View Full Version : Body for Life
Has anyone here tried out the Body for Life routine? Any thoughts on it? Can cardio for 20 minutes per day, three times per week, get anyone ready for an LE academy (that is what he recommends in the book, although, in fairness, he does increase speed / intensity quite often during the 20 minutes)...
Any experiences and or thoughts would be appreciated.
ppb2
WONDERwoman
09-09-2003, 13:49
I tried doing the full body workout for about two months. That thing kicked my butt when I first started. It was hard to finish the tape the first couple of weeks. But after about the third week I was keeping up and feeling the difference. Besides doing the tapes, I would run at least three times a week.
WONDERwoman
09-09-2003, 13:54
Yeah, there are tapes that go with the body for life. At least mine came with tapes. You must just have the book?
I have only leafed through the book several times. I have seen no tapes.
Trying to figure out if it is worth trying or if I should stick with my normal routines.
WONDERwoman
09-09-2003, 13:58
If you already have an established routine you should stick with it. But maybe try and incorporate some of the excersies in the book. It is a good book and it does work you just really have to stick with it like anyother work out routine.
hopefulskeptic2
09-09-2003, 14:13
I followed the progam, exactly , for 3 months. I had fantastic results in terms of body fat reduction. I varied speeds on the cardio to where when I ran treadmill I would have to jump off right at the 20th minute and pace quickly to avoid hurling. I have friends who did it and hurled. I'd guess that is pretty close to good enough for academy. I ran 20 the other day and it was about a 12 min. mile, but I didn't go as hard as I did on BFL. I know Aurora's academy requires 1.5 miles in just over 15 mins., so a 10 minute mile. I've done it, it's not a big deal to train for a 10 min. mile on BFL.
On the other hand, once you start the program, you can't half-ass it and you can't ever quit. Once you train yourself to eat 6 times a day, it is near impossible to maintain/avoid gaining weight if you don't stick with the nutrition plan and exercise plan. Well, that was my experience and I am a female. Men usually have a higher muscle to fat ratio naturally, so that may not be as big of a factor.
Also, I found that bingeing on the Free Day was downright scary. Some people don't do that, lots do. It was bordering a disorder, that's why I quit. But I'm disorderly anyway. :D
One more tidbit, try searching the web for info on HIIT cardio (maybe same as guerilla cardio???). It's supposed to be better even than the BFL intervals per my BFL veteran friends in the BFLColorado msn group. I'd post the link, but the mods might exile me. :eek: You can pm me if you want it.
Good luck!
20 mins just doesnt cut the cake, everyone is looking for the easy way out, u honestly think some of the best hardbodies ONLY spend 20 measly mins doing cardio. u got to sweat and huff and puff none of this stroll through the park for 20 mins,
body for life is ran by a supplement company whose primary interest is selling supplements, which most dont work and are just pure hype. the owner is a admitted steroid user and so is his brother. if you look at one of there 12 week champs transformation of a average joe blow into a muscle head, if you do your research one of them is a national bodybuiler with about 15 years of training under his belt, not 12 weeks like he wants you to believe and he looked like that LONG before the 20 min cardio solution every came into play. this is also true with other deceptive ads and pictures he places in mags and books
if want to make him richer and buy his magazine muscle media and eas supplements then go for it. in 12 weeks his bank account will definetly transform.
hopefulskeptic2
09-09-2003, 17:06
gee, gotcha, who ticked you off? i think the flames from your post burned my hair off! :flame: :burnt: I think there's a punching bag waiting for you at your nearest gym.
Yes, I did use their recommended supplements: Betagen and their shakes and bars and probably something with ephedra (I didn't know was bad 3 years ago). But, yes, it did work. If I'd done 2 12-week cycles, if I was that gung-ho, etc., I'd have gotten to 12% bodyfat, likely much lower, which, again, for a female, is a pretty hard body. In the one cycle, I went from a size 9 (tight in the waist) to a size 5 (tight nowhere). Pretty good for a gimmick.
$.02
BTW, of course I did not join this forum to promote BFL. Like I said, I had problems with it, but they were not related to the effectiveness of the program, including the 20 mins. of cardio.
You asked. :wink:
Gotcha... a friend of mine did the BFL program for quite a while without using EAS supplements. He had amazing results. Guess the program must be pretty decent, even without the supplements. Who would've thought....
I started it but did not finish it. IN the three weeks that I did it I could begin to see results, plus the loss of 11 pounds. You can do it without the supplements. Just eat the six times a day using the carb/protein mix. My expereince is that the supplements make it easier to get your meals in during the day.
It all depends on what you find that will work for you. For me it is a specific plan that works. WOuld it get you ready for an academy? YES , just supplement the workouts with push-ups. The running is what you make of it, but I like it.
I am also starting it again. Last time I went to an FOP conference and went on a 4 day drinking binge which was not part of the BFL plan.....
JUMBO
well its great u had results but you probably would have seen results from ANY plan that you tried that was half way decent, even ones from muscle and fiction. its more from your consistent efforts, not because of some magic supplements from eas, if i gave you an eas bottle fulled with sugar people would still think there he man, its a placebo effect, all up in your head.
people realy into bodybuilding like myself and other gym nuts dont have much to say about eas programs cause there nothing new, its just a program u can buy at borders books, nothing special, no magic formulas, hard work and sweat on joe blows program with out supplements would probably get you very simliar results, ive seen it countless times people making exceptional gains on programs from regular local trainers who dont sell vitamins or books.
its still hard to buy into his books when you know for a fact that most of his before and after photos are NOT the same people, and just use trick photography, different people etc. hey thats just me i dont like shady unethical people and salesman who arent honest people.
Originally posted by gotcha
20 mins just doesnt cut the cake, everyone is looking for the easy way out, u honestly think some of the best hardbodies ONLY spend 20 measly mins doing cardio. u got to sweat and huff and puff none of this stroll through the park for 20 mins, I think 20 minuites per day for fed LE is not quite enough, GENERALLY -- the exception being if you do a hard timed-trial (every other day).
Originally posted by gotcha
Body for Life is ran by a supplement company whose primary interest is selling supplements, which most dont work and are just pure hype. the owner is a admitted steroid user and so is his brother. if you look at one of there 12 week champs transformation of a average joe blow into a muscle head, if you do your research one of them is a national bodybuiler with about 15 years of training under his belt, not 12 weeks like he wants you to believe and he looked like that LONG before the 20 min cardio solution every came into play. this is also true with other deceptive ads and pictures he places in mags and books
if want to make him richer and buy his magazine muscle media and eas supplements then go for it. in 12 weeks his bank account will definetly transform. Yes, EAS, like all the other supplement copmanies are definitely for-profit.
I will submit, however, that Body for Life/Bill Philiips/EAS is just about as reputable as any other supplement-producing company. However, among supplement-producing companies, EAS is probably on the high-end both in terms of price and quality. One thing that has kept EAS around is that they do not tend to be the flavor-of-the-day type of supplement company. Thus their products tend to be "late" to hit the market. However, I notice that if they do decide to produce something it is because it "tends to work." What I mean my "tends to work" is that, yes, much of the supplementation does not work all that much. But some things work, that is, to some degree.
I would guess that the 12-week winner entered in the "experienced" category. In any case, loosing fat is faster than building muscle. EAS must have well over 100 12-week winners by now. Even with the way the winners slowtch and frown in the "before" pictures, I think each winner did accomplish a notable amount PRIMARILY by working their tail off. How much of it is as a reult of the supplements is questionable? However, I do credit EAS/Phillips with some things: (1) EAS/Phillips brough bodybuilding/fitness down to the everyday person, (2) EAS/Phillips does educate, (3) EAS meal replacement suplements do provide a reasonable quick and healthy option. For many it is easier -- and worth the cost -- to include EAS meal replacements regularly. (For me, however, I never, except for traveling, use meal replacements because I opt for "real" health whole foods, which although take a lot longer to prepare (and eat), but are healthier than meal replacements.
I lost about 30 lbs on the Body for Life program, and I recommend it to anyone. It truly changed my life.
HOWEVER, for someone training for the academy, I would definitely kick the cardio up to about 45 min of running per session to be safe. PT lasts a lot longer than 20 min from what I hear.
Good luck...and ya don't necessarily have to use the video tapes with the program. Just follow the instructions in the book.
I tried this out and it wasn't for me.
In my opinion, this workout is set up for people trying to lose weight and tone up.
I'm no guru, but if you're goal is to "bulkier" or really strong, this isn't for you.
One set on each body part, to me, is not enough. They want you to use one exercise one a body part, then a extra set of a different exercise "to burn it out", and for me, it just didn't work.
My advice is get a trainer that can set you up a work out to meet your goals and then stick with it.
DJOHNSON954
09-20-2003, 03:37
I watched my brother complete the body for life program. He followed the workout and diet to a tee. He had excellent results. I tried it for a short period of time. I must admit, I was not as disciplined as I needed to be. One thing I did not like about it was the workout. I did not like the idea of doing my whole upper body in the same workout, cardio the next day and legs the next. I found it hard to do a whole upper body workout in 45 minutes. My feelings on BFL are that if you follow the diet strictly, you will have great results.
The diet is the MOST important part.
I wound up modifying the workout to my own personal preferences. One day would be biceps, shoulders & back and then another day would be chest and triceps, another day would be abs and legs, etc. and I always did more cardio than they suggested. 20 min is great if you aren't planning on any endurance sports. I wanted to build stamina so I spent more time on endurance-cardio. I also did more than one exercise per body part.
A lot of people I know have used it as a stepping-stone to get started, and then they wind up using it as a framework to creat their own plan.
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