When I had a gym membership, weight lifting was ALWAYS my favorite activity. In the past, the boy and I have done weight lifting together as it's a workout we both enjoy. After doing a Cardio/Weight loss program, I thought it would be nice to try something different that I know I would like. No, my goal is not to 'get huge', but I do love the look of muscle. Weight lifting for women makes you strong and lean, since we don't have the testosterone levels to 'get huge.' So in theory, Body Beast will help me get stronger and leaner...and let me tell you, it has done just that!
I actually enjoy the program, and I am in love with it so far!! I think The Beast is hilarious, and keeps me laughing throughout my workouts. His instructions on proper lifting technique are great and the modifications for exercises using less equipment (stability ball instead of bench) are displayed well. My only criticism is I wish it was tailored a little more to women. I understand why it's not, but it would have been nice to have a woman in the background as well.
I chose to do the Lean Beast over the Huge Beast due to my previous shoulder injury. I have strained muscles in my back, neck and shoulder, and didn't want to over-do it and risk injuring myself again. There is nothing worse than an injury to slow down your fitness routine! The program is 12 weeks long, which seems like a long time but is necessary. Each calendar has 3 segments: Build, Bulk, and Beast. Being in week 5, I have finished the Build phase and started Bulk. I already like Bulk better because the workouts are shorter. They averaged 50 minutes in Build but about 40 in Bulk. Some of that time is changing weights around. Bulk has workouts for each body part: Chest, Legs, Back, Shoulders, Abs, Arms plus Cardio. I initially thought the Cardio wouldn't be terrible after doing the 21 Day Fix & 21 Day Fix Extreme since this is a bodybuilding program, but it's actually a killer workout. You only do it once a week, so it has to be. Workouts are scheduled for 6 days a week with one rest day.
As for results, I have noticed huge changes already. My weight hasn't really changed, but my arms are way more defined. My legs have always been semi-muscular from being a dancer, but I have noticed that they are much leaner. My abs are also becoming more defined. For the first couple weeks, my shoulder was killing me with certain workouts and I debated stopping. I needed to kick my ego to the side, so I went out and bought 3lb weights. It was funny using 3lb weights when the Beast is using 50 lbs, but it was what I needed to do the workouts safely and prevent injury. Now, I can use WAY heavier weights for my shoulder and back exercises, and I can tell this strength training has done amazing things for strengthening my injury.
March vs. July
As for the eating plan, I love my 21 Day Fix containers. I used the Body Beast calculations and it said I needed to eat 2100 calories/day vs. my normal 1400. I trust him...but I wasn't comfortable eating that much in a day, so I just decided to go up a calorie bracket using my 21 Day Fix program. Some may give me heck for this and say I'm not doing it properly...but I found it worked well for me so I just kept up with it and have still had fantastic results thus far.
My daily #BodyBeast setup!
As a coach, I would not recommend this program for everyone. You should have some fitness knowledge and feel comfortable with using different equipment. That being said, you do need equipment for this program. Since my boyfriend is big into weight lifting, we already had most of it. I use 3, 6, 8, 10 and 15 pound weights depending on the exercise. We do have a stability ball and a workout bench as well. Since he lifts heavier weights (and we live in a 760 sq. foot condo) we bought him a set of power blocks so he can do his workouts. Ladies, if you are ready to try a tough program that will strengthen and lean you out, this is it. The best part about this program is that it is a workout that the boy and I can complete together, however, right now we are in different phases of the program so we generally don't. But it's nice to have that option for a date night activity! So it's a great option for couples to do together!
Ladies and gents, time to get into #beastmode. Interested? Send me a message or apply on my link above!
Victoria
