Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer Review
I attempted this program for the first time the summer of 2013. I was super pumped up to have a set program for myself and to see some serious results. Around month 3, I moved and started another year of school. I remember how I would stress over getting to the gym 6 days a week to complete the workouts on top of being at a new school and working a part time job. I ended up not finishing the program because it had all become too much for me to handle.
Looking back on that experience, I realized that I went into the program for all the wrong reasons. Sure it's great to have a program aimed at transforming your body but I took it too far. Because of my obsessive behavior with tracking calories and monitoring my weight, this program was not what was healthy for me. Going into this program for the second time, I had a completely different mindset (plus I didn't focus on the "dieting" portion of this program). I wasn't doing this because I wanted to lose weight or look a certain way, like the first time. I was doing this to become stronger and prove to myself that I could stick to this for 12 whole weeks. I may have only lost a few pounds and may not look much different, but my mindset has changed drastically and I am so proud of myself for finishing.
Here are my thoughts on the different phases of the Live Fit Trainer and the program overall.
Phase 1 - The primary Focus is on building muscle, so no cardio!
I started the Live Fit Trainer two days after running my first half marathon. I was passed the point of being burnt out from cardio so this was a very welcome new program for me. The first month consists of no cardio and solely focuses on resistance training. I always get really excited when starting a new fitness endeavor so this first month I really loved.
Phase 2 - Still building muscle but adding in cardio 3-4 times a week
This is where the program became very time-consuming. Cardio was added in on top of the regular lifting. I would spend almost two hours in the gym more times than not during the week. The nice thing was that super-sets were incorporated which saved a little bit of time.
Phase 3 - Maximize results with lifting and cardio.
By the time month 3 came around, I was ready for more cardio. I was getting tired of lifting all of the time and wanted to get my heart rate up and break more of a sweat. Weeks 9 and 10 were probably the most challenging weeks of the whole program. I was beginning to get a little bored with the program and the workouts became more intense. They incorporate more HIIT exercises such as jumping rope, tuck jumps, and mountain climbers. Thankfully I got through those weeks because the last two weeks were my favorite weeks of the whole program.
Weeks 11 and 12 consisted of 5-7 Exercises that were done one after the other with as little rest as possible. I loved that this was a change of pace and that it didn't take very long to complete the lifting portion of the workout. Cardio was also 5 of the 6 days of the week which would generally turn me off, but I was ready for it and even got excited to do some cardio. The 30 minutes always went by really quickly for me, which never happens with cardio. Am I right?
Overall
The two main things I didn't enjoy about this program, were spending 1.5 - 2 hours in the gym (during phase 2) and working out 6 days a week. More times than not, I would work extra hard during the week to try and squeeze in an extra workout so that I wouldn't have to go to the gym on Saturdays. Besides that, overall I really loved this program and would definitely recommended it as well as do It again myself. I loved having a specific workout to do each day that I didn't have to think much about. I was also very blessed to have two friends join me on this journey (Go Rachel and Kimber!). It made going to gym a little bit easier every day, knowing that they were going to be there or that they would be doing the same workout sometime that day. Lastly, Jamie Eason is such an inspiration to me. She makes sure God and her family are higher priorities than her fitness, which is a hard thing to remember to do when being in the fitness industry.
Next on my agenda is...
XOXO,
Ashley
