EAPS Body for Life

cousin_borat

I seem to remember a couple of persons posting on the fitness forum that they were trying out the body for life challenge. Unfortunately I cannot remember their names so wondering if these people have any progress reports of how they got on and would they recommend the programme. Anybody else for that matter who knows someone who participated, what has been their experience?

Mr E

'Twas me... Finished the program in May. I lost 5lb fat, put on 11lb muscle, and reduced my BF% from 13% to 9.92%.

It was hard going (particularly the diet, for a sweet tooth like me), but worth it in the end. I didn't do Bill Phillips' programme, but did a modified one which was harder (I could push harder because I had someone to spot for me on Bench, Chest Press etc). For 10 out of the 12 weeks, I did 9 gym sessions a week (6 weights and 3 cardio).

I kept a journal at the time, and you can read it here: http://blogs.boards.ie/tmb/index.php

cousin_borat

Firstly well done and thanks for providing the info. I'm sure it will help loads of people.

I had a look at your programme and thats exactly the amount of detail I aim to go into as well.

One question, about the amount of sets you performed. According to the official BFL training programme 5 sets of x12, 10, x8, x6, x12, x12 for each exercise

Was there a reason you changed your routine to 2 sets for the majority of exercises?
I thought you may have been performing Supersets since some of the Isolate Exercises you are following with Compounds.

Mr E

Correct, they were supersets.

A friend of mine (BFL Irish runner up last year) did the official programme about 6 years ago and followed it to the absolute letter (exact food, exercises, reps). He felt at the end of it that he could have done better. Last year he decided to try it again. Since he was a qualified PT, he designed his own program to maximise results, and that formed the basis for my program. However he went to extremes with his program - he was getting up at 2am during the night to take shakes, he spent alot of money on supplements (I think it was about €400 a month - his supplements included 3 different types of creatine, depending on the time of day!). I was never going to go to those extremes, but its interesting that he did get the results, and the recognition from EAS for his dedication....

cousin_borat

Another question,

I was having a look at your programme. Take this example

Cable C/O Front 10 (20+2,10)
Benchpress 55 (0+4,10)

Cable C/O Front 20 (2+2,10)
Benchpress 47.5 (3+2,10)

Cable C/O Front 15 (1+3,10)
Benchpress 45 (3+2,10)

Exercise Name WEIGHT(A+B, REPS)
So each entry takes the form of above.
I understand the first part is the weight. The number of reps is the second part inside the brackets but what does the 'A+B' part mean?

Also about the timing, I'm guessing do the first Cable C/O Front and Benchpress immediately after each other.
Then break and the second Cable C/O Front and Benchpress immediately after each other again.
Break.
Same again for 3rd pair.
Is this correct?

I'm really curious to try supersets but want to figure out how to do them right. I know this is alot of questions but I'd appreciate your feeback!

cousin_borat

ok, I had a look at your blog re the break time between. But still unsure about the format of the entries.

Mr E

Yep, there is about a minute break between supersets (with no break between exercises).

The format of the notation is as follows:

Exercise - Weight (Reps[+assisted], Difficulty)

So Benchpress 47.5 (3+2,10) means that I did 47.5kg - 3 times on my own, plus 2 with a little tipup from my spotter, and the difficulty was 10 (i.e. I couldn't do any more).

I think putting down the difficulty is important, so you know how hard to try the next time.

So if I'd done an exercise that was (8,8) (8 reps, 8 out of 10 difficulty), I know to increase the weight the next time I do it.

Less than 8 reps with a difficulty of 10 means I stick at that weight until I can do 8 (usually!).

Sometimes you see the +values on exercises where I don't need a spotter. On these exercises, I usually lose my grip or something like that, so I shake out my wrists and continue from where I left off.

cousin_borat

Excellent stuff,

thanks for that