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 PiYo Mini Round Day 9: Hardcore on the Floor

Day 9: Hardcore on the Floor

This was the last day of my PiYo mini round. I did all 9 days in a row without a rest day. I was so ready for a rest day when this was over. My body was just tired and weak. It wasn't really all that sore by the end, but I was ready to sleep in for an hour and not workout for a day. I could have easily taken two rest days, but I was afraid that I would lose momentum so I just took the one. I had only done this workout once before. It was part of the calendar, but I only did Core while doing my full round. I left Hard Core on the Floor until the end just like I had done with the free workout from Les Mills Combat and the free workout from 21 Day Fix. In order to get the free workout, you need to buy the program through a coach. If you don't have a coach, you can use my Beachbody coach link. 

The name of this workout is pretty accurate! It is pretty hardcore and it's all on the floor. A lot of the stuff in it is also in other workouts, but it's like this one has all of the hard stuff crammed into one workout. I had to modify a lot of it like the elbow plank while stretching an arm out straight. My plank is getting better, but that's just madness still for me. There were a bunch of push ups which were pretty hard too. My triceps were just toast. The no rest day probably wasn't a good plan. Oopsy. I did horribly during the Beast Kick Through section. I just sorta flopped around from one hip to the other. It wasn't pretty. I did do pretty well through the punter section. I was pretty happy with that. Usually, I bail before we're done because my butt is so sore!

The Split Down Dog stuff in this one was killer! I think there were actually two different sections of it. It was so hard on my shoulders, but I got through it for the most part. I did all the moving parts, but when she had us hold the split at the end, I kinda crashed into Child's Pose. It was just too much for me to take anymore. I did better with the second side which is unusual for me. My second side is usually the weaker side, but I think I crashed the first time due to mental fatigue instead of physical fatigue. The no rest day was definitely a bad idea.

If you want to read a play by play of the work, check out my post from Day 56 of PiYo Part 2.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot! Not very impressive, but we were on the floor. It was tough stuff, but it wasn't stuff where I was doing a lot of moving around. 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 8: Sculpt

Day 8: Sculpt

Today was Day 8 was Sculpt. I really didn't remember much from this workout. I knew that I was going to be dealing with tricep dips. That was all I remembered. This thing was hard! I was pretty beat up from yesterday. I wasn't really sore, but my muscles were pretty weak. I just wasn't digging all the lunges. Too many lunges for me for the last week! It also had a bunch of squats. My legs were dying! I'm so happy that tomorrow is Hard Core on the Floor! I went through 8 days of PiYo without a rest day. That might not have been the best plan. I probably could have done better with the lunges and squats today if I had given my legs a bit of a rest. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. It's not overly impressive, but it's all good. 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 7: Drench

Day 7: Drench

Oh the dreaded Drench. This is the workout that I was least looking forward to. I did this one for the first time back on Day 25 of PiYo. I never wanted to do this workout again, but my husband said that I should do what was most challenging for me in the past to see how far I've come. It wasn't that bad with Les Mills Combat doing Power HIIT and Shock Plyo and when I did Sweat the other day it wasn't that bad. I actually thought to myself that I wasn't sure why I had disliked it so much the first time. I was optimistic about Drench. However, it didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped. It started out pretty good. The lunging section in the beginning wasn't so bad. Even though Split Down Dog section wasn't that bad. Once I got to the Flow section, it was all over. I still got light headed when I went from High Lunge to Warrior 2. I still don't get why that happens. I actually fell over during one section of this. My thighs were just on fire for this whole section. I ended up taking a couple water breaks because I just couldn't hold the positions anymore. I didn't remember this one having burpees, but it did. There were burpees in so many of these workouts! I've got two more PiYo workouts to do and then my mini round is over.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I thought I would have had more activity minutes! I didn't expect any vigorous ones, but I thought I would get more total minutes. Oh well. 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 6: Strength Intervals

Day 6: Strength Intervals

I have to admit that this was one of the ones I wasn't really looking forward to. The first time I did this one, my plantar faciitis symptoms kicked into high gear the next day. I should do this with shoes on, but I just hate working out with shoes on. This one is called strength intervals, but it's more cardio intervals in my mind. This has a lot of cardio and a lot of bouncing around. In the past, the strength interval parts were pretty hard for me and I had to take breaks because my muscles hurt so bad, but this time, I kept at it. At the end, I wanted to die. This workout is pretty intense, but I made it through! The next day, my plantar faciitis symptoms were kicking up too. UGH! You can read a play by play of the workout on my Day 19 post for PiYo.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I got 9 minutes of vigorous! Woot Woot! I was pretty happy to see those on there because I thought I was going to tap into my activity points due to the pizza that I knew I would be having at the Super Bowl Party! So excited that I didn't have to tap into those points and the Patriots won the Super Bowl! They won a game while I was watching. That's just not normal for me! 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 5: Buns

Day 5: Buns

Day 5 of my mini round of PiYo was Buns. I did Buns for the first time back on Day 16 of my first round of PiYo. You can check out a play by play of the workout from my PiYo Day 16 post. I've enjoyed this workout in the past and I enjoyed it even more this time because I was better at it. I've never been a huge fan of lunges or squats, but that's mainly because I've just been so bad at them for so long. I'm a lot better at them now. I didn't have perfect form during this workout and I didn't get every rep in, but I didn't give up because my leg hurt too bad. I didn't take breaks like I did in the past. I pushed through and I did as many reps as I could in the time frame that she was doing them. I wasn't on pace with her, but I didn't stop. There were sooooooooooo many lunges and squats in this too! I'm actually surprised that I was able to move the next day. I did this on a Saturday and then went grocery shopping, By the end of the day, I was exhausted. My legs were screaming at me to just sit down! I felt pretty good about this workout. I was surprised to see how far I had come! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here it is! There was a bunch of stuff on the floor for this one, so I'm not surprised to see only 15 minutes of activity. The device doesn't seem to like it when my arms stay still. I was still sweating and breathing heavy though! 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 4: Core

Day 4: Core

Day 4 of my mini round of PiYo was Core. I liked this workout during my first round of PiYo and I still like it. I'm a bit behind in posting this so I can't remember a lot of the details. I hate it when I get behind in posting the workouts. The first section with the stand up core stuff was hard. My balance isn't where it needs to be to be doing all of those moves. I'm getting better at some of it, but I'm still not where I need to be. I was pretty surprised that there were a couple times that I was able to pull myself up off the floor during the section where we are supposed to slowly lower down to the floor and then slowly come back up. I've always had to use an elbow in the past. I will admit though that I did pick up my feet off the floor a little bit to do it without touching my elbow down so I'm sure that's considered cheating too. I still suck at Beast and the kick throughs. I kinda just roll around on the floor during that section. It's not attractive at all. I did pretty well during the criss cross section. I was getting pretty good at that towards the end of my first round, but I'm pretty sure I was stronger at it this time. Overall, I was satisfied with my progress in this one. You can check out a play by play of the workout on my PiYo Day 10 post. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Core never looks very impressive on here. I was sweating and breathing heavy though. I felt it a bit the next day too. 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 3 - Sweat

Day 3: Sweat

Today was Day 3 of my Mini Round of PiYo. After finishing up PiYO the first time around, I intended to do a Les Mills Combat and PiYo Hybrid where I did all of the parts that I liked from each and skipped the parts that I didn't like from each. Sweat was one of the workouts that I planned on skipping from PiYo. I haven't done my 60 day Hybrid schedule yet. I just finished up a mini round of Les Mills Combat on Monday of this week and started a mini round of PiYo on Tuesday. I'm just doing each of the workouts over again one time. Hopefully by the time I'm done with PiYo, our Bowflex dumbbells will be here and I can start Body Beast. I had talked about doing Pump, but I really want to do Body Beast! I'm going off on a tangent now. Back on track........I had planned on skipping Sweat, but while discussing with my husband what I was going to do after 21 Day Fix and before Body Beast, he told me that I should do whatever was most difficult for me. It made sense so I could see how far I've come. I decided that I couldn't skip Les Mills Shock Plyo or Power HIIT and PiYo Sweat or Drench. Those were the hardest things for me so far so I had to do them.

There were two sections in this workout that were originally very difficult for me. The first one was the section was early on in the workout. It's the section with all of the Warrior stuff in it. Some Warrior 1 with some low lunge stuff and Warrior 3 with some high lunge stuff. We also did half moon and some crouching push up stuff. I actually did pretty well with this section this time. It took me longer to get from one position to another than it did her, but I got through it. My balance still sucks for Warrior 3, but I was pretty shocked with how well I did on some of the Runner's Stretch thing that we did. 

The second section that I was never fond of was later in the workout. It was the Split Down Dog section. We held Split Down Dog for what felt like forever and then we went into a Plank position while tapping the raised foot down to the back of the ankle of the other foot and then went back up to Split Down Dog. We did that a few times. Then we did a similar thing but pulled our knee forward instead of tapping the ankles together. Then we went back to Split Down Dog for an eternity. I was having a hard time keeping that leg up in the air! As soon as she had us go back to just regular Down Dog, I just crashed and went right to Child's Pose. I did the same thing with both sides. I usually crashed down to Child's Pose much earlier. I was pretty impressed with how this one went! 

I didn't remember this one having burpees, but it did. I'm not a fan of burpees, but these weren't that bad. There was also a crazy section of sumo squats. I'm pretty sure I dealt with this section better than I did in the past. I didn't do the hops that she was doing, but I didn't need to take breaks from the squats! Woot Woot.

Overall, I'm pretty thrilled with my success on this one. I'm kind of looking forward to doing Drench this weekend! 

If you want to see a play by play of the workout, check out my post from Day 4 of PiYo.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my screen shot! It's not very impressive, but it is what it is. I am a bit bummed though that there isn't a lot of activity points I'll get from these workouts. I've got a Super Bowl party to go to on Sunday and there will be pizza. Unfortunately, I didn't learn about this little dealio until after I had decided to go out to dinner with hubby and have mozzarella sticks. I totally would have skipped those if I had known. It means that I can't use any of my weekly points until Sunday and I need to have some back up activity points in case I can't control myself with the pizza. One-twelfth of the pizza (the suggested serving size) is 9 points! Who cuts a pizza into 12 slices? One-eighth of the pizza is 13.5 points. I get 40 points in a day! I currently have 30 weekly points, so I can have two slices as long as I don't go over my daily points between now and then. I decided to skip my graze.com snacks today and tomorrow so I don't risk going over my daily points. 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 2 - Define: Upper Body

Day 2: Define: Lower Body

Yesterday, was Day 2 of my mini round of PiYo. It was Define: Upper Body. I really didn't remember much from this workout. It was only in the first couple weeks of PiYo and I didn't hate anything in it so I forgot most of it. Apparently, I only remember the stuff that sucks. 

I did better with the crouching crow push up things. I finally figured out how to do the tricep pushups. She always talked about keeping your elbows by your rip cage and not letting them flare out. I never was able to do them this way. This time, it worked out though. I'm not sure what I did differently or if I just got stronger in certain places so I was able to actually lower myself down and feel it in my triceps. I really liked the move where we rolled back and then forward and stopped ourselves before our feet hit the floor. This workout actually made  my left bicep sore the next day. I was pretty surprised by that. You can read a play by play of this workout on my post about PiYo Day 3. This workout has no warm up, but you don't really need one. It's filmed as if you are supposed to do Define: Lower Body and Define: Upper Body on the same day, but they are separate on the calendar. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my unimpressive screen shot. 

Beachbody PiYo Mini Round Day 1 - Define: Lower Body

Day 1: Define: Lower Body

Before I start up Body Beast, I'm going through a mini round of PiYo. Day 1 was Define: Lower Body. This is a pretty short workout. I had originally planned on Day 1 being Define: Lower Body and Define: Upper Body, but I was thinking that each of them was 30 minutes and I didn't motivate in enough time for a 60 minute workout. I decided to just do Define: Lower Body. I was glad that I did it that way, but it does mean adding an extra day to the mini round.

I really didn't remember anything from this workout except for the warm up. The warm up is the same warm up that we did in several of the workouts. I still think it would have been better if the warm ups had been different in each workout. 

It felt good to be doing PiYo again. I had better balance in most of it, but Warrior 3 was a bit of a train wreck for me and I'm not sure why. I was just falling all over the place. I was doing Tree the other day in 21 Day Fix, but Warrior 3 was giving me fits for this workout. I also had a hard time keeping my arms up in the air for Warrior 1 and Warrior 2. My shoulders were just killing me. I did all of that shoulder work in Les Mills Combat Power HIIT with 10 pound dumbbells and keeping my arms up over my head for 30 seconds in PiYo was a challenge. That was just weird. My glutes and hamstrings were a bit sore from Les Mills Combat Shock Plyo from Monday, so I wasn't sure how this was going to go, but my legs were fine for the workout. It was my shoulders that did me in. How weird is that. 

If you want to see a play by play of the workout, check out my post from day 2 of PiYo from my full round. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the unimpressive screen shot. This stuff really works me over, but yet BodyMedia never really seems to agree. It's not a fast moving workout, but it does get me breathing heavy and sweating all over the place. 

My 56 Day Experience with Beachbody PiYo

It's been over a month since I finished PiYo, but with my husband's work schedule changing, I haven't had a lot of time to do blogging. We no longer have a day off together so no hiking. Week nights, I edit for about an hour and then we watch TV and catch up on life. On the weekends, I've been doing a lot of mystery shopping and also editing. Today, I decided, no mystery shopping! I still have editing to do, but I did my grocery shopping yesterday so no need to head into town for anything! That frees up sooooooo much time it's crazy! Here I sit, blogging away!

What the program comes with

The basic program came with a nutrition guide, a calendar, a getting started booklet, 3 DVDs and a tape measure. The DVDs each had three workouts. However, one of the workouts was the instructional video that you should only need to do once and one of the workouts is a 20 minute Turbofire HIIT workout. It's not part of the PiYo program. It was nice to see what Turbofire was like though. Since I ordered through my coach, I got a free DVD called Hardcore on the Floor. Make sure you order through a coach to get the free DVD. This is the program that I bought when I signed up as a coach. 

The nutritional guide

The nutritional guide is short and to the point. It's a very similar concept to the nutritional plan in the 21 Day Fix that is all the rage. The main difference is that you don't get the containers. 21 Day Fix is focused on making it easy by not having to count anything. If it fits in the containers, you get to eat it. PiYo's nutrition plan allows for most of the same foods in the same quantities, but you don't get the color coded containers. It's a little more work, but it's pretty much the same concept. However, I like that with the PiYo version of it you get some Free foods. With PiYo, I could have as many leafy greens and cucumbers as I wanted, but with 21 Day Fix, I'm only allowed 6 green containers. I'm sorry, but no one ever got fat on spinach so it should be a free food. Anyway, you can read about my five day experience with the PiYo Get Lean Eating Plan to learn more about it. I'm not sure why I tagged one of the Kettlebell workouts into the PiYo get Lean Eating Plan category, so just scroll down past that post.  With the plan, I was allowed 6 servings of primary veggies (keep in mind that some of the primary veggies are actually fruits, but hey who cares), three secondary veggies and grains, three fruits, seven servings of lean protein and four servings of healthy fats. 

The Quick Start Guide

This gave a brief overview of the workouts and how long they were. The times weren't really accurate though. It also explained what you should do to get going with the program. It was a four fold paper and not really a booklet or anything. 

The Workouts

Align Fundamentals

This was the instructional workout. You do it once to learn proper form and all that jazz. It's not much of an actual workout, but I felt taller and stretched out after doing it. Seeing Chalene for the first time was interesting. She's an interesting character. She manhandled the people doing the workout with her. She poked at them and pulled up clothing so we could see muscles that were hidden. After doing his DVD, I was excited to try the rest of the program. You can read a play by play of the workout on my Review of Day 1 of PiYo.

Define Lower Body

This was the first real workout of the program. It is only in the first couple weeks of the program. It's just under 21 minutes. This was a nice workout. We didn't do anything crazy intense, but it was a good workout. I did a lot of sweating and I felt great after doing the workout. My BodyMedia device doesn't think I did a whole lot, but I think I did! You can read a play by play of the workout on my Review of Day 2 of PiYo. 

Define Upper Body

This was a really short workout. It was just about 19 minutes. This workout didn't have a warmup. it seemed like you should do Define Lower Body and Define Upper Body on the same day, but they weren't in the calendar that way. There were days that I did do them together and when I do my Les Mills Combat/ Piyo hybrid, I will be including these on the same day. This one had a lot of push ups and planking in it and I mean a lot. There was also a series with V-sits. You can read a play by play on my Review of Day 3 of PiYo. 

Sweat

The next one in the series was Sweat. I didn't like Sweat the first time I did it. It started to grow on me after I had done Drench a few times. Sweat involved a few segments that were just hard for me. My balance sucks and there were some sections that showed just how much my balance really did suck. There was some Warrior 2 and 3 in here also. A lot of squatting and lunging. You read read all about the fun I had with Sweat on my Review of Day 4 of PiYo.  

Core

There are two core workouts in this program. One is simply called Core. The other is the free workout you get if you buy through a coach. That one is called Hardcore on the Floor. I think Core is pretty hardcore though. It's about 30 minutes long. It had a section for abs while standing. Sometimes, I find it harder to do abs standing than it is to do them on my back. My legs hurt more than my abs in that section, plus my balance just sucks so it was hard to hold the positions. There some some planking, some down dog, some dog dog splits and some other fun moves like being in down dog split and then coming to a plank position. You can read a play by play of the workout on my Review of Day 10 of PiYo.

Buns

This one grew to become one of my favorites. I liked that it was different than the others. This one focused on a lot of squats and a lot of lunges. There were different types of lunges that I hadn't heard of like Clockwork lunges. I kinda liked those! I definitely felt it the day after, but it was all good. You read read a play by play on my Review of Day 16 of PiYo.

Strength Intervals

This was around 20 minutes. This was not one of my favorites in the program. It was nice that it was very different than the rest of them, but it just didn't seem to fit the program for me. The other workouts all seemed to share the same concept, but this one had intervals of strength and cardio. So we jogged for a couple minutes and then went to lunges. We did skaters for a couple minutes and then went to squats. It just was weird for me to have this one in the mix. You can read a play by play on my Review of Day 19 of PiYo.

Drench

Oh the dreaded Drench. It was 48 minutes. I had heard some really good things about Drench, but they all said that it was intense! I was not really looking forward to doing it since I figured it would be really hard. Sweat was hard enough for me. Drench was pretty dang intense. It was basically the extended version of Sweat. It had many of the same moves in it. As I got better at the moves, it got to be less of something that I dreaded doing. I never did manage to get through the Down Dog Split section without having to take a break. It probably will not be in my PiYo/Les Mills Combat hybrid workout even though it probably should be. You can read a play by play on my Review of Day 25 of PiYo.

Sculpt

This one was 26 minutes. It ended up being one of the ones I looked forward to because it was different than the others. This one focused on strength training using our own body weight. There were squats, lunges, push ups, tricep dips and some other things. It was hard! It was crazy intense, but I survived. You can read a play by play on my Review of Day 29 of PiYo.

Hardcore on the Floor

This was the free workout that came from buying PiYo from a coach. It was about 33 minute and the name says it all. It was a hardcore floor core workout. There was a lot of planking going on. There was also a lot of Down Dog Splits which I just suck at. It's a great workout, but it was hard. You can read about it on my Review of Day 56 part 2 of PiYo.

Turbofire Low HIIT 20

This wasn't part of the calendar. It was just a free workout that came with the program to entice me to buy Turbofire. It didn't entice me to buy it though because I'm just not coordinated enough for it. I got a great calorie burn, but I was so off from what she was doing it wasn't funny. You can read a play by play on my Review of Turbofire Low HIIT 20.

My Results

I lost five pounds during this program. It's not nearly the results I was hoping for, but I wasn't exactly sticking to the best nutritional plan. Prior to PiYo, I was doing really well with keeping on track with my nutrition. At some point during PiYo, I decided that I was done with salads. I was juicing and getting some leafy greens, but my 250 calorie salad for lunch was replaced with left overs from the night before or sandwiches. I just reached my breaking point with salad and couldn't do it anymore. We switched to anew brand of olive oil and I wasn't a fan of the flavor. I just didn't like the dressing I was making with it and I just couldn't eat another salad. We also went out to dinner a few times and had some yummy desserts. I also stopped doing my home made froyo at some point during PiYo. I'm not really sure what prompted my nutritional spiral. I do know that I was bummed with my slow results of weight loss at the start of PiYo, so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. I had plenty of non scale victories with PiYo. I went down a size in my jeans. I finally got into jeans that were smaller than my husbands. My shirts started looking like night shirts instead of T-shirts. I got stronger too. I just didn't lose much weight. I think the salt had a lot to do with it. After PiYo, I focused on dropping salt. Once I did, I managed to drop the five pounds that I gained just after PiYo and I've actually dropped another pound. I just can't seem to give up salt. Right now, I'm having a flare up of my breathing problem so I'm sucking down cough drops like there is no tomorrow and the sweetness of the cough drops makes me want salty foods like chips! I have found some healthier chip options though. They are even made with real potatoes. A lot of the "healthy" chip alternatives seem to be filled with a bunch of chemicals, but these aren't! Woot woot! 

My Overall Thoughts

I'm glad that I did PiYo. There were days that I didn't want to get up and do it, but I still did it. I made it through all 56 days of PiYo. I was 272 pounds when I started PiYo. I'm not going to say, "If I can do it, so can you." That's just annoying when I read other people say that. I'm just saying that at 272 pounds, I managed to get through a program that I didn't think I would survive. I thought Yoga was for people who were already in shape. I did have some challenges and I had to modify a lot, but I did it and I got better at it as time went on. I was the stepping stone for me to step into more traditional yoga. Not all yoga for big people has to be about weight loss. I'm finding that I enjoy just doing yoga for the stretched out feeling I get from doing it. 

I really liked Chalene. She was upbeat and motivational without being annoying. She talked about form and kept telling us that we didn't need to go low, but we needed to be in the right alignment. Doing this workout series made me want to try her other programs. Although, after trying TurboFire, I think I gave up on that one. I'm still toying with getting ChaLEAN Extreme or TurboJam, but I have way too many programs to do at this point already! 

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 57 part 2: Hard Core on the Floor

Day 57 Part 2: Hard Core on the Floor

For some reason, I never did the free workout while doing this round of PiYo. It was on the schedule so I could pick doing Core or Hard Core on the Floor and I always just picked Core. Some of it was because I knew the Core workout and I knew I could survive it. Part of it was also knowing that I wouldn't have time to go back and do the play by play post. I think part of it was also knowing that I would have a new workout to do once I finished the round. 

This workout was just over 33 minutes. It started with a warm up that was just under 3 minutes. We started off rolling down into a forward fold and then rolling back up. This workout had the same modifier as all of the others. After we rolled up and down a few times we got down on all fours. Then we did cat/cows. We arched our backs up and then rounded them down. After that, we tucked one leg up to our chest and then extended it back a few times. Then we did the opposite leg. Then we did a crouching position and then up to Down Dog. We went back down to the crouching position and back to Down Dog a few times. Then we were back on all fours and then to Child's Pose. 

Then we did the Primal to Traditional section. It was about 11 and a half minutes. We started off in all fours and then went into Beast. It's like being in all fours, but we picked our knees up an inch or so off the floor. This move is just HARD! We held that a couple times and then went into the kick through. We started off slow. We did Beast and then rocked over to on hip. We alternated like that for a bit. The pace picked up on that. Then we lifted the bottom leg up and didn't have the hip touch the floor. I followed the modifier and kept doing the beginning step. As she went on, she lifted her foot higher. Then we held the kick through position and lowered the hip down and then lifted it up. Then we sat the hip down and rolled back onto our backs and then rolled back up and did a crunch with that leg up. This was just madness. I think I may have modified this more than the modifier did. Then we went into Child's Pose for a little bit of a rest before we did it all again on the other side. Then we sat on our butts with our knees bent and our feet on the floor in front of us. We started a V-Sit series. We started off just alternating lifting one foot up off the floor. Then both legs went up and down at the same time. Then we laid down flat and pulled up into a v-sit with the legs up straight. This was hard for me! Then we laid back down and put our legs straight up. We picked crunched up at an angle and brought an elbow to the opposite knee. Then we scissored our legs while doing this. Then we laid back down with our knees bent. We stretched our right arm  out to the side and rolled our knees towards that side. Then we extended the legs while crunching the other elbow towards that side. Then we did some knee circles and started the other side. 

The next section was called Primal. It was just under seven minutes. We went into a v sit again with our feet off the floor. We rolled back onto our backs and then rolled forward, but we to stop before our feet hit the floor. She showed this with a straight leg option too which was harder. Then we moved into a PiYo pedal. It was sort of like the leg portion of a bicycle, but we were in a v-sit position. We leaned back while doing this which made it way harder. Then we came back up and alternated that a bit. Then we moved into a Side Plank with a knee down. We lifted the top leg and bent it back behind us. We then brought it forward into a crunch as our arm came down to meet it. Then we added a kick. This move is in Core as well. I kinda like it. Then we switched and did the other side. Then we went back onto all fours for more Beast pose. Then we flipped so we were on our butts again and did Roman Twists. She suggested doing them with our feet off the floor to make them harder. Then we went back to Beast. We were supposed to switch between these positions quickly. We then tapped a hand to our opposite knee. These were so hard. The modifier did some up, but a lot were on her knees. Then we switched back to Roman Twists and back to Beast. More tapping the opposite knees. Back to Roman Twists. 

The next section was called Plank to Elbow Plank and it was 8 minutes. We started out with Plank. We pulled the knee in and then extended the leg back. Then we pulled it in, pressed it back, lifted it up, let it down and then started that again. Then we went to Elbow plank. We rotated to one side and then tapped that hip down to the floor and then lifted it up high. This was sooooo hard! Child's Pose! YES! Then we did it all on the other side. Then we went to Down Dog. And Down Dog Split. We all know by now how much I hate Down Dog Splits! Then we pulled the knee down into Plank and then back to Down Dog Splits a few times. Then we tapped the ankle down to the other ankle and went back to Down Dog Split a few times. Then we did them together. Then we did Child's Pose and switched to the other side. More Elbow Plank! Which turned into an InchWorm. We walked our feet forward and our butts went up into the air then we walked it back out. That was less than fun! More Plank! We held it and then did a slow push up. Then we went to Plank and then Down Dog. We went through this a few times. 

The last section was just over four minutes it was Back Extensions and Cool Down. We were in a Low Cobra position and then lifted one arm up over the floor in front of us. Then both arms went up for like the upper body portion of a Superman. I love Supermans. I'm not sure why, but I just do. Then we added the feet. We went up into a superman and crossed the feet while doing a lat pull with the arms. We held it and then stretched back out and laid down. She said it was called a Sea Turtle. We did a few of those and then went to Child's Pose for a moment. Then we laid on our stomachs for a bit. We reached back and grabbed a foot to do a quad stretch. We switched sides. Then we got up onto all fours to do a few more cat / cows. 

Overall, this was intense, but it was doable. I kinda wished that I had done it earlier in the program so I had gotten through it more than just the one time. I'll do it more when I go through my Les Mills Combat/PiYo hybrid.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my less than impressive screen shot. It still annoys me that it thinks I only had 8 minutes of activity. I was sweating my butt off! Oh well! 

 

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 56 I earned my T-shirt!

Day 56: Drench

My final day of PiYo for this round was Drench! I've been dreading doing Drench as the final workout. I haven't been a fan of this workout from the start, but it really wasn't that bad today. I did a lot better on the lunges and the squats. I still suck at the Split Down Dog stuff. I still feel like I'm going to hurt when I go from High Lunge to Warrior 2 in the Flow section. I wish I could figure out why that happens. It doesn't matter though since I don't plan on doing this one again for a bit. 

I made it through my round of PiYo. I'm so excited! I've had some ups and downs with PiYo and there were times that I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through the round, but I did it! I earned my T-shirt. I didn't lose much weight, but I did shrink a size in my jeans and I'm stronger. We haven't done my measurement yet, but I"ll post those as soon as we do them. 

Now I'm focusing on Daily Burn Kettlebells! I'll be buying Les Mills Pump too now that it's on sale! If you buy  it, make sure you get it from a coach to get your free DVD.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Another unimpressive screen shot. I still got 300 calories though. I'm not sure when the Bluetooth connection died, but I think it was close to the end. I don't normally get much more than 20 minutes of Total Activity.

Want to Learn More? Watch the video

If you're interested in buying PiYo, make sure you buy it from a Coach so you get the extra DVD for free. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it through me at my Beachbody page. 

Review of Beachbody TurboFire 20 Low HIIT 20 Free with PiYo

Bonus Free Workout: Turbo Fire Low HIIT 20

This workout came free with PiYo. I was pretty excited about that because I waned to try TurboFire. I was putting it off until it went on sale since I already have too much stuff to workout. This was a 20 minute HIIT workout that was low impact. It was intense, but low impact. There were two modifier people that we could watch. One of them with with a lower intensity, and the other went with a higher intensity. However, I rarely saw either one of them. I didn't really have to modify anything though so it wasn't a huge issue for me. 

This workout was filmed in the same location as Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds Express. There is another workout that I've done that was filmed in this same place, but I can't remember what it was. It's a rather memorable studio. It's god a distinctive brick wall and giant arched windows. 

Okay, so the workout was so not what I was expecting. It was much more dancy than I was expecting and a lot less kickboxing than I expected. She moved from one move to the next a lot faster than I was expecting. It's like a whole different Chalene compared to PiYo. It was a good workout, and it got my heart racing, but I was behind the entire time. it was my first time doing the workout, so I shouldn't be upset about being behind, but I couldn't even figure out how to make my body do what she was doing. I'm not good with dancy stuf and I'm not good with looking at someone and mimicking them. This workout just isn't my style.

I'm not going to bother with a play by play just due to the style of the workout. The format was interesting. We warmed up with some squats and then we learned a series of moves while doing them slow. We didn't really do it that slowly though. Once we did the series slowly, we did it again faster and hit it harder. Then we did it slowly again and then fast again. After that, we learned a new series and did the same set up. We learned a third set as well. Then we went into the cool down which was mainly squats.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I sucked at this workout. I really did, but check out that calorie burn! Look at those minutes of activity and OMG 14 minutes of vigorous activity in a 19 minute workout! I may have sucked at it, but I'm pretty dang happy with this screen shot! Now, I really want to go back and do some Les Mills Combat! Ooooooooh or maybe tomorrow morning, I could go for a run! Check out that workout arc! That was supposed to be a HIIT workout, but I stayed up there pretty high for the whole workout! Crazy!!

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 55

Day 55: Sculpt

Today was Day 55 of PiYo! Only one day left before I earn my T-shirt that won't fit me! Woot Woot! It's a good thing that they give away free T-shirts. Otherwise, I might not have made it through the full 8 weeks. For some reason, getting a free T-shirt really inspires me to get off my butt and do this! Look at what happened with Kettlebells? I managed the first week just find, but couldn't find time to fit in the second week. They didn't offer me a t-shirt! 

Okay so Sculpt is one of the workouts that I actually kinda like. It's HARD, but it's good! Lots of squats, lots of lunges and lots of push ups, but it's all good. There's not much yoga stuff in this one. I'm not opposed to yoga though, that't not why I like this one. I does have one little section of that Split Down Dog thing, but other than that, it doesn't resemble Drench of Sweat in any way, shape or form. I'm not bored by this one because I don't feel like I'm doing it every other flipping day. It's once a week at most. 

This workout has soooooo many lunges! I'm getting better at them though. I took less breaks. I did bail before she was done with those bowlers where we just stayed down and pulsed them. Those are TORTURE! I'm getting so much deeper in my squats and better with my lunges! I'm going to miss this workout. It won't be too terribly long before I do it again though. It will be in my Les Mills / PiYo Hybrid workout. Now that I'm almost done with PiYo, I can work on that calendar! 

One workout left! Tomorrow is Drench! I'm going to do Hardcore on the Floor tomorrow too though so my PiYo round doesn't end on Drench.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my rather unimpressive BodyMedia screen shot. I really do miss the crazy calorie burns of Les Mills Combat! I might have to do a week of Combat once the Kettlebells are done! However, I still have 21 Day Fix to do and I'm going to order Pump! I need to just quit my job and workout all bloody day!

Want to Learn More? Watch the video

If you're interested in buying PiYo, make sure you buy it from a Coach so you get the extra DVD for free. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it through me at my Beachbody page. 

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 54

Day 54: Rest Day!

Today wasn't much of a rest day since I did Daily Burn Kettlebells. I had a boat load of fun! I'm totally ready to finish out my last two days of PiYo and earn my T-Shirt! There's not much else to say about my rest day.  

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 53

Day 53: Core

Today was my last day doing one of my favorite workouts! It was Core today for Day 53. I really do like this workout! I wasn't in the mood to workout today, but I did it anyway. I felt better after doing it. That might be the first and last time you hear me say that though! Normally I feel worse after a workout. I want to crawl into bed and go to sleep, but not today! I still suck at the stand up ab section. I did better than I've done, but I really am just terrible with balance. I'm hoping that once I get through Tai Cheng, I'll have better balance. I did well with the Criss Cross section, but I still modify the side plank section. I might actually miss this workout. It will definitely be part of  my Les Mills Combat / PiYo hybrid workout when/if I ever get there. I'm really getting addicted to buying these things so who knows when I'll have time to go back and redo any of them!  Two more workouts and I earn my T-shirt! 

Tomorrow is rest day, but I'll be doing Kettlebells unless I'm in a really horrible mood because I think my phone just went kaput. I can't function without a phone. Hubby is trying to fix it right now, but it's not looking good. I have a tendency to destroy phones. I still don't understand how it happens. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my rather unimpressive screen shot. I'm still okay with it though. 

Want to Learn More? Watch the video

If you're interested in buying PiYo, make sure you buy it from a Coach so you get the extra DVD for free. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it through me at my Beachbody page. 

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 52

Day 52: Sweat

Today was Day 52 of this round of PiYo! I'm so close to being done! Just three workouts left! Amazing! Okay, so on to the important stuff! I've whined about Sweat. I've whined about Sweat a lot, but guess what!!!! Sweat isn't that bad. I managed to get through it today without any major issues. I didn't get through that stinking Split Down Dog section though. That thing just kills me! I did get through the Warrior and Lunge section without any issue. This workout had two sections that are pretty much identical as Drench and the warm up is almost identical as well. We do both of these workouts so often. I just don't understand why they had to make these two so similar. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is yet another unimpressive screen shot, but I'm okay with it. It's not about the calorie burn with PiYo. I'm getting stronger and that's what matters. 

Want to Learn More? Watch the video

If you're interested in buying PiYo, make sure you buy it from a Coach so you get the extra DVD for free. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it through me at my Beachbody page. 

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 51

Day 51: Bun

Today was Day 51! I'm so close to being done wit this round of PiYo! Today was Buns! I had intended to do Buns and Core so I could have Thursday free for Kettlebells, but I was just so tired when I woke up. I then procrastinated for a bit. By the time I got around to working out, I only had time to do Buns. I wasn't really sure how this was going to go since I was still a little sore in the hamstrings, but I think it went really well! I've liked this workout more than others and it didn't disappoint today.

I got deeper in my squats and I took less breaks! I got stronger in some spots. There were parts where I always had to touch my foot down, but this time I was able to just do it without my little modification. Woot Woot! It almost makes me sad that it's my last time doing this workout in this round. This will definitely be one of the workouts that I do when I do the PiYo / Les Mills Combo Hybrid workout! 

I forgot to do a BodyMedia workout tab. Oopsy.

Want to Learn More? Watch the video

If you're interested in buying PiYo, make sure you buy it from a Coach so you get the extra DVD for free. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it through me at my Beachbody page.