Ask any personal trainer if Body for Life is a good program. They almost always say something like this: “Yes, it’s a decent program, but the problem with it is that it’s a one size fits all workout, and I can customize something just for YOU!”

Who is right? Bill Phillips or all the personal trainers in the world?

Both, actually.

See, if you have not been doing a strength and endurance training program for a while, and if you haven’t been doing short, high intensity cardio for a while, a “one size all” program, unless you have significant disabilities or physical limitations, works just fine. Muscle and the cardiovascular system respond to activity that stresses them beyond what they are normally used to. The skeletal muscle responds by getting denser and larger and stronger. The cardiovascular system responds by getting more efficient. This adaptive response is built into everyone’s body, and it will work well, especially at the beginning, whether you are doing the body for life workout, or even if you’re just making up a routine of your own. Dr. Berardi explains this as a little like being able to hit the broad side of a barn. When you first start out, the target, your body, is like the broad side of a barn and almost any activity that stresses it beyond its current capabilities will produce a significant adaptive response.

The thing that is terrific about the body for life program is that it combines the best of both strength training and bodybuilding routines. Most strength training involves a very few lifts with very heavy weights. This type of activity, which occurs in sets 3 and 4 of the typical BFL exercise, produces strength, rather than muscle size. Most bodybuilding involves lifting moderately heavy weights for several sets of 10 to 12 reps, the very type of activity that occurs toward the beginning and at the very ending of each BFL exercise routine. So, if you do it right, you will be developing muscle tissue that is stronger than what you had, and denser or larger than what you had.

How long does it take to get a maximum benefit from a one-size-fits-all program, before you would want to seriously think about doing something different, or customizing a new type of workout? For the usual competitor, this seems to be around 8 to 12 weeks. Which is right about when you’ll be done with your BFL challenge.

So, what do you take away from this blog? How about the idea that for he first 12 weeks, you should use the trainer ONLY to be sure that your exercise form is appropriate and that you understand how to do each of the exercises, and that you let this process work for you for 12 weeks. After that, if you think you want something different or more specifici to your goals, see what the trainer has to offer.

Until that time, as long as you exercise intensely, regularly and safely, and as long as you don’t overtrain and you get the right amount of rest, you’ll get great results without a “customized” workout for you.

Speaking of overtraining, that will be the next “YOU” topic we’ll talk about–see you Monday!

P.S. I should also mention  that I am definitely not anti-trainer either. I’ve used one myself, many times, both for exercise advice and dietary assistance. Trainers have a definite place and add value to the exercise industry. It’s just that the basic BFL routine is designed to make a customized routine unnecessary.

Description:This title is a play on the popular series of books about the human body, “You: The Owners Manual” was the first, written by Roizen and the wildly popular Oprah doc, Mehmet Oz. I’m no doctor, far from it! I’m a judge, but I’ve learned some things about the functioning of the body as a body for lifer that I hope will help you understand the whats and whys of this great program.

It’s all about sugar and insulin! Greatly simplified, the success of the body for life diet is all about controlling blood insulin levels. Insulin regulates blood sugar, because excess blood sugar is corrosive to the circulatory system and elsewhere. So, when blood sugar rises in response to food intake, especially if it rises rapidly due to eating sugary foods, this triggers the release of insulin from the “storage tanks” to the bloodstream. Insulin, again greatly simplified, “arrests” the excess sugar and takes it and stores it into the fat cells, in order to protect the circulatory system. Insulin usually does its job so thoroughly that the blood sugar level is then a bit too low for normal activity, which is why you feel kind of really weak and even shaky after you’ve bombed down 3 krispy kremes and then crashed!

What are you craving after the crash? Sweets and bready carbohdyrates aren’t you? So, you return to the scene of the crime so to speak, and the cycle happens again. And once again the insulin tosses the sugar into fat cells. This entire cycle explains why people can get fat even though they may not gain scale weight, and why those who eat just one big meal a day do a really, really dumb thing! It also explains why those who drink lots of fruit juice, colas or other sweet drinks are usually significantly overfat.

Ultimately, things get even worse. A person can abuse their body this way to the point that they develop a form of diabetes because their body becomes resistant to their own insulin. This complicates things much more.

When the diet is right, and the dieter is eating the six small meals, which are designed to contain mostly lower glycemic carbohydrates, things work the way they are supposed to. The nutrients go to the storage of glycogen in the muscles and organs, where it can be used as energy by the body. And they also go to repair and build muscle that has suffered “microdamage” during the strenuous exercise sessions. Not only is their no fat storage going on, but there is fat burning, and muscle building. WIthout the insulin spikes, there are no great “swings” of energy, emotions, and hunger pangs.

Better, much better, to eat right, eat often and work out hard. You on BFL–much better!