad you can't even sit on the toilet, you probably should take a rest day, but don't give up. It's okay to take it slow if you need to.

I wanted to put a list together of all the Beachbody programs that I've done so it was all in one place to make it easier for people who are trying to decide which program to do. They are listed in the order that I did them.

I will update this list as I complete more programs. I'm currently doing Cize The End of Exercize. It's another dancing workout! It's pretty challenging for me, but I'm loving it!

Les Mills Combat

Les Mills Combat is a mixed martial arts program. It comes with eight workouts. Two of them are strength training workouts that use HIIT, but the rest are all martial arts workouts.

I loved the martial arts workouts, but wasn't a huge fan of the strength training ones when I first did this program. They were hard for me, but I got through them. I wanted to die during them and I was sore later, but they made me stronger. There was a lot of kicking and punching in these. There was some jumping, but they have a modifier who doesn't do any jumping.

I did a mini round of Les Mills Combat a few months back, and the HIIT workouts weren't as bad the second time around. These are great workouts to get you started along on a fitness journey. However, you should act fast since this program is being discontinued. Once they sell what they have, that's it.

Check out my post about my 61 Day Experience with Les Mills Combat to find out more about the individual workouts or you can read through my journal of my mini round and my full round of Les Mills Combat.

This program is doable for a beginner, but you can also go all out in it and make it pretty intense for someone who is more advanced.

PiYo

PiYo is a mix of Pilates and Yoga. It's a Chalene Johnson creation. She also did Turbofire, Turbo Jam and Chalean Extreme. PiYO has 10 workouts. PiYo also comes with a free TurboFire workout.

PiYo is promoted as a no impact workout. However, to make it no impact, you need to follow the modifier in certain sections. There are a ton of squats and lunges in this program. I think it's important to mention that just in case someone reading this has knee problems.

There are two workouts that are supposed to be more cardio based and then the rest of them seem to be about strength training and stretching. The cardio ones are Drench and Sweat. I have to say that I was not a fan of either of these during my first round, but they were much easier to get through during my mini round. She moved pretty fast during these! I really enjoyed the other workouts in the program.

I didn't lose much weight with PiYo, but I got a lot stronger. I didn't have my nutrition under control. The program comes with a nutrition plan that's very similar to the 21 Day Fix, but I just wasn't ready to put much effort into nutrition. I tried to cut out as much junk as I could, but I was way pickier back then in terms of what I would eat and I just couldn't mentally handle going all out on my nutrition while still doing the workouts. It's easy for me to workout. It's not easy for me to come up with a meal plan. If it was just me, it might be easier, but I have a husband as well.

Check out my post about My 56 Day Experience with PiYo to find out more about the individual workouts or you can read through my journal of my mini round and my full found of PiYo.

This program is doable for a beginner, but she shows you things that you can do to make it more challenging for someone who is more advanced. 

21 Day Fix

21 Day Fix is a very popular Beachbody program. It comes with an amazing nutrition program as well as a workout program. If you buy it from a coach, you get eight workouts that are 30 minutes plus a 10 minute ab routine. If you don't buy it from a coach, miss out on one of the 30 minute workouts.

You do one of the 30 minute workouts every day for 21 days. There are no rest days during the 21 days, but one of the days is Yoga, so that's pretty much an active recover day.

The nutrition program that comes with this is based on a color coded container system. There's a list of foods that are acceptable on the program. As long as the food fits in the container, you get to eat it. If you run out of containers, you just wait until the next day to eat it. I think I lost 7 pounds during this program. I could have lost more, but I had some salt issues towards the end. I can't eat salt. It really kills my weight loss.

One of the workouts is just about cardio, one is Pilates, one is Yoga and the rest incorporate weights and cardio mixed together. There is a modifier in all of the workouts. This program is doable for a beginner, but you can also go all out and make it more challenging for someone who is more advanced.

Check out my post about my 21 Day Experience with 21 Day Fix or read my journal for my first round of 21 Day Fix.  

Body Beast

Body Beast is a weight lifting program. It's geared towards men. Plenty of women do this program, but it's marketed towards men. He talks like everyone doing it is a man. Some women are bothered by this, but I didn't really care.

The program comes with 13 workouts if you buy it from a coach. You only get 12 if you don't use a coach. It also comes with a bonus P90X3 workout. There is one cardio workout with this program, and the rest are all about strength training. There are three phases in this one. The first phase has one set of workouts, the second phase has a different set of workouts and the final phase mixes the workouts from the first two phases.

I gained weight during this program. My nutrition was a mess. We had a lot of family stuff going on and I just couldn't get my nutrition under control. I ate ice cream, cake, cookies and a lot of restaurant meals. It was a rough time. I was pretty much hungry all the time doing this! I was also sore all the time. This program made me so much stronger though. I honestly don't think I could have gotten through Coach to 5K if I hadn't done Body Beast.

Check out my post about my Three Month Experience with Body Beast or read my journal for my first round of Body Beast.

Rockin' Body

Rockin' Body is a dancing workout. The format is kind of cheesy, but that's what makes it so awesome. If you think you can't do dancing workouts, it's only because you haven't tried this. Shaun T is an amazing teacher. This is all based on walking, knee lifts, front kicks and side steps. He teaches the steps in an easy to follow manner! I can't dance, but I loved this program!

This one comes with seven workouts. If you buy the upgraded package, you get two more Rockin' Body workouts and two Hip Hop Abs workouts. One of the workouts is a strength training workout, but the rest all about dancing. Shaun T described the strength training workout as deceptively hard. I didn't think there was anything deceptive about it. It was just hard! It was great though.

Check out my post about my Four Week Experience with Rockin' Body or read about my journal for my first round of Rockin' Body.

Beachbody Body Beast Review

What is Body Beast?

Body Beast is a Beachbody workout program that is all about old school weight lifting. It uses Dynamic Set Training to help you build muscle. The program is geared towards men, but plenty of women are doing it and getting great results. This is a 12 week program broken down into three different phases. There are 12 Body Beast workouts that come with the program. You also get a Bonus Workout from P90X3, and if you buy the program from a Beachbody Coach, you get a free workout. You can purchase two additional workouts as well. You can read about my full 84 day experience with Body Beast by checking out my daily blog posts, but keep in mind that one of the things that annoyed me about the program has been resolved with a later release. It drove me batty that I had to switch the DVD nearly every single day. I thought someone could have grouped them together a bit better. Apparently, I wasn't the only one because when I purchased the program, the DVDs were grouped together much more efficiently and there will be far less swapping DVDs the next time I do Body Beast. 

Equipment Needed

Body Beast is a weight lifting workout. You can modify things so you don't need a lot of equipment, but you will need weights. There's no way around that. Resistance bands will help you modify the Pull Ups and Chin Ups, but there is no resistance band modifier in the workout for anything else. I used the Bowflex adjustable weights. We've got the bigger set that goes from 10 to 90 pounds in 5 pound increments. The smaller weights that go from 5 to 52.5 in 2.5 pound increments would have been better for me, but we got the bigger set for hubby. I also had a set of 2 pound weighted balls from my Walk Away the Pounds days and 5 and 10 pound dumbbells. I had my bar from Pump, but I didn't have an EZ Bar. We also have a weight bench, but you can use a stability ball. Be careful with the ball and make sure that the ball can handle your weight plus the weight of whatever you're lifting. It would be pretty ugly for that thing to pop while you're on there with weights over your head. 

The Workouts

There are two different versions of the calendar. One is for losing weight and one is for building muscle. The main difference between the two is the amount of times you do Cardio. There is only one Cardio workout. In the Lean Plan, you do that same cardio workout once a week for the full 12 weeks. There are weeks where you have the option of doing it twice by skipping Total Body and doing Cardio. 

The workouts are broken down into Build, Bulk and Beast. The Build series is where you start. These workouts are 40 to 50 minutes, but I had to pause the DVD for the Build Legs, so it was longer for me. You workout six days a week and have one rest day. During the Build series, your rest day rotates since there are only five workouts in the rotation. This phase lasts three weeks.  

After that, you move to the Bulk Phase which lasts five weeks. You still workout six days a week and have one rest day in this phase, but your rest day is the same day every week since there are six workouts in the rotation. 

The third phase lasts 4 weeks and it's called the Beast Phase. The Beast Phase is a mix of the Build and Bulk workouts. It's basically alternating weeks of Bulk and Build except you do the opposite leg day. For example, week 1 is all Build workouts, except Leg day is Bulk Legs. The other difference is the addition of the Beast Total Body workout. Your rest day stays the same and that's made possible by adding an extra workout to the Build weeks. It's the Beast Total Body. 

I found the plan terminology a little confusing at first since the DVDs are broken up into Build, Bulk and Beast and the workout phases are Build, Bulk and Beast, but the Beast phase is made up of Build, Bulk and Beast DVDs instead of just Beast DVDs. I initially thought I would have three unique sets of lifting DVDs instead of just two. It worked out well though. For the most part, I really enjoyed the DVDs.  

Build: Chest/Tris

This is an awesome Chest and Tricep workout! It includes Dumbbell Chest Presses, Incline Dumbbell Fly, Incline Dumbbell Press, Close Grip Press, Partial Chest Fly, Decline Push Up, Tricep Extensions, Single Arm Tricep Kickbacks, Dips on the Bench, and In and Outs (It's an ab move.). It uses Single Sets, Super Sets and Giant Sets, The first few times I did this, I was pretty sore the next day. Over time, I got stronger and was less sore, but it was still a great workout even if I didn't feel it the next day. 

Build Back/Bis

I loved this workout. I've always loved back and bicep day! This one had Pull Ups, but I didn't have a pull up bar so I used the door attachment for a resistance band. In this workout, they have the band up high, but in the Total Body workout, the band is down low. I actually preferred it down low so I started doing these with it down low during the final phase. When you have it down low, you're doing more of a lat pull down motion which is a good simulation of a pull up, but when you have it up high, it almost turns into a row which doesn't feel the same. This workout has Deadlifts, Dumbbell Pull Over, Pull Ups, EZ Bar Row, One Arm Row, Reverse Fly, Close Grip Chin Ups (I used the band), Seated Bicep Curls, 1 1 2 Hammer Curl, Natural EZ Bar Curl and Airplane Cobra. It used Single Sets, Super Sets and Giant Sets. 

Build Legs

This was another workout where I had to pause the DVD. This thing was intense. I hurt for days after doing it the first time and I hurt for days after doing it for the final time! During my first phase, I used the same 10 pound weights for mot of the moves instead of going up with the weight and down with the reps. During the final phase when I did this again, I did go up with the weight as we went down with the reps. This had Sumo Squats, Alternating Lunges, Step up to Reverse Lunge, Parallel Squat, Bulgarian Squat, Straight Leg Deadlift, Single Leg Calf Raise, Seated Calf Raise and In and Outs (It's an ab move.) It used Single Sets, Super Sets and Giant Sets. I liked this workout even though the lunges were hard because I was so slow at them. My balance just sucks. I really need to do Tai Cheng!

Build Shoulders

This was the last workout of the first week. I was kind of dreading doing it because I have the wimpiest shoulders on the planet. A five year old could probably lift more than I can when it comes to shoulder stuff. I was surprised that I was able to get through this one as well as I did. I was also surprised that I never really got DOMS in my shoulders. I could feel that I had worked out the day before, but I thought I wouldn't be able to move without excruciating pain, but it didn't happen. At the end of the workout, it was a challenge to lift my hand over my head to wash my hair, but the next day, I didn't hurt. Weird! The workout included Shoulder Press, Lateral Raise, Upright Row, EZ Bar Underhand Press, 1 1 2 Front Raise, Rear Delt Raise, Standing Dumbbell Shrug, Dumbbell Scap Trap, Sagi Six Way, and Tuck and Roll. This used Single Sets, Super Sets and Giant Sets. The Sagi Six Way is HARD! OMG! 

Bulk Chest

I really loved this workout. There were days where I didn't want to workout, but I did it because I knew it was Bulk Chest day. It was great because during the rest periods, I could just lay on the bench! I've never been a huge fan of Chest Day because I have such a wimpy chest, triceps and shoulders, but this one really grew on me. I got stronger and was able to lift heavier weights and feel less wimpy. This included Incline Fly, Incline Press, Chest Press with Rotation, Incline Press, Close Grip Press to Fly, Decline Push Ups, Cobra to Airplane and Russian Twists. It used Super Sets, Force Sets, Progressive Sets, Combo Sets and Multi Sets.  

Bulk Arms

This was another workout that I really liked. I've got pretty strong biceps in my opinion. I'm not lifting the kind of weight the people in the videos lift, but I still feel strong! This included Standing Curls, Tricep Extensions, Wide EZ Bar Curls, Skull Crushers, Hammer Curls(They were Concentration Hammer Curls and not the standard Hammer Curls), Tricep Kickbacks and Weighted Crunches. It used Progressive Sets, Single Sets, and Force Sets. I liked that it alternated between biceps and triceps so we weren't working the same thing two moves in a row. It made it easier to get through the workout. There were times when I had to pause the workout because I couldn't keep up because I was using weights that were too heavy. I wish I had gotten 8 pound weights. Some of these moves would have gone better if I had 2/5/8 or 5/8/10 depending on which move I was doing. 

Bulk Legs

This workout is intense! The first time I do a workout, I'm usually sore the next day, but I was sore the day after each and every Bulk Legs workout! This has moves such as Front to Rear Lunges, Squats, Full to 1/2 Sumo Squats, Split Squats with EZ  Bar, Stiff Leg Deadlift, Alternating Side Squats, Calf Raises and Beast Abs. It uses Single Sets, Progressive Sets, Force Sets and Super Sets. It works every part of your legs. I had to pause the DVD for the Front to Back Lunges for every workout. I started out pausing during the Alternating Side Squats, but at the end, I was able to keep up.

Bulk Back

This was honestly one of my favorite workouts in the entire series. I've always loved back day. I have a strong back! At some point though, I realized that this workout is very similar to Build Back and Bis, but without the bicep stuff added at the end. It's still a great workout though. It included Pull overs, Pull Ups, Reverse Grip Rows, One Arm Rows, Deadlifts, Reverse Fly, and Plank Rotation. It used Super Sets, Progressive Sets, Force Sets and Single Sets. 

Bulk Shoulders

My shoulders are the wimpiest thing on my body, but Body Beast made them stronger. I'm starting to feel muscle on there! This workout was so hard for me in the beginning, but at some point, I realized that I was doing way more reps on one of the moves than I should have been doing. Oopsy. This one includes Lateral Raises, Arnold Presses, Upright Rows, Alternating Front Raises, Plate Twist-Twist, Reverse Fly, Superman Stretch and Plank Twist-Twist. It uses Super Sets and Progressive Sets. 

Beast Cardio

This was the only Cardio workout in the mix. If you're a cardio junkie, you probably won't like this workout. I'm not a cardio junkie, but I wasn't in love with this workout. I actually thought about swapping it out for a different one just to get something more intense, but I thought I should do the entire program as it was laid out for me and just deal with the fact that I wasn't a fan of this workout. My BodyMedia device thought that I got about 12 minutes of activity during a 30 minute cardio workout. About two to three of those were vigorous minutes. I'm used to cardio workouts that give me at least 25 minutes of activity for a 30 minute workout and most of those are vigorous. If you look at my 30 minute workouts from Less Mills Combat or the Cardio workouts from 21 Day Fix, that's what I'm used to. This incorporated weights and cardio together. Some of the moves include doing squats for 20 seconds and then holding the squat for 10 seconds. This was supposed to help build our muscles. I found it difficult to get through because my legs were already sore from Leg Day and holding the squat was really hard for me! The moves in this workout lasted anywhere from 60 seconds to a minute and a half. The longer ones were the ones where you did a move for 20 seconds and then held it for 10 seconds. The shorter ones were the ones that were more traditional cardio moves like the squat jacks and the toe taps on the bench. There was a lot of resting in this workout. There was one move where the move lasted 60 seconds and the rest period lasted about 90 seconds.

Beast Abs

This workout was supposed to be done every time we did Beast Cardio and I think every time we did Beast Total Body, but I have to admit that I only did this workout a few times. I just couldn't motivate myself to get moving in enough time and then I just gave up on this one. The first time I did it, I remember thinking that it wasn't really that intense and I should just do the 21 Day Fix ab workout, but I never got around to doing it. However, the last time I did this workout, I found it much more intense than I had remembered from the first time. I'm not really sure if my abs just got weaker from not doing an ab routine or if it really was just intense. There was some Pilates type stuff in here which I found interesting that he was getting these buff guys to do Pilates!  

Beast Total Body

This was an interesting workout. It had a different format than the others. There were four different circuits. Each circuit had four moves. Each move had 15 reps and we did the full circuit twice. He said that we could go up with the weights or leave it the same. This workout was only in the program a few times and only came into play in the final phase. It did give me something to look forward to since I like doing new workouts and knowing I have one coming up makes me want to keep getting up and working out. I had to pause this one a few times because I was slow. This had Pull Ups, Push Ups, Squats, Crunches, Incline Press, Bent Over Row, Reverse Alternating Lunge, Plank Twist-Twist, 1 1 2 Military Press, Post Delt Raise, Stiff Leg Deadlift, Russian Twist, Bicep Curp Up Hammer Down, Tricep Extension Kickback, Calf Raise Weighted at Shoulder, and side Forearm Plank.  

Lucky 7's (Free workout if you buy the program through a coach)

This one was totally different than the rest of the program. It was only 22 minutes and it's not part of the calendar. I kind of wish it had been though because I really liked it. I had to pause the DVD a lot though because I was slow. Part of that was because it was my first time doing the workout and I didn't know what I was doing. So there were seven different combo moves and each one had seven circuits done in a reverse pyramid. The first move was a split position push up and then you come up and clean and then squat. So the first circuit has you do the split position push up once on each side (Left arm forward right arm back once and then right arm forward left arm back once) then you come up and clean and squat. Then without a break, you go down and do two push ups each side and then come up and clean and do two squats. You build like that until you've done seven reps. It was a nice full body workout in 22 minutes! Well, it would have been 22 minutes if I had been able to keep up. 

Bonus Workout P90X3 CVX

This was a bonus workout that came with the program. I hadn't really planned on doing it. Why would a 275 pound woman have any thoughts of doing P90X3! That's like one of the most intense programs that Beachbody has. I pushed play to see what it was all about because I thought I should write about all of the workouts. I didn't really think I'd be able to do it, but I did. I had to modify some stuff, but I got through it. The workout is intense! It's cardio and weights at the same time. 

Dynamic Set Training

When I had a trainer, they pretty much just had me doing Single Sets and Super Sets. There was one trainer who had me do something that they called a 5x5 where I had five different weights. I did five reps of the heavy and then went down doing 5 reps of each weight until I got through them all. It was pretty crazy how the last set felt heavier than the first set. Other than that though, it was pretty much just grab one set of weights, do 12 reps, take a break, do 12 more, take a break and do 12 more. Body Beast shakes things up with every set! It was awesome. I really felt the difference between doing this Dynamic Set Training and what I used to do with my expensive trainer! 

Single Sets

You do on exercise. There are three sets. You start out with 15 reps. There is a short break and then you go to 12 reps and increase the weight. There is another short break and then you go to 8 reps and increase the weight again. Sometimes a Single Set also has a drop set. 

Drop Sets

These can be in Single Sets, Super Sets or Giant Sets. After the last 8 reps, you immediately drop to a lighter set of weights and do another 8 reps. 

Super Sets

You do two exercises. So if it's Squats and Lunges, you do 15 Squats and then 15 lunges. Then you get a short break and increase the weight and do 12 reps of each. Then you get another short break and go to 8 reps with heavier weight.

Giant Sets

This is just like a Super Set, but there are three or more exercises. 

Force Sets

There are five sets of five reps. You keep the same weight the whole time, and you can't drop it between sets. 

Multi Sets

This is when you do multiple sets, but you don't necessarily do the same exercises. An example might be doing 15 push ups and then doing 15 sits ups. The second set is 12 push ups and 12 Russian Twists.

Combo Sets

This is when you have a combo move such as a chest press with rotation.

Progressive Sets

These are fun! Okay, fun might not be the right word. These are HARD! You start out with 15 reps and then increase the weight and move to 12 reps without resting in the middle. Then you go up with the weight again and go to 8 reps without rest. Then you get about 90 seconds of rest and you do it backwards. You start out with 8 reps and the heavier weight. Then without rest, you move down with the weight and move to 12 reps. Then without rest again, you move down with the weight and move to 15 reps. I have a love/hate relationship with these. They are super hard, but they are super effective.

My Results

I went into this program to gain muscle so it would be easier to lose the fat later. However, I thought I would lose some weight during this program. I've read a lot of blog posts about people who have had wonderful success with weight loss in this program. I was not one of them, but it was my own fault. I must admit that I did not follow the nutrition plan. I honestly couldn't even figure out the nutrition plan. Food is hard for me. If I spend too much time trying to figure out what I'm going to eat, I ended up eating way too much food because I'm constantly hungry. I went into this program so very close to so many milestone moments. After my first few days on the program, my nutrition went out the window. I was soooooooooo crazy hungry. I was trying to stay on Weight Watchers with the app that I had, but it just wasn't working. I would get home wanting to eat an entire cow and cooking was optional at that point. I pretty much just said to heck with the nutrition. I'm going to eat if I'm hungry, but I'll keep with healthy food. The healthy food didn't last long. I ended up getting sick a couple weeks into Body Beast. I managed to get back on track with the workouts, but I couldn't get my nutrition under control. Then we had some family issues to deal with and more missed workouts. I was eating out a lot and I wasn't eating salads! I ended up gaining 20 pounds during the program. I know some of it had to be muscle though because I didn't have to go up a size in my pants. My pants were definitely tighter though. I was so bummed because I had been so close to going down a size and I ended up pretty close to going up a size. 

With that said, I wouldn't go back and change things by not doing Body Beast. I got a lot stronger doing this program and I truly feel that it is one of the main reasons that I am able to do Couch to 5K right now. It doesn't seem like Body Beast would help with running, but I don't think my legs were strong enough to get me around a track before Body Beast. I'm looking forward to trying Body Beast again, but having better nutrition while doing it! 

On a side note, as soon as I stopped Body Beast, I stopped being crazy hungry. My nutrition is much better right now. We're still eating out once or twice a week, but I'm not buying cookies, cakes and ice cream. 

Want to learn more? Watch the video!

Beachbody Body Beast Bonus Workout P90X3 CVX

P90X3 CVX

When I did the full program, I was using my friends DVDs. Apparently she got her DVDs awhile back and they have been redone with a better combination of workouts on each DVD to make it so you have to switch DVDs less often. This switch up also includes a different free workout. The set that I used had P90X Plyometrics, but when I bought the DVDs for myself, the bonus workout was P90X3 CVX. I've heard that P90X3 is crazy hard, but I'm a sucker for punishment and I can't do a review of a program and not do all of the workouts in the program. Call me anal retentive if you like. I'm okay with that. 

I did this workout between run days of C25K I was a bit concerned about doing that because I wasn't really sure how intense this was going to be on my legs, but I survived and managed to do a run the following day. This is a 30 minute workout, but it didn't include a warm up and the cool down was an extra three minutes tacked on to the end. I was surprised by that and didn't really leave myself enough time for thecool down, but I did it anyway. I apparently don't really care about showing up to my day job on time. I'm such a bad girl. 

This workout wastes no time getting into the intense stuff! It's a cardio workout, but it incorporates weights. He says not to use anything heavier than 12 pounds and go to as light as you want to. He says you can even use a helium balloon or nothing at all. One of the people in the workout uses a basketball. All of the people were in the test group for P90X3. They all lost a bunch of weight. 

The first move in this is doing jacks with your legs and then raising a weight up over your head. The moves all last a minute except some of them are 30 seconds per side for a total of a minute. This workout was crazy hard for me. I had to modify some stuff. I did the jacks with my legs as long as I could. I think I lasted about 30 seconds. I then alternated stepping a leg out to the side and then back in while doing the lifting part with my arms. I might have been able to handle the jacks for the full minute if I had been warmed up, but it was right there at the beginning. I don't own this program, so I'm not sure if they tell you that you should warm up before you do the workout. I'm in no way complaining that the bonus workout didn't have a warm up. I'm merely stating that it didn't have one and I couldn't get through the first move. I modified a few other things too. I can't remember all of them though. 

Each round had three exercises. We did each of the three at a constant pace and then went back and did them with a varied pace. He would say to do things faster for 10 or 15 seconds and then we'd go back to slower. Each of the people in the workout did their own intensity. There was one person who kept things pretty low key and then the other two were different versions of crazy intense. They didn't wear heart rate monitors in this one like they did in the P90X Plyometrics workout that I did. After we repeated the three exercises, we had a 15 to 20 second break before moving on to the next round.

There wasn't much instruction on this workout. I suppose that's good for people who have done it a few times, but it made it a bit challenging for me as a first time user of the DVD. I lost a few seconds of each move while I was trying to figure out what we were doing. I'm okay with that though. It gave me much needed rest. None of the moves in the workout were too crazy though. I picked them up quickly. Some of them were just too much for me to do for a full 60 seconds so I modified them a little bit. I didn't do the plyo lunges. I just did regular rear lunges and didn't jump. That was the only one that I modified from the start I think. I was a little sore the next day, but it wasn't enough to keep me from running. 

Polar M400 Screen Shot

I'm not really sure what happened at the beginning with that one blip going up over 180, but the rest of this seems pretty accurate. 

Beachbody Body Beast Lucky 7s

Lucky 7s

This is the free workout that you get by buying Body Beast from a Beachbody coach. It's not a workout that's listed on the calendar and my friend didn't have the workout. I didn't get it until I bought Body Beast. I whined about Body Beast while I was doing it, but I still bought it. LOL. It's an awesome program. I just chose a bad time to do it. I was so close to so many milestones and then, it went to crap. Now that I'm done with Body Beast and I'm back on track with my nutrition, the weight I gained during Body Beast is starting to come off. I'm happy about that! More about that later though. I'm getting sidetracked from the point of this post.

This workout was much different than the others. It's a 22 minute total body workout with a unique format. I might incorporate this one into my weekly routine while I finish up C25K. I'm not sure yet though. I like the workout and would do it again for sure, but I have other things that I always want to try out too so this one might have to wait for a bit. 

There are seven different combos and each one is done in an upside down pyramid format. It's hard to explain and I didn't really get what he was saying until we got to doing it, but I'll try to give an example that makes sense. So once of the combos is a split position push up. You then come up and "clean" and then squat. So the pyramid part of this is that you start with one push up on each side (right hand forward/left hand back and then right hand back/left hand forward) and then you come up to do the clean and then squat. Then you go back down and do two push ups on each side then come up clean and squat twice. Then back down for three each side and three squats. You do that until you get to seven push ups each side and then come up and clean and squat seven times. 

I had never done anything like this workout before. I thought it was fun and interesting. I was slow  though and had to keep pausing the DVD. I think there was only one section where I wasn't slow! There was this weird move where you hold a barbell with a weight only on one end. The end without a weight is on the floor and the weighted end is up by your shoulders. You hold onto the bar and then move it with you as you move into a lunge towards one of the side walls and you hold it for one second. Then you go to the other side and hold it for one second. Then you go back to the other side and hold for two seconds. You get the drift I'm sure by now so I won't keep going. Anyway, that's the only thing I wasn't slow at! There was a little bit of a break between the moves, but it wasn't much! 

This was a nice short total body workout. I really enjoyed it. No need for a bench for this one. I definitely suggest getting Body Beast from a coach instead of another source that way you can get the free workout. If you don't have a couch, you can sign up under me to get your free DVD!

Polar M400 Screen Shot

I gave up my BodyMedia Device and now have a Polar M400 heart rate monitor and fitness tracker. It's amazing! This screen shot only has the heart rate line. Since I didn't go anywhere, there was no need to have the GPS on to track my speed and elevation. I love that his device lets you set up a ton of different sport profiles! 

Want to learn more? Watch the video!

Zen Labs C25K Couch to 5K Week 3 Day 2

Week 3 Day 2

Week 3 Day 2 was better than Week 3 Day 1! I knew that I could get through the three minute running segments this time. It was easier to convince myself to keep going because I had already done it. However, I have to admit that it was really hard to get through. My shins were killing me and my hamstrings wanted nothing to do with this running thing. I was hoping that I would make it around the whole track in one of the three minute segments, but that didn't happen this time. My legs were a quivering mass of jelly for the rest of the day. Walking up the stairs at work was a chore. Standing up was a chore. They didn't hurt like I had done a leg day or anything, but they were soooooo weak and quivering! One more day of this three minute running thing and then next week, I have to move to five minute segments! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

The screen shots above are from BodyMedia and the Zen Labs C25K app. The screen shots below are from Motion X GPS. The graph is another one of mine merged pics because I can't see the entire graph on one screen in my phone. If you look close, you can see the splice since I'm not the best splicer, but I'm getting better! Woot Woot. If you compare this graph, to the Week 3 Day 1 graph, it looks like I ran faster here, but for some reason the graphs aren't really to the same scale. You'll notice on the left of this graph, it only goes up to 5, but the graph from the previous day went up to 10. I'm not sure why it did that, but it made me think that I had been running much faster for Day 2 over Day 1, but then I checked the numbers and it was about the same. 

Beachbody Body Beast Bonus Workout P90X Plyometrics

Body Beast Bonus Workout: P90X Plyometrics

I really like that some of the programs come with bonus workouts so people can try out different programs to see if they like the instructor and the concept. However, I wasn't so sure about doing P90X! It's a program that just seemed a bit too intense for me, but I had to do it because that's just how I am. I gotta do all the workouts that come in the box! Why did they have to include the Plyometrics workout! I don't do well with plyometrics! My knees are just not built to do all of that jumping! f

I'm not going to do a play by play of this workout. It's too long for me to watch it again. It's a 58 minute workout. The first 9 minutes is the warm up. There was some marching in place, some jugging in place and a few other things. The warm up seemed to go on forever. My legs were getting sore just during the warm up. I was seriously considering giving up on the workout, but I kept going. 

After the warm up, we got into the fun part! Jumping! The moves lasted 30 seconds or a minute. Most of them were just 30 seconds though. There was a couple seconds between each move while he said the name of the next move. After four moves, we repeated what we had done. After that, we had a 30-40 second rest period. He said at the beginning that the woman in the workout was going to be doing a modified version to take the impact out of things, but she didn't really modify by much. She just didn't jump as high as they did. I was expecting her to do different moves like most of the other workouts have their modifiers do. 

The moves that I remember..........Jump squats, jumping lunges (they call them something different though), Leap Frog Squats (basically a sumo squat position with two jumps forward and two jumps back), Lateral Leap Frog Squats (basically a sumo squat position and a shuffle to the right and then the left), Jumping Jack Squats (jumping jacks in a squat position), Rock Star Jumps (we played air guitar while jumping), Gap Jumps (We pretended to jump over a river), Single Leg Hops (I just jogged in place because my knees wanted nothing to do with that crazy one legged stuff), Tuck Jumps, Tires, Pitch and Catch (We pretended to throw a ball and then ended up in a catchers squat), Catch and Toss (We pretended to catch a basketball and then stepped and threw the ball), Monster Truck Tires (We ran four tires going forward and then did high knees backwards). That's about all I can remember at this point. 

There were points in this workout where I wanted to die! At about the 20 minute mark, I thought about giving up, but I kept going mainly because I knew that I had a blog post to write about it. I actually thought about sitting down and just watching the rest of the workout, but I kept going! I felt pretty good about myself after I got done with this. I never thought I'd do a P90X workout in my entire life, but I got through what sounds like the hardest of all the P90X workouts. I'm actually contemplating trying the program now! I've got so many programs to do already though! Maybe this winter I'll do P90X. There were several things that I needed to modify, but I got through it. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the BodyMedia screen shot for the workout. Check out all of those calories and all of that Vigorous Activity! Woot Woot! As soon as I uploaded the Body Media device, I lost all of those vigorous minutes, but I know they were there, so I'm okay with that! I might have a new device to play with soon! 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 84: Rest Day

Day 84: Rest Day

Day 84 of the lean program of Body Beast was a Rest Day. It seems a bit weird to have the final day a rest day, but whatever. I didn't really rest. I did Week 2 Day 1 of C25K. I realized the other day that I haven't had a true rest day in what seems like forever! 

I am done with this round of Body Beast! I'm so excited to finally be done with it! I loved it in the beginning, hated it in the middle and loved it at the end, but I'm thrilled to be done with this round. I get another t-shirt for the wall! Woot Woot! I'll write more about the program in a separate post. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 83: Beast Cardio & Beast Abs

Day 83: Beast Cardio & Beast Abs

Day 83 of the Lean Program was Beast Cardio and Beast Abs. I actually did the ab workout today. I didn't want my last workout for this round to be Beast Cardio. I haven't been a fan of this workout from the start. It's gotten less annoying, but I still didn't want it to be my last memory of Body Beast. I had this vague memory of not being all that impressed with the ab workout so I thought it would be a nice easy 10 minutes to finish my round of Body Beast. I was wrong. The ab workout is pretty much torturous. My abs were killing me during the entire 10 minutes! The cardio workout, however, wasn't as annoying. The toe tap thing was a bit annoying because it was a bit humid and warm this morning and the in and outs kind of sucked, but I survived all of that. I did the Plank to Push Ups on my knees though. I started out on my toes, but I just couldn't do it. 

Since Day 84 is a Rest Day, I'm officially done with this round of Body Beast! It wasn't always pretty and it didn't go completely as the calendar laid it out, but I got through it! I skipped almost all of the ab workouts and I took a lot of extra rest days, but I got through it! I'll write something about each of the workouts at some point. 

Tomorrow is Week 2 Day 1 of C25K and then on Tuesday, I'm taking a rest day! A real rest day. No workouts of any kind! I still have to go to work, but my body is ready for a day off! Wednesday will be more C25K and then Thursday will be an attempt to do the P90X workout that comes free with Body Beast. I say attempt because the free workout is Plyometrics. I hate plyometrics! The cardio workout for Body Beast has some plyo in it. I don't do the plyo lunges, but I do the jump squats and the plyo push ups (on my knees, but I do make them plyo). We'll see how things go.

BodyMedia Screen Shots

Here are the screen shots. I'm surprised that it shows any activity for the ab workout. Weird. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 82: Bulk Arms

Day 82: Bulk Arms

Day 82 for the Lean Program of Body Beast was Bulk Arms. I did this workout in the afternoon because I did C25K in the morning. It took me far too long to get all of my calls done. By the time I was done, I didn't have much time for this workout before hubby got home and we had plans to go out to dinner. I went down in the weights on the concentration hammer curls because I didn't have the time to doink around with pausing the DVD. I did have to pause it earlier in the workout though. I was too slow doing one of the sets and I needed to pause the DVD so I could get the weights set up for the next move. I didn't think I was going to feel it in my biceps the next day, but I did. It's not crazy painful or anything, but I can definitely feel it. It's actually getting a bit more sore as I sit here and type. I was pretty impressed with myself during the tricep kickback section! Normally, I am super slow and I have to take breaks during the last few sets, but I made it through without breaks! I'm pretty sure that's a first for me! I still think the 10 pound weights are too heavy for this section since I don't seem to get a full range of motion, but I don't have 8 pound weights! I think I should invest in some before my next round of Body Beast! I should probably get some 12s too.

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. Unimpressive I know. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 81: Bulk Back

Day 81: Bulk Back

Day 81 was Bulk Back! I really like Bulk Back, but I really didn't want to workout! I was sore, I was tired and I was a bit cranky. I got up and did it though. It was the last week of Body Beast and I fought hard to get here so I had to finish it up. It was bad enough that I was going to finish on Sunday instead of Saturday which meant workout on Sunday which is hike day. I couldn't roll it over into the following week and do more double workouts with Body Beast and C25K. I learned my lesson the day before. 

I did the modified pull ups on my belly for this one again. I really like doing them that way. I don't feel it in my lower back, but I really feel it in my lats which is where I should feel it. In the past, I've felt some crunchies in my left shoulder while doing the lat pullovers, but I didn't feel it this time, which made me uber happy. I think I'm going to miss this workout! I might have to buy the program while it's on sale just so I can do the ones that I like even if I don't do another full round.

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the BodyMedia screen shot for the workout. The activity minutes completely went away when I set up the sync with the phone. I really wish I knew why I did this stuff! 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 80: Bulk Shoulders

Day 80: Bulk Shoulders

Day 80 of the Lean Program of Body Beast was Bulk Shoulders. At the beginning of this program, I dreaded doing both of the shoulder workouts. I have wimpy shoulders. I always have. My shoulders have made other days more difficult. My shoulders and triceps have notoriously given out before my chest so I've had a hard time frying out my chest in the past, but Body Beast has helped my shoulders! I'm still lifting wimpy weights on shoulder day, but my shoulders aren't stopping me on other days. I'm getting through these shoulder workouts and I'm not really sore the next day. I'm not really sure why I'm not getting DOMS in my shoulders even though I feel completely toasted after the workouts. Oh well. This was my last shoulder day. I gotta say that I'm not going to miss those Arnold Presses! Those things are torture! These shoulder workouts made me wish I had 8 pound weights! 

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the BodyMedia screen shot for the workout. The activity minutes completely went away when I set up the sync with the phone. I really wish I knew why it did this stuff! 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 79: Build Legs

Day 79: Build Legs

Day 79 of the Lean Program of Body Beast was Build Legs. My last Leg Day for Body Beast! I'm glad it was Build Legs and not Bulk Legs! Build Legs is pretty torturous and I hurt for about four days after doing this workout, but it's an easier workout to get through than Bulk Legs. I'm not sure why I hurt for so long after this one. It's not like I hadn't done this one before. I've done it several. This level of soreness after the workout usually decreases the more you do the same workout, but maybe doing C25K that morning made it more challenging. I'm not really sure. All I know is that I was seriously concerned about being able to do C25K again on Saturday! I still had to pause the DVD during the section with the front lunges and the step up with reverse lunges. My balance still sucks doing all of those. I can't wait to do Tai Cheng to see if I can work on those balance issues! As you can see in my notes, I found this workout to be quite torturous. I'm not sure if it was because I did C25K that morning or because I did the workout after work. It wasn't too terribly hot that day, but it was really hard to convince myself to keep going. If it hadn't bee the last leg day of the round, I might not have been able to convince myself to keep going!

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. As unimpressive as it is, as soon as I uploaded, that total activity shrank down quite a bit! It's highly annoying that it does that. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 78: Bulk Chest

Day 78: Bulk Chest 

Body Beast Day 78 for the Lean Program was Bulk Chest. I like this workout. I got through it okay. It's normally a Monday workout, but it happened on Tuesday. This was the first day of the last week of Body Beast. I felt it in my triceps and chest the next day. My chest was a little bit sore as well, but not too terribly bad. I had some improvement in the push ups. I'm still on my thighs on the bench, but I felt better doing them and wasn't as slow. I don't have a BodyMedia screen shot for this workout because I couldn't get the Bluetooth connection going. It was pretty annoying, but I needed to get my butt in gear so I couldn't fiddle with it too much.

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet for the workout.

Beachbody Body Beast Day 77: Beast Total Body

Day 77: Beast Total Body 

I am now officially done with 11 weeks of Body Beast! Day 77 of the Lean Program of Body Beast was Beast Total Body. It was only the second time for this workout. It's also the last time for this workout for this round of Body Beast. The first time I did this workout, I had to pause in several spots, but I didn't have to pause at all for this one! I was pretty dang happy about that! I upped some of the weights for this one and went down in the tricep kickbacks accidentally. The workout felt good. I was supposed to do this workout yesterday because I wanted today to be a rest day, but I ended up doing C25K yesterday and ran out of time for Body Beast. So today was Body Beast and a hike to Henline Falls! The workout went well. The shoulder presses were a bit rough with the 10 pound weights! The rest of it wasn't too terribly challenging. I did the push ups on my knees. I also did plank things on my knee. One more week of Body Breast left!!!

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. 

Body Media Screen Shot

Here's the BodyMedia screen shot. I'm kind of bummed about only getting 10 minutes of total activity on this one, but I shouldn't be upset since I get low numbers for all of these Body Beast workouts. Oh well. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 76: Rest Day

Day 76: Rest Day

Day 76 of Body Beast was Rest Day! I had planned on doing tomorrow's workout today so I could have Sunday as my rest day with hubby, but this morning, I got the crazy idea to start C25K (Couch to 5k). A friend of mine wants to do a 5k with me this summer and she's bugging me to pick a date, so I need to actually do C25K! I had planned on doing 21 Day Fix Extreme after Body Beast, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to pull off 21 Day Fix Extreme and C25K at the same time, so I'm going to put off 21 Day Fix Extreme for now. Tomorrow will be Beast Total Body and then I just have one week left to do C25K and Body Beast at the same time. It will be interesting! I think the plan is to do C25K on Monday and then again on Saturday, but I might do a double workout midweek. If I don't do any editing at night, I could run in the morning and do Beast after work. I'm rambling again. I'm doing a lot of that lately. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 75: Build Shoulders

Day 75: Build Shoulders

Day 75 of the Lean Program for Body Beast is Build Shoulders. My shoulders were incredibly wimpy when I started this program. I could barely get through one set of Sagi's 6-Way when I started, Although, I wasn't smart enough to start with my 2 pound weights in the beginning. I'm doing much better with them now! My shoulders are definitely stronger. I don't want to cry getting through this workout. I'm not getting to failure and I can feel a different in my shoulders! The front parts are getting nice and rounded! This workout has the 1, 1, 2 front raises! This must be where I came up with the idea of doing 1, 1, 2 with the front raises in Bulk Shoulders! I felt really good during this workout. I've felt really good all week actually. A few weeks ago, I was so ready for this program to be over. I was going to just stop and move on to something else because I go so bummed about the weight loss and I just was not grooving on some of Bulk Legs and Beast Cardio. I'm glad that I stuck with it. I'm still bummed about the weight gain, but I'm making steps to work on getting those pounds off. I also can't be too freaked out over the weight since I'm still in the same size jeans I was when I started. It is still a bit depressing though that I was so close to going down a size and these are a bit snug now. I can't be too upset though. I'm stronger than I was. I didn't do this to look like Barbie. I don't need to be a twig with the perfect proportions. I just need to be able to make it to the waterfalls that I want to take pictures of! I'm rambling again. 

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. I really should work on my handwriting, but who writes anymore! Okay, apparently I do for these worksheets. :)

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. I'm not really sure where the 5 minutes of activity came from, but who cares! 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 74: Beast Cardio

Day 74: Beast Cardio

Day 74 of Body Beast's Lean Program was Beast Cardio. I was supposed to do Beast Abs too, but I'm a slacker. I pretty much wrote off Beast Abs after the first or second week. There's just something about setting up that extra segment. I wish you could make it play both of them without having to go back to the title screen and selecting another workout. There are a bunch of workouts that have that feature although I've never done a Beachbody one with it. Anyway, I'm using that as an excuse. It's not like it's really a big deal to hit a couple buttons on the remote, but after I've already gone through the cool down, I don't really feel like starting another workout. I could do abs first, but then I fear that I wouldn't do the 30 minute workout so I figure I'll take the risk of skipping the shorter one instead of the longer one.

This is the other workout that I really didn't like for the longest time. The lower volume and not looking at the screen helps with this one too. It didn't do so well with the rows on this one. Normally, I'm able to stay on my toes, but I ended up on my knees. I also had issues with the Up Downs. I don't remember what it's called in this one, but you go from elbow plank up to push up position and then down again. I did the whole section on my knees. I do the Plyo Pushups on my knees too, but I've always done that. I can't wait until I'm all recovered and no body parts are sore. I'm curious if I can pull off a single push up on my toes yet! I still have this workout once more before the end of the program, but starting tomorrow, every workout that I do will be the last time I do that one for this round. It's kinda weird! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Woot woot! Three minutes of vigorous activity!!!!!!!! (LOL)

Beachbody Body Beast Day 73: Build Back and Bis

Day 73: Build Back and Bis

Day 73 of the Lean Program for Beachbody Body Beast was Build Back and Bis. This is one of my favorite workouts! I went up in some of the weights, but stayed the same in others. I did the pull ups on my belly and really felt them. My shoulder wasn't all wonky for the lat pullovers like it's been. That made me quite happy! I still have some crunchies in there, but it's not like it was before. I felt really good during this workout. I felt stronger. I didn't feel like the last few reps were as torturous as some of them have been in previous workouts. I didn't really have DOMS the next day, but my back did feel a bit tingly. Kind of of my legs used to feel during PiYo. I'm going to miss this workout. I think I have to just go ahead and buy Body Beast. I'm not 100% certain that I'll go through a complete 90 day cycle, but I think having these around to fill in when I want to do some old school lifting will be nice. I could just use the worksheets, but I want the free workout and the Tempo workouts so I might as well just buy the whole thing. I kinda like doing it with the video on. It keeps me from slowing down too much although there are some workouts with a lot of rest between moves and that gets a little annoying. It mainly only happens in the workouts with the EZ bar. I don't have an EZ bar so I just use dumbbells. It's a lot easier to grab a new set of dumbbells than it is to pull the safeties off, add or remove plates, and then put the safeties back on. Some of the moves are just as easy to do with the dumbbells too so I'm not sure why they use the EZ bar. It just adds to the expense of an already expensive program. I'm rambling now! 

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I'm always surprised with the activity minutes on this one. I'm still not sure if it's because of all the arm movements or maybe this one just has a ton of waiting and I'm walking around more. I'm not really sure. 

Beachbody Body Beast Day 72: Bulk Legs

Day 72: Bulk Legs

It seem so weird to see Day 72! All of the programs I've done prior to this one were all 60 days or less! It's pretty amazing that I stuck with a program for 72 days! Day 72 of the Lean Program of Body Beast was Bulk Legs. For those who have been following along on this journey, you may remember how much I really don't like this one. The first move is alternating front and rear lunges on the same side so lunge forward then back and then forward and then back. It's 12 reps, following by 12 reps on the other side. Then there's a short break and then 10 reps on one side followed by 10 on the other. Then another short break and 8 on one side and 8 on the other. I still have to pause the DVD, but I'm getting better at this one. I've also learned that if I don't watch the TV and I keep the volume down, the annoying guy isn't nearly as annoying. This was my last time doing this workout for this round of Body Beast. I did well with it I think. I kept up with the side to side squats at the end. I felt those the next day too. Wowzers this workout after all these weeks can still make me sore the following day. I think I could feel it for two or three days actually. I didn't do anything different with the weights this time. The calf raises were torture. I'm not really sure why. Maybe I was still a little weak from the hike on Sunday. I had to take a few breaks. Now that I'm finally to a point where I don't detest this workout, I don't have it anymore! I'm relieved that I don't have to do those front and back lunges, but I'm kind of sad to not be doing this one again anytime soon. I'm enjoying getting better at this one! I'm getting better at the Progressive Set of Split Squats! The last set is still pretty challenging, but the whole thing used to kill me!

The Worksheet

Here's the worksheet. Looks like I felt compelled to write a novella on it. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Leg day is less depressing to look at. I get a bunch of steps and it thinks I burned a ton more calories than the other workouts. I actually get activity minutes on Leg Day! It's all those lunges and the side squats and all the walking around the room during the rest breaks trying to catch my breath. Why is it that it's easier to catch my breath while walking around the room than it is by just standing still? Is it psychological because everyone says to "walk it off?"