While I’ve never considered myself an athlete (with good reason – ha!), I’m also no stranger to exercise and the principles of fitness. I spent many hours in college riding my road bike (usally averaging 100 miles or so per week), as well as doing physical training – PT – in Army ROTC, which was pretty grueling: I was always in “remedial” PT, and had to spend a lot of extra time grunting and sweating!

But I’ll tell you, my friend, that pales in terms of intensity to what hit me when my wife and I “graduated” from Beachbody’s P90 Master series to ChaLEAN Extreme from Beachbody!

Now, before you shake your head at my lunacy and head off somewhere else, check this out: this is not a program for masochists. It’s a program for people who want results. It’s very challenging, but I believe that if you put your best into it and follow Chalene Johnson, you’ll see some spectacular changes.

Like some of Beachbody’s other programs, it’s built around three month-long segments that are designed to keep your body adapting. Unlike a lot of other programs, however, ChaLEAN Extreme emphasizes strength training as its core – yes, even for women! – with cardio really as a secondary, but essential, component. Why? Simple: as Chalene’s mantra goes, “Muscle burns fat!”

One of the many nice things about this program is that Chalene debunks the myth that women will bulk up if they lift weights. This simply isn’t true, because women have so much less testosterone than men (and men, of course, will bulk up, which most guys want!). People think of female bodybuilders, but don’t realize the incredible amount of effort that goes into building those physiques! But the workouts in this program will firm you up and slim you down! And by building up muscle in your body, you’ll burn more calories even just resting than you would otherwise.

The program is broken down into three phases: Burn, Push, and Lean. The workouts for all three phases are broken up to focus on specific muscle groups, plus a couple of dedicated aerobic workouts (Burn Intervals – which still kicks my bootie – and Burn It Off) and two ab workouts.

Burn focuses on building the foundation you’ll need for the later phases. You’ll be using weights that are light/heavy enough to make twelve reps, plus aerobic elements to build your aerobic conditioning and get a jump on whittling down your body fat.

Push moves you into a lower-rep (six to eight) higher-weight phase that really focuses on building muscle. Chalene really homes in on maintaining proper form and pushing it until your muscles fail. And then she makes you do some more. You’ll hear the phrase “Go heavy or go home!” a lot during this segment!

Lean moves you back toward higher reps, but you’ll be pushing heavier weights than you did in Burn (although generally not as heavy as in the Push phase), combining upper body movements with simultaneous lower body movements. And you will do a lot – a lot – of reps for the target muscle groups. This phase is also a bit extra challenging because some of the exercises force you to concentrate hard on your concentration. But there are modifications to help you through them if your balance isn’t quite there.

But this isn’t to say that you have to be an Olympic athlete to do ChaLEAN Extreme. To be honest, I personally am glad that we took the road that we did, starting with the basic P90, then P90 Master, and then moving into ChaLEAN. We weren’t complete couch potatoes, but if you haven’t exercised in a long time, or at all, I’d probably recommend that you start with P90 or one of Beachbody’s other programs first. That got us in good condition where we could really take advantage of what ChaLEAN offers.

But if you really like the sound of the program and want to give it a try, that’s cool, too! A couple of the people in the workout demonstrate modifications to make things a bit easier. And once you get into it, you won’t want to stop!

Another thing Chalene hits on – and this is a huge factor – is nutrition. My friend, it doesn’t matter how much you work out or what you do: if you don’t eat lean and nutritious food, you won’t see the kind of results you’re hoping for. There’s no point in putting the amount of effort that you’ll want to put into this if you don’t eat right! ChaLEAN Extreme comes with a nutrition guide that will help you get started (and there’s tons more nutrition information on the Beachbody site), but you really need to adopt a “clean eating” lifestyle. Think of it this way: it’s not a diet, it’s just a different way of eating. And you have to eat a lot, too! No starving yourself on this program: you need to eat a small, nutritious meal about every two hours to give your body what it needs to build that muscle and burn fat. It seems counterintuitive, but danged if it doesn’t work!

I also have to comment here on Chalene Johnson herself. I’m not big into “motivational” stuff in general (sorry, but I tend to be cynical – years of federal service will do that to you!), but she brings something special to the mix and really is motivational, even to a jaded curmudgeon like me. Even after you’ve done a given workout several times, she still somehow makes it fun and fresh as you’re grunting and groaning, trying to squeeze out another rep!

So, my bottom line opinion is that ChaLEAN Extreme should definitely be among your workout arsenal: this is a must-have. It might not be the right thing for you to get started with if you’ve been stuck in your La-Z-Boy too long (in which case start with the basic P90 or one of Beachbody’s other “building block” programs), but once you can do a dozen pushups on your knees, can handle five pounds of weight or more, and can maybe walk a mile at a good clip without getting out of breath, you should definitely start thinking about it, and start out using the modifications so the exercises aren’t too hard. And if you’re already in fair shape, jump in with both feet! Either way, you will see lots of positive changes to your body with this program, so check it out at Beachbody!

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