Over the course of the last 5 years, I have tried out many, many different workout programs. Some I’ve liked, some I haven’t, but the ones that I do like absolutely ROCK and I’ve gotten great results with them! So, what I’ve decided to go is put together my list of the top 5 best workout programs for men. Can anyone guess what #1 is? You will probably be surprised!

Best Workout Programs for Men

(5) Insanity. Insanity is just that, insane. What attracts a lot of men to this program is how tough it is. Us guys don’t like doing workouts where we barely break a sweat. No, we like “manly” workouts that put us on the borderline of puking! Or is that just me? I don’t know and don’t care. I digress. Insanity is that workout that will make you want to puke. Yeah, it sucks when you’re doing it, but for some reason you keep coming back for more afterwards. What is Insanity anyways? It’s a 60 day freakin’ INTENSE cardio program that involves a lot of jump training and intervals. However, the intervals aren’t like normal intervals where you have a short burst of exercise with a decent amount of rest, but rather long bursts of high intensity exercises with very short periods of rest. This is why it is #5 on my best workout programs for men.

(4) Asylum. Yeah, this is another insane workout (it’s the sequel program to Insanity), but is a little different than the original Insanity. How so? It’s just a 30 day program, but this time it’s more sports focused and involves some weight training. Yeah, that’s right, us guys love to push weights around, and this program allows you to do SOME of that, but not a lot. It’s enough to help you maintain body mass while chiseling yourself with crazy insane and intense jump rope and jump training. Oh and there are quite a few ladder drills involved as well, so this may take you back to your high school or college sport days, if you took part of them of course. My results with Asylum were nuts, and I’m confident that you can get crazy results as well. Asylum takes the #4 spot on my best workout programs for men.

(3) P90X2. I seriously can’t believe I’m putting this at number 3, but the next two programs after this are so near and dear to me that I couldn’t put this above them. Plus, what makes it even tougher is that I’m actually in the P90X2 videos, Shoulders & Arms! However, that’s not saying that I don’t love this program because I definitely do, and it’s one of my favorites. P90X2 is very sports focused because, well, that’s what it was designed for. Beachbody hired some of the best sports science guys to come in and help develop this program with Tony Horton, and it sure does take your athletic performance to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL! P90X2 contains a balance of cardio and resistance training, but it’s very intense and different stuff. A lot of the moves in the program focus on improving core strength, so you do a ton of balance exercises. What’s interesting is that you even do a lot of balance exercises while doing weight lifting, so you’re working a lot of muscles at the same time. After 90 days, your athletic performance should greatly improve! Oh and this isn’t a program for beginners. Make sure you are in great shape before attempting this one!

(2) P90X. Ah yes, the program that started it all for me! P90X changed my life, literally. Seriously, the programs ROCKS! I went through my first 90 days back in 2008 and lost 25 lbs and 10% body fat in 90 days, no joke. My P90X results were crazy, and I’ve watched thousands of other lives changed by the program as well. P90X is a program that has a balance of cardio and resistance training, similar to P90X2, but not as tough. This is for people who are in OK shape and want to lose some weight and get ripped up. There is some jump training (plyometrics), weight lifting, and yes, (gulp) even some Yoga. Come on guys, you could suck it up for an hour a week, right? Anyways, P90X is an amazing program and in my opinion one of the best workouts for men!

(1) Body Beast. I feel like doing the Tim Allen grunt every time I talk about Body Beast, but it’s by far my favorite program of them all. Because of being a baseball player for so long, I grew up in the gym, and I was in there every day pushing around every weights all throughout college. I don’t know what it is about lifting heavy, but I just love it. Thank goodness that Beachbody released this new mass gaining program this past summer because now I can feel like I did back when I was in school, but this time get MUCH better results! Like I said, Body Beast is a mass gaining program that involves a LOT of weight training, but also comes with an excellent diet and supplement plan as well. If you don’t get stronger and gain mass after going through 90 days, you didn’t do something right! I ended up gaining about 15 lbs after my first round. This, my friends, is why Body Beast is ranked #1 in my best workout programs for men! (Check out my full Body Beast Review)

All of these programs ROCK, and I hope you found my list of best workout programs for men helpful. If not, oh well! If you have any questions about any of the programs, feel free to reach out to me at coachspence8@yahoo.com.

For years I had no idea what I was supposed to do to get a six pack. I honestly thought that my body wouldn’t allow me to, that it was my genetics holding me back. I was wrong. When I started P90X back in 2008, I quickly discovered what I was doing wrong, and found out the best way to get a six pack. What’s the secret? That’s what I’m going to share with you. Understand, though, that there is no easy way to get a six pack! It will take some hard work and dedication on your part. Here’s my secret on how to get great abs!

Best Way To Get A Six Pack

(1) Know the 80/20 rule. 80% of your results are going to come from your diet, while 20% from the workouts. That’s what I share to all of the people I coach! The best way to get a six pack lies in the DIET, NOT the workouts!

(2) Take in the right amount of calories. This is crucial to your results! If you take in too many calories, you will have a tough time burning fat, and if you take in too little, you risk going into starvation mode. Starvation mode is when you’re body stores fat and doesn’t allow you to burn it because it feels malnourished. You want to make sure you take in enough calories to where you feel comfortable at the end of the day, not starving and not full. For me, at 5’7″ that’s about 2,000 calories per day.

(3) Stay away from late night carbs! This was a big one for me. Late at night I used to eat a bowl of cereal, and what was happening was that those carbs were stored as fat when I slept because they went as unused energy. Once I stopped eating carbs, and really stopped eating all together about 2 hours before bed, I started to learn that this was the best way to get a six pack.

(4) Eat the right foods. Knowing how many calories is just part of it, what exactly you eat is the rest. You have to have to right diet to get a six pack. So what do you eat? The key is to stick with whole grains, lean meats, lots of fruits and veggies, everything that you have been taught about healthy eating when you were a kid. However, it’s SO IMPORTANT that you stay away from foods high in fat, white breads, and sugary products. Fast food, most restaurant food, is terrible for you, and you really have to be careful about what you eat. If you do eat out and want to make sure it’s healthy, there’s an awesome app called MyFitnessPal that breaks down the nutrition for pretty much every restaurant meal.

(5) Take in the proper ratios. There’s another part of the equation, and that’s taking in the right amount of fat/carbs/protein throughout the day. You can’t eat 95% carbs and expect to get a six pack. It doesn’t work that way! You have to make sure you have some sort of balance. The P90X Nutrition Guide is perfect when it comes to ratios, and has you follow a 20/30/50 during the first month, 20/40/40 during the second month, and 20/50/30 during the 3rd month. Again, MyFitnessPal will tell you where you are with your ratios when you log in your meals. If you want to know the best way to get a six pack, this is a major key to success in doing so!

(6) Do the right ab routine. It’s not going to be beneficial if you do 50 normal crunches and call it quits. Instead, you need a complete routine that works your entire core, not just your upper abs. The P90X ab routine, Ab Ripper X, is one of my favorites, and is a 15 minute long grueling core workout.

(7) Have the right amount of rest. The best way to get a six pack is by giving your abs proper rest time to heal! Too many people want to work the abs every day, but don’t understand that it doesn’t benefit them in any way. Just like with every other muscle group, you have to give the abs 48 hours rest before working again, allowing for proper healing.

Hopefully you found these tips on the best way to get a six pack helpful! Remember, there is no easy way to get a six pack, but rather involves hard work and dedication to both a healthy diet and workout routine. STAY COMMITTED and you will get results! If you want a complete program to get a six pack abs, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND P90X! That picture above is of my abs after doing P90X.

Insanity Asylum Volume 2

Ah yes, as if Insanity and Insanity Asylum weren’t tough enough, Beachbody is releasing the new Asylum 2 this Thursday, Oct. 11th! Let me briefly explain what Insanity and Asylum are first, though, so that you have a good understanding of what you might get yourself into.

Insanity is a 60 day CRAZY high intensity cardio workout program where you can burn up to 1,000 calories per hour. Yes, I said 1,000! I’ve actually heard of people burning more than that, all depending on how hard you push yourself. I’ve personally gone through Insanity and it kicked my rear, but the more I hated it, the more I loved it! I love challenging myself during a workout. It involves a LOT of  jump training exercises with minimal rest time in between. When I got through the program, I had gotten excellent results, and really felt like my cardiovascular endurance and athletic ability had increased. The one thing I didn’t like about Insanity, though, was the lack of resistance training, which was sort of fixed in Insanity Asylum.

Insanity Asylum I guess is a step up from Insanity, but also a lot more sports focused. This time most of the training involves an agility ladder, and you do a TON of quick feet drills and a lot of jump training from the ground as well. For example, on one exercise you’re on the ground and your hands are straddling the ladder and you’re jumping in the rungs, going from 1 rung, to 2, to 3 towards the end of the exercise, which I believe is a minute long. By the end your shoulders are BURNING and you felt like you did 20 sprints in a row! There are is a “Strength” workout, which involves doing a lot of faster paced training with weights. It’s an AWESOME workout! Asylum is more my style and something that I incorporate with pretty much every program that I do. Actually, I am doing Insanity Asylum drills in between my sets with Body Beast.

From what I hear, Asylum 2 is another 30 day workout in addition to the original Asylum, but this time they use resistance bands a LOT more with the ladder drills, adding more resistance and making each move MUCH tougher! It also looks like there will be some strength training in this workout as well, giving an all around high intensity workout program. If you’re a sports player or just want to train like an elite athlete, Asylum 2 is going to be a GREAT program for you!

Beachbody Coaching in Canada

About 3 years ago there was rumors going around that Beachbody Coaching would come to Canada, and even though it’s taken QUITE A WHILE, that time has FINALLY COME! During the Leadership event I attended last weekend, I learned that Beachbody Coaching in Canada will open OCT. 1st! And yes, that’s this year. There have been SO MANY of you messaging me about this over the course of the past few years, and it’s great to finally give you all some good news. Before you get all excited, though, there’s some VERY important things you should know before you get signed up.

(1) You will be owning a U.S. business, not a Canadian Beachbody business. This is called a “pre-launch,” and the official Canadian launch won’t be until next year sometime. However, you will still be a Beachbody Coach, but operating under the U.S. terms. You can still sell products on your website (you CAN’T purchase product and resell it in Canada) and you can recruit other Canadians to be U.S. coaches. Make sense? Also, once the time does come where the official launch of the Beachbody Business in Canada, there will be an automatic transfer of your current U.S. coaching account to a Canadian account, meaning you won’t have to do anything.

(2) Don’t just sign up with any team. You want to make sure you sign up with a Beachbody team that’s established and has great leaders, a great training/support system, along with years of proven success. My team, Team Next Level, has all of those and some! We are one of the most, if not THE most, successful Beachbody Teams in the country, having coaches on our team winning Top Beachbody Coach 2010 (I won this) and Top Beachbody Coach 2011. We are even on pace of having someone from the team win the Top Coach award this year as well! Also, we have our own training site that you will immediately be plugged into, along with a group page on Facebook for support, accountability, motivation, and communication. Literally you will have everything that you need to succeed, support, training, etc., but of course your success depends on the effort you put into it!

(3) This is a business about HELPING PEOPLE, not selling! This is very important for you to understand immediately. This is such a unique and different opportunity because your success is based on your ability to build relationships with people and truly be in it to make a difference in their lives. The moment you stop focusing on helping others and start focusing on making money, your business will come to a halt. If you’re focused on the right things, and that’s helping people, then you can build a very successful Canadian Beachbody Business!

If you’re ready to become a Canadian Beachbody Coach and build a success Canadian Beachbody Team, or have any questions about the Beachbody Business coming to Canada, email me at coachspence8@yahoo.com. I hope you all are excited because I know I am! This is just one more step forward in ending the trend of obesity! Remember, the day it opens is Oct. 1st 2012.

My life revolved around baseball for a number of years, starting when I was 6 years old until I graduated college at 22. It was my life! I started playing travel baseball when I was about 12, ended up starting varsity my freshman year in high school, and then got a scholarship to play ball in college. I had a very successful baseball career, but there was one thing that I regret, and that’s paying more attention to my health and fitness. Now don’t get me wrong, I took care of myself, or at least thought I took care of myself by lifting in the gym practically every day in college, but I feel like there is so much more that I could have done! I say that now only because over the past 4 years I have been able to learn a TON of things about health and fitness, things that I wish I had applied when I was in my early teens. What did I learn? That’s what I’m going to share now.

Let me go a little more in depth about what I did regarding my health while growing up. I never was overweight because I was so active with baseball, but I was never in excellent shape either. I was very strong in my chest, arms, and shoulders because that’s all I focused on in the gym, but was very weak in my legs, back, and had terrible flexibility. My core strength was average at best, but it was always covered by a small layer of fat that I could never seem to get rid of. I always blamed it on genetics, but quickly discovered after college that it had more to do with my diet than anything. That and the simple workout routine that I did for years and years on end. I had no variability in my workouts, leading me to hit a plateau. When I talk to baseball players now, this seems to be something I come across over and over again, they hit a plateau and don’t know what to do to get beyond it. That’s what I’m here to help with.

When I fell out of shape after college, I needed something to get me back into shape, and that’s when I found P90X. The program has a balance of cardio and resistance training, really focusing on something they call “muscle confusion,” which doesn’t allow you to hit a plateau. Well it worked for me, I lost 25 lbs and 10% body fat, and literally got into the best shape of my life. After P90X I tried many of the different programs that Beachbody had to offer, including P90X2, Insanity, Asylum, P90X Plus, and now Body Beast, and I have been going through these for the past 4 years. Right now I am in the best shape I’ve ever been in, and would absolutely blow my old shape during baseball out of the water! I am faster, stronger, have better balance, more flexibility, and a lot more core strength, which is CRUCIAL in a sport like baseball! Everything revolves around core strength; throwing, hitting, fielding, etc.

Because of everything that I have learned, I decided that I was going to approach my old college baseball coach about running his current ball players through workout programs like those I mentioned above, and I ended up becoming their Conditioning Coach. For the past year or so, I have been putting these guys through a variation of workouts, from high intensity interval training workouts from Insanity to balance/core strength workouts from P90X2. Yes, I even put them through Yoga, which is VERY beneficial for ball players! I saw the guys make DRASTIC improvements last year, and am doing even more with them this year.

So when it comes to workouts for baseball players, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND programs like P90X, P90X2, Insanity, and Insanity Asylum. Let me share a little about each. P90X, like I said above, has a balance of cardio and resistance workouts. It’s TOUGH, but easier than the rest of the workouts I mentioned. If you’re real out of shape, this is the one to start with. Next, Insanity is a VERY INTENSE cardio program, and will get you into the best cardiovascular shape in your entire life. This workout focuses on explosive jump training and intervals, and will leave you completely drained because of how tough it is. The one thing that Insanity lacks, though, is resistance training, but you can incorporate some P90X or P90X2 moves into it. After Insanity, I recommend Insanity Asylum, which is the sequel to Insanity, but is more sports specific. This program is CRAZY HARD, and involves a lot of core strength building, some weights, resistance band training, and explosive jump training, really focusing on everything that you need to become an elite athlete. There are MANY professionals using Asylum, including Hope Solo and Apollo Ohno. Last, and these are in no specific order, I recommend P90X2. I was actually in the P90x2 videos, and this is a program that is VERY TOUGH, not so much because of the cardio, but because of how much it challenges you. You do a lot of body weight resistance exercises, but incorporate a balance ball and medicine balls into them, really forcing you to engage your core and maintain your balance. There is also jump training and plyometrics involved, which helps with getting into great cardiovascular condition.

Those are the workouts for baseball players that I recommend, and I hope you found them helpful. If you’re really looking to become an elite athlete, these are the programs that will help you get to that point! Remember, though, that the DIET with these programs plays a CRUCIAL ROLE in your results! You need to be eating properly if you want to lose the fat and build the muscle. If you have any questions about any of these programs, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at coachspence8@yahoo.com.

8 weeks of Body Beast down. I still think that the program is amazing and I’m seeing awesome results, but I’m starting to miss being lean with a ripped 6 pack. The one thing that I don’t like about Body Beast to this point, and it’s part of gaining mass so I guess can’t really complain, is that since we are taking in SO MANY CALORIES and carbs to build muscle, the 6 pack is sacrificed and there is a little layer of what I like to call “fluff” over top of them. I knew this would happen, though, because you have to have a caloric surplus to gain muscle, but that also means you’re not burning much body fat either, and will sometimes put on body fat. I’m not going to lie, my body fat has increased slightly since I started the program and it is a little uncomfortable for me, but I’m also not to the leaning out phase yet, which calls for lower carbs and higher protein and once I get into that, the body fat should decrease rather quickly.

I’m also stuck at a little crossroads here. Currently I’m at about 181 lbs, the heaviest I’ve EVER been, and I’m about to start doing the conditioning for a college baseball team, and with me being this heavy, it’s going to be a LOT tougher to do the workouts with the boys being about 15 lbs heavier than I normally am. So now I’m thinking about still continuing with the Body Beast workouts, but also adding in some cardio along with it to drop a little weight and get myself back into good cardiovascular condition. So I’m stuck because I NEED to start doing cardio, but I also want to stick strictly with the program to show others what kind of results you can truly get. Then again I already feel I’ve sort of proven that by gaining about 12 lbs in just 8 weeks, some of it muscle and some water weight, and by increasing in dumbbell weight just about every single week. Currently I’m pretty sure I’m the strongest that I’ve ever been! For one of the exercises, incline dumbbell press, I was able to bust out 8 reps of 80 lbs dumbbells after doing a 15 and 12 rep of lighter dumbbells back to back. That’s the heaviest I have EVER been able to use on that exercise! I have been able to make significant strength gains over the past 8 weeks.

I digress. It’s decision time for me, and thinking about it, I might end up slowly adding in cardio to get myself to where I need to take part in the exercises with the boys. I’m a HUGE BELIEVER In leading by example, and I want the ball players to understand that if I can do the exercises, then so can they. It eliminates any and all excuses they could give. While doing this, though, I will still follow the program as much as I possibly can and still post my Day 90 pictures when the time comes. I think you are all going to be surprised by my Body Beast results! I have noticed a significant increase in size in my chest, shoulders, and especially my back. Oh and I measured my biceps the other day, and right now they are at 16 1/2, which is the LARGEST they have ever been! When I measured not too long ago before I started Body Beast, I was right around 15 1/2.

The Body Beast mass gaining program WORKS, there is no doubt about it, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is looking for ways on how to gain mass. Everything from the workouts, diet, to supplements are all laid out there for you, and all you have to do is follow them for 90 days and I believe you will get results! I have, and I’m just 8 weeks through. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at coachspence8@yahoo.com!

When it came to mentally beating myself up, I was the king at it. Negative thinking consumed my life from about age 12 to around 16, and then gradually got better until I was about 21, when I had completely changed my way of thinking. Why would I get so down on myself? Baseball had a lot to do with it. As you all know, baseball is a failure sport. If you get a hit 3 out of 10 times you are considered a great player. The tough thing to swallow, though, is that in order to be a great player you will fail 7 times. How you are able to deal with that 70% failure rate determines just how great of a player you will be. I was the guy who couldn’t deal with the failure, and for about 4 years I gradually saw my batting average drop to the point where I eventually got benched, and that was where I hit rock bottom. Why did it affect me so much? Here’s an example. Whenever I would strike out, instead of forgetting about it and moving on to the next at bat, I let the negative thought of possibly striking out again fill my mind. I let it get to me so much that I would literally fear striking out, which caused me to tense up and then guess what happened? Yeah, I struck out again, and the process continued. I then started believing that I just wasn’t a good player, and when all that adds up, you get a player who constantly beats himself up and begins to not enjoy the game.

The other part of my negative thinking came from being bullied and not having many friends. Interestingly enough, though, when looking back, one of the main reasons why I don’t think I had many friends was because of my negative thinking. Nobody wants to be around someone who’s down on themselves all the time. Anyways, kids at school were brutal. I would sit by myself at lunch, get picked on during intramurals, but nobody ever picked a fight with me because they knew I could hold my own. I had learned karate when I younger from my dad, and I was pretty confident I could hold my own if I ever did get into a fight. Anyways, this constantly happening to me had caused me to sort of wage a war with myself. Was I not attractive? Was I not good enough? Nothing but negative thoughts went through my head. Fortunately, I had a few great friends that were always there for me and helped, but I never really talked about it with them either.

The day I got benched for the first time ever I was crushed and hit rock bottom. I went home, didn’t talk to anyone, and just went upstairs and held my head in my hands. I was miserable and at an all time low. My dad knew what was going on, and came up to my room and tossed a book on my bed and demanded that I read it. It was “The Magic of Thinking Big.” I picked it up and started reading the first few pages, and did that immediately change my way of thinking? Of course not, but I started to understand WHY all these things were happening to me. I read that book every day and started applying some of the exercises it recommends and wouldn’t you know, each day I got better and better with my negative thinking. Whenever a negative thought would pop in my head, instead of letting it consume me, I remembered the book and turned that negative thought into a positive one. For example, when I would tell myself I “can’t” do something, I immediately turned that into “can.” Every day I sort of trained my mind, so to speak, to switch these negative thoughts into positive ones, and wouldn’t you know, my life began to improve little by little. My relationships got better, the bullying stopped, I started making a lot more friends, and my baseball game started improving.

Over the course of years of doing this, I had eventually trained my mind to only think positively. No longer did negative thoughts rule my life! I was happier, a LOT less stressed, and actually enjoying playing baseball again. I ended up getting a scholarship to play ball at a local college and wound up winning top regional and national awards my junior and senior years in college. After college, I literally had insurance firms battling back and forth to get me to join their company, and I did join one, but discovered quickly that I was selling myself short and that’s not where my passion was. I decided to start my own fitness business (Beachbody Coaching) and build it from the ground up. I knew that I could make it successful, and that’s exactly what I have been able to do. Now, I live with complete freedom and ENJOY LIFE!

People underestimate the importance and POWER of positive thinking, and hopefully I was able to get the point across in this post. Remember, changing your negative thoughts to all positive ones are not going to happen over night, and it will take years and years of good habits and digging into personal development every single day. If you struggle with negative thinking, feel free to reach out to me and talk to me about it. I am MORE THAN WILLING to help you out however I can! Just email me at coachspence8@yahoo.com.

Ever since I started P90X almost 4 and a half years ago, I have learned so many things about eating healthy. In fact, I have COMPLETELY turned my diet around! Before I started the workout program, my diet consisted of fried chicken fingers, french fries, pizza, ice cream, pop-tarts, cereal, and a lot of white bread and pasta. I was the guy who thought that chicken fingers and fries were healthy because they were chicken and potatoes. I honestly don’t think I ate anything healthy. When I started P90X, I knew that I had to change my diet if I wanted to reach my fitness goals, so I followed the P90X Nutrition Guide as close as possible. Committing myself 100% helped me lose 25 lbs and 10% body fat, but the best part about it was that I began living a healthy lifestyle from that point on. I wanted to take some time out and share with you 8 healthy eating tips that have helped me stay healthy over the past 4 years!

(1) Keep track of your calories. This is something I did from the very beginning and it helped me greatly. I used www.myfitnesspal.com, and more recently the new My Fitness Pal app on the iPhone. What’s great about both of these is that they have pretty much every restaurant and food that you can possibly think of in their database. If you go out to eat, for example, you can look up the menu ahead of time and find the best healthy choice. Also, both of them allow you to keep track of your fat, carb, and protein breakdown as well. If you’re following something like the P90X Fat Shredder diet, for example, which has a 20/30/50 ratio, you can make sure you’re on target with that each day by logging what you eat into the app or website.

(2) Stay away from pop. No pop is good for you, period. I don’t care if it says “diet” or what, it’s not good for you. Pop companies have tried to appeal to healthier consumers by creating diet drinks, but the sweetness has to come from somewhere else instead of sugar, so they use artificial sweeteners, which aren’t good for you either. There are MANY studies that show that the artificial sweeteners might be just as bad for you as regular sugar.

(3) Fruits and veggies are the way to go. Both of these are super healthy for you (of course), and if you’re going to snack on something, these would be the things you go for. Be careful, though, with the fruits because of the high amount of carbohydrates in them. Try to stick to 1-3 fruits per day. I usually have an apple, peach, and banana throughout the day.

(4) Go with whole grains. This is a tricky one because there are so many companies out there who trick consumers into believing their products are whole grain, when in fact they really aren’t. When purchasing any breads or pastas, always go with the ones that say either “100% Whole Grain” or “100% Whole Wheat” on the label. Something that says “Whole Grain” usually only has a small % of whole grain in it. Also, look at the ingredient list and make sure it says whole wheat flour and doesn’t have the word “enriched” anywhere on it.

(5) Drink a lot of water. There are so many people who don’t drink enough water throughout the day, and it’s VERY important to stay hydrated! I try to drink 8 8 oz. glasses of water, if not more, each day. Important times to drink water is right in the morning and before your meals.

(6) Stay away from red meat. This is somewhat of a personal preference, but after going through the Ultimate Reset, I have stopped eating red meat. I haven’t had a steak in a few months, and I used to eat it maybe once a week. The fat and cholesterol in red meat is usually very high, and I’m not willing to even risk it anymore. My meats usually consist of chicken, fish, and turkey now.

(7) Throw out all junk food. One of the first things that I did when I started P90X was go through every single one of my cupboards, along with my freezer and fridge, and threw away any unhealthy food. It helped tremendously because whenever I had a bad craving, I was forced to choose a healthier alternative.

(8) Stick with organic. I know, I know, eating organic is definitely more expensive, but what would you rather sacrifice, your health or a few extra bucks? It’s a no brainer to me, so Melinda and I eat as much organic foods as we can. There are so many genetically engineered foods and foods with pesticides out there anymore, so going with organic foods is definitely the healthiest way to go.

Hopefully these 8 healthy eating tips were helpful, and if you have any questions about a healthy diet, feel free to reach out to me at coachspence8@yahoo.com. If you’re going through P90X or any other Beachbody program, I’m a Beachbody Coach and can help you out. If you want me to coach you, just click here!

The Body Beast workouts are going great. I’m really enjoying the new Bulk Chest workout, which involves a lot of flys and presses. I do wish they would have added in some barbell presses as well, but I can see how that would be an issue for people working out at home, since it is, well, a home workout program. However, I have my own bench and barbell and have decided to add in it there. Anyways, the progressive sets in the Bulk series really make it challenging, and I love a challenge and pushing myself. The toughest of the workouts so far would have to be Bulk Legs. I did it again yesterday with a few buddies of mine and dang, I thought I was going to have to pause and make a trip to the bathroom. I was pushing VERY hard yesterday, increasing the weights and doing a few more reps than the guys in the video, and there were a few times where I got a little light headed and nauseated, but I kept chuggin’ along. Today my legs are just ridiculously sore, so tomorrow I won’t be able to walk. If you’re not completely drenched by the end of this workout, you’re not doing it right.

I absolutely love the new Body Beast program and can’t wait to see what type of results I get after 90 days. Like I said before, I will post my “after” pictures once I have them! I have a feeling you’re going to see a very drastic change. If you have any questions about the program, feel free to email me at coachspence8@yahoo.com.

Seriously, I can’t believe just HOW FAST this month has flown by! I’m already on my 5th week of Body Beast and seeing unbelievable results. In case you missed last week’s Body Beast Review, I finished up the Build phase and moved on to the Bulk phase, which are a different set of workouts. I will get into the new workouts in a bit, but I also talked about how it’s a little uncomfortable putting on as much weight as I have. So far I’m up about 10 lbs, from about 168-169 lbs to 179 lbs, and a lot of that is water retention, but I’m positive some of it is muscle as well. I haven’t put on a lot of fat (very minimal), but it’s a strange feeling to be weighing this much. I don’t think I have ever been over 180 lbs in my life, so like I said, it’s uncomfortable because my clothes are getting tighter and I’m feeling slightly bloated all the time from the creatine. However, I know it’s all part of gaining mass, so I’m not too terribly worried about it for now. I am looking forward to the last phase, though, where we make some adjustments to the diet to lean out a bit. I like being strong, by I liked being ripped as well.

The new Bulk Phase Body Beast workouts are AWESOME! I think I like them a lot more than the Build Phase (even though those ROCKED!), mostly because we are doing a TON of progressive sets, which I enjoy. If you don’t know what progressive sets are, it’s where you do the same exercise 6 times in a row without much rest, maybe about 15 seconds, and go from 15 reps down to 12, then to 8, and then do them in reverse order, going from 8 to 12 to 15. As you go down in reps, you increase weights. For the incline dumbbell presses, for example, I start out doing 15 reps of 45 lbs dumbbells, and then go to 55 lbs for 12 reps, and then 65 lbs for 8 reps. By the time you get to the very last set, you are having a VERY tough time doing 15 reps with the lightest weights! Progressive sets are very effective.

The one thing that I’m not sure I like about the new set of workouts is that they are MUCH shorter, right around 35 minutes for each workout. However, it’s not like we’re just chillin’ and slowly going through the workout, we are NON-STOP for the entire 35 minutes! By the end of each workout I’m drenched, especially the new Bulk Legs, which I think is the toughest workout to this point. You do a TON of lunges and don’t get much break in between. There is one progressive set from that workout that really sticks out to me, and it’s the split squat lunges with the EZ Curl Bar. What you do is have one leg forward and on leg back, hold the curl bar in between your legs and then squat down, keeping your chest up so you don’t put any pressure on the lower back. My legs were DESTROYED after that exercise!

Eating all this food is getting easier actually. I think now that I’ve put on more muscle my body is demanding more food, so I don’t feel ridiculously full all throughout the day, but rather, now I feel comfortable. I do have to say that I love all the carbs we’re allowed to eat. I’m eating a lot of whole grain pasta, whole grain bread, fruits, and whole grain pancakes. One thing is for sure, I don’t lack energy throughout the day until directly after my workout! The Body Beast diet ROCKS. Remember, the diet plays a MAJOR role in gaining mass, so make sure you’re following the Body Beast Diet Guide as close as you possibly can!

So far so good. I’m noticing a big increase in strength and size and expect to continue seeing results as I move through the program. Hopefully I don’t get much heavier, though, because I can’t imagine being close to 190 lbs! I think a comfortable weight for me is about 167, but not sure I will get back down there anytime soon because of the muscle I’ve put on, even if I do cut the cals and carbs during the last phase. Well there’s my 1 month Body Beast review, and be on the lookout for more Body Beast reviews coming soon!