Body for Life (Reprise)

Posted Mon Aug 16, 2010 in

After ten years of being off the program, I’m returning to the Body for Life program. It is time for me to get active, get focused, and drop this weight I’m carrying. I don’t like the way I feel and there are health issues that need to be addressed through a combination of improved fitness and reduced weight.

I worked through most of a 12-week transformation way back in 2000. Now, ten-years later, I need to take up what I learned and practice it. I can do this.

I’ve used weight training off and on most of my adult life. I started when I was a 20-something with a cheap set of concrete-filled plastic plates and a cobbled together bench in my friend’s garage. I read Strength Training, by the Experts because a red-headed friend of mine recommended. It showed me how to use a simple inverted pyramid to improve strength in an organized, thoughtful method. I learned to emphasize the negative portion of the movement to improve muscle breakdown to benefit the recovery portion of the cycle.

Enter the year 2000 and a bunch of negative energy in my life. It was so bad that I really thought I might die. Much of that story is told here so there’s no reason to retell it. Suffice it to say that the BFL program gave me some focus and I needed it.

So, to make a long story short, I’m working on the program again. I need to make these changes for me and for my family. I made it through the first week. This week is the lower-body week and will complete a full cycle through the program. The exercise routine is three strength training session and three aerobics sessions per week. Strength-training days alternate body segment (upper and lower) to provide enough time for the muscles to fully recover. So, the weeks break down into upper-body weeks and lower-body weeks. It requires two weeks to get through an entire cycle.

The full cycle will give me a data point from which to make adjustments to my routines and give me a baseline to measure strength-training progress. So, I’ll know more next weekend after I have a chance to analyze the week’s work.

So, off we go. <looks over shoulder> Jim said he’d be watching me…