A new Body Beast program by Sagi Kalev & BeachBody

My impressions from reading Body Beast manual

I'd like you to know that BeachBody recently released a new program, called Body Beast (here it is on Facebook and on Google+.) This is a bodybuilder-style workout, its purpose for men to get maximum muscle mass / strength / physique. As it well known, women react on exercises differently due to different hormone levels, so the same bodybuilder programs don't get bulky, but rather fit and ripped (unless steroids are taken.)
Program is designed by Sagi Kalev, "The former two-time "Mr. Israel" and fitnessmodel, bodybuilding title-holder, and nutritionist and resident of Dallas, Texas, immigrated to the United States in 1993 to pursue bodybuilding and modeling" – says Wikipedia.
I'm going to try this program by myself, although I'm not sure if / when I would delve into it completely. I have too many workouts I'm doing and love.
Still, if any of you become interested, want more information or decide to buy Body Beast, please let me know. I'm still a BB coach...

A few words from what I read in Body Beast manual (got it yesterday):
1. It seems to be a real no-bluff bodybuilding program written by real man. Not a crap like Les Mills Pump.
2. A good thing is that BB did not bundle Body Beast program with set of hardware, because of that Body Beast is cheap. You'll need to choose what hardware and where you will buy; as usually BB has almost everything.
You will need a set of dumbbells (resistance bands are acceptable but a not so good substitute), you'd better have an EZ Curl barbell (they are cheap on Amazon), you'd better have an inclined weightlifting bench (I don't have space for it at home... idk... maybe I do ;-)  ).  A "step" bench from LM Pump might work as a substitute and using a stability ball instead of a bench is suggested as an initial option. Still, ideally you'd have a weightlifting bench and squat stand...
Pull-up bar is necessary / highly recommended, but that's not a problem.
3. 6 days per week for one hour a day is too much.
3.1 This is especially true for older athletes. Many credible sources explain that with age training sessions should be abbreviated. Read this book by Brooks Kubik, for example.
3.2 6-days per week one hour per day schedule of P90X and Body Beast may be good for younger people who just start with a fitness and are not participating in other programs. Experienced people - like us - often are already doing many other things, basically have their own routine. For example, I'm not going to stop GMB gymnastic rings training, nor kettlebells and clubbells, nor body-weight exercises, nor running, biking and swimming, nor rock climbing.  But that's OK: I would just need to pick what I really need from Body Beast, do it less often and selectively.
4. While Sagi Kalev is a real man, who knows what he is doing, it seems to be that Beachbody added its usual questionable marketing like "Dynamic Set Training™, a sports science breakthrough", "Muscle Confusion" (all these things are known and not invented by BB), and "Training to the point of Failure" (an outdated concept - most trainers now say that a workout should be stopped, while a trainee still able to perform)
5. BeachBody offers a new line of supplements along with Body Beast. While they might be good, and while taking supplements makes sense (I'm doing that), often you can find better and cheaper analogs on Amazon.

Note, that if you’re looking more into strength gaining rather than physique, Maximum Strength book by Eric Cressey might be a better and cheaper option.

Another recently released BB program is Tai Cheng workout (on Googel+) - a variant of Tai Chi taught by Dr. Mark Cheng.

An Update of 6/28/2012: My impressions from a very first workout, called “Chest and Tris”

1. Positives
   a) A was pleasantly surprised by Sagi Kalev’s style, clear, intelligent, and not “pushy” at all – unlike crazy BB BB commercial I saw before.
   b) Sagi Kalev and his buddies are actually working. It’s just like P90X or Chalean, and unlike flashy LM Pump trainers which just pretend they’re doing a workout.
   c) On-screen table shows timing and necessary repetitions for a current exercise.
   d) Exercises are great and difficult.
2. Negatives
   a) Although warm-up and cool-down are present and seem to be designed to target areas specific for a current workout, they are very abbreviated. Nothing like what Tony Horton provides in P90X. Just a couple of minutes each. Clearly not enough. Older trainee – beware! If you don’t want injuries, you have to do additional warm-ups and cool-downs. There are many great resources on the web. I suggest you to look at my YouTube list and assemble something from it – whatever suites you. My personal preference is a warm-up showed by famous kettlebell trainer Mike Mahler, I do it every day. Also, there are excellent warm-up and cool-down routines included by CST guru Scott Sonnon and his numerous trainers. Finally, here are two superb and original warm-up programs offered by real pros, doctors and weight-lifters: Magnificent Mobility and Inside-Out: The Ultimate Upper Body Warm-up.
   For cool-downs use static stretches from yoga routines.
   b) On the first workout, one guy (I think his name was Sean, he is a white guy) showed how to substitute inclined bench with a stability ball. Looks like it isn’t a good idea; when performing declined pushups, he couldn’t keep his lumbar area straight and had it arched down (anterior pelvic tilt). That’s how pushups shouldn’t be done, an easy way to injure your lower back.
3. Equipment notes
   a) I bought a cheap standard (diameter 1”)  EZ-Curl barbell in addition to a straight barbell I got with LM Pump. But for the first Body Beast workout it is not needed. You’ll only need a comprehensive set of heavy dumbbells.
   b) I don’t have a weight-lifting bench at home and tried to use step-bench which came with LM Pump as a horizontal bench and a stability ball instead of an inclined bench. Both turned out to be very inconvenient. That’s not a way to go, if you want to do BB most effectively, a weight-lifting bench is a must. It would be nice (but not necessary) to have a bench with a barbell stand, and there is a perfect foldable one on Amazon - Best Fitness BFOB10 Olympic Bench, but sadly a commenter said, it only suitable for barbells 6'” + long…
4. Conclusion
   A very good workout overall. Pretty damn hard. If you successfully completed P90X before (or Chalean Extreme, for that matter) you should be up to the task. If you’re not I a best shape, I’s suggest to start from something not so demanding… from P90X or Chalean.
   Be sure to watch videos before actually following along. Its system may be not as easy from the beginning, until you get it. Good luck!

Functional Training vs. Isolation Training

+Yuri Wolf asked me a very interesting question. I think this G+ topic is so important in fitness, I decided to post it again here. I'm going to disable comments. Instead, please comment on my original post at http://goo.gl/9TV47
Yuri Wolf - +Vladimir Kelman - could you please comment on the following:
A few years ago I took a short fitness course at NIH. The trainer, an ex-army PT instructor by his words, put a lot of emphasis on two keywords: slow and isolation. Essentially, all motions (this includes all exercises with weights) should be as slow as possible and I should make sure to be able to stop the movement any time. Moreover, the whole body must be as static as possible with only target group of muscles involved - heavens forbid I pull the weights with my back muscles if I'm doing a biceps curl.
As far as I understand, kettlebells are the opposite of that - the exercise is highly dynamic and every motion involves many muscles from ankles to wrists.
Changing fashions? Or there is something more rational behind these different schools? 

1. Slow movement.
That's a bit easier. As you know, there are different types of training.
On one pole, a pure Strength / Muscle Volume Training requires heavy weights, slow motion, minimum repetitions, isolation.
On an opposite pole, a pure Cardiovascular Training requires little to no weights, fast movements, a lot of repetitions.
Endurance Training may require some weights, requires regular speed movements, a lot of repetitions.
Kettlebell workouts are often constitute a super-high intensity cardiovascular training , but also include definite elements of both endurance and strength training (heavy weights). Most often kettlebells workouts are not intended for pure muscle volume gains.
2. Isolation.
Isolation is still important for pure muscle volume, strength training. Heavy weight lifters are for sure familiar with isolation. But smart weight lifters do not only isolation exercises, but even more functional training, which includes synchronized work of a significant parts of a body together, in sync.
Functional Training is a very popular, I's say a prevalent tendency now. It's a reaction to screwed fitness model of gyms, which put most emphasis to weight machines exercises. Machines provides a highest level of isolation... and they are extremely dangerous. Modern fitness says, that machines should be used only as helpers, as specialized tools for fixing some particular muscle weakness.
The great danger in using machines (and, to a less degree, heavy-weight lifting, biceps curls, bench presses, etc.) is that they lead to unbalanced body development. I.e. - strong biceps and weak triceps, undeveloped core. This leads to injuries. Those injuries not necessary happen in a gym, they happen outside. Unbalanced body, not trained to use [strong] muscles in sync, not trained to do compound and fast moves suffers a lot.
Moreover, not only a bias toward isolation is a cause of injuries, it also does not produce endurance, does not train a heart, and - surprisingly, - is less effective in developing muscle strength (and power). Modern theory says, that big compound moves (which might be slow) are more effective for gaining functional strength and even muscle volume. Basically, you give your body a much harder task, on which it responds by developing more power and strength.
3. A Good Form.
Functional training, kettlebells, etc. may be very dangerous as well. Big and sometimes fast moves can lead to improper form during exercises, which leads to spine injuries, knee injuries, etc. Improper form also prevents from muscle strength development. Just ask +Alexey Egorov of how much good kettlebell programs put emphasis on a proper form. Systems like SKOGG, Art of Strength, Mike Mahler's programs spend a lot of time on teaching proper technique, maintaining a form. That's an imperative.
The best book I ever read, which explains why old fashioned bodyweight functional training is far superior to modern machines and is healthier than heavy weight lifting is an ingenious Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade. Another interesting Dragon Door’s book is Raising The Bar by Al Kavadlo.
BTW, one single reason why I like P90X so much that even became a BeachBody Independent Coach (http://www.BeachBodyCoach.com/vkelman ) is that P90X is much more a functional, synced, balanced training, than an isolation one.

Apr 4 11:26 AM (edited)  -  Edit

Yuri Wolf  -  Thanks! This makes a lot of sense. A couple of comments/questions:
- heavy weights, slow motion, minimum repetitions, isolation - that NIH Fitness Center trainer gave the following algorithm: weights that allow you less than 10 reps are too heavy for you; weights that allow you more than than 20 reps are too light. He recommended to select the load that gives 10-12 reps; try to stay at 15 reps most of the time; as soon as you feel you can do 20, up the load one notch. Where does it put his program on the Strength - Endurance - Cardio scale?
- kettlebells, as I understand, are much heavier than typical exercise dumbbells. Still, as you say, the key of functional training is multiple repetitions. How do you achieve it with kettlebells? By involving a lot of different muscles in each move, so the load is more distributed?

Apr 4 6:00 PM

Vladimir Kelman  -  You know, I'm not a professional, I'm just learning. Obviously, these numbers are not carved in stone. +Tony Horton in P90X course recommends weights which allow you to do 8-10 reps as strength training, 10-15 - as endurance tool. Pretty similar, right?
Kettlebells allow for many different exercises, but - as I understand on this moment - a majority of kettlebell exercises use pendulum, inertia, not slow "static" muscular moves which are more often used with dumbbells. These classic kettlebell moves - swing, clean, snatch, jerk - surprisingly employee more hip and core strength than hand muscles. They are really technical, these moves, more like an art. That's why - to my and Alex Egorov's big surprise they are so interesting, so dynamic / cardiovascular, and that's why it's possible to use heavy bells. (We both are doing SKOGG System kettlebell workouts)
I'm just a beginner, though - and have a seriously damaged lower back. So, I currently train with 12 kg (26.45 lbs.), 16 kg (35.27 LBS), and I am starting to use 24 kg (52.91 lbs.) for two hands swing only.

Apr 4 6:42 PM (edited)  -  Edit

Yuri Wolf  -  Pretty similar, right? - indeed!
They are really technical, these moves, more like an art - Yes, this is probably where a question of form becomes really important. Easy to hurt yourself with a wrong move.
Thanks a lot for your comments!

Apr 5 10:27 PM

Vladimir Kelman  -  I posted that question on TRX forum without asking you first, but I thought it's kind of interesting to everybody public question. Got a couple of responses there too.
TRX itself is a Suspension Training and is very functional.

Apr 5 12:36 AM  -  Edit

Yuri Wolf  -  I posted that question on TRX forum without asking you first - sure, it's a question on an open forum, belongs to the public. :-)
Got a couple of responses there too - yes, the experts seem to agree.

An Update:

The Circular Strength Training System® and Clubbells

This is simply a quintessence of a functional training. This is a whole new and exciting world. Scott Sonnon - an inventor of Clubbells - is a very accomplished martial artist , former champion in several styles, including Russian Sambo, US Team trainer. Scott Sonnon was voted one of "The 6 Most Influential Martial Artists of the 21st Century" by Black Belt Magazine in 2010.

His Circular Strength Training (CST) is ingenious. Read about it on RMax International and look for YouTube clips.
I'm just entering the wonderful world of CST. Today I did their Group eXercise DVD workout for a very first time. I did it partially, because it was too hard. Other programs created by Scott Sonnon are equally exciting. Look for Intu-Flow, Body-Flow, FlowFit, Prasara Yoga. Don’t miss downloadable TACFIT® Programs – another ultimate tool for learning advanced body movements.

I noticed that very often systems offered by martial artists are extremely healthy, well balanced, simply  the best. This apply to programs by Scott Sonnon, as well as programs offered by My Mad Methods, such as Evolution Kettlebell Groundwork DVD; Combat Kettlebell Systems and Shadow-Jitsu Bodyweight Training DVDs (with former professional MMA fighter and competitive grappler, Joey Alvarado)

P.S.
Finally - rock climbing is great, combining it with calisthenics on pull-up bar, dip bars, and on a floor. Again, I cannot recommend more reading "Convict Conditioning" and "Raising the Bar" books by Dragon Doors.

P.P.S.
An example of a Heavy Bodyweight + Clubbell Workout Day

Some links for Kettlebell History

Today I received another email from famous Brooks Kubik Dinosaur Training email subscription, called Old School Iron!

What surprised me was the following Brook’s sentence,
”In fact, there are photos of some famous old gyms from the 1880 to 1920 period where the equipment consists entirely of globe barbells, a couple of globe dumbbells, and some kettlebells and ring weights. Nothing else.”

After reading numerous materials published by Dragon Door and other resources, I was under strong impression that kettlebells were introduced to USA by Pavel Tsatsouline about 12 years ago and were virtually unknown before. It turned out Brooks were right: I fell a victim of Dragon Door infomercial. While kettlebells weren’t common in Europe and US for last 70 years or so (bad-to-the-health commercial weight lifting machines mostly replaced functional bodyweight and free weight training there), they were known even in the beginning of 20-s Century.

The Kettlebells USA site says,
”Kettlebells were used extensively by old time strongmen such as Arthur Saxon, Sig Klein, Clevio Massimo and The Mighty Apollo. They were once a common staple in American gyms and training academies and were often called “Ring Weights”.”
And it proves its words by this great sequence of historic photographs.

In fact, a title page of The Text Book of Weightlifting by Arthur Saxon pictures him doing a kettlebell exercise.

Anta’s Fitness & Self Defense site says,
”In the early 1900's musclemen, bodybuilders and strong men of Europe, Canada and America like Arthur Saxon, Sig Klein, Louis Cyr and Eugen Sandow, to name a few all trained with kettlebells just like the Russian strongmen and athletes. Yet, while KB's disappeared in the West they began to flourish in the former Soviet Union. Everyone from common people, to the military, to Olympic athletes trained with kettlebells. In 1948 the first kettlebell competition took place in Russia. Later it became Russia's National sport. For more information on Russian Kettlebell history read “The Russian Kettlebell Challenge, Xtreme Fitness for Hard Living Comrades” by Pavel Tsatsouline.”

The Christian Science Monitor, The strongman 'kettlebell' makes a comeback at the gym
Winnipeg Free Press, Saved by the kettlebell
YouTube, A Brief History of Kettlebells - Kettlebell Training
KombatKettlebells, WHAT IS A KETTLEBELL?
Soviet Force – Kettlebells History
Powercore Fitness, The History of the Kettlebell
LiveStrong Com, Kettlebell History