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 20, 2024

Workout Update: 645 Cardio/MBF Day 1

This is the start of my new routine. As I said in the last post, I am going to do the 15-minute cardio routine from 645 (modified with moves swapped out) in the morning and then the muscle-burn-fat workout in the evening.

MBF is a three-week program that was filmed during the height of the pandemic. Megan Davies is the trainer in this workout. She leads the workout from one of the BeachBody sets, but the rest of the cast is working out at home via Zoom (or something like that). Basically, you see all the cast members in their own boxes that surround the main box, with Megan leading the exercises; then, throughout the workout, they go to a split screen showing Megan side-by-side with one of the cast members. One of the cast members does modify the moves, but it can get hard to keep track of her since the views keep shifting.

The Day 1 workout was lower-body burn. This workout has four blocks of exercises. In the first block, you do squats and reverse lunges. The twist, however, is that you are not holding weights by your side. You hold one weight up next to your head on one side, do the exercises, then switch to the other side. You do as many reps as you can for 30 seconds of squats and then immediately transition to 30 seconds of reverse lunges on the side you are holding the weight; then you do 4 combos in which you do two squats followed by a reverse lunge, then you do the entire thing on the other side. You do two rounds on each side. So, you have to think about how much weight you can hold on one side up by your head for about a minute and a half. 

In block 2, you do sumo squats followed by curtsey lunges (if you have done Chalean Extreme, they are the same as CE's bowler lunges). Again, you do each exercise back-to-back with no rest, and this time, you do three sets of each exercise.

In block 3, you do side lunges followed by what Megan calls RDL, which are a deadlift using one dumbell. Then you do a combo with the two exercises and then switch to the other side, much like block 1. Again, you do two rounds on each side.

The last block is front squats and calf raises. This block mirrors block 2, so you do each exercise for 30 seconds and do three sets without any rest. 

The MBF workout is very challenging. Between each of the blocks you use a weightless jump rope (basically jump rope handles with weighted foam balls on the ends) for 30 seconds of a cardio recovery and then go back to lifting. The lifting is higher volume (basically as many reps as you can do in 30 seconds) so it is a good idea to use much lighter weight than you would normally use, at least for the first round of each exercise.

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