Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Which Beachbody Program is the best?

It is obviously a question with no real answer...at least an answer that is not totally subjective. The best program is always the one you can stick with. I have not tried every program Beachbody has put out, but I have tried most of the big ones. My dirty little secret? I don't like P90x the most. While P90x is arguably the most popular program, and certainly the infomercial for it is on (at least in my area) way more than all the others, it is probably my least favorite of the ones that I have tried. I actually like Chalean Extreme and Insanity more than P90x. This is mainly due to the fact that I hate pull ups. Also, I am not a fan of P90x yoga. I love the first 50 min or so of it, but after that it gets to be too much. I do mix P90x into my workout rotation every so often because of the fact I am not good at pull ups. I make it a goal to get better at them and push through despite my dislike for them. For yoga I will often times only do part of it or swap it with the x-stretch DVD, which has many of the same moves but a lot shorter.

 The Chalean Extreme workouts are much shorter than the P90x workouts. It emphasizes lifting heavy and combines upper and lower body into all the lifting routines. Insanity is a cardio/conditioning based program that uses just your body weight and does not require any equipment aside from a good pair of cross trainers. Most people will not put on a lot of muscle during Insanity, but you are doing lots and lots of push ups in every Insanity workout so it is not unheard of for people to gain inches in their arms and chest. The good thing about Chalean Extreme is that it is a program that can be modified for beginners.

 Insanity is not a program that most people who are just beginning to work out will want to tackle. It is very very hard, and I think most people who are not in pretty good shape already have a higher probability of quitting the program, and/or hurting themselves if they just jump in. Personally I think it is best to work up to a program like Insanity as opposed to jumping in to the deep end. Currently I am finishing a shortened version of P90x. Then I am going to go through P90x2, and work through the entire program. Over the summer I plan to do Insanity, but will incorporate some upper body lifting workouts a couple days a week as a modified doubles program. After that I will probably try the sequel to Insanity called Asylum. I plan to post regular updates, depending on my school schedule. I definitely will post regularly over the summer. As always if you have any questions you can e-mail me through my Team Beachbody page (the link is over on the left) or leave me a comment.

No comments: