Beachbody’s Focus T25 – What is it?

Beachbody’s Focus T25 workout is a DVD workout series from Shaun T. The Focus T25 workout is a high intensity cardio and strength workout for the whole body.
The goal is to get in shape, lose weight, and do it only in 25 minutes per day, rather than spending several hours per day. The Beachbody’s Focus T25 workout is all about burning fat and toning muscles.

For whom and what should you expect from Focus T25 workout?

Focus T25 workout is designed for those who don’t have time to workout a couple of hours each day, but still want to see results. It’s for people that are busy, don’t want to buy expensive equipment, and want to workout at home. Focus T25 workout is for people who want to burn fat while toning muscles and are willing to work 25 minutes a day, 5 days a week (that is if you don’t count stretching on one day), rather than few hours per day.

This workout is NOT for people who want to have bigger muscles. Focus T25 workout is primarily a cardio workout with some strength training.

Majority of the exercises that are done in the workout are bodyweight exercises and instead of counting reps, you do as many as you are able to do in a given time. The workout is suitable for anyone from fitness beginners to the fitness veterans that want to shed pounds.

The T25 workout works best for people that are beginner to intermediate. Beginners to intermediates will lose weight quickly with this high intensity workout. The workout is also suitable for those whom already are in a mediocre to decent shape and need to drop a few extra pounds/kilos, but I wouldn’t recommend T25 for that purpose. Instead I would recommend a program that focuses more on building muscle to lose weight.

What’s included in the Focus T25 workout program?

The Focus T25 Workout program includes:

• 5-Day Fast Track
• Quick-Start Guide
• Get It Done Nutrition Guide
• ALPHA-BETA Workout Calendars
• 11 workout DVDs. Each workout is 25 minutes
• B-LINES^® Resistance Band (15 lb.)
• 24/7 Online Support

5-Day Fast Track 

The 5-day fast track is an 1,100-calorie-a-day plan that is meant for the first 5 days of the program. This is for the people who might wonder: what do I do first? It’s a step-by-step guide that shows you how to be successful from day one.

In my opinion, just 1,100 calories per day is too much of a calorie deficit for most people. This level of calories is only suitable for a small-framed woman and shouldn’t be followed daily.

Quick Start Guide

Basic guide that gives an overall description and how to make the most of the program. More of a formality than a necessity.

Nutrition guide

When it comes to losing weight, nutrition is the most important thing. The T25 is not just a workout program but a complete approach towards looking great and being healthy.

This whole workout is about being quick and so is the T25 diet plan. All the 25 recipes in the T25 diet plan are made up just from 5 ingredients and should take just about 5 minutes to prepare. All 5 ingredients are “real food” and should be nutritious, delicious and affordable and each recipe is written for 1200-1600 calorie level.

Why meal plans? The idea is to help people, that give up on the whole idea of eating healthy just because of calculating your own calorie intake and caloric goal can be frustrating and time consuming.

The T25 diet plan is trying to make nutrition simple as possible. All the calculations are counted for you and all you need to do is browse the meals and then choose a meal that appeals to you. Simple and straightforward.

What is included in the nutrition guide?

The 4-step calorie quiz

First of there is a 4-step calorie quiz. The quiz is to figure out how many calories you should be eating per day. The guide says that the calorie intakes are just suggestions and the idea is to strike a balance.

In my opinion the whole 4-step calorie quiz is off the mark in valuating of how many calories you need per day. Your age and height are factors that have an effect on your daily calorie requirements and the quiz just leaves them out of the calculations. The internet is full of better TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculators than this, just google.

Although you need calorie deficit to lose weight, consuming just 1200 calories per day is probably too much of a deficit for most of the people, especially because you are going to increase your activity by this workout.

Want more customization?

I like that the T25 food guide is very customizable. Nothing is really set in stone and since every one of us are different it’s important that the meal plans are customizable. Whether you need to shed a few pounds or have a lot of bodyfat to lose, the book gives you the guidelines and then you fallow what you can.

Recipes

The most of the recipes that are included in the book are quite simple to make and are tasteful. I tried few of these recipes and it did take me more than 5-minutes, but that might be because I’m just a horrible cook. For the taste, I don’t have anything to complain and I like the variety of recipes there are for every category. The meals are roughly made out of 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 20% of fats.

Here is an example of a 5-minute and a 5-ingredient recipe:

Focus T25 Workout Calendars

The schedule in the Focus T25 workout is simple. There are two cycles in the schedule, Alpha Cycle and Beta Cycle. You have each calendar for five weeks and the calendar tells you each day which workout you should do. Every Saturday is a rest day and every Sunday is for stretching. Fridays are double workout days, where you do two workout videos back to back.

Alpha Cycle

The first five weeks are spent on the Alpha Cycle. The Alpha Cycle teaches you how to perform the exercises, how to move your body and what to focus on. The Alpha Cycle is for to build a foundation to your workouts while improving your overall health.

Focus T25 Alpha Cycle (click to read the whole Alpha Cycle review)

• Alpha Cardio – A 25-minute cardio workout for burning calories. Starts slowly and gradually builds up.
• Speed 1.0 – Fast paced workout that is all about speed, stability and stretch.
• Total Body Circuit – Focus is on strength and resistance.
• Ab Intervals – Interval-based fat-burning routine for your core.
• Lower Focus – Designed to strengthen and sculpt your muscles from the waist down.

Beta Cycle

The second five weeks are more challenging and the focus is on the core strength and core speed. While the Alpha cycle was challenging, I thought that the Beta Cycle came at the perfect time. After five weeks of doing Alpha Cycle, I started to want more of a challenge from the workout. I felt like my strength and endurance had been improving and I wanted to kick things up a level.

Focus T25 Beta Cycle (click to read the whole Beta Cycle review)

• Core Cardio – Progressive cardio workout that focuses on the core.
• Speed 2.0 – Taking the Speed 1.0 to a next level.
• Rip’T Circuit – Workout is for upper body, legs, abs and has cardio also.
• Dynamic Core – Dynamic core exercises with cardio
• Upper Focus – Focus on the muscles above the waist

B-LINES^® Resistance Band (15 lb.) 

15-pound resistance band that you can use to increase intensity of your workouts. You can also use dumbbells to compliment your workout routine, whatever you personally prefer.

24/7 Online Support

Online support to answers all your product and fitness questions 24/7. The program provides trainers and coaches from the Beachbody, from whom you can ask advice, tips, motivation, and support. For some people this 24/7 Online Support could be priceless.

Pros of Focus T25

• Suitable for everyone from beginners to veterans.
• The workout can be done in 25 minutes. But, there are intros and cool downs in every workout that makes the total workout time close to 30 minutes. Nevertheless, it’s a timesaving and effective workout program.
• No additional equipment needed and can be done in home.
• Variety of exercises and workouts.
• Subtitles (English and Spanish version)
• Workouts and diet can be modified for people at different fitness levels.
• Combination of cardio and muscle strengthening exercises
• If you really do what the nutrition program tells you to do, and do the workouts with high enough intensity, you will lose weight and get in a better shape.

Cons of Focus T25

• Involves jumping. This might be a problem if you have knee/back problems or downstairs neighbors. There are modified movements that are easier or don’t include jumping at all.
• Some of the exercises might be little too intense at first or if your general coordination is not very good. But, you have to remember that it takes effort to lose weight or build muscle.
• Some people might not like that there isn’t any water breaks and the warmup and cool down sections are too short.

Focus T25 Conclusion 

Overall this is a good cardio and strength workout program for people who are trying to lose weight. The Alpha Cycle build a solid foundation and the Beta Cycle brought the workouts to a next level. I also enjoyed that the diet and workouts could be modified.

The cardio and exercises are crammed into 25 minutes and I thought it was efficient. There are studies that support the idea that short intense workouts are better and more productive than long ones.

I did struggle with some of the exercises at first, but even for a beginner the exercises are not too challenging. The nutrition guide is good for understanding how to eat healthier, even though I think that the calorie deficit might be too much for some people.

Beachbody’s Focus T25 workout does require you to work hard and eat healthy if you are looking to see significant results. With the Focus T25 workout you won’t see significant results happening overnight, but with the help of the Focus T25, you will see results in a more time saving way.

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