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.

My Four Week Experience with Rockin' Body

What Is Rockin' Body?

Rockin' Body is a Beachbody workout program. It's a dancing program, but it also has two workouts that give a lot of strength training moves. Plus, you can use the weighted wrist bands to get more of an upper body workout while doing the dancing. The setting is like no other workout program I've ever seen. It's filmed in front of a live studio audience which was weird at first, but the more I did it, the more I really fell in love with the concept. What's great is that it's all about fun. He's way over the top in the flamboyant category on this one and that just makes it even more awesome because it really helped me let go of all of the crap in my head that keeps me from doing dancing workouts. I have this fear of looking like an idiot. I know that I'm alone in this room and no one on the TV can see me, but it doesn't matter. Well, it didn't matter until this workout. I have major issues with following choreography, but I was able to follow this and by the end of my four weeks, I was able to dance like no one was watching. The workouts range from 10 minutes to 45 minutes. There are numerous days where you do two workouts, but I think there was only one day where the total workout time was over an hour. Booty Time and Rock It Out are on the calendar on the same day. I didn't give myself enough time to do both though, so I ended up mixing this up a little differently. I'm glad I did too because Booty Time and Rock It Out on the same day would be challenging! 

What comes with the program?

There is a basic package and an upgraded package. The basic package has seven workouts, a calendar, a Party Guide, a 3 Day Slimdown guide and a Never Diet Again booklet. The upgraded package has four additional workouts. Two of them are Rockin' Body workouts that are on the advanced calendar and two of them are Hip Hop Abs workouts that aren't actually on the workout calendar. The upgraded DVDs also come with an advanced calendar and a set of 1 pound weighted wrist bands. They are a bit small, but I was able to cram my giant hands through them. They really do make a difference too. 

The Workouts

Mark, Move & Groove

This workout is only on the calendar twice. It's on Day 1 and Day 2. It's basically a tutorial workout. It's only about 15 minutes long. The moves are pretty simple. There is a beeping during the workout, but no one ever explains what the beeping is for. I discovered on the second day, that the beep is supposed to draw your attention to the lower right hand corner where the timer is. It will say Mark, Move or Groove above the time. Mark is when you learn the specific step, Move is when you build on it and Groove is when you're actually doing the dance. When I did this the first time, I was soooooo happy because it was a dancing workout that I could actually do. It was like doing a Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds workout, but with a lot of groove to it. The steps were really just built up from walking in place, walking around, side steps, knee lifts and kicks. Once I got my head wrapped around that, I could do this! You can read about my first experience with Mark, Move & Groove.

Party Express

This one is 25 minutes long. It's on the beginner calendar seven times. This one is a little more challenging than Mark, Move & Groove, but it's still pretty easy to follow. A lot of the moves are just built up off of marching in place, walking, knee lifts, side steps and kicks. This one has two different dances that you learn. The moves are totally doable even for me who is so incredibly challenged when it comes to choreography. I have issues with mirroring people too. You can read about my first experience with Party Express.

Disco Groove

This one is about 30 minutes. Most of the dancers in the workout are wearing copious amounts of gold. If they don't have a lot of gold on, it's because they aren't wearing much, but what little they are wearing is gold. This one was a little more challenging than Party Express, but I got the hang of it after a few times doing it. This one is on the beginner calendar five times. The more I did this one, the better I got at it. I had a few ah-ha moments a couple weeks in. It was great! You can read about my First experience with Disco Groove even though I used the wrong name on this post. 

Hard-Core Abs

This is a 10 minute ab workout that you never have to get down on the floor to do! This thing is crazy intense too. Just imagine 10 minutes straight of some variation of knee lifts, front kicks and squats with basically no break. The hardest part for me was my arms! While your legs are moving, your arms are moving too. My shoulders were on fire about 2 minutes into this one the first time! You can read about my first experience with Hard-Core Abs. 

Shaun T's Dance Party

This one isn't available on Beachbody On Demand, so I don't have much experience with it. I ended up buying the DVDs so I could do this workout. It would have been easier to do some stuff in House Your Body and Hip Hop if I had done this one more often. It's on the calendar seven times. It's about 45 minutes long. I loved this workout. It was very doable for me. There was a bit of hopping, so I had to modify at times, but this is another one that reminded me a lot of Leslie Sansone workouts but jazzed up a bit. You can read about my first experience with Shaun T's Dance Party. 

Rock It Out

This is a 45 minute strength training workout with little dancing involved. This thing has squats and lunges galore! It really works the upper body as well. There is a tricep move in here that I've never done and it really worked my triceps. This one uses weights, but you don't need to use them if it's too intense or if you don't have them. I tried using 5 pound weights to start, but then quickly switched to 2 pounds. During one of Shaun T's podcasts for Define Your Life, he referred to this as deceptively hard. I didn't find anything deceptive about it. This workout was just hard. It was totally doable, but it really worked my body. This one is in the beginner calendar 6 times. You can read about my first experience with Rock It Out.

Booty Time

This is a 30 minute dancing and strength training workout. There are plenty of squats in this one and a bunch of jumping type moves in this workout. It still has some dancing in it though. The moves are all pretty straightforward. This one is only on the calendar four times. I think I did it more than four times though. I screwed up most of the calendar though.You can read about my first experience with Booty Time. 

Hip Hop 

This is part of the upgraded DVD package. The upgrade also comes with 1lb weighted wrist weights. This is a 45 minute workout. This one is challenging for me in terms of choreography. Some of it really works for me and other parts are just a bit confusing for me. It's still fun, but I need to go through it a few more times before I really get the hang of it. You can read about my first experience with Hip Hop. 

House Your Body

This is part of the upgraded DVD package. It's about 45 minutes. I love this workout. The first couple times I did it, there were some rough patches, but the last time I did it, I had an absolute blast. This was the workout that I was referring to when I said that I danced like no one was watching. I was finally able to just put everything aside and just dance. I didn't watch the TV for the last section. I just did the moves and put all I had into them. I was jumping during most of the jumping sections and I got quite the little workout high going from it. I wasn't doing my normal small little hop thing. I was getting some air under my feet! It felt great! You can read about my first experience with House Your Body. 

Hip Hop Abs Rockin' Abs and Hard Body

These are part of the upgraded DVD package. I haven't actually done these workouts. They weren't on the calendar. I thought about waiting to write this post until I did the workouts, but I really wanted to get the post up. I'll update it after I do those workouts. 

Three Day Slim Down

The Three Day Slim Down guide is a nutrition plan that's supposed to help you jump start your results. You're supposed to drink three times a day and then have a salad at night. I didn't do this because I need food. I can't live on shakes. 

Never Diet Again Guide

This talks about portion control and eating a lot of veggies. There are some recipes in the booklet as well. I didn't follow the nutrition plan as it was laid out. I wasn't quite ready to get my nutrition back under control. Doing this workout was more about conquering a dancing program than it was about losing weight. At the end, I started counting Weight Watchers points again.

Party Guide

This talks about what to do and not to do at parties. It has suggestions about eating before you go and talking to the host about the food that will be served. It also tells you certain foods that you should try to find at a party and certain foods to avoid at a party. 

My Results

I started this program just as a way of testing out my Beachbody On Demand access. I picked this one to start because I had done the Cize preview workout and loved it. I figured this would help me hone my dancing skills so by the time Cize showed up, I'd be better with the choreography thing. I was only going to do each workout once. I had no plans of doing this entire program. I was doing C25K three days a week and then either walking with my husband or doing a Beachbody On Demand workout on my non-running days. I loved the workouts so much that I decided to do the whole program. I didn't do it in the order on the calendar though. I started it during my last couple weeks of running. I did try to stick with the order on the calendar, but Shaun T's Dance Party wasn't on On Demand and I was doing the workouts around running so the first two weeks of the program took me three or four weeks to complete. I took a few days off to get back on track with the calendar, but I kept messing it up. 

So my results.......drumroll please!!!!!!! In the four weeks, I lost 5 pounds. That 5 pounds was all in the last week. The week right after I finished Rockin' Body turned into a rest week for me and I lost another five pounds while not working out. Confession time.......my nutrition was a train wreck during the first portion of this program. My nutrition was great back in the winter when I was doing 21 Day Fix. After that, I switched to Body Beast and I was hungry all the time! I just decided that I couldn't deal with being hungry and being in pain all the time, so I pretty much ate anything I wanted which included ice cream, cake, cookies and chips. I gained 20 pounds during Body Beast. I figured the fat would all melt off once Body Beast was over, but during C25K, I was still hungry and still couldn't get my nutrition under control. During my final week of Rockin' Body, I decided on a Tuesday to start counting Weight Watchers points again. Once I did that, I dropped 10 pounds pretty quickly. The first five was while I was still doing Rockin' Body. The second five was during my rest week that I took after Rockin' Body. I started C25K while still doing Body Beast and I started Rockin' Body while still doing C25K. I just needed a break. My husband is quite happy to repeatedly point out that I'm losing weight while not working out. He keeps telling me that I've been doing too much. I'm sure the rest week is helping, but getting my nutrition under control is a big factor too.  

Where to get it

I will be having a give away for the Rockin' Body basic package as well as House Your Body and Hip Hop. It won't include the Hip Hop Abs DVD though or the weighted wrist bands. Beachbody sent me extra DVDs and said that I could keep them, so I'm going to give them away to someone. Check out the Trapped in a Fat Girl Facebook page for details if you're ready this in August of 2015. 

If you've missed the give away or didn't win, you can buy the Rockin' Body DVDs. They are super inexpensive. If you buy them through the Trapped in a Fat Chick Beachbody link, I will donate $1.00 to the Dizzy Feet Foundation for each set purchased. 

Check Out the Rockin' Body Video

Rockin' Body Day 28: Rest Day

Day 28: Rest Day

Day 28 was Rest Day! I love rest day, but this rest day wasn't exactly a rest day. We went for a hike to the top of Tumalo Mountain in Bend, Oregon. My Rockin' Body round is over and I'm kind of sad. My last Rockin' Body workout was amazing. I danced like no one was watching. I completely threw myself into this routine and it was so much fun. I'm doing an entire rest week this week and will start up Cize on Monday. I'll write a full review of Rockin' Body with a blurb about each of the workouts soon. I might even do all of them again and record it so you can watch me dance!

Rockin' Body Day 27: House Your Body

Day 27: House Your Body

Day 27 of the advanced calendar was supposed to be Rock It Out and Party Express, but I had a hike planned for Sunday, so I didn't want to do Rock It Out and make my glutes all sore for the hike. I did Rock It Out the previous Saturday when I was supposed to do House Your Body because I read the wrong calendar, so I just did House Your Body on Day 27. I ran out of time to do Party Express so I just skipped it. I might feel guilty about that, but I'll get over it.

I really like House Your Body. I had fun doing it the last time I did it, but this time was even more fun. I'm not sure what the change was. It's possible it was just some subconscious thing because of all the Define Your Life podcasts I've been listening to. Maybe it was because my diet has been better. Maybe it was because I got to sleep in for the first time in what seems like an eternity. Maybe it was because I ate breakfast and I normally do my workouts on an empty stomach. Maybe it was because I knew it was the last day so I was putting extra oomph in it. I don't know what it was, but I know it was a blast. 

It started out a little rough though because my husband was awake and in the living room. I had the workout room door open. At any moment he could have walked by and watched me look like an idiot, but I got over it. I was rocking this workout! Most of the time, I try to watch the TV to make sure that I'm doing the moves right, but I felt confident that I was doing them right. I just danced and danced and danced! I used the weighted wrist bands for this one too. I totally got immersed in this workout. I let go of feeling like an idiot and just did it! 

I did most of the bouncing stuff in this workout. I didn't really do the hops between some of the lunge type moves, but there was a bunch of hopping left and right. I started off with keeping my toes on the floor and just picking my heels up, but that was while we were "marking the move" still. Once we got into the "moving" part, I jumped and I jumped high! I had so much fun with the jumping. My arms were flapping around and I was having a blast. After I was done, I wanted to buy a trampoline! Jumping like that was fun! 

I need to do all of these workouts again so I can record them to add to the blog, but for now, this was the last workout of the program. I'm going to do Cize next. That is going to be so much fun! 

Polar M400 Screen Shots

Here are the Polar M400 screen shots for the workout. I had a record calorie burn for Aerobics on this one. My heart rate was mainly in the 4 range. Woot Woot!

Rockin' Body Day 26: Shaun T's Dance Party

Day 26: Shaun T's Dance Party

I finally got to do Shaun T's Dance Party! This one wasn't available online, so I ended up buying the DVD's to get it. I bought the upgraded DVDs to get the weighted wrist bands too. The DVDs came last Saturday, but this workout wasn't on the calendar again until today. The weighted wrist bands just came yesterday. They are a bit snug and I forgot about Polar M400 watch when I bought the upgrade in order to get the weighted wrist bands. They don't really fit well together. I'll make it work though. 

Okay, so this is a 45 minute dancing workout and I loved it! I was able to do most of the stuff without modifying. I did some modifying during some of the hopping, but I hopped as much as I could. There was a lot of stuff in this one where we walked left and right with some sort of groove thing going on. For some reason, I do better with those. Although, I did have some issues with a couple of the moves today. They'll click in my brain better after I do them a few more times. 

So this one had three or four different dance segments and then at the end, we did all of the moves from the beginning. That was a bit rough for me since it was the first time I had done the workout, so I didn't remember the names of everything, but it was fun. I think I like House Your Body a little better than this one and it gave me a higher calorie burn, but I still really liked this one. This is the one where you learn the Step Off move and the Snake. The Snake is easy to pick up without having been through this one, but the Step Off move was hard for me in House Your Body since I hadn't learned it broken down. I think I've got it figured out now, but I did have some issues with the fact that we did the Step Off move and tied it in with another move, so I couldn't always get my hands to go the right directions. 

Oh! I almost forgot something. This workout made me crazy dizzy! There's another workout that has you move in a circle, but that one doesn't make me dizzy. You're supposed to walk in a circle in this one too. We did it several times and I got dizzy! It got even worse when he told us to dip our heads down as we did the circle thing. It went away soon after we were done though. 

I only have one day left in this program! I think I'm taking next week off from exercise! I'm ready for a rest. I was thinking that Rockin' Body was going to be a bit of a rest for me. I had no idea how sore this program would make me! I was expecting it to be straight up cardio, but NOPE! Rock It Out and Booty Time are crazy intense. Several of the other workouts including Shaun T's Dance Party also have a lot of squatting down stuff or jumping stuff. It seems all innocent, but it makes me sore the next day. I'm honestly not sure if my brain can handle doing an entire week of rest though. I fear that I won't come back to exercise, but I think I've come far enough along on this journey that I'll be able to handle it. My brain needs a bit of a rest too. I'm tired. I've been working out six days a week and hiking on Sundays. I'm working two jobs and trying to maintain this blog while still working out and trying to eat a somewhat healthy diet. My brain is fried. My body is fried. I just need a bit of a reset. I thought about doing PiYo, but there are so many lunges and squats in it that it won't give my body the break it needs. I thought about getting some yoga workouts from the library, but that won't allow me to sleep in. Part of my problem is that I don't sleep enough. I can't really go to be earlier, so to get my rest, I need to sleep in. I was getting one rest day during the week and sleeping in on the weekends, but I haven't been getting either of those lately. I'm going to take Shaun T's advice and listen to my body. I'm taking a rest week!

Polar M400

Here are the screen shots from the workout. I'm surprised that the calorie burn wasn't better on Shaun T's Dance Party, but it was my first time so I wasn't putting any extra groove into it while I learned the moves. I barely got my heart rate up to level 4. 

Rockin' Body Day 25: House Your Body

Day 25: House Your Body

Day 25 of the Advanced Calendar was House Your Body. I haven't done this one much. This is the workout that I missed last week because I read the wrong calendar, so it had been awhile since I had done it. I really liked this one though. I'm not sure if it's my attitude of trying to make the most of things or if I was just in the right head space, but it was really fun! I found myself really letting go of whatever makes it hard for me to dance! I was strutting instead of just walking left and right. There was a lot of walking left and right or front and back in this one, and I strutted it like a runway model! This one also had a section where we posed and I worked that one too. This workout really worked my body, but it also freed my mind. I think this one will be a workout that I go to again and again when I'm not doing another full program. This one was awesome with a side of amazeballs. I even did most of the jumping. There were times when my calves were just not digging it so I gave them a bit of a rest. This close to hike day, I didn't want to make things hurt too much!

Polar M400 Screen Shots 

Here are my screen shots from my Polar M400 device. I was expecting a bit more of a calorie burn on this one. I was hoping to beat my record, but I had enough fun doing it that it doesn't really matter that I missed out on seeing a trophy show up after I was done with the workout. 

Rockin' Body Day 24: Rock It Out

Day 24: Rock It Out

Today was Day 24 on the Advanced Calendar. It was Rock It Out! This workout is pretty hard. I was listening to a Shaun T Define Your Life podcast today. One of the people asked him a question about which program he should do. He asked about Hip Hop Abs and Rockin' Body. Shaun said something to the effect of if you do Rockin' Body, make sure you do Rock It Out because it's deceptively hard. I gotta say that there's not much deception there. It's just hard. There's a lot of squats and lunges! I don't do the jumping with the lunges though. This thing is killer on my shoulders. By the end they were just burning! My triceps were killing me during the push ups! OMG it seemed like they were never ending! I started losing steam at some point, but I kept going. I didn't worry about speed this time. I just tried to focus on range of motion like he mentioned in a previous podcast. 

Polar M400 Screen Shot

Check out that calorie burn! I missed my record by a couple calories! My heart rate was going crazy until it was time to get on the floor and do the push ups and planks. 

Rockin' Body Day 23: Disco Groove and Hard Core Abs

Day 23: Disco Groove and Hard Core Abs

Day 23 on the Advanced Calendar was Disco Groove and Hard Core Abs. I actually did the correct workouts for Day 23. Shocking as it may seem. It was nice to do another dancing workout! I wasn't really all that thrilled with having to do Hard Core Abs, but it is what it is and I'm sure it's making my abs stronger. That beginning section isn't as crazy hard as it used to me. 

I got the crazy idea of recording me doing the dancing segments! I'm not quite ready to put them up here, but watching them did make me feel more confident. I'm so excited too because I figured out how to make my feet and arms move correctly during one of the sections that was hard for me. I also improved a little bit in a different section. Overall, I think I rocked this one today! Was I perfect? NO! Did I have fun? YES!

Polar M400 Screen Shots

I find it interesting that I get the altitude some times. I'm pretty impressed with the calorie burn on the Disco Groove. 

Rockin' Body Day 22: Hip Hop

Day 22: Hip Hop

Monday on the Advanced Calendar, was Hip Hop. I also discovered that the end of last week was messed up! I'm not sure what happened with this program, but I have just not gotten the calendar right for so many different reasons. The end of last week was wrong because I lost access to Beachbody on Demand, so I Googled the Advanced Calendar, but it came up with the regular calendar which ended with Booty Time, but it should have been House Your Body. Oh well. I'll get over it. 

So Hip Hop went okay for me. It's one of the more difficult workouts for me in terms of choreography, but I still have fun doing it. I'm going to nail it one of these days. Unfortunately, Day 22 was the last day that it shows up on the calendar, but I plan to do them all again so I can record me doing them so I can show other people how easy the choreography is. I realize that I just said this choreography is challenging for me and easy at the same time. It's mostly easy stuff, but there are things in this one that you learn in Shaun T's Dance Party which I didn't have access to until Saturday of last week and I haven't done Shaun T's Dance Party yet since it hasn't been on the calendar since I got the DVDs. 

It was nice getting back to a dance workout. Since I did so much Booty Time and Rock It Out last week, I didn't do much dancing. I feared dancing workouts in the beginning, but now I want to do them every day instead of doing the strength type ones. I'm sure I should analyze the why of that, but I don't really care.

I used my new hand held weights for this one. I didn't get the weighted wrist bands with my Beachbody order, so I thought maybe they had discontinued them since I got a 21 Day Fix sweatband instead, but they are sending them 2nd day air. I should have them Thursday. Since I thought they were no longer available, I bought a set of some walking weights from Walmart over the weekend. I used them during this workout. They were quite comfy to hold, but I couldn't use them for the entire workout. I did use them for a large portion of it though. I think they'll come in handy for Rock It Out and since they are two pounds, I think they'll come in handy if I do another round of Body Beast.

Polar M400 Screen Shots

I was thinking that this workout was going to break my calorie burn record, but it didn't. My heart rate stayed in the three zone for the bulk of it. 

Rockin' Body Day 21: Rest Day!

Day 21: Rest Day

Today was Rest Day, but we went for a hike. It was just under 4 miles and it was just about 500 feet in elevation. My booty was sore going into this hike. We picked a hike that as listed as easy and "pretty flat". Five hundred feet in elevation is NOT pretty flat in my mind. It wouldn't have been so bad, but my booty was sore! I was really looking forward to a nice flat hike! One week left of Rockin' Body and then I earn my T-shirt! I'm not sure what I'm moving to next yet. I'm toying with taking an entire week off to just give my legs and butt some time rest. We'll see though. I always think about taking a day off, but then I just never get there. 

Rockin' Body Day 20: Booty Time

Day 20: Booty Time 

Day 20 was supposed to be Booty Time and Hard Core Abs, but I did Hard Core Abs on Day 19 in error. Oopsy. The whole calendar has been a mess with this entire program for me. I have all the DVDs now though so this coming week is going to be on point with the calendar as long as I can read it correctly. Monday will be Party Express and Hard Core Abs. It will be nice to get back to a dancing workout. I've done a lot of Booty Time and Rock It Out this week. They are great workouts, but not very dancy. 

I was sore going in to this workout and I wanted to go easy so I wouldn't be sore for my hike on Sunday, but all of the Shaun T postcasts I've been listening to lately just make me want to dig a little deeper. There's one section in this workout where I want to give up! We're squatting down and then we tap one hand down to the floor. We do one side for awhile and then the other and then we alternate. It's KILLER! The first time I did it, I know I took a break, but the last time and this time, I didn't take any breaks! I did more of the jumping stuff in this one. If I can do the jumping, I should do the jumping. I wasn't giving it 100% before when I was modifying just because I didn't want my boobs to bounce. I couldn't jump the entire time, and I didn't do the jumping lunges, but I did as much as I could and that's all I can do. 

Polar M400 Screen Shots

Here are the screen shots. My heart rate went up a bit on this one! That jumping really gets the ol' heart pumping! I got a decent calorie burn as well. I'm looking forward to Tuesday when I get to do a new to me workout! It's been on the calendar since week 1, but I wasn't able to do it since it wasn't available through the On Demand services. 

Rockin' Body Day 19: Rock It Out & Hard-Core Abs

Day 19: Rock It Out & Hard-Core Abs

Day 19 on the Advanced Calendar of Rockin' Body was supposed to be Shaun T's Dance Party, but yesterday I ran out of time for Rock It Out, so I added a cardio workout yesterday and moved Rock It Out to today. Hard Core Abs was supposed to be on Saturday, but I read the calendar wrong and did it on Friday with Rock It Out. 

This week has been rough! We did a killer hike on Sunday, then I had Rock It Out and Booty Time early in the week, now I get Rock It Out again and Booty Time on Saturday, plus another hike on Sunday. We're planning a shorter hike with less elevation, so we'll see how it goes.

I used my two pound weighted balls for this workout, I was sweating like crazy and the balls kept getting slippery. I dropped them several times. This workout was hard to get through. My body was sore. I was ready for a rest day. I pushed through though. I've been listening to Shaun T's podcasts and it seems to be sinking in. I'm digging deeper and pushing harder. One of the things he said was to go for range of motion over speed so I really worked on going lower on the squats even if I couldn't keep up with the people in the workout. I'm pretty sure it paid off because I was pretty sore in the booty the next day. There's nothing too terribly complicated in this workout. There's not much dancing. It's more of a strength training workout. There are a lot of squats and lunges. There are also a lot of arm movements with the weights. Oh and let's not forget the push ups. I got through Body Beast, but there are times that I think this is harder to get through. Body Beast made me more sore the next day for most of the workouts, but this one hits my shoulders, triceps and glutes pretty good too. There are just so many reps. Even with low weights, it's still a challenge.

I was pretty worn out by the time I got to Hard Core Abs. I have to admit too that I didn't give it all I had. My shoulders were so sore and I just couldn't convince myself to do all of the arm movements in that first section. I took several breaks with the arms, but I kept my legs going. I really wish that I hadn't messed up reading the calendar because doing this on Saturday after Booty Time would have been better.

I finally got my DVDs in the mail! The weighted wrist bands were missing though. I did a live chat with the people at Beachbody and they're going to send them out.

Polar M400 Screen Shots

Check out that calorie burn for Rock It Out? It was a record for me. It beat out my previous Rock It Out workout by about 5 calories. :) 

Rockin' Body Day 18: Booty Time and Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio

Day 18: Booty Time and Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio

Day 18 was supposed to be Booty Time and Rock It Out, but I did not have enough time to do both of those. Booty Time is 30 minutes and Rock It Out is 45. That would have put me to work way late. I'm not really sure how I ran out of time, but I did. It's just as well though since I was still sore from my last time doing Rock It Out. That workout is intense! I did Booty Time first and then looked at the calendar for the following day. I figured that I would just do one of the Day 19 workouts and then do Rock It Out on Day 19. However, Day 19 was Shaun T's Dance Party and Hard Core Abs. I don't have Shaun T's Dance Party because it's not available on On Demand and I didn't want to do Hard Core Abs and leave two long workouts for the following day. I decided to do a 30 minute Hip Hop Abs workout. 

Booty Time is pretty intense on the legs, but I stuck with it longer this time without taking a break. There's a section where you squat down and tap the floor with one hand. I'm pretty sure I had to stand up a couple times the last time. I've been listening to Shaun T's podcasts though and some of the things that he has said went through my mind while I was doing this section. I tried to put off standing up for as long as I could and I ended up getting through that section without a break. I do have to admit though that I didn't do the jumping in this workout. I did try some of it, but I didn't do all of it. I will try more of the jumping next week. 

Hip Hop Abs Fat Burning Cardio was an interesting little workout. It's the same basic concept as Rockin' Body where you learn the dance moves slowly. First you'll just walk across the room and then you walk with groove and then you add arm movements. This one was pretty hard core on the abs compared to a lot of the Rockin' Body stuff. It was also a lot more low key. He was much more laid back in this one. He's a big goofball in Rockin' Body. I like it and it works in Rockin' Body, but it was nice to see a calmer version of him. He looks so young in this one! All of the moves were pretty simple and they were all pretty much based on walking, kicking, knee lifts and side stepping just like Leslie Sansone workouts, but the arm movements and the way he combines the movements turns all of that into dancing. Anyone who likes Leslie Sansone workouts should love these!

Polar M400 Screen Shots

Here are the screen shots for the workout. My heart rate was pretty much all over the place. I got a decent calorie burn for the full hour though. I love seeing those big numbers!