Book Review: Body For Life

Body For Life (BFL) was for many, including me, their introduction to fitness and nutrition. It was, in its time, as popular as P90X or any of the other Beachbody workouts have been, and for the most part, it holds up. It was written by Bill Phillips who, at the time, owned a supplement company called EAS and put out Muscle Media magazine. Phillips had been a competitive bodybuilder back in the 1980s and in the mid-late 90s set up a competition with parameters similar to the BFL plan, in Muscle Media Magazine for real people to do a body transformation with his Lamborghini as the prize to the winner. That competition was chronicled in a film called Body of Work and ultimately became the basis for this book and the Body for Life challenge that was, in the early to mid-2000s, as red hot as anything in fitness has ever been. 

The book is basically split into three parts. A background/motivational section that tries to get you into the right mindset for undergoing a transformation like this. A workout section that explains the workouts and gives example exercises, and a nutrition section that details the nutrition plan and has some sample recipes. Throughout the book, there are testimonials by people who have transformed themselves going through a version of Body For Life (mainly by the people who were chronicled in the Body of Work video). Even though those people did not have as regimented a plan as the book sets out, the plan laid out in Muscle Media was similar to what ended up in the book. 

For the workouts, you lift weights three days a week (alternating upper body and lower body), then do cardio three days a week, and have one rest day. For the resistance exercises, you choose two exercises per body part. For example, bench press (BP) and chest flys (CF) for a chest exercise. For one of the exercises, you do a circuit of 12, 10, 8, 6, and 12 reps, with one minute in between each set of the circuit. You increase the weight for each circuit through the 6 rep circuit, then you drop the weight down to do the 12 reps, then you do 12 reps of the second exercise, with no rest with a weight heavy enough that you fail at the 12th rep. Then you rest for 2 minutes and go on to the next body part like shoulders, biceps, etc. So, the chest circuits will look something like this:

BP 12 reps 20lbs

1-minute rest

BP 10 reps 25lbs

1-minute rest

BP 8 reps 30lbs

1-minute rest

BP 6 reps 35lb

1-minute rest

BP 12 reps 20lbs

CF 12 reps 15 lbs

3-minute rest

Next circuit

The BFL workout program is one that can be done at home with a good selection of free weights and some kind of cardio equipment.  But, even though you can do it at home, it is a bit limited as a purely at-home workout, especially when doing the lower body workouts, because it requires you to lift weights to failure. And, it is hard to find two different hamstring exercises and two different quad exercises that will be easy to do to failure with dumbells. This is especially the case since the program wants you to rotate exercises every four weeks so your body does not plateau. So, it is much easier to do the leg day in a gym, unless you have a pretty good home gym setup with a leg press machine and/or a leg extension machine, which can get quite expensive. You can probably use resistance bands for the upper body workout, but it would be very hard to do the lower body workout with bands. And, as you progress and get fitter and stronger, you will need heavier and heavier weights, which again will be pretty expensive over the course of time. So, even though you can do the workouts at home, it is definitely easier to do them in a gym. That said, there are a lot of example exercises in the workout section of the book that demonstrates free-weight exercises that can be used in the program, so if you have a good home gym setup, or have the money to put one together it is possible to do it 100% from home. And, if you get creative, you can do the cardio simply by walking/running up and down steps or something like that. But, it helps to have a treadmill, elliptical, or the like. 

The upper body workout lasts about 45-46 minutes and the lower body workout lasts about 42 assuming you rest between sets for the recommended period of time.  The cardio portion of the program has you doing 20 minutes of progressive cardio. Similar to the resistance workouts, you start out at a low intensity like a slow walk, then you start doing a bit more intense and ratchet the intensity up each minute until you go all out, then back the intensity down. So it looks something like this:

Minutes 1-2 intensity level 1 (walk)

Min 3 intensity level 5

Min 4 intensity level 6

Min 5 intensity level 7

Min 6 intensity level 8

Min 7 intensity level 9 

Min 8 intensity level 5

....................................

...................................

Min 19 intensity level 10 (sprint)

Min 20 intensity level 1 (walk)

So basically, in minute 19 you go all out for as long as you possibly can (hopefully the whole minute) then you go back to a walking intensity level. Of course, what is a level 1 vs level 10 intensity will vary person-to-person, and for some people, the equivalent of a brisk walk will be a level 10, where for another person that will be their level 5. But, as with the resistance workouts, the idea is that people will progress over time because their intensity level 10 will change as they become more fit. 

The nutrition plan is fairly simple. It has you eat a portion of protein (about the size of your palm), a portion of carbs (about the size of your fist), and a veggie for three meals, use a meal replacement shake (the book promotes a nutrition shake called Myoplex which was put out by EAS back in the day) for three meals. Although EAS and the BFL challenge, in general, went the way of the dodo bird (I think mainly when P90x and Beachbody really took off), there are definitely a lot of meal replacement shakes and protein powders out there if you want to go that route. Although,  the book stresses that you can eat six solid-food meals a day and get great results. Basically, you just need to eat six times a day, consuming a balance of protein and carbs, and a reasonable amount of fat. Then, one day a week it allows for a cheat/free day in which you can eat anything you want. 

The nutrition plan is a bit cookie-cutter. For the people it works well for, it works great. But, for people who cannot get to an adequate caloric deficit with the palm-fist method, are carb sensitive, or for whom the palm-fist method does not result in enough calories per day, it may make you healthier, but probably will not get you ripped or make you look like a fitness model (if that is the look you are going for). It is also a low-fat emphasis plan and does not really differentiate between good fats (like nuts) and bad. So, in that way it was kind of akin to the old food pyramid except it emphasized eating a lot more protein (just very lean protein like grilled chicken breast, and the like). 

Overall, I would say it is a good program to try, especially if you are a beginner at working out and following a strict nutrition plan. But, keep in mind, that you may not end up looking like the people photographed in the book even if you follow it to a tee. If that is the case, and what you want, you will probably have to tweak your nutrition plan in order to get to that point. The book does give a lot of very good inspiration and provides a good starting point for some people who want to get in shape and start weight training, but really do not know how to start and don't want to use a personal trainer. For other people, it can be a plan that they can follow for life. 

Start of Week 3 and updated stats

I started week 3 of P90x2 today. I did the X2 core workout again. Really nothing new to report on that one. I am still making progress with the moves. I am far from perfect on some of them, but getting better on all of them. Here are my weekly stats.

Weight 177,
Waist 38" (down another .8",
Hips 39", chest 41.5",
Right thigh 22",
Left thigh 23",
Right and left arms about 12".

I definitely have a lot less aches and pains because of the core moves and foam rolling. Considering I have not done the recovery and mobility DVD because of my class, that is pretty good. After the semester ends in May, when I switch from phase 2 to phase 3 I am going to work that into the rotation. I am also going to do it during the recovery week between phases 1 and 2. The low-back issues I was having before X2 have almost all gone away. I think it is a combination of all the core work in phase 1 of X2 and my new bed. Anyway, I have posted a weekly progress pic on the team beachbody message board of you are so inclined to go look. I will put my before and after pics on the blog when I am all done with the program in June. Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask questions or leave (non-spam) comments. If you want to be able to e-mail me just click the link on the left to have me coach you for free, then I will see your messages faster.

The Anatomy of A Cheat Day

One thing that is usually brought up in conversation is whether or not to have a cheat day when doing a program like P90x, Insanity or any of the others that are out there. There are a couple different schools of thought around them. Some think never cheat while you are doing a program. Others say have a cheat day, and others say do a cheat meal or two throughout the week.

 Like many my exposure to exercise and nutrition came in the late 1990s early 2000s with the Body for Life program. That works a cheat day into the program where on your rest day you eat whatever you want. Like many, I took full advantage of that and would eat like crap all day long. Early on I probably did undo some of my progress for the week by eating thousands of calories of junk in a single day. But what it did was get me to stick to the program. Reality is, even if you are not morbidly obese, chances are if you are overweight you have at least some psychological issues surrounding food. You probably did not get to where you are  just just because of  how your body breaks down food and stores fat. It is because you eat to provide yourself some measure of happiness. And let's face it junk food tastes good.

The reason why I hate the word diet (one of them anyway) is because it implies restriction. How many people have you heard start a diet with the intention of never eating anything bad for X amount of weeks, months, or even never again. The intention supposes they will either never again be tempted to eat anything bad or will have an iron will to resist that temptation. But to be blunt, if you are overweight you do not have an iron will when it comes to food. So when the person is tempted, and does eat the thing that he or she swore to not eat what happens? Many think "well I had it yesterday so it wont hurt to have it again today." That in turn switches to "I don't have to be as strict with my diet." And then after the person gains some weight back it goes to "I can't do it and will always be fat." Some people just jump to that last step right after cheating on the diet. That is how people get into the yo-yo dieting where they lose, then gain all the weight back, plus some. When the truth is if the person would have gone back to the diet (presuming it was healthy in the first place) the cheat would have been a blip and would have not done any damage in the long run.

That is why I personally feel that some kind of cheat is necessary to stay on a good nutrition plan. You will be tempted to eat badly at some time over the course of 90 days. Whether it is a party, a holiday, or just the smell of the bakery isle at the grocery store. If a cheat day where you eat a bunch of junk is what keeps you doing the program go for it. Will you get the best results possible doing that? Probably not. Obviously if you can get through the entire program eating cleanly the entire time the better results you will get. But the best program is the one that you stick to. It can work for millions of people but if you cannot stick to it then it is not right for you. Personally my cheat days these days look a lot different than they did back then. I still do eat junk food, but a lot less than before. Many times I will eat healthier versions of the junk food I like. For example I will make a homemade cheeseburger on one of those indoor grills so it is lower fat, put it on a whole grain bun, and control what goes on it. Or I will have a single serving size thing of frozen yogurt, or a small bag of chips. Things that are gone after I eat them so I do not have leftovers around to tempt me the rest of the week. Even back when I was doing the "day of junk" cheat days was that after about a month of exercising and eating well the rest of the week, I could not eat as much junk on my cheat days, and did not crave it as much anyway.

These days I may do a cheat day or just a couple cheat meals per week. It just depends. The good thing about the cheat day is it is an isolated thing that you can compartmentalize, but it does not give a lot of flexibility. On the other hand if you do the cheat meal approach you can have it whenever, but you have to have the will power to say I am only going to do two or three a week and that is it. So if you get invited out to dinner you can count it as a meal, but then get back to the eating on your nutrition plan with the next meal. The popular thing when it comes to nutrition is the 90/10 rule. If you eat clean 90% of the time, you can eat whatever you want the other 10% of the time. Yes, you will get the best results from any plan if you can eat cleanly 100% of the time, but that is not realistic. Especially when you are starting out. The great thing about cheat days or meals is that you do not have to use them, but they can be there if you need to. If you would like me to coach you through a P90x or any of the other Beachbody programs, just click the link for my Beachbody page over on the left. Good luck and stay fit my friends.

P90X and nutrition. How important is it?

It seems that people often ask do they really need to follow the nutrition guide to get results on P90x. The quick answer it depends. It depends on two things, what kind of results you want and your body. P90x or any other workout program is going to come with a nutrition guide that will give you a plan to follow. The nutrition plans that come with the various beach body programs are tailored to whatever program you purchased. At their core they all use a balanced approach to eating enough carbohydrates to give you energy, protein to build muscle, and fat (yes fat) to keep your tissue (skin, hair, and organs) healthy. The P90x program runs through three eating cycles that start out with higher protein and lower starchy carbs (like bread pasta and rice) and then transitions to lower protein and higher starchy carbs.

I actually took a nutrition class last semester so I may do a post later on with some tidbits about just what overall healthy eating is, but in the context of working out, the closer you follow a balanced plan, that incorporates protein carbohydrates and healthy fat (and yes vegetables) into the meals and snacks the better results you are going to get. It is often said that a good nutrition plan is going to be at least 75% of your results. Depending on your metabolism and how your body reacts to food that number may be closer to 85%. But I think everyone has enough common sense to know that it does not matter how much you work out, if you are eating like crap every day you are not going to have ripped abs.

Which takes me back to my original point. What are your goals? So people just want to take off 10-15 pounds and are not interested in having 6 pack abs. In that case you probably do not have to follow any one specific nutrition plan. If you already eat reasonably healthy then just working out might do it for you. It may be that all you have to do is change a few things about how you eat. In that case maybe ditching dessert once a week is all you need. If however you want six pack abs, chances are you will need to follow a fairly strict nutrition plan and will have to pay attention to how much of what kind of food you are eating.

Even that depends however. If you are one of those people who can stay fairly lean no matter how you eat (insert obligatory I hate you comment here) then you probably will not have to track what you eat as stringently. For those of us whose bodies store fat more easily we will.

Personally I am following the P90X2 nutrition plan, but using one day as a cheat day where I don't pay attention to portions, and if I want will eat junk food. Once I start P90X2 I will knock that down to a couple cheat meals per week. Even with the cheat day I am getting stronger, becoming more toned and am starting to see definition in my abs. Look for a post tomorrow on the anatomy of a cheat day where I will talk more about my philosophy on them and how it has changed over the years.

Stay fit my friends!