Falling in love with weight lifting

After working my way through Insanity and T25, I've learned to love cardio. I never thought I'd be that person who craved her workout each day but I've become that. I used to be envious of those people. You know the ones. The ones who run for the fun of it, who like running or working out to clear their heads after a long day. Sadly, I was never that person...until T25 and my first challenge group. It's easy to fall in love with cardio. You can feel the burn, see the sweat dripping off of your body and feel the fat melting away. 

As a former rower, I definitely appreciate the look and feel of muscles. While some women or young girls look at skinny models or actresses as their ideal body type, I have always been the person who likes the more athletic look. I'm more a Mia Hamm or Gabrielle Reece kind of girl than a waif-ish Kirsten Dunst person.

So with that introduction to my way of thinking, you can see why I might be intrigued by a program like Body Beast. The packaging is a little intimidating and particularly so as a woman since the program really is marketed more overtly to men who are looking to get beasty. That is not nor was not my goal in buying it and I can assure you now 10 weeks into the program, it's not been my result.

You always hear those warnings to women that you shouldn't lift because you'll get too manly or beefy or look less feminine (Andrew even warned me of this when he saw the packaging) to which I say pshaw! Muscles look good on a woman and lifting not only is good for your body (and increasingly important as we age) but it helps lean you out. Plus as an added bonus, muscle burns more fat and keeps your body burning calories longer than cardio does.

One of the biggest adjustments for me has been eating more. Muscle burns more than fat which also means that you get to eat more. Woo hoo!!! As anyone who knows me knows:

Any program that allows me to gain muscle AND eat more food is a keeper in my book!

So setting the food aside for a brief minute, the workouts are also a shift for anyone who's used to cardio-based programs. I've done a handful of the Beachbody programs that combine cardio and weights, like Chalene Extreme, P90X3 and the 21 Day Fix. I loved the strength training component of each program. None, however, asked me to give up my cardio. 

Body Beast is entirely different kind of program. While it does have one cardio workout, the rest of the program is weights, weights, weights. I've never done anything like it and after years of focusing on cardio exclusively, this was an adjustment for me. Beast breaks down the body parts with a focus on legs, arms, back, chest and shoulders. You first build, then bulk up, and then cut to really show off the muscle growth.

I will admit, while I have followed the lifting schedule to a T, I have also not completely given up my beloved cardio. On the weekends I do my Beast workout plus a shot of cardio courtesy of either T25 or Insanity. That way I still get the cleansing cardio fix I still psychologically need to start my week off right.  

Now 12 weeks in (I added 2 extra weeks of bulk since I wasn't always 100% on getting in my weights workouts this summer) and I can say that I've seen real gains. 

My arms, shoulders and back, which were already relatively defined before Beast, are more toned and muscular. 

The biggest gains I can see though after 12 weeks of Beast are in my abs and legs. 

I've never been one of those skinny leg types. Genetically I'm just not that person. Instead of bemoaning my bigger legs, I've finally decided to embrace them and shape them. They may not get smaller but they will be more cut. I may not ever fit into true skinny jeans (thank god for stretch pants!) but I can live with that.

I am not, however, willing to give up in my quest for abs. I've been working at it for years now and can see progress. Between T25 and now Beast, I can finally say that I see definition in my abs. While T25 was great for the core (by the end I finally felt like after 3 kids I had abs again), weightlifting is also all about core work. You need to control the core while doing everything so even though you're not doing crunches, you are working your core every day, every workout. 

I'm about to enter the Beast phase of the program (otherwise known as the cutting phase) and am already looking forward to round 2 of Beast. I don't think I'll ever go back to straight cardio.

If you'd like more information on Body Beast then get in touch! It's on sale this month at the reduced price of $39.90 so it's a steal!