Week One Review - #mbf

#mbf is a 3-week muscle building program from Beachbody On Demand. For a more detailed product page, please visit my affiliate link HERE.

This program follows a pretty standard format.  There are four weight lifting days, two cardio days and a recovery/stretching day.  The days alternate to give muscle groups adequate rest with the recovery day at the end of the week.

The workouts are right around 30 minutes long, with one being closer to 35 and one day of the week being just 25 minutes.  There is one bonus video which is a 10 minute ab workout.

The only equipment used (I say used, not required)  is a light, medium and heavy set of dumb bells in addition to a unique piece of equipment - Bod Ropes.  Bod Ropes are handles with little foam balls on the end.  The instructor uses them in creative cardio intervals to simulate jumping rope.  They are actually pretty fun and I am really glad I went ahead and spent the $14.99 on the knock offs.  The Beachbody ones are twice the price. Try these on Amazon .  Understand that you can totally do these workouts without them, though.

I really like the music in these workouts.  I am a self-proclaimed Rock & Roll Girl at heart, but the club style bumpity thump in these workouts really pushes me to do my best.  Additionally, the moves are timed to the beat, so you never go too fast or too slow.  And...there's a tapping or tonal sound when a particular interval or set is ending - that's super helpful.  On top of all that, you can use the settings option to make the music louder in the foreground and the instructor softer in the back ground.  That's what I do!

In true 2020 style, the cast of #mbf is all via Zoom!  The instructor leads alone and the cast is featured intermittently as you go along.  The cast is really diverse - more so than I have ever seen in any other workout series.  One thing I really appreciated was that there are more thick girls than just the Moderator - and they. are. killing. it.

The other neat thing about this series is, that it's "real time".  There are 21 unique workouts over the 21 days.  If you've done workout videos for a while, you may recall that it used to be that there were 5-10 videos and they repeated on specific days of the week until  by the end of the program you could practically recite what the instructors would say.  Just one of the neat things about the lower production cost of streaming services versus manufacturing DVD's.

This is listed as an intermediate program - however, it is easily adaptable for a very first time exerciser.  I would recommend using no weights at all and following the modifier.  Don't worry, you'll get a good workout!  I am 50 pounds overweight, so there are just some things that are hard for me.  Getting down on the floor and back up again takes me more time that some people, so I miss a rep here or there - but I'm still moving and still working!

I was very careful about my evening self care this week.  I foam rolled my legs and stretched every night.  In the past, I waited until the pain set in - but fortunately I started this program already in a season of back ache (more on that another time) so I was making sure to stretch for that purpose.  

All told - I really like this program.  My plan is to complete the three week program and then tackle the three week advanced program #mbfa.