Fitness Friday - A Mini Review Of BeachBody Programs

When I was making a list of what to write for thirty one days I penciled down "fitness updates".  If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know all about my exercise saga with P90x, Insanity, Body Beast, and Couch to 5k.  And those are the only ones I wrote about here.  I have also done HardCorps, T25, Cize, and recently, Core De Force. Yes, Beachbody owns my fitness soul.  Fortunately the hubby's fitness allowance from work covers the Beachbody On Demand subscription.

Of the ones I have not written about my favorite was HardCorps.  It's bootcamp style so it's short and sweet and oh so challenging.  I saw the most results with that program in part because I conscientiously ate calorie-deficit style. But the one thing I did wrong was going full throttle on all the ab workouts.  My diastasis recti got worse.  I looked like I was four months pregnant. Currently, I modify all ab workouts to diastasis-friendly moves. More on that topic at a later post.  

T25 was not a match for me because it's a lot of cardio.  My cardio heart (is that redundant?) already belongs to running so we parted ways about three weeks into the program. Cize, on the other hand, despite being all-cardio was so Fun!  It's a modern/hip-hop dance workout that moves fast.  Shaun T. is an excellent teacher as he breaks down the moves that make it easier to follow.  I never felt like I couldn't keep up with some of the more intricate steps.  The last three minutes of the program is when you get to put all the steps together and dance to a popular song.  I liked that part the most but I also wished we got to dance to the full song because I actually liked some of them.  I used Cized mostly on days I didn't feel like working out.  The idea of dancing always gets me out of the couch.  

Core De Force is an MMA/Jujitsu style workout that was surprisingly good.  I wasn't sure what I was expecting so it was a pleasant surprise.  I had to completely skip one of the workouts that focused on the abs for the same diastasis issue.  Martial Arts moves are some of my favorites, the kicks and the punches are totally up my alley.  I alternated Core De Force with the lifting moves of Hardcorps so it was a hybrid of cardio and weights. At that point in my exercising life I was just trying to be consistently doing something until LIIFT 4, the latest Beachbody product, comes out on demand.

I was so happy on October 1st because it was a feast day (St. Therese) and LIIFT 4 finally came out on streaming.  LIIFT 4, how do I love thee!?!  Okay, it's only been week one and I'm already gushing about this program.  It's a four-day workout combining classic weight training with HIIT movements.  Gentler than HardCorps, shorter than P90x, less equipment than Body Beast, I can't say enough good things.  It is lifting and HIIT 101 so if you are looking for an intro into fitness you might like this one. The slower movements allowed me to focus on good form, something that can be hard to do on most of these high-efficiency workouts.  I did make the mistake of lamenting the third day rest day as someone who is used to the fifth day rest.  And was I ever glad for that third day rest as I woke up with very sore biceps and triceps!  Week One ended with the much dreaded leg day so it remains to be seen if I will be walking this weekend hahaha.  My hope is to write an update in more depth as I finish each week.  Happy exercising!

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