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UPDATE:The Body Beast Workout is no longer available as a DVD set. But it is available as a streaming service. Check out BeachBodyOnDemand to find this workout series along with a bouquet of other fitness programs and regimes.
Body Beast is a 90-day video workout plan designed to assist both men and women with weight loss, muscle building, and strength training.
Created by Sagi Kalev, world-renowned personal trainer and professional bodybuilder, Body Beast has 12 workouts to help you improve your strength and fitness from the comfort of your own home.
But how does it compare to other Beachbody workout programs, like Shaun T’s Focus T25 or Insanity Max:30?
In our Body Beast review, we’ll walk you through what to expect from each of the 12 workouts and the nutrition/supplement guide supplied. We’ve also added some important comparisons between Body Beast and other home workout programs, to help you decide if this is the best option for your own fitness goals.
What’s Included With the Body Beast Program?
- Body Beast Worksheets: Track your progress by recording the weight lifted during each exercise. There’s a worksheet for each of the Build, Bulk, Tempo, and Lucky 7 workouts, and the exercises, sets, and reps have already been filled out for you.For isolateral exercises that use each arm individually, such as hammer curls or tricep kickbacks, there’s space to record the weight used for each arm.
- Fitness Guide: Also known as ‘The Book of Beast’, this is the complete 35-page guide to your transformation. Includes useful tips for measuring your progress, such as how to use body fat calipers, and explanations of advanced training techniques, such as progressive sets and multi-sets.
- Workout Calendar: A quick-reference guide to when you need to perform each workout, whether you follow the HUGE Beast or LEAN Beast program.
- Beast Up Workout Calendar: An advanced one-month workout calendar designed for maximum muscle gain in the shortest time.
- Body Beast Tally Sheets: Similar to the Worksheets, the Tally Sheets let you record your calorie intake. As with the Cize program, you have 7 sheets, one for each day of the week. Each table allows you to enter the number of food group servings allocated to each of your 5-6 meals.
- Beast Up Workout Tracker: The same design as the Body Beast Worksheets, but for the Beast Up workouts: Beast Up-Legs, and Beast Up-Chest Shoulders Triceps.
- Eating Plan: An optimized nutrition plan for building lean muscle and burning fat while you follow the high-intensity workout plan. Includes how to calculate your daily caloric intake, and the best time of day to eat different types of foods.
What Do You Need to Buy Separately?
Due to the nature of the program (strength building, increasing muscle mass, and bulking), Body Beast requires more exercise equipment than most Beachbody workouts.
Recommended Equipment Includes:
- Jump Mat
- Water and Towel
- Workout Bench
- Includes four DVDs with 12 workouts
- “Book of the Beast” workout, nutrition/supplement guide, and two-sided training schedule
- Schedule has “HUGE” and “LEAN” schedules, to tailor your workouts for desired results
- Built on concept of Dynamic Set Training
- Body Beast conditioning system is capable of adding ten pounds of lean muscle in 90 days
- Enhances your body’s testosterone production for increased muscle mass development
- One of the first all-encompassing workout, performance diet, and supplement systems
- Created by Sagi Kalev, world-renowned trainer, bodybuilder and former two-time Mr. Israel
Body Beast Workout Guide
The Body Beast program switches between 4 main types of workout: Build, Bulk, Beast, and Tempo.
On the HUGE Beast schedule, the first 3 weeks are mostly ‘Build’ workouts, followed by 6 weeks of ‘Bulk’ workouts. For the final 3 week block, you’ll follow a combination of Build, Bulk, Beast, and Tempo.
For the first 3 weeks of the LEAN Beast schedule, your Beast category workouts are focused purely on cardio and abs, with none of the Total Body Beast workouts. This is followed by 5 weeks of ‘Bulk’ workouts, and 4 weeks of ‘Beast’ workouts.
Throughout the 12-week program you’ll be training 6 days each week, with just 1 day of rest. This is the same whether you follow the HUGE of LEAN workout plans.
But the training split has been designed in such a way that there’s enough time between each muscle group for sufficient recovery and muscle growth.
The Body Beast workout calendar is incredibly valuable, and makes it much easier to stay on track with the routine. Thanks to its clear design, you can quickly identify which of the 19 workouts you need to perform each day.
Before you try Body Beast yourself, it’s worth knowing a bit more about each of the workouts.
1. Build Workouts
- Chest/Tris (49 mins.): Strengthens your chest and tricep muscles, using dumbbells and a workout bench or stability ball. Includes advanced training techniques, such as giant sets.
- Shoulders (38 mins.): Requires the same exercise equipment as Chest/Tris, but an EZ Curl Bar with weight plates is also recommended. Focused on safely developing stronger, more muscular shoulders.
- Legs (38 mins.): Same equipment required as for your shoulder workout, but with a focus on building powerful leg muscles. This includes your quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes.
- Back/Bis (50 mins): The longest of the Body Beast workouts, but that’s because you’re targeting the most complex group of muscles. It also requires the most exercise equipment, with a chin-up bar in addition to the workout bench, stability ball, and EZ curl bar. Effective for building your lats, traps, rhomboids, and biceps.
2. Bulk Workouts
The Body Beast ‘Bulk’ workouts have a different split to the ‘Beast’ workouts, where you have a separate training session for your arms, rather than combining them with back and chest workouts.
- Chest (30 mins.): Uses a wider range of training techniques than the ‘Build’ workout, with progressive sets and an exercise selection that targets your chest muscles from a variety of angles.You still require the same fitness equipment, which is a set of dumbbells and workout bench. A stability ball is mentioned as an option in place of the bench, but this will severely limit the amount of weight you can use.
- Back (29 mins.): As with the chest training, ‘Bulk’ back workout involves training techniques that focus on hypertrophy, including Force Sets. Same workout equipment required as the ‘Bulk’ back workout.
-
Legs (40 mins.): Advanced training techniques, including force sets, super sets,
and progressive sets help you build lean muscle and burn fat. -
Shoulders (35 mins.): Designed for maximum muscle hypertrophy of the anterior,
posterior, and lateral muscle fibers in the shoulder. Requires a weight bench and set of dumbbells. - Arms (36 mins.): Combines many of the techniques used in other ‘Bulk’ workouts to increase strength and lean muscle in your biceps and triceps. This includes progressive sets and force sets. In terms of exercise equipment, you’ll need a set of dumbbells, workout bench, and EZ Curl bar with weight plates.
3. Beast Workouts
- Abs (11 mins.): A short but intense ab workout that requires a training mat and dumbbells. Helps to strengthen your core for support in other exercises, and to improve your posture.
- Cardio (30 mins.): Requiring a workout bench and set of dumbbells, this cardio workout helps you burn fat fast and improve muscle definition.
- Total Body (39 mins.): A total body workout that requires the full range of exercise equipment. This includes a workout bench, stability ball, dumbbells, and chin-up bar/resistance bands.
You can either choose to watch the DVDs, or stream Body Beast workouts online, through the Beachbody On Demand website. This is where you can sign up for different levels of membership, which gives you access to the full range of Beachbody workouts, including Body Beast.
Body Beast Eating Plan
The Body Beast program comes in two main sections: the workouts, and the nutrition plan. Whether your goal is to lose weight, build lean muscle, or simply improve your overall fitness, both are equally important to see the best results.
The Body Beast Eating Plan consists of 5 to 6 meals per day, which is the same as with the PiYo and Cize nutrition plans.
In addition to the meal planning and nutrient timing covered in the guide, Sagi Kalev worked with the Beachbody team to create several health supplements. This includes the Beachbody Hardcore Base Shake, and the Beachbody Fuel Shot, which acts as a pre-workout energy boost.
If you want to try Body Beast, there are a few kitchen tools that you need to make measuring portions and foor preparation easier.
These are:
- A food scale
- A set of measuring cups
- A set of measuring spoons
- A blender
There’s also no need to rush out and buy expensive ingredients and ready-made, prepackaged meals. The Body Beast Eating Plan has a useful guide to the most affordable bodybuilding foods, including those that can be bought in bulk, frozen, and reheated later to save time.
1. Calculating Your Daily Calorie Target
Body Beast uses a slightly different formula to calculate your caloric baseline, compared to the PiYo and Cize programs.
Rather than providing meal plans based on body weight (Cize) or using a fixed formula based on your current weight and maintenance calories (PiYo), Body Beast calculates your daily calories based on activity level.
- Sedentary lifestyle (desk job): Current weight x 11
- Moderate lifestyle (some light fitness and walking): Current weight x 12
- Active lifestyle (manual labor, physically active): Current weight x 13
With your caloric baseline calculated, you can then choose to follow either the MASS Calorie Plan to gain muscle mass, or the RIPPED Calorie Plan, to gain muscle definition and burn fat.
Each plan is split into 3 phases, and the Body Beast Eating Plan helps you calculate your daily calorie target for each phase based on your current body fat percentage.
2. Knowing What to Eat and When
Phases 1 and 2 are known as the Build and Bulk phases, where you fuel your workouts with energy to optimize performance, and reduce recovery time. Phase 3 is a dedicated ‘cutting’ stage, where you drop the calories, eat fewer carbs, and perform more cardiovascular workouts.
Something we noticed after following the PiYo nutrition guide was how many more food plans there were with Body Beast.
PiYo has 4 main food plans, designed to cater for specific daily calorie ranges: 1200 – 1399, 1400 – 1599, 1600 – 1799, and 1800+. In comparison, Body Beast has 19 food plans to choose from, from 1400 calories, all the way up to
5000 calories per day, in 200 calorie increments.
Each food plan follows a similar structure to other Beachbody workout programs. You have a set number of portions for different food groups each day, based on the number of calories you need to consume.
With Body Beast, your food groups are:
- Starches
- Legumes or Protein Liquids
- Vegetables of Balanced Liquids
- Fruits or Carb Liquids
- Proteins
- Fats
Each food plan also includes 1 scoop of the Hardcore Base Shake, and 1 scoop of the Fuel Shot supplements.
For Phase 3, you’ll need to recalculate your daily calorie target. Instead of adding 800 or 1000 calories to your caloric baseline, you’ll now add just 100-200, depending on your current body fat percentage.
Again, the Body Beast Nutrition Plan has 19 food plans to choose from, each designed to help you reach a specific calorie level. The difference being, food plans for the cutting phase have far more protein and less carbs.
As an example, the 1,400 calorie plan allows for 6 portions of protein in phases 1 and 2, but 15 portions in phase 3. This is compared to 3 servings of fruits or carb liquids in pase 1 and 2, but just 1 serving in phase 3.
3. Food Selection from Food Lists
So you’ve calculated your daily calorie target, and know which meal plan you’re following and how many servings of each food group you need.
What next?
Choosing the foods to match your servings isn’t a difficult task. Fortunately, Body Beast includes an extensive list of foods for each group, which includes the food, size of the portion, and estimated number of calories.
For example, for a portion from the starches group, you could choose a 1 oz whole wheat bagel, which is roughly 80 calories. Each portion of legumes is around 125 calories, while a portion of fruit, such as a 4 oz apple, provides you with 60 calories.
As with the PiYo eating plan, certain condiments can be added without influencing your calorie count. This means you can add as much lemon/lime juice, black pepper, hot sauce, spices, etc. as you like.
How Much Does Body Beast Cost?
If you were wondering about the price of Body Beast, expect to pay around $49 for the Base Kit. This includes the DVDs, training schedule, “Book of the Beast” workout plan, and The Body Beast Eating Plan.
You can also buy Sagi Kalev’s Tempo Workouts DVD for two additional upper body workouts, or the Lucky 7 workout DVD for pyramid sets of muscle-building compound exercises.
A more popular option than buying the physical Base Kit is to stream the workout and nutrition program online, via Beachbody On Demand.
On Demand is a subscription service, whereby you sign up to a membership option that gives you access to:
- Over 600 Beachbody workout programs
- All-access to every beachbody workout
- Fitness guides & workout calendars
- Meal plans & recipes
- Free personal coach
- Access to fitness & nutrition experts
The most affordable membership level is $39 for 3 months, which also includes a FREE 14-day trial. The 6-month plan is $59, and the cheapest 12-month plan costs $99, saving $57 over the quarterly billing.
There’s also an option to subscribe to the 12-month membership, which includes the portion fix container system and a 30-day supply of Shakeology supplements. This is in addition to the all-access subscription you get to the online workout material and nutrition guides.
Customer Reviews – Does Body Beast Work?
An important part of any Body Beast review is to consider the feedback from other people who have used the program.
Did they find it good value for money? Is the pace of the workouts easy to keep up with? How quickly did they see results? These are all important questions, and can help you decide if Body Beast is the best home workout program for your fitness goals.
But reading through dozens of customer reviews can be time consuming, which is why we’ve created a quick reference guide to the pros and cons. These are taken from the hundreds of Body Beast reviews currently available on Amazon.
Pros:
- Weightlifting workouts that target all major muscle groups, including your legs, chest, back, arms, and abs
- Body Beast is an effective program for strength and muscle gain, for both men and women
- Includes specific diet and training plans to cater for two different goals: lean muscle gain, and bulking
- Shorter workouts (30-45 minutes) make them easier to fit into a busy schedule
- Excellent customer service through Amazon if you need to return one of the DVDs
- Wide range of choices for each food and food group in the nutrition plan
- Body Beast is designed to support multiple 90-day cycles, until you reach your strength, muscle gain, and fitness goals
- Many customers who have transitioned from other Beachbody programs, such as P90X and P90X2, find Body Beast to be best for increasing muscle mass
- The Body Beast Base Kit contains a 12-DVD set, but you can also stream workouts to your smart device or TV, through Beachbody On Demand.
- Some customers report noticeable results after just 3 weeks on the program.
- Clear explanations of the exercises throughout each workout.
- Lifting routines are performed at a pace that’s easy to keep up with, as long as you have the fitness equipment ready.
Cons:
- Body Beast is almost entirely designed around dumbbell workouts. Some people were expecting more of a pure bulking up guide.
- Problems with the DVDs. Some Body Beast reviews reported that the DVDs failed to play, or skipped sections of the workout due to scratching. If this is an issue, you have 90 days to exchange the DVDs, or can always stream workouts online, with Beachbody On Demand.
- There aren’t many female trainers featured in the training videos, until you reach the ab workout and full body workout stage.
- This is one of the Beachbody workout programs that does require equipment (set of dumbbells, pull up bar and a workout bench). This wasn’t featured clearly enough on the product description when some people went to buy Body Beast.
- Some customers found the trainer, Sagi Kalev, to be less motivating than Tony Horton or Shaun T, but this opinion differs based on personal experience.
- No training log included to write down the sets, reps, and weight used for each exercise.
Body Beast Review Summary
Body Beast is one of the best Beachbody workout programs for adding a large amount of lean muscle. The exercise selection is based on solid bodybuilding principles, with a focus on free weights and compound exercises.
During each workout there's also a version that doesn't require much equipment, replacing the weights bench with a stability ball. This is a great way for anyone on a tight budget to get started with the program.
Does Body Beast work? If you follow the training routine and meal plan, there's no doubt you'll add strength and lean muscle. The exercise variation and training split has enough variation to avoid a plateau, and you can always increase the weight for each set as you get stronger.
Being able to stream the workouts online via Beachbody On Demand is another huge bonus, and the video format guides you through how many reps and sets to perform for each exercise, so it's easy to keep up.
Overall, Body Beast has a slower pace than P90X and Intensity, with less focus on body weight exercises, and requires more fitness equipment. But if you want a workout and nutrition plan that helps you burn fat and build the most muscle in a short time, you won't be disappointed.
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