Hey all,
I am starting Body for Life today. I have read the book before and I think there is some great info in it. I am going to do it a bit modified though because I think his body part splits for weights days is a bit odd. I guess I would call what I am doing a Max-OT for Life program. I am going to do my daily splits like this:

chest/tri's Mon
20 min HIIT Tues
lower body/core Weds
20 min HIIT Thurs
back/bi's Fri
20 min HIIT Sat
off Sun

I have found that I have the drive to lose fat and add muscle, and I also have the drive to eat right, but there has always been one thing holding me back. Focus. I just have a really hard time focusing. I got the Body for Life Success Journal, and I gotta tell you guys, I already love it! It makes it easy to plan (another big shortcoming of mine) and gets me to focus on my goals better. I don't know if anyone else here has tried it, but I am thinking it will work pretty well.

Good luck!

Stick with it and the results *will* come :)
Planning is half the battle!

dont get discouraged by having tunnel vision.. take a well deserved cheat meal once a week, dont push too hard that you end up getting burned out like I have done before.

make this a lifestyle change, approach your new diet and training as if you will have to maintain it for the rest of your life.

you might not see HUGE results as fast as if you had pushed to your max, but burnout is bad and the setbacks that you can have are worse than if you have small consistant gains. or losses.

anyway, this is my experiance.

good luck

Hey all,
I am starting Body for Life today. I have read the book before and I think there is some great info in it. I am going to do it a bit modified though because I think his body part splits for weights days is a bit odd. I guess I would call what I am doing a Max-OT for Life program.

I just have a really hard time focusing. I got the Body for Life Success Journal, and I gotta tell you guys, I already love it! It makes it easy to plan (another big shortcoming of mine) and gets me to focus on my goals better. I don't know if anyone else here has tried it, but I am thinking it will work pretty well.

I have mixed emotions on changing the basic Body for life plan. We often do to many mods to proven programs. I am glad you are focused, but I wished you would have stayed with program as presented for at least 10 weeks before a change.

I have mixed emotions on changing the basic Body for life plan. We often do to many mods to proven programs. I am glad you are focused, but I wished you would have stayed with program as presented for at least 10 weeks before a change.

I agree. I would say, do the whole 12 weeks by the book.

I agree. I would say, do the whole 12 weeks by the book.

I don't necessarily agree... IF (and it's a big if) he has trained before, or has been training up until now, when he starts the program, the weight lifting portion of the plan may not be optimal for him. In my opinion (and I'll repeat that so that everyone see's it, in MY opinion), the BFL training split is very good if you are just starting out (never trained before, or never trained seriously before with weights), but if he has extensive experience lifting then he might be better off with a different training split (although it is good to change things up a bit now and then), however I think he should follow the BFL plan for cardio and diet and not change those factors. I don't personally like the BFL training split and find that my splits work better for me. Everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for another. just my opinion :nod:

right now I'm doing HIIT every morning (6 a.m.) (although I throw in a 40 minute steady state day now and then) and work the following muscle groups together after work (5:30 ish):

legs
back / chest
off day (cardio and usually work abs some on this day)
bi's / tri's
shoulders / obliques & abs
off day (just cardio)

I don't post specific day's because they change every week, I work out generaly 4-5 day's a week. This split works really well for me, personally. :nod:

I have mixed emotions on changing the basic Body for life plan. We often do to many mods to proven programs. I am glad you are focused, but I wished you would have stayed with program as presented for at least 10 weeks before a change.
I got mixed opinions here. For newbies, I'd agree with this 100%. For advanced trainees, the BFL program can be tweaked slightly and provide better results. I'd drop the final 2 sets of 12, add in PWO nutrition, and do a few other things and see better results I promise you (I've been there). But for newbies who need a sound program that's easy to follow, BFL is probably second to none when it comes to out of the box programs.

But for newbies who need a sound program that's easy to follow, BFL is probably second to none when it comes to out of the box programs.

Or even for those who have never been sucessful in reaching goals. If someone feels they have to split, I say upper body/lower body makes sense. I am one that feels if you are going to do a program do it, not something else. That goes for all the programs, other wise call it - (your name)'s program.

For many folks, it's not a matter of how advanced a routine is. It is a matter of changing their previous routine significantly enough to spur growth and/or fat loss. I can easily imagine scenarios where the BFL weight workouts could be just the ticket for someone who needs to change up their routine. Full body workouts are becoming more popular lately, anyway.

And I agree that if you are going to do a program, do it. There are reasons these programs are set up the way they are. I would imagine that not many of us have as much knowledge and experience as the authors of the more successful transformation programs.

You will never know if a program does/doesn't work if you change integral parts of it. Even if you think you know better than the author. If you are experienced enough with your own body to know what will/will not work for you, you would do well to form your own program and not pretend it is someone else's.

Besides--in my experience, success has less to do with any particular program, and more to do with one's attitude towards that program.

Just some ramblings.....

Thanks for the insights everybody! I KNOW that I will do the BFL program 2 times, as my desired weight and muscle tone will not be acheived in totality in just 12 weeks. So I think I will do the workout splits my way the first go round, then if that is not showing great results I will do exactly as the book states. I will not be modifying the cardio or diet section at all though.

I do have experience lifting, and I have seen great gains in strength and muscle tone on my current program (Max-OT). I also drink a PWO whey shake with dextrose on lifting days. No dextrose on other days. I think I will be fine since I am not new to lifting, but like I said, I may make changes on the next go round if I don't get desired results this time. I don't make any claims to know everything, but I have read quite extensively, and I think like others have mentioned, that BFL is a great directorate for those who have no other resources to guide them.

As an adendum, I just wanted some quick opinions on the supplements I am taking now:

Whey protein (with dextrose on lifting days)
Multi-Vitamin (Opti-Mens)
Omega 3 fish oil pills 4x a week (since I don't eat fish)
an ECA stack (200mg caffine and Vaso-Pro)
Creatine capsules (new generation, not old school monohydrate), 1 pre and 1 post workout

What do you guys think? I just started taking the ECA and Creatine this week, and I feel so much better and more alert and less sore. I am hoping the effects will last.

*bump*

As an adendum, I just wanted some quick opinions on the supplements I am taking now:

Whey protein (with dextrose on lifting days)
Multi-Vitamin (Opti-Mens)
Omega 3 fish oil pills 4x a week (since I don't eat fish)
an ECA stack (200mg caffine and Vaso-Pro)
Creatine capsules (new generation, not old school monohydrate), 1 pre and 1 post workout

What do you guys think? I just started taking the ECA and Creatine this week, and I feel so much better and more alert and less sore. I am hoping the effects will last.
Whey Protein with dex on lifting days:
That's fine. I'm glad to see you separating the dextrose to weight-lifting days only.

Multi:
I'm not familiar with that brand but a multi is good to have.

Omega-3:
Should be ok

ECA:
I'm a fan of the ECA stack too, and think it's a good addition to your arsenal. If you structure your diet properly it will work even better.

Creatine Capsules:
I have no experience with the capsules but creatine is a good supplement IMO.

Creatine capsules (new generation, not old school monohydrate), 1 pre and 1 post workout
Nothing wrong with "old school"

Creatine capsules (new generation, not old school monohydrate), 1 pre and 1 post workout

Cutting with creatine? How many gms of creatine to a capsule?

Yeah, I have just started using creatine during my cut. I take 5 capsules totalling 2gms creatine preworkout, and 5 capsules totalling 2gms creatine postworkout. So I get 4gms net creatine per workout. I know that I will retain water weight, so I am not going to use a scale as my indicator of progress, just my clothes sizes. It will suck to not see the scale go down as much as I might like, but it will be worth it in the end.

I started using creatine because I get terrible DOMS. I mean, really really bad. Probably worse than most people (at least, any of my lifting buddies). I thought it was just a breaking in phase, but after more than 6 months of serious lifting, I was still getting really bad muscle soreness days after lifting. Since I started the creatine I have upped my max on bench, FINALLY getting 225lbs. :tu:

I had that as a goal for sooooo long and I was never quite able to do it. I had never put up that much weight, not even in high school and college. After about a week on the creatine I put it up twice! But the real test for me has been the last 2 days. I feel slightly tight in my chest, but NO soreness! Rock on! So I got my one rep max twice, and I am experiencing no notable pain. That was what I wanted. Especially on the Body for Life program where your upper body (and lower body) workouts are only seperated by 4 or 5 days. I figured the only way I could possibly stick with BFL was if I got on creatine. Since BFL is a 12 week program, I can do one or two cycles of creatine and cease using it for a bit and check my total weight progress.