What Is The Best Beachbody Workout?

If you’re like me you probably have several Beachbody programs by now, and you may be wondering what to do with your “old” programs.  You could blend them into a hybrid schedule like my P90X T25 Hybrid or the P90X3 T25 Hybrid, or create your own schedule.  But what if you want to go back and re-visit all your old workouts to see which ones you liked the best?  Create a bracket!  This summer I will be pairing off various Beachbody workouts in a single elimination bracket to determine what the “best” workout is.  You could call it a P90X-P90X2-P90X3-Insanity-Focus T25-Rev Abs-Combat Hybrid.

The Contenders

I’ve combined 74 different workouts from 8 Beachbody programs into what I call the “Beachbody Bracket”.  The contenders are:

1. P90X:  The original which is now about 10 years old; it will be interesting to see how it holds up against the sequels
2. P90X2:  Focused more on athleticism rather than pure muscle building
3. P90X3:  Tony Horton’s latest incarnation of the original
4. P90X One-On-One:  A series of workouts filmed at Tony’s home gym that formed the basis for P90X2
5. Insanity:  The very first Beachbody program I did, and supposedly the “hardest workout program ever put on DVD”–we’ll see
6. Focus T25:  Shaun T’s “Insanity-lite”; includes Gamma cycle
7. Les Mills Combat:  Authentic martial arts program will go head to head with Kenpo X and MMX; includes the Ultimate Warrior upgrade workouts
8. Rev Abs:  One of the most under-rated Beachbody programs which contains head-to-toe full body workouts focusing on abs; let’s see how it does against the likes of Ab Ripper X

I tried to include most workouts but in the interest of time I did have to leave some on the cutting room floor.  I only included DVD’s that I actually own (of course), so I included the Combat Ultimate Warrior Upgrade for example but not the P90X3 Elite Upgrade.

The Criteria

What makes one workout “better” than another?  These are the general criteria I plan to use to compare similar programs:

• Level of Exertion:  I plan to wear my heart rate monitor for all workouts and record average HR, peak HR, total calories burned, and calories burned per hour.
• Difficulty:  A subjective estimate on how hard a workout is, measured by how many breaks I need to take, what percentage of reps I complete, etc.
• Enjoyment:  Who wants to do a workout that they dread?  Some workouts are so enjoyable that I can’t wait to get started, while others I can’t wait to finish.

Four Brackets

Since it would be very difficult to compare an upper body workout to an ab workout, I have split them up into 4 basic brackets and will crown a winner in each of the 4 brackets:

• Bracket 1:  Upper & Lower Body workouts (okay so they’re different but I grouped all Uppers together and Lowers together first)
• Bracket 2:  Cardio (including martial arts and plyometrics)
• Bracket 3:  Total Body / Core workouts
• Bracket 4:  Abs / Yoga / Stretch workouts

Rather than just throw all the workouts into a random order, I’ve created a 6-day weekly schedule that attempts to balance the week into a reasonable workout week.  Similar workouts that are paired up against each other will be done 3 days apart in the same week.  For example, a week might look like this:

• Day 1:  Upper Body 1
• Day 2:  Cardio 1
• Day 3:  Yoga 1
• Day 4:  Upper Body 2
• Day 5:  Cardio 2
• Day 6:  Yoga 2
• Day 7:  Rest or Schedule Flex Day

This schedule will allow me to compare workouts in the same week, and will let me complete 3 “match-ups” each week.  On paper it will take 21 weeks to complete the brackets, but since I will most likely miss a few days for summer travel it will most likely take a little longer.

The Brackets

Here are the first two rounds of the 4 brackets.  Click each one to pull up the full bracket.  “W” and “D” are the scheduled Week and Day for the specified workout.

Daily Schedule

Finally here is the 21-week daily schedule.  Note the short ab workouts are sprinkled in following other short workouts.

I will publish updates all summer as I work through the schedule (I’m already in Week 2).  Does anyone want to guess who the four bracket winners will be?  Tell me in a comment below.

Related Links

What Is The Best Beachbody Workout (Part 2, Weeks 1-5)

What Is the Best Beachbody Workout (Part 3, Weeks 6-11)

What Is The Best Beachbody Workout (Final)