Wow, it's been almost 4 months since I've posted in this blog. That's ridiculous! I used to be so good, but somehow life has gotten in the way these last few months. I've worked out a little in there, but nothing serious. I lost a little muscle, put on a little weight and lost some of my cardio. But not all of it! I have still been trying and I am definitely not where I was before I started this whole journey.
A quick update, I did start jiu jitsu a few months ago. Thanks to work I don't have as much time as I'd like to go, but I am going and getting better and that's helping me stay in shape a bit.
But this recently acquired quasi-sedentary lifestyle has been kicked out as of yesterday, and a new, intense, fun program has begun! Ladies and gentlemen, I have started Body Beast!
For those who don't know, Body Beast is a new program by BeachBody. Where as most of their programs focus on getting lean, losing weight and amping the cardio, along with a little bit of weights (like in P90X), this is weights, lifting and getting big! And that's its focus. I came across Body Beast from a bunch of coaches that I'm friends with on Facebook. They all started the program right after the coaches summit, and the results I've seen from them all look incredible. I usually wait a bit on these kinds of programs, but this one I was too excited about and I ordered it immediately.
My goal the last few years has been to lose weight. A lot of weight. I love my muscles getting bigger and they definitely have, but to some degree that's always been an after thought. Well for a million reasons from genetics to a lack of will power in certain areas, losing weight has been extremely difficult for me, while putting on muscle is a no brainer. This time I'm completely changing focus and I am getting big! Massive! Monstrous! Beastley!
That said, this program has a Beast schedule and a Lean schedule, the latter including one day of cardio each week and a little less bulking. So that's the program I'm following, just because I still do need to shred a little fat still.
I started the program yesterday. Day 1 was Chest/Tris. The concept was pretty similar to P90X Chest/Tris, but the order was very different. It starts with 1 chest exercise, done in sets of 15 reps, 12 reps, 8 reps and 8 reps. Those sets are done with a light weight, a heavier weight, the heaviest weight and slightly less heavy weight, respectively. I've done sets like this before in other lifting programs I've read about, but I've never stuck with a program long enough to see the results. I'm curious to continue.
The next set was the same 15, 12, 8 and 8 combo, except this was 2 exercise. So 15 then 15, 12 then 12, 8 then 8 and 8 the final 8 (no extra 8 on the last set). But no rest in between these sets!
And finally there was one more in this fashion, except it was 3 exercises! The third was only pushups, but truthfully my chest was dying and the pushups were pathetic at best.
Then the entire process is repeated on triceps. And yes, thanks to all the chest stuff my tris were already dying. It was crazy!
And that was Day 1. I got done, ate a bunch of healthy food all day including a lot of protein and healthy carbs (and even a spinach salad!), and towards the end of the day my muscles really started to feel the work. Excellent.
This morning I got up early, popped my supplements (there's a lot of supplements in this program. BeachBody sells the exact ones I'm supposed to take, but I have a lot of supplements that I've done a lot of research on, and I'm using my own blend at the moment). I hit play around 7am on Legs, Day 2. I hate working legs, and I can tell after just this first workout that Sagi (the trainer) is going to kill my legs when this whole thing is over!
The whole program follows the same 1 exercise of 15, 12, 8 and 8, 2 exercises and then 3 exercises concept. It was a lot of squats, single leg squats and lunges, with some calf work at the end. I have really strong legs, but for some reason leg day is always my worst day! I did as many of the squats and lunges as I could, but frankly keeping up wasn't going to happen. These guys flew threw the exercises, and even with no weight I couldn't keep up with them.
That said, I worked my ass off (literally...it hurts to sit!) and despite not keeping up with the group I never quit and got a Hell of a workout! It was awesome. I've said it before, I hate legs, but they're the biggest muscle group and are vital to getting ripped (and to burning fat!).
So that's 2 days down. Eating clean the rest of the day and tomorrow I'm on to Back & Bis! Heather's taking really good care of me in the food department, even making me protein powered oatmeal for breakfast (it was from the Body Beast cookbook).
Alright, time to get in to work. Bring it!
