Beachbody On Demand Review, Stream Your Workouts On Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast, Or An App
By Emily Raines
Last Updated Jan 11, 2018 When someone mentions Beachbody, whether you’re familiar with the workouts or not, you probably think of P90X, Tony Horton, and maybe Insanity with Shaun T. You also might think of using a DVD player to watch these workouts. That is sooooo 2008. In 2015 with a great, forward-thinking move for the company, Beachbody officially joined the video streaming world. Seeing the societal shift towards streaming technology like the Amazon Fire Stick, Google Chromecast, Roku, and our smartphones, they decided to ditch the DVD’s and allow people access to their popular workouts via smart technology. They still produce and sell the DVD’s that made the company so popular in the home fitness market, but now offer streaming workouts in addition to the DVD’s. The streaming techonology allows customers access to over 700 workouts, including the entire library of Beachbody workouts while the company enjoys your payment on an annual basis rather than once every few years with a DVD workout. Win-win for everyone. In this Beachbody On Demand Review, here’s what you’ll get…
|
Vertical Divider
|
Full Assessment Of The Features And Beachbody On Demand Programs
Like I stated before, Beachbody On Demand is a streaming workout video service. It gives you access to over 700 workouts produced by Beachbody. You get access to popular programs like these…
- P90X
- Insanity
- P90X 2
- P90X 3
- Piyo
- T25
- 21 Day Fix
- Hammer And Chisel
- Brazil Butt Lift
And many, many more. In addition to these and several other workouts, you’ll get access to Beachbody’s expert trainers. Including Tony Horton, Shaun T, Chalene Johnson, Autumn Calabrese, Sagi Kalev, Chris Downing, and many others.
You can access the workouts with any streaming device. Despite its small size, I’ve grown accustomed to using Beachbody On Demand on my phone. But you can use the Fire Stick, Chromecast, Roku, or any streaming device, including your iPad, tablet, and computer.
There is a Beachbody On Demand app that makes access to the workouts really easy. They put a lot of thought into the app and have convenient navigation features that make it super easy and fun to use.
For example…when you open the app on your phone you immediately see two things. First is a personalized welcome message telling you to get back to the workout you most recently finished. And second, is a number that tells you how many other Beachbody On Demand subscribers are currently using the app to workout. A cool feature that tells me that I’m not the only one languishing through a workout at 5 AM.
As you scroll down through the app you’ll see “Recently Watched” workouts, then the complete library of workouts which I think is organized by their current, most popular programs, then a unique icon called “Challenge Du Jour” (more on that in a second). Finally you reach the workouts organized by trainer where you can choose your workout based on your favorite Beachbody fitness personality. Similar to the workout programs, I think this is organized by popularity.
|
|
One more nice feature of the app is that you can stream the workouts or download. If you download the workouts they are saved within the app and available with easy access at any time. This is a nice feature because my internet connection isn’t the greatest in my basement home gym, so the streaming tends to buffer. If I download a workout I don’t have this problem.
If you like to monitor your heart rate while exercising, the BBOD even has an option to sync each workout to your heart rate monitor or fitness tracker. You can sync the workouts to your Apple Watch or Wahoo Tickr X heart rate monitor. I personally don’t use heart rate monitors so I can’t tell you how well this works, but it is a nice additional feature.
Beachbody On Demand Challenge Du Jour
The challenge du jour is the on demand workout of the day. Each week they have workout of the day that consists of a different workout every day chosen by one of their fitness personalities and chosen from their entire library of workouts.
The important thing about these workouts and the challenge du jour week is that in my opinion, is the most important aspect of the entire on demand service. Prior to the on demand service you had one program available at any time on DVD. If you wanted more workouts you had to order another DVD program through snail mail. Not only was that an additional cost, but you had to wait for it to arrive, and it was still just one additional program. With the streaming service you have access to hundreds of workouts at any one time and never face the possibility of getting bored.
The challenge du jour offers a variety of workouts each week, every day to keep you motivated, challenged, and engaged and that I think is the largest benefit of this service. The monthly price you pay is small compared to this benefit.
Furthermore, you don’t even need to plan any workouts yourself, its all done for you. If you like Beachbody hybrid programs this is the ultimate hybrid progam, with a new workout every day and week.
Beachbody On Demand Fire TV And Roku
The app on your smartphone works great, but, as you can imagine it can take some time getting used to watching a workout on a 6 inch screen. But with the Fire TV or Roku you are able to view the workouts on your TV, just like the old school DVD’s.
The TV option is pretty much the same as the phone with just a few differences with the navigation. You can still easily select a workout by trainer, program, or challenge du jour, but you’re also able to choose a workout by fitness goal. You can choose from cardio, dance, 30 minute workouts, low impact, muscle building, slim and tone, or yoga.
Another difference between the TV and phone option is the pesky Beachbody legal statement before the workout. With the DVD you had no choice but to wait for the legal statement to complete. With the TV streaming service you just click a box that you read the statement and accept the terms. With the phone app there is no legal statement. Nothing to click and nothing to wait to finish!
A Screenshot of BBOD from my Fire TV
The Price And Cost Is A Steal
For access to this service you have a few options.
- One time payment of $99 ($8.25/month), with a 30 day risk free trial
- 2 payments a year of $59 ($9.84/month), with a 30 day risk free trial
- 4 payments a year of $39 ($13/month), with the first 14 days free
According to the promotional website, if you choose the once a year payment, you’ll save $57 vs the 4x per year option. If you choose the twice a year payment you’ll save $38 each year vs the 4x per year option.
As you can see, they give you a few options to choose from, but regardless of your choice, you definitely get your moneys worth. There is a ton of value in this service that far exceeds my initial expectations. Here are some nice extra features...
Some Extra Features And Benefits
Some Extra Features And Benefits
For each of the workout programs you’ll get access to the workout calendars, fitness guides, nutrition plans, and progress trackers. Basically everything that comes with the DVD’s, you’ll be able to download immediately for quick and convenient access.
A really cool extra feature are additional workouts. They give you access to the entire library of Beachbody workouts, from the newest to the oldest, but as an extra feature, Beachbody produced a few additional workouts with each trainer specifically for this service. I’ve used several of these and they provide some great variety to your routine. The production quality is just as good as the workout programs.
There is an entire library of videos dedicated to meal prep, healthy eating, and recipes. With Autumn Calabrese and her brother hosting the series of videos they call Fixate. With well over 50 videos, they provide short (between 5-16 min) recipes of the most healthy and delicious foods in the Beachbody kitchen. They also provide a grocery list for every recipe on the Fixate program. The pdf for this grocery list is 158 pages!
The Fixate cooking videos are an excellent addition to this service. I am really blown away with the quality of these videos, the simplicity of the recipes, and the overall value they add to the Beachbody On Demand service. If there is one thing I struggle with it is cooking and meal prep. These videos give you everything you need to know about meal prep.
The Fixate cooking videos are an excellent addition to this service. I am really blown away with the quality of these videos, the simplicity of the recipes, and the overall value they add to the Beachbody On Demand service. If there is one thing I struggle with it is cooking and meal prep. These videos give you everything you need to know about meal prep.
Pros And Cons
Pros And Cons
I was hesitant to purchase the BBOD service because I felt it wasn’t necessary. I already had several of the workouts on DVD and would often rotate them as if I was doing a hybrid program or the challenge du jour.
However my wife and I were getting stuck in a workout rut. We needed something new and different besides T25, 22 Minute Hard Corps, The 21 Day Fix, and running. I did some basic research on Beachbody’s website (which doesn’t contain much info on the on demand service) and decided over 700 workouts would keep us motivated.
The amount of workouts, and overall quality of the service blew me away. I honestly think $99 a year a very good deal. In fact, I’m worried that the folks at Beachbody KNOW its such a good deal that they’ll raise the price in the future. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen.
Pros:
- Access to hundreds of workouts
- Access to expert trainers
- Immediate access to workout calendars and nutrition guides for each workout program
- Access to the Fixate cooking and meal prep videos
- Download option in addition to streaming
- Navigation and ease of use is excellent
- Can sync workouts with heart rate monitor like the Apple Watch
- Can view content with smartphone, Fire TV, Roku, and other streaming devices
- Streaming service contingent on bandwith. Can be slow if you have slow internet
- Viewing the workouts on your phone can be awkward
Should You Get It?
Should You Get It?
One very nice feature of the service and the reason I joined is because of the access to a variety of workouts. I’ve been using Beachbody products for a long time and needed some new workouts to keep me motivated.
However, if you think you just need one or two programs to lose weight or change your lifestyle then you may not need access to hundreds of workouts. It could be overwhelming and distract from a singular focus on one workout program. This is a decision you have to make, however, with access to over hundreds of options including the cooking and meal prep videos, all for a reasonable price, the Beachbody On Demand service is hard to pass up.
