Chalean Extreme: A Review

Since I just finished this program, I wanted to do a full review on it. Overall, I really liked it. I've never really done much strength training and so it was fun to try something new.

The program has 3 phases, each one lasting a month. There are 3 weight-lifting workouts for each phase. You are supposed to do 3 weight-lifting workouts each week, 2 cardio, 1 abs, and 1 yoga. Throughout the whole 12 weeks, you are supposed to do the same cardio, abs, and yoga.

I did my own cardio and yoga. (And I only did abs for about the first 6 weeks or so...whoops!)

Things I liked about it:
-you only had to do the same strength workout 4 times total
-you moved onto a new phase each month, so I didn't get bored
-Chalene was really upbeat, but not in an annoying "aerobics-instructor" way
-I felt like the people in the videos were real people with real lives, not just crazy gym addicts
-I liked that I could do my own cardio
-It was a reasonable amount of time (30-45 min.)

Things I didn't like:
-The warmup was the same for EVERY single workout. I got bored of it.
-I wish the ab workout would have been tacked onto the end of the strength workouts and not a separate one.
-The music wasn't that great.
-That Laylie wasn't in the second 2 phases...I liked her!

Overall, I really liked the strength-training part of the program. I didn't like the cardio workouts, but I just replaced them with my own. Which worked out better anyway, because then I could go to the gym or outside on cardio days and not be stuck at home. I really enjoyed getting into strength-training, and I'll definitely be doing that a lot more in the future.

As far as the challenge group I was in, it was pretty good for the first few weeks, but then I felt like most people in my group weren't very active in the group after that. Maybe I just was expecting more from them, but I felt like it could have been so much more than it was.

I may try another challenge group and see if it's different. I'm not sure what's next for me. I'm contemplating trying P90X again for my home days. We'll see. I'll let you know!