In 2012 at the age of 32 I finished my first round of Body Beast and its also when I wrote this review. Just about all of this still rings true in 2018.
Since 2014 I seem to gravitate to doing Body Beast workouts when I’m not doing a program. All of the workouts are less than an hour and I really like that.
What I also like is Body Beast is a complete program.
Stepping back in time to 2012 I can say Body Beast is one of the only Beachbody workouts I was looking forward to finishing. It’s not that it was any harder than the others but that it was much different.
You probably already know that Body Beast is a 90 day program with 12 workouts designed for those looking to bulk up and put on muscle. Sagi Kalev is the brains behind Body Beast and has been bodybuilding since 16 winning numerous awards including Mr. Israel.
What I like to do is post my before and after photos at the top with my thoughts below. Without further ado.
Day 1 photos on the left and day 138 on the right with my measurements below.
Was the first thing you said “Man, that guy looks kind of fat.” Its cool. That’s what I said too. This is the biggest I’ve ever been in my life and to be honest I’m a little uncomfortable with how large I am.
And to take it a step further here is what I looked like going through the “Build”, “Bulk”, and “Beast” phases.
I probably should have stopped at Day 50. I’ve already called myself fat but I prefer to say I look “full.”
While you can’t see a lot of definition in the last photo I can tell you that I am very pleased with my results. Body Beast did exactly what it said it was going to do. The amount of weight I can lift now is double if not triple of what it was when I started Body Beast.
It should be known I finished my first round of the Ultimate Reset where I lost 16 pounds before starting Body Beast. If anything I was cleaned out and still had a good base from all the years of P90X and Insanity. I was just much skinnier than normal.
I did make one mistake during Body Beast. I was using the Body Beast supplements the entire time and Beachbody sent an email saying they told us the wrong portion to use with “Fuel Shot.”
Turns out they told us to use double the amount needed. With Fuel Shot being mostly carbs it’s the reason why I put on so much weight.
It took me 138 days to complete Body Beast. Missed 14 days to traveling. Took 8 extra recovery days from playing double-header softball games the night before or resting to play that night. Missed 10 days in a row to injury. Add in 10 lazy days and 6 days where I rode my mountain bike instead of doing Body Beast and you’ll get the 48 additional days. Only 10 non-active days in 4 months. Not too bad.
Somehow I put on 24 pounds doing the lean version of Body Beast. Flipped over the Body Beast calendar on my shelf from “Huge Beast” to “Lean Beast” and didn’t notice it until the last phase. Only difference between the two is you flip a week of the Bulk and Beast phase.
Was shocked when I saw 200 on the scale for the first time ever. Thinking all the mountain biking I did over the summer added to my waist going up to a 38. Thunda Thighs are in full effect.
Jeans started to not fit around day 65. Luckily I found a pair of baggy jeans (my fat pants) I haven’t worn in a while in my closet. They have also been the only jeans I’ve worn in the past month. Been pretty much wearing t-shirts and fat pants for the past two months. Going shopping is out of the question as I plan to drop some of this weight asap.
Chest, shoulders, and arms are much larger. Received comments from family, friends, my girlfriend, and my buddies wives about how good I look (with my shirt on). I guess the ladies like big arms, big shoulders, and a big chest. 🙂
Body Beast was the only program I did in those 138 days mixed in with softball, putting 220 miles on my mountain bike, and a couple small other outdoor activities which might have contributed to some of my results.
Did The Body Beast Supplements Make A Difference?
Definitely. I don’t see how I would be able to put on weight without the Body Beast supplements. Had to cut the portions in half the last 4 weeks as I was getting too big. The Max Creatine and Super Suma were probably the two that I noticed something from the most.
How Did You Do With The Meal Plan?
B+. My one gripe about Beachbody workouts is they don’t have a daily meal planner. The recipes are great but I’d like it to be planned out for us instead of saying here is a bunch of stuff to make. My calculations in the “Book of Beast” said I needed to eat 3071 calories per day which I’m pretty sure I came up short most of the time.
I’d make one of Sagi’s “Beast-O-Matic” mass gain shakes every other day which did help. Probably consumed 1k liquid calories a day between the Body Beast supplements and Shakeology.
I understand the goal of Body Beast is to get huge and you have to eat a lot of food to do it. However, this is probably the one Beachbody workout where you really need to follow the meal plan because of the lack of cardio. You don’t burn off the additional calories that you would with Insanity or P90X.
I don’t see how you can get six pack abs or definition unless you are following the meal plan 95% of the time. Yes – I would have a cheat meal or two every week and enjoy a couple of beers too. As long as I’m working out/being active 5 days a week and eating well 90ish% of the time then that’s all good with me.
What I Liked
Workouts were 30 – 50 minutes long. Less stress on the joints as there is almost no jumping/high impact moves like in P90X and Insanity. Body Beast is really just about building and bulking up major muscle groups by lifting heavy weights in a stationary position.
Been dealing with a knee injury for 7 years and this is the first time where I wasn’t beating up my knees jumping around. If anything my knee feels much stronger now as I gave all the joints in my body a time to rest while challenging my major muscle groups.
My numbers doubled if not tripled in weights lifted from when I started to when I finished. So much so that I started running out of weights to lift. Maxed out my dumbbells in the press moves by week 6.
I didn’t need to buy the EZ-Curl Bar and 95 pounds of plated weights but I did. At the beginning I might have 45 pounds to do deadlifts. At the end it was full.
What I Didn’t Like
It’s hard to keep up with Sagi during the drop sets with the Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells. You have to get up, go to the stand, set it in, turn the dial, pick your new weight and get back to the move. They are using a typical dumbbell rack and are able to move faster.
Ran into this a couple of times moving from the pull up bar to the dumbbells or the EZ-Curl Bar. I had everything I needed to do Body Beast but regular dumbbells might have been easier.
I’d have to pause the dvds at least 3 times every workout which added 5 minutes because of this. I also ran into an issue where my Body Beast dvds were skipping.
What About Flexibility, Stretching, Abs, And Cardio?
You do “Beast Cardio” once a week for 30 minutes. Barely broke a sweat in the beginning and could only do about 3/4 of it at the end of Body Beast due to me being 24 pounds heavier. Caught myself being winded doing normal things around the house. Used to be able to do 25 push ups with little effort. Now I get to 12 and I’m pretty much done.
Abs – What abs? You do the Beast Ab workout once a week after Beast Cardio. Its only 12 minutes long and moves slow. Never felt sore the next day from doing it.
Flexibility – There are no yoga or stretching workouts. Sagi does include 2 minutes of stretching in the warm up and cool down. I think a cinder block could beat me in a flexibility contest right now.
Would I Do Body Beast Again?
Absolutely. Body Beast would be an excellent program to do 30, 60, or all 90 days at a time. What I mean is you can do just the Build, Bulk, or Beast phase for 30 days at a time to switch things up. A hybrid with Insanity sounds like a winner for those who like cardio.
Next round of Body Beast for me will be done with a lot less supplements. There is no way I get over 200 pounds without taking them. A weight I should never be at.
Summary
The Body Beast workout did exactly what it said it was going to do. Get me huge. I didn’t think I could get this huge though. Was fun to focus on just lifting weights.
Started to hit hard line drives my last three weeks of softball. Was crushing my drives and approach shots the last two times I went golfing.
Breaking a sweat can be done in Body Beast if you keep up with Sagi. Getting it all done in less than an hour was a nice change of pace from P90X.
I completed another round in 2016 without taking any supplements while following a Paleo eating plan and I got way more ripped than in 2012. I didn’t track that round like this one nor take pictures as I feel like my original review did a good job of describing the program.
If you have any comments about Body Beast or just want to call me fat then feel free to do so below.
