Beachbody workouts vs strength training at the Gym

Nilasaurus

I'm a regular at the gym(low impact cardio + strength), plus do dancing thrice a week(medium impact)., Of late I have been hearing a lot about Beachbody workouts & Jillian Michael's 30s series. And I'm really tempted to try one - especially T25, mainly because of:
1. My disdain for cardio. Except for Elliptical, I find any cardio very boring. I wouldn't run even if my life depended on it. And I hate jumping jacks. So I don't do them. Ever. A dedicated effort into one of these programs might help me come out of my comfort zone.
2. I wonder if I've got too used to weights & dancing, and I need something different? I mean I really would want to know again how it feels to be sore & moving muscles you thought didn't exist.

Now the dilemma is, I love weights and I love dancing. And even though I want to try something different, I don't want to do it at the cost of these two. And I wonder if doing all 3 will become too much for me? I'm thinking I'll replace cardio at the gym(elliptical, cycling, treadmill & rowing) with T25 & carry on with my strength training & dancing as usual. But is this feasible? Sensible? And how will I finetune my diet with it?

Some details: I hit the gym 5 days a week(almost 700 cals - 1 hour low impact cardio, 1-1.5 hr strength), do Zumba thrice a week(400-500 cals). My calorie intake is around 1600 cal for workout days and 1400 for non workout days. I'm almost 5'5" and weigh over 200 lbs. This is my third attempt at weight loss, I have lost insane amount of weight earlier by hitting the gym for more than 3 hours every day and so this time round my weight loss is rather slow. Muscle memory is a ***** eh?

suppakana

THe main reason that people do workout DVDs (or at least, my biggest factor) is cost. I can either spend $120 on a set of DVDs like P90X, Insanity, of Focus T25 - a program that I don't need extra tools for and that I can come back to again and again and again, or I can spend $120/month on a gym membership, that doesn't tell me what to do or what order to do it in, and where I have to be around other people who are definitely looking at me, even though they have their own dang stuff to be doing.

Basically it's just up to your preference. What I would do in your situation, since you seem happy with your routines, is ask around and see if any of your friends or gym buddies have some DVDs, borrow them for a few, and then if you like it try purchasing some of your own. You don't have to give up one for the other - you could always do one week at the gym, one week at home, or some other similar arrangement.

sarahrbraun

I'm a regular at the gym(low impact cardio + strength), plus do dancing thrice a week(medium impact)., Of late I have been hearing a lot about Beachbody workouts & Jillian Michael's 30s series. And I'm really tempted to try one - especially T25, mainly because of:
1. My disdain for cardio. Except for Elliptical, I find any cardio very boring. I wouldn't run even if my life depended on it. And I hate jumping jacks. So I don't do them. Ever. A dedicated effort into one of these programs might help me come out of my comfort zone.
2. I wonder if I've got too used to weights & dancing, and I need something different? I mean I really would want to know again how it feels to be sore & moving muscles you thought didn't exist.

Now the dilemma is, I love weights and I love dancing. And even though I want to try something different, I don't want to do it at the cost of these two. And I wonder if doing all 3 will become too much for me? I'm thinking I'll replace cardio at the gym(elliptical, cycling, treadmill & rowing) with T25 & carry on with my strength training & dancing as usual. But is this feasible? Sensible? And how will I finetune my diet with it?

Some details: I hit the gym 5 days a week(almost 700 cals - 1 hour low impact cardio, 1-1.5 hr strength), do Zumba thrice a week(400-500 cals). My calorie intake is around 1600 cal for workout days and 1400 for non workout days. I'm almost 5'5" and weigh over 200 lbs. This is my third attempt at weight loss, I have lost insane amount of weight earlier by hitting the gym for more than 3 hours every day and so this time round my weight loss is rather slow. Muscle memory is a ***** eh?

This is going to sound totally counterintuitive, but if you HATE cardio, why do you do so damn much?

It went against everything I believed in, but my trainer suggested that I actually cut DOWN my cardio time. I was doing probably 4-5 hours a week of cardio, plus lifting. My current routine has me doing a 15 min cardio warm up, weights, then a 10 min cardio cool down. The scale hasn't moved, but for the first time in my LIFE, I have ab definition.

RECowgill

Cardio is completely unnecessary for weight loss. Completely, 100%. I lost 40lbs this last year doing almost no cardio. Do it if you want, it's cool if you enjoy it. There are certainly health benefits to cardio. But don't ever feel like you have to. Go to the gym and do things that you enjoy.

If I can critique your details, it sounds to me like you are training way too much and not eating enough. You're 200lbs, I'm 240lbs. At 240lbs, 2500 cals a day is pretty much my maintenence cals. I eat 22-2300 to lose weight steadily. I eat more on days when I workout, up to around 3000.

I think you're wasting time being in the gym that much. Your weight loss is going to come from eating the right amounts and recovery from exercise. I go to the gym 3-4x a week. Usually 3 lifting days and maybe 1 misc/cardio day. Never for more than 1 hour each time, usually for 45mins. If you enjoy weight lifting you should do that, it's how I lost weight and it works great for that. Better than any other way I know of.

You HAVE TO be motivated to go to the gym and put in real effort or else none of this will work. So go do what you enjoy and ignore everything else. But when you go and do that thing, really put in the effort, and then finish. And then stay away from the gym for 2 days. And just guessing, but I would think you'd need about 300 more cals a day, but you'll have to do your own calculations.

deksgrl

When you say you are doing "strength" training, what specifically do you mean? Since you already have a gym membership, if I were you, I would be doing heavy lifting with free weights, compound lifts. This, along with your Zumba a couple of days a week should reduce your body fat.

These DVD programs are heavy on the cardio with body weight exercises. Which is fine, but if you don't like cardio, I don't think you will really like these.

ny2298pdsgt

I will follow along with some of the others here regarding why you do so much cardio if you dont like it (minus the dancing). instead of seperating the cardio and weight lifting, what about circuit training with weights? That will get both you ewight lifting and cardio in and in less than half the time.

For me, I loved doing insanity (I personally didnt like P90X b/c I dont own weights/pullup bar). If you can borrow like someone suggested, see if you like it first then maybe buy. So many people go out and buy, then wind up not likeing the workouts and wasted a LOT of money. For me, I was able to get it from my local library.

Just me, but I never understood how someone can spend over an hour doing weight lifting (this is more from when I was deployed in Afghanistan and was doing CrossFit, people would be at the Box for 3+ hours, sorry but I had missions and if your doing your workour porperly and not taking 20 minute breaks between, you would be done in an hour). This i sjust me, I get bored VERY easily, so I mimimize my recovery time between set to keep it part cardio also and so i'm not having to get up at 3 am to spend 3 hours getting my workout in (also never understood those people on Army posts, mostly Soldiers, that are a 3 minute walk from the barracks to the gym, who DRIVE, only to get on the treadmill/bike/elliptical for an hour, if you walked/biked/jogged to the gym, you can skip the machines!!!) Anyway, thats just me.

(I'm the same with the stationary bike, I HATE it with such passion, I love biking outside, but stationary, I just cant do it more than 5 minutes).

I wont go in to the amount you eat/burn, I have no room to talk there, and I am by no way any type of expert or even pretend to be (not saying anyone commenting isn't, I just know I have issues there of my own, and until I can control myself, I refuse to comment on it to others)

Nilasaurus

Well multiple reasons.. My trainer encourages me to do a lot of cardio because according to him cardio affects the entire body while weights are more concentrated to the areas I am working on. It also helps me burn a lot of calories. I also thought weights helped more in toning than weight loss. He gets horrified when I lift too heavy weights - are you trying to gain muscle, he says. But I have read enough to know that I won't bulk up by lifting more weights so easily. But still, I guess I am so used to the idea of doing cardio to lose weight?

Frankly, I would rather do away with my cardio(except the dancing) and replace it with more dancing and some other form of workout. That's why a little keen on this. Probably I'll give it a try and see how it goes! Thank you all for your replies!

One of you asked what I do as part of my "strength" training - I have a huge upper body, so my workouts contain pushups, push downs, lat pulldowns, chest flyes, pullovers, shoulder press, side dumbbells, kick back, one arm rowing, hammer curl, bicep curl, triceps extension etc. with some squats now then. I don't do legs as yet 'coz I find them too hard plus I think all the cardio I do takes care of my lower body too. :-s

deksgrl

Get a new trainer. Do Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Press. Continue eating at a calorie deficit (but not too big of a deficit).