Reviewing The BEAST

Beachbody's Body Beast workout was released more than two years ago, and Zach and I have been avoiding it for a long, long time.

The reason for the avoidance was mostly because Zach has been endurance training for marathons and ultra-marathons for several years, and heavy weights and endurance training aren't generally on friendly terms.

Meet your host, Sagi Kalev, the BEAST.
Former member of the Israeli Army, two-time "Mr. Israel," and Clinical Nutritionist.

But over the past two years, I've known more and more people who have tried -- and absolutely loved -- this program. First was a fellow Beachbody Coach, who was so dedicated to the program that he flew to Las Vegas during Beachbody's Summit meeting to appear in the first annual Beast Figure Competition. He told us this program changed his life. He has gone on to work one-on-one with Sagi through his Dallas-based Clinical Nutrition company.

Then there was Zach's cousin and his wife, who have used the program for a long time now. Eric used the program and became Beast-y enough to appear in the Houston Fire Department's Calendar as "Mr. September."

And Eric's wife says this is the program that has changed her body the most of any program she has ever done.

Even Bo Duke loves the Beast.

So, basically, I was fitness peer pressured.

We have completed the "Build" phase and have moved on to the second phase, "Bulk." We did three weeks of Build and are about to wrap up week three of Bulk.

Going into this program I was a little bored, fitness-wise. We have been dabbling in P90X3, T25, PiYo, and whatever else we felt like for a few months. I was burned out on cardio and looking for something totally new, and have found it in Beast.

This is a traditional weight lifting program. You stand there and lift heavy weight. A lot. Zach says it's very similar to the workouts that he did when he played college football. What he has been surprised about, however, is that the reps are high and there is not a lot of wasted time. He expected to be lifting heavy weight for five reps, waiting 2-3 minutes, and then lifting more. Sagi has designed this program to move quickly, using super sets, giant sets, and progressive sets to completely pound the muscle group of the day. You're doing 15, 12, then 8 reps, then sometimes a drop set (lighter weight for eight reps) or sometimes moving to a progressive set, which has you reverse the order for 8, 12, then 15 reps. Progressive sets are killer.

Personally, I'm enjoying it. The workouts range from 30-45 minutes and you feel like you've worked out hard when you're done. I went into this routine wanting to drop a few pounds of holiday weight, and that has not happened (despite cleaning up my nutrition, AKA not eating chocolate anymore). However, my body fat percentage is dropping, which shows that I'm building muscle and losing fat. I can live with that! I've also enjoyed several of the meals in the Beast nutrition plan, including Power Granola and turkey meatballs.

Zach is not enjoying this program. He remains in training for endurance running events, and this is a program in direct opposition to his goals. An endurance athlete's cross training should include weight work, but not to this degree. Zach likes programs that are about functional fitness with moves that help you run faster, jump further, and climb stuff (P90X2 is his favorite). Body Beast is about building big muscles and lookin' good. But, because we enjoy working out together, he is humoring me for a few months. He continues to run most days of the week and "Beasts Up" with me on non-boot camp days and after work on camp days.

We plan to finish the Beast and move on to 21 Day Fix Extreme, which is set to release in February. I'm glad to have the Beast workouts in our arsenal, and I know no matter what program we do I won't leave these behind, particularly the leg workouts.

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Workout of the Day

Beast Legs