Body for Life workouts

[syelel]

Hi!

I wanted to get everyone's feedback on the body for life workouts. How do you think it compares to other workouts? I've tried that but I feel like it ends up being heavy weight. Not worried about bulking up but wasn't sure if these workouts were a good way to blast the fat and add muscle. Any suggestions on something better?

What are your thoughts on circuit training? Do you suggest that over body for life workouts? They focus on doing upper body one day day and legs the following day. Before I was circuit training 2 different body parts every other day with cardio in between...any suggestions?

[BuffedStuff]

I did two body for life challenges and they did my body good of course at the time I was still blasting body fat...so I had pretty good results...another
workout plan I like is LL Cool J's platinum workout.....there are a lot of good workout plans out there. I hope you find one that you really like. Good luck on your journey.

[syelel]

Awesome thanks! I checked out the website and I'm going to order the book. Looks great!

[yettamae]

It's an excellent program:
I lost over 32 pounds on the program doing two BFL challenges and went from a size 14 to size 4 on the program. After I got mid weight I decided to do a show. It's a solid and legit program that promises results and works at long as you commit to the diet and workouts. I am holding a Body for Lifer group with over 800 members on myspace.com. You should check it out:

Group URL: http://groups.myspace.com/getintoshapenow

[yettamae]

Hi!

I wanted to get everyone's feedback on the body for life workouts. How do you think it compares to other workouts? I've tried that but I feel like it ends up being heavy weight. Not worried about bulking up but wasn't sure if these workouts were a good way to blast the fat and add muscle. Any suggestions on something better?

What are your thoughts on circuit training? Do you suggest that over body for life workouts? They focus on doing upper body one day day and legs the following day. Before I was circuit training 2 different body parts every other day with cardio in between...any suggestions?

The weight training isn't circuit training, but pyramid training, which is different.

Here is brief overview of the program and how to get started:

Bill Phillips is best known as the author of the best-selling fitness book Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength. He is also the author 'Eating for Life', founder and former editor in chief of Muscle Media magazine and the former CEO of EAS, a performance nutritional supplement company. Bill Phillips Body for Life program has helped countless people lose fat and increase strength as well as tap into a source of mental energy.

Here is the run down:
You work out 6 days a week 20 mins of high intensity cardio and 46 minutes of pyramid training with a superset.

Bill's "20-minute aerobics solution" is a type of "High Intensity Interval Training" (HIIT). You have to hit a high point 4 times and on the last interval you have to reach your highest point.

You start with two minutes of warmup at a level 5, then move to level 6 for a minute, then 7. This portion of your workout is aerobic. Your level 8 should have more bounce and push to it, taking you slightly out of your comfort range. Your level 9 effort is a "high point" and should be somewhat anaerobic. The fourth time through this cycle, you add a "high point" - a level 10, after your 9.

Bill suggest's that your do cardio on an empty stomach the first thing in the morning, then wait an hour to eat afterwards.

Bill's 46-minute weight-training workout is called
a "half pyramid, with a compound pump set". You do two exercises per body part. The first set of 12 reps is an essential stretch and warm-up. You then move to a higher weight for 10 repetitions, higher again for 8 reps, maximal weight for 6 reps, then dropping to lower weight for a "compound set" - 12 reps followed immediately by another 12 reps using a different exercise for the same part. The last couple of reps in your final 12 should require everything you've got.

The 12 week workout looks like this:

week 1:Upper Cardio Lower/Abs Cardio Upper Cardio Rest
week2:Lower/Abs Cardio Upper Cardio Lower/Abs Cardio Rest

You alternate each week. Training this way is supposed to keep from overtraining.

As for nutrition: eat 6 small meals a day that consist of 3 snacks and 3 meals (veggies, lean meats, and complex carbs). The veggies and carbs, should be the size of your fist and lean meat should be the size of a deck of cards. The snacks for example can be low/fat yogurt with fat free/low fat cottage cheese, shakes, nutrition bars, etc.

For more info on the program you can check out the Body for Life website as well as Dr. Hussman's website for further info:

www.bodyforlife.com

www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPBodyforLife.html

As for books you can get them at any book store or for cheap on amazon.com

Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength by Bill Phillips
Eating for Life: Your Guide to Great Health, Fat Loss and Increased Energy! by Bill Phillips (recipe book)
Body for Life Success Journal by Bill Phillips (motivational tool and is weekly progress report)

Here is a Body for Life supplement guide:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hussman1e.htm

Good luck!

[SumthinOrNuthin]

I've done BfL (few years ago) and found it useful, and I got results. A few points;

1) You will see nowadays many arguments against doing any kind of workout on an empty stomach. Although the book kinda passes of training any other time of day than first thing in the morning, as a weak alternative, I personally think it would work just as well, if not better.
2) It totally helped educate me into eating several small meals a day and getting to grips with understanding nutrition and the importance of a protein and carb at every meal. A very valuable lesson that has stayed with me
3) It made me start writing down everything I do in the gym and I still do that now - couldn't function without it!
4) The notion of a free day is fine if you are able to exercise restraint. Some people go completely hogwild and doing that can blow your calorie deficit for the entire week. If you have any 'trigger' foods, keep them out of your free day unless you feel you can handle it. A popular alternative is to have 1 or 2 cheat meals per week rather than a whole day.
5) Bear in mind that the before/after pics you see represent a rather embellished account of what is possible in 12 weeks. Clever photography, lighting and tanning help a lot, and if you read up, most of the Champs have done a **** load of additional cardio. And I mean a LOT!
6) Don't let 5) put you off, you really can make awesome progress just by following the workouts and sticking with the nutrition prog

I would recommend it to anyone who is new to lifting and/or eating right.

[syelel]

Wow thanks!!! The feedback has been awesome. What are you thoughts if I've been working out for a couple of years? Is there something that you graduate to? I thought it was great, I guess I wasn't used to the pyramid workouts when I was always used to working 1-2 body parts a day...

[kariev34]

i did body for life years ago. it helped me learn to eat smaller meals and that intensity of workouts are more important than time. but.... how he describes the free day created a binge eating disorder for me which i still battle with from time to time. just be careful with that and have a cheat meal instead. good luck

[WhiteIsle]

I loved Body for Life. I increased the amount of cardio a lot, but the weight traing routine really got me in great shape.

[jessy44]

What happens when you 'quit' Body for Life? I mean. You guys are saying that you 'did' it-as in the past tense. But it says 'for Life'. I just wonder about all these different hardcore diets. I will continue to work out for the rest of my life and watch my food intake but on those times where we are REALLY restrictive and lose a lot of fat, what happens when you go back to your usual, but healthy style of eating?
Has anyone noticed their fat percentages going up? Metabolism getting messed up? looser skin or cellulite? After 'quitting' a program or restrictive diet?
This is why I'm so scared to start carb cycling...because I don't want to do it forever...but I'm under the idea that if you start a way of eating you should STICK to it FOREVER or you are going to really screw up your Metabolism.
I don't want to do that.

My goal is to lower my bodyfat percentage so that I'm more firm and reduce cellulite. Lifting weights while dieting is the only way I can see this happening...but What KIND of diet LONGTERM is the best for this??

[AbramsAM]

A lot of good conversation here

I've been sold on BFL for quite some time when first reading the book several years back. So - my feedback to a few of the posts -

SumthinOrNuthin -
I completely agree on your points to pay special attention to.

BuffedStuff -
Although the LL book seems like it would be a great book from looking at him all ripped on the cover - i bought it and then returned it. I did not find anything worth paying for in there. IMHO, the book used LL as a spokes person to sell the PT's thoughts who claimed to help him get in shape. Not anywhere did I see what HE actually did and have seen interviews that are contrary to what the book indicated. I just have read other books that are put together IMO more professionally with more research and trouble shooting ideas.

jessy44 -
In my experience, i never really "quit" BFL. If you think of this basic princliples of eating throughout the day, balancing cardio and weight training - there are a lot of programs that do that same thing and are called something else. I DO try different things to break up the monotony, but wouldn't say I stop practicing the basic ideas BFL teaches. By tweaking the program or trying new programs most will find how similar a lot of the more popular nutrition regimens are. I believe BFL and South Beach as basic learning resources are good to learn how to think about nutrition. i think the important thing to keep in mind when trying something new (such as the carb cycling, low carb, etc.) is to research what it is you are doing and have a detailed action plan. This will help keep your body from freaking out and rebeling (skrewing up metabolism) and have an understanding of how long each modified diet should last (wouldn't carb cycle FOREVER) As far as eating plans that can last for a lifetime, i continue to believe in the body for life approach as well as south beach.

syele -
After having said all that, here is the rest of my input

The BFL workout approach is great and don't worry about going heavy - that is okay! Circuit training is also a good way to get an increased calorie burn, but probably won't allow you to go as heavy since you are moving to the next exercise right away - both are good IMO.

When you said you have been working out for a while now - what did your workouts look like before? what did you do any given week? getting additional benefits after we have been working out for a few years will come from changing up your workouts, raising intensity, and evaluating your diet. It is the whole combination that will show results - and especially the nutrition aspect!

An e-book that is great is Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle - it has a lot of information!

Well - i guess that is all I have to say! hehe

[SumthinOrNuthin]

What happens when you 'quit' Body for Life? I mean. You guys are saying that you 'did' it-as in the past tense. But it says 'for Life'. I just wonder about all these different hardcore diets. I will continue to work out for the rest of my life and watch my food intake but on those times where we are REALLY restrictive and lose a lot of fat, what happens when you go back to your usual, but healthy style of eating?
Has anyone noticed their fat percentages going up? Metabolism getting messed up? looser skin or cellulite? After 'quitting' a program or restrictive diet?
This is why I'm so scared to start carb cycling...because I don't want to do it forever...but I'm under the idea that if you start a way of eating you should STICK to it FOREVER or you are going to really screw up your Metabolism.
I don't want to do that.

My goal is to lower my bodyfat percentage so that I'm more firm and reduce cellulite. Lifting weights while dieting is the only way I can see this happening...but What KIND of diet LONGTERM is the best for this??

Good question. For me, it is for life but the workouts I do now bear no resemblance to a BfL workout.

My nutrition is still the same - 6 meals a day, protein, carbs and fats, but over time I've tried different foods, different macros and just tried fo find what best suits me. I also weigh and measure my meals so I have an accurate assessment of how much I'm having every day. The 'palm/fist' thing is fine, but over the years people want to fine tune things and manipulate their nutriion plan to suit their changing goals.

The same goes for workouts. I still do 6 days alternate cardio and weights. But I only train in the evenings, would never do fasted anything again, my cardio isn't the HIIT recommended in the BfL book because over the years my CV fitness has improved greatly and I now play racketball for most of my cardio sessions. Without exception, everyone reviews and reassesses their weights programme at regular intervals. We try different stuff and combinations of exercises, different splits etc etc.

I look back on my time doing BfL as the springboard into my current lifestyle. It taught me a set of principles to adopt for life but the way I apply those principles is always evolving and hopefully improving

[clovely]

I love BFL! I call it "Bodybuilding for Dummies" - it's an awesome way to get started. I've never done a challenge and never gone hard core for 12 weeks straight but with some slight dips in intensity for schedule conflicts and a shoulder injury, I've been doing the workouts as much as possible and primarily following the eating guidelines for a couple years. It's not just a 12-week. Once you've been doing it a while the eating especially becomes really engrained and just seems easy.

[clovely]

Awesome thanks! I checked out the website and I'm going to order the book. Looks great!

Be sure you order the original BFL book - not the BFL for Women!

[lindsay76]

I'm a veteran lifter . . .but, this thread inspired me to take twelve weeks of my life and give this program a try!

I needed something new anyway!!


Just wondering if anyone ever increased the rep range on the pyramid??

After doing the upper body workout - I feel like it would be more intense for me to do 20, 15, 12, 10 and then superset at 15 or 20 reps.

I just felt like the workout was too easy - even with increasing the weights each set and I felt like there was too much rest for me.

[anandagirl]

Just wondering if anyone ever increased the rep range on the pyramid??

After doing the upper body workout - I feel like it would be more intense for me to do 20, 15, 12, 10 and then superset at 15 or 20 reps.

I just felt like the workout was too easy - even with increasing the weights each set and I felt like there was too much rest for me.

I guess it depends on how your body reacts. I am a typical hardgainer, so the lower the rep range, the better my body respnds. I sometimes cut the rest short purely out of boredom, but I load those weights on, and I always go to failure whether that is more or less reps than what I am shooting for.

[clovely]

I'm a veteran lifter . . .but, this thread inspired me to take twelve weeks of my life and give this program a try!

I needed something new anyway!!


Just wondering if anyone ever increased the rep range on the pyramid??

After doing the upper body workout - I feel like it would be more intense for me to do 20, 15, 12, 10 and then superset at 15 or 20 reps.

I just felt like the workout was too easy - even with increasing the weights each set and I felt like there was too much rest for me.

I guess you know your body best and the program (as it is in the book) wasn't designed for a "veteran lifter" although I think you'll enjoy it and I think changing things up a bit is always good!

But if the workout seemed easy you must've started with too little weight on the first set. I think going to such high reps would be really cumbersome and would get tedious - that may just be me. I don't know much, besides what's in BFL, about the logic or theory behind the "Pyramid" but I think the short sets are by design. It would make more sense to me to just add weight. And I know big guys who are long-time serious lifters who use BFL or a Pyramid workout. It's not

I belong to a small women's gym and I love it but it doesn't have nearly the equipment my husband's gym has. I've definitely graduated from all the hand weights available to me on several exercises (and I'm certainly not very strong by comparison on this board!). But I now have to do squats and lunges, for example, with the bar at the rack. I'm doing some exercises that feel kinda silly in that environment because no one else is doing it or with that much weight. I had to get over that though.

[lindsay76]

Yeah, maybe I'm just not using enough weight. Maybe I'll do one workout with the shorter sets and one with more reps . . .

Thanks for the input!!

[syelel]

I thought the same thing! The rest time was way too long for me and I didn't feel like I was getting enough of a workout for each muscle. But I did start adding more weight and it definitely made a difference. My second upper body day doing BFL I was really sore and it was great! I definitely would say more weight. I started to add more reps towards the end of my 12 weeks and that's about the point that I got burned out and fell off of the plan...then again that could just be me being a slacker After the 12 weeks doing the diet to a T I can definitely see how it works..I only lasted the 7 but still saw results. After this thread I'm considering getting back on it

[navy2001]

What's wrong with the Body for Life women's book?

[clovely]

http://skwigg.tripod.com/blog/index....try_id=1088245

That's just one review I've read. And a number of people I know have mistakenly gotten that book to be less than impressed. One friend said it was "too mind/body" for her . . . she happens to be a yoga instructor!! Bill Phillips is to the point, no excuses, you can do it . . . Peeke's version is very watered down, garbled, and, in my opinion, misses the best things about BFL.

[navy2001]

http://skwigg.tripod.com/blog/index....try_id=1088245

That's just one review I've read. And a number of people I know have mistakenly gotten that book to be less than impressed. One friend said it was "too mind/body" for her . . . she happens to be a yoga instructor!! Bill Phillips is to the point, no excuses, you can do it . . . Peeke's version is very watered down, garbled, and, in my opinion, misses the best things about BFL.

I had only flipped through the women's one so I wasn't too sure what the difference was.

BTW, when you start the challenge, can you start any time or do you have to wait for a round to start?