My First Week of Body Beast

Never did I think I would be doing a workout program called Body Beast and liking it!!  Just the name intimidated me or at least it did for a long time.  As many of you know I am a cardio girl - I keep saying that but now I am thinking not so much anymore.  Don't get me wrong I love a good sweat but since doing the 21 Day Fix Extreme I have come to really enjoy lifting weights.  I realized that adding that strength component into my fitness routine helped me see definition that I had been craving for so long but was impossible to get with just cardio.  Plus I have come to learn there are so many incredible benefits that are gained from adding weights into your workouts.

Here are some interesting tidbits about women and lifting weights:

1. Strength training helps you lose belly fat more than cardio.  Weight lifting burns exclusively fat while cardio burns fat and muscle.

2. The more muscle you have the more calories you will burn!

3. Your bones will strengthen and as we get older this will help reduce our risk for osteoporosis.

4. You will ease joint pain as the muscles around your joints get stronger.

5. Your cardio performance will actually improve as your arms and legs become stronger.

6. You will drop a size as you become leaner and more toned.

My curiosity about Body Beast was getting the best of me so why not check out? My husband and I decided to start this week by just "checking out" a couple of the workouts and see what we thought and we are now fully in!!  We liked it and I am excited to have a new program, a new schedule to follow and change is a great motivator!  My husband and I are committed to do this program for 90 days!!!

We are following the Lean schedule because our goals are ripped NOT big!  We aren't using super heavy weights because quite frankly we won't be able to lift them (LOL) and we want to be able to increase our weights throughout the workout without risking injury. The idea of this program is each set you start with a light weight, more reps and you do 3 reps increasing your weight each time while decreasing reps.

The workouts this week varied from 35-50 minutes. Besides the weights you need a bench or stability  ball.   Day 1 was chest and triceps,  I was super sore in my triceps for a few days but heck that is one of my weak spots so it felt good to work those muscles and toned tris look GREAT in tank tops.

Legs was Day 2 and after doing 21 Day Fix Extreme leg day was doable.  Day 3 was back to upper body focusing on biceps and back and my biceps are still feeling this workout 3 days later!  And than came CARDIO day - my body rejoiced at moving and jumping!!  I LOVE T25 for cardio so I am going to substitute the Beast Cardio for T25 on some of the cardio days but that is just a personal choice.  And finally we ended this week with shoulders which was by far the most challenging working out for me.  I struggle with lots of shoulder work so I just lowered my weights and even did one set of exercises with no weights.

REST Day today (Yeah!) and Sunday it is back to chest and triceps!

What I LOVE is everything is modifiable.  I am only using 5, 8, 10, 12 or 15 pounds weights and for the majority of the exercises I am in the 8-10 pound range.    I love that it's a program that my husband and I can do together each morning - love that time spent together!

I was so worried about this being a "hard core" weight lifting program and it certainly could be if you are lifting super heavy, and following the Bulk up schedule BUT we are following the lean schedule and eating healthy.  First week, I feel GREAT and I am even adding some CIZE in the mix because really who doesn't like to dance! :)

Keep following me every week and see where our BEAST journey takes us!!  :)