Chalene Extreme was launched about a year and a half ago by beachbody and trainer Chalene Johnson. Over time it seems many have forgotten about this once super hyped P90X style workout designed with women in mind. To their defense fitness trainer and weight loss expert Chalene Johnson is probably better known for her Turbo Jam in home workout, or maybe even her newest cardio, turbo creation- Turbo Fire. The question though is, is ChaLEAN Extreme a dead workout or does it still offer something unique and challenging to those looking for such a program?
ChaLEAN Extreme – Dead or Alive?
I think you would be hard pressed today to say that Chalene Extreme is Dead. True, the workout seems to be a poor seller among the beachbody family but that is not usually a strong indicator of a bad fitness program, maybe bad marketing and over hype but not a bad program. To Chalene’s defense other wonderfully crafted beachbody programs are poor sellers, like the Kathy Smith Project YOU Diabetes program. That program is a hand crafted masterpiece, it’s just sad to say know one knows about it, there’s a great example of poor marketing.
My personal feeling as to why Chalene Extreme was not a super success among users is because of one major problem, the problem was that this program was designed with women in mind and it was designed to bring the idea that lifting weights and shifting away from cardio and more towards resistance is great way for women to exercise. The principal idea behind the workout is correct, there is nothing wrong with female exercisers using moderate weight lifting techniques to lose weight and get tone. Unfortunately though years of ideas being pressed into the minds of people cannot be changed over night, no matter how slick the infomercial is. The end result is a small group of exercisers deciding to take the chance and order the program, of course of those that have used it they rave about the program and look and feel of their bodies. However convincing millions or people to try something contrary to popular belief is a hard sell.
The ChaLEAN Extreme Technique to a Sculpted Body
The overall theory behind Chalean Extreme is that Muscle burns Fat. Is this theory scientifically sound?? Well from what has been written on this subject by various authors, dietitians, fitness experts, and even scientist, the answer is Yes. It seems that Chalene Johnson is really the first though to build a program based around this theory, so instead of creating a program that was cardio based and designed to burn fat, why not build a program that creates muscle that in turn burns fat, hence Chalene Extreme was born.
In addition to this basic idea and platform for the program there are other fundamental building blocks in place, like the idea of circuit training. The circuit training phases in Chalene Extreme are quite simple, you begin with the Burn phase which is broken into three shorter weight lifting circuits that try to jump start your metabolism, next is the push phase which was designed to push your body a little harder than the previous phase and get you out of your comfort zone, and the last phase is the Lean phase, which rounds out the whole body and takes the previous workout phases and kind of polishes them, in turn polishing your body.
Chalene Extreme still has a Pulse
Well when it’s all said and done it looks like this fitness program still has a little life left in it. Yes, many previous misconceived ideas about weight lifting and women are still going to be around for a long time, but there’s still many people that are willing to take a chance and roll the dice on this in home program. Over the past couple of years there has been a number of blogs and personal stories of women and men that have used this program and loved very second of it.
