Tips & Hybrid Calendars for Beachbody on Demand

Considering the lack of guidance within Beachbody on Demand, and how hard it is for most of you guys to chart your own fitness progression, I will share some useful tips and strategies.

In our lengthy review, I’ve already emphasized the importance of completing a single program before you do anything else. So let’s go ahead and pick a suitable candidate.

Which Beachbody on Demand program to chose first?

If your body is manifesting the symptoms from a long sedentary life, it is perhaps best to start with one of these options:

Tai Cheng, PiYo, Country Heat or Cize.

The first two are low impact routines (PiYo being harder, but also more holistic), and the last two are dance workouts. I’ve listed them by intensity, though it is a different ballgame when comparing the first against the latter.

After completing a single round, you can very well progress to a more demanding program. At level 2 I recommend:

21 Day Fix, P90, Focus T25 and maybe, if we just raise the bar a bit, 22 Minute Hard Corps.

By now, you’ll be able to get a sense of how difficult a workout is, just by skipping through the library. Beginners want to think that they have this skill as well, but I remember how clueless I was after seeing Insanity for the first time, thinking it was an easy routine.

Then, another level up and you have:

ChaLean Extreme, 80 Day Obsession, Core de Force, and P90X3 (again, if we are pushing the bar a bit higher)

Many of these include equipment such as a pair of dumbbells. If you want to know the equipment requirements for each program precisely, just check our detailed guide for Beachbody on Demand equipment requirements.

Here you can follow my suggestions, or start with hybrid calendars that mostly include the previous programs, with a new level 3 workout video around three times per week.

Hybrid calendars for Beachbody on Demand

Here is the first hybrid calendar if you’d like to follow a well-balanced program that is slightly more intense than what you’ll get at level 2, and slightly less intense than all the programs at level 3.

Month 1

Month 2 & 3

Used workouts:

Total body burn, Ab sculpt

Alpha Cardio, Alpha lower focus, Alpha total body circuit

Abs, Lower body, Yoga flex

Ab ripper X, Plyometrics, Yoga X, Shoulders and Arms, Upper X

Then, another step up, and we are at level 4 where you’ll find most of the hard work. Here I recommend:

P90X, Insanity Max 30 and the original Insanity

If you’ve done mostly cardio by now, I’d go ahead and pick P90X. It is a much more holistic program that emphasizes muscle growth and strength as much as it targets weight loss through cardio and agility work.

If, however, you need to burn inches more than anything else, and want to burn them fast, I’d go with the original Insanity workout.

Creating a hybrid calendar here is perhaps the best way to balance the scales and get the best from both worlds. Here is one I’ve personally followed:

Used workouts:

Pure Cardio, Max Recovery, Insane abs

Speed and Agility, Strength, Vertical Plyo, Back to core, Gameday

Power Legs, Ab shredder, Off day stretch

Then, if you are bored by everything else, The Asylum series would make an excellent pick. I prefer Volume 1 since it offers a much better flow. I’ve seen a lot of hybrid calendars for Beachbody on Demand that include the workouts from the Asylum series. My advice? Don’t even try it – these are very hard workouts, and nicely balanced in order to fit into a schedule. Change the flow, and you can interrupt the entire sequence. Not particularly smart when you are training at such a level.

With progression nicely outlined, and two extra calendars to follow, I’d like to share a couple of additional tips as well. The Beachbody on Demand platform is a true behemoth in terms of size. The libraries are massive, and if you are completely new to this game, it does seem a bit frightening at first. So what should a beginner pay attention to?

Tips for Beachbody on Demand

With the hybrid calendars for Beachbody on Demand out of the way, here are few things to remember regardless of your fitness level, and regardless of your starting program.

1. Buy quality sneakers. But not running shoes, mind you. You’ll have to perform a series of jumping exercises and move your body back and forth in ways that running shoes were not designed to support. Running shoes are fancy, and they got colors and they’re really groovy, but they’re not designed to go in every direction – only forward. So you need to get a cross trainer, and typically most companies don’t make good ones.
2. If you want to repeat a workout, give yourself one week to fully recover. The same goes for starting a brand new one. Aim for active rest, which is a combination of stretching, and some athletic outdoor activities. Don’t wear yourself down!
3. Engage the core! The more you engage the core, the harder every exercise becomes. You’ll end up burning more calories, developing a nice set of abs much sooner than expected.

Other tips would include ventilating the room prior to a workout, always having your water bottle and towel next to you, and pushing past your limits slowly, so you always feel in control of the intensity. Furthermore, you’ll want to avoid heavy meals two hours before a workout, and any meals one hour prior to hitting the play button.

As for why I’m writing on this topic:

While I’m not a Beachbody coach, I do get a small compensation if you decide to make a purchase. On the other hand, I’m the co-founder of Fitness Updated, which makes Beachbody on Demand a serious competitor to my business. As much incentive you’d think there is for me to sell you a subscription, there is definitely more to make you forget about this platform.

One cannot, however, deny the fact that this is currently the most popular fitness library on the internet. A lot of you guys are curious, so it is only fair of me to write about it.

There is a 30 days money back guarantee you can take advantage of, so for anyone still interested, here is the free trial.

Get all Beachbody workouts for just $99