Body Beast In 2017

I think you will love the workouts, but eventually play the DVDs without sound. The trainer talks a lot and can get annoying. What goals are you setting yourself?

I enjoyed P90X also. I found P90X3 to be even better, but for those who enjoy more weights, Body Beast is the way to go.

I have gone four days without cheating on the diet, although today is the first day I ran out of time to exercise. Looks like double duty tomorrow.

A huge tip for muscle soreness, especially Legs Days... use a roller or massage stick on the muscles shortly after the workout. This has reduced the muscle soreness tremendously and I no longer walk like a zombie after Legs Day.

I have always found doing what I think is more fun works. Either that or write a training plan calendar that mixes both.

I started my first week of my Body Beast hybrid. This morning I did P90X's Ab Ripper, followed by Body Beast Bulk Shoulders and Bulk Chest. My menu plan has been good so far, aiming for 40C/40P/20F.

It is early in the morning and I have not done my workout yet, but I thought I would drop a note to say HEY and share a few random thoughts.

My biggest goal is to drop at least 5% body fat, hopefully 7% before the summer arrives. Moving from St Louis to the Carolina beaches has inspired me to use my Beachbody workouts with gusto. I have a picture of myself from 3 years ago with washboard abs and kick myself when I think how I gave up on the fitness routine in 2016.

I have been using a bio-resistance body fat sensor for years. I remember being as low as 14% but I am now up to 19%. I compared it with a measurement taken from within an "Egg" which measures water displacement and my handheld sensor actually came close (within 1-2%) to the Egg's reading. Nonetheless, this month I bought a set of body fat calipers to compare results with. I will say it is very difficult to measure by myself. The three areas I pinch are on the chest, stomach, and thigh. The trick is to be certain you are pinching the same way consistently. Anyway, this morning the Omron sensor said 18.8% body fat and the calipers suggested 23%. I am not sure I like the calipers, but I may be biased due to the higher percentage it is giving me.

The key thing to remember is this: the amount of body fat is not as important as the trend in body fat. Obviously, I would like the calipers and Omron to be the same, but they measure fat differently and will give different results. However, as long as I see a downward trend in body fat over the course of the next few months I know I am making progress toward my goal.

So why use them at all if the exact number is not important? We do not want to be losing so much weight that we are losing muscle in the process. Think about this. You have been busting butt allowing Tony Horton's crew boss you around until you are lying in a pool of sweat and your body is barely able to function. You have worked hard to build those strong muscles. Muscles you DO NOT want to lose because you are in a rush to drop X number of pounds. By measuring body fat, you can determine how much lean muscle you have (in my case, around 157 lbs) and as the weeks go by I can estimate if I am on the right track. If, during my weight loss, I see my muscle mass drop, I need to add a few calories and slow my weight loss down. If it stays the same or actually goes up, I know I am doing this the correct way.

And this ties in to my final statement before I head off to church. Weight loss is not as important as how your clothes fit. Muscle weighs more than fat, and as long as you lose fat, your clothes will begin to fit better. You might not drop down to a certain weight you had hoped, but you will be losing those inches, which is the important thing.

Mike

Yesterday was not a great day for working out. My menu was right on target, but due to a phone that kept rebooting randomly, I had to make my way to Verizon to buy a new phone. Turns out, the problem is due to a firmware update Samsung pushed out and the S5 will eventually fix itself, but I have had the phone for two years and decided to upgrade anyway to an S7 Edge. Took over an hour of time I was going to use working out. So instead of Bulk Shoulders and Rowing, I managed to use a rowing machine for 30 minutes.

Today will be Bulk Back and Chest. Menu still on target.

Sometimes life happens and you end up with a no-notice 2hr errand after work that derails your plans to exercise. You simply have to accept that and press on. It is not a failure moment, but rather motivation to push yourself harder the next day.

I have been on my Body Beast hybrid program for 13 days and still going strong. It helps to have a little OCD, which really makes tracking calories and macros a breeze! I have stayed within 100 calories of my daily goals and my macros are within a couple % points of 40C/20F/40P. The end result is roughly 1 pound lost overall, along with 1% less body fat. This is close to target, plus it means I added a little muscle in the process.

Keep pushing yourself.

Great to have you join us... It has been a bit quiet this week,, but we are here sweating.

Stosha, it is ok to have a little birthday cake now and then. I will share a story about when someone brought donuts to work one day. I calculated the donut to be 400 calories and one pushup was 1 calories. I took the chocolate donut to my desk and every 20 minutes or so I would crank out as many pushups as I could. I finally reached 400 pushups by lunchtime. I ate the donut, but by then it was just not as satisfying as I had imagined.

I am in no way saying we must do pushups before a little birthday cake. I was simply a little crazier back then.

Hey Gang

I had been under the weather this week, but did not think it was too serious and I tried to press on. Today I could not take it any more and went to urgent care, only to find out I have Influenza A. So much for the flu shot.

Now I am taking Tamiflu and ruling my home from the sofa. I will let you know as soon as I am back up and running.