BodyMax - is twice a week enough?

J

JudySP

Cathlete
Hi Cathe,

I just finished a 6 week rotation of the PS series. I was going to start MIS, but then I realized that I hadn't done BodyMax in a long time and I figured I'd start a BodyMax rotation since the more I confuse those muscles the better!

My question is, is it enough to do BodyMax twice a week (whether I do that in 2 days or break it up a little more)? I had been doing each PS tapes once a week.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Judy
 
Is Twice enough?

Hi JudySP,

I was curious as to Cathe's Response on this one. My humble opinion. I usually do MIS and Bodymax in the same week. Once each only. Reason being I find that the leg strength section in BodyMax is pretty short. Although you are working the legs out pretty hard during the circuits. I do break up the workouts sometimes. Have you tried it? How did it feel? See you at Cathe's soon.

Lydia L
 
Maybe it depends on your goals?

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON Sep-30-99 AT 12:25PM (EST)</font></center>

Hi Judy SP! Can't wait to see you -- just a couple more weeks and we can giggle about Body Max together.

I don't think any person alive should attempt Body Max more than twice a week. Just my opinion. It is just too grueling. But if your goal is to build strength, Judy, then Body Max is not enough, whether you do it once or three times per week. So if you want to keep up your strength gains, I'd suggest that you do Body Max once per week, along with a strength building workout, such as MIS.

I'm doing a 3-week pure endurance workout rotation right now. Week one included: Body Max, Tough Tape and FIRM Cardio. Week two includes: Body Max, MIS and either MBS or Strength Balance & Flexibility. Week three will be Body Max plus two other total body, high rep workouts. I don't care if I make any strength gains at all, and I don't think I'll loseany strength in that short of a period. I just want to build up my endurance and shock my body. I've got to say that I'm enjoying the variety of tapes I can do with this rotation.

Daphne (hope this made sense)
 
Daphne, Please explain

Daphne,
What is MBS and who makes Strength & Flexibility? I might like to try your rotation.

Plus I need to work on my flexibility.

Thanks,

Sharon
 
MBS and Strength, Balance and Flexibility

Hi Sharon,

I know you asked Daphne, and I'm obviously not her, but I can answer your question. MBS is Maximum Body Sculpting by The Firm. It's a 45 minute total body workout--mostly weights, but with a few minutes of plyometrics and kickboxing moves peppered through it. Strength, Balance and Flexibility is one of Christi Taylor's new tapes. It's definitely a different approach to strength training. The title explains it all. It uses only one set of dumbbells (I use 8 lbs. and find that weight to be comfortable for me, and I use considerably heavier weights with Cathe's tapes, at least for me). They both are excellent videos.

Kristin
 
Yep, Kristin pretty much covered it.

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON Sep-30-99 AT 04:42PM (EST)</font></center>

The "totally different style of strength training," that Kristin refers to in Christi Taylor's Strength, Balance & Flexibility is what they're terming "functional fitness" in the fitness industry.

To give you an idea, the video incorporates lots of compound movements like squats and push-ups. You do many variations (one-legged squats, triceps push-ups, push-ups with one leg up in the air ... ) When you use a dumbell, it is either 8 pounds or 5 pounds (unlike Kristin, I had to drop down to 5 pounds on some of the shoulder exercises.) It is called "functional" fitness, because the resistance training that instructor Christi Taylor has you do is designed to mimic the ways you challenge your body in real life. There are also plenty of balancing and flexibility moves in the tape. The ab work is very good and the tape incorporates rotator cuff work.

I like this tape a lot. It flies by, the music is good and Christi is an excellent instructor. I have a hunch this tape will improve my strength training for Cathe's more traditional gym-style workouts. I think the new video that Reebok is supposed to be producing with Gin Miller (Final Cuts) is based on the same functional fitness philosophy.
 
Daphne - thanks and questions

Hi Daphne!

Two weeks to go - can't wait to see you either. I had to LOL at your saying that you don't think any person alive should attempt Body Max more than twice a week! I did the upper body yesterday for the second time this week but I'm having all kinds of conversations with myself about the aerobic and circuit training part and when I'm going to get it in for the second time this week - that is grueling!

I'm not sure what I should do. I wanted to do an endurance workout for a few weeks to shake things up before I go to an MIS rotation. My thought was that I wouldn't GAIN any strength during the 3-4 weeks of the endurance rotation but I didn't think I would LOSE any. Since I plan on switching to a 6-week MIS rotation in a few weeks, do you think it would be enough to incorporate Strength Balance & Flexibility once a week to avoid losing any strength? I really want to stay away from MIS since I'll be doing it enough in the near future! The other thing I should mention is that I like to get 5-6 days of cardio in both for my weight loss effort and to help control my d@$(% cholesterol, so it's pretty hard for me to fit in more than 2-3 days of strength total.

Can you believe I still haven't tried Strength Balance & Flexibility yet? So many videos and so little time. After reading what you wrote though, I'm determined to try it sometime this weekend.

I don't know if what I wrote makes sense. I would love your input (and yours too Kristin!)

Lydia - this week is the first time in a long time that I broke up BodyMax (still have to do the circuit though). My goal is to do it all the way through once a week and break it up for the other time. I'll let you know how it goes!

Looking forward to seeing you all!!!!
Judy
 
I like that idea, Judy

I'll bet that doing BOdy Max and Strength Balance & Flexibility each once a week would probably work out pretty well for building your endurance. Plus with SB&F, you get the added benefit of the rotator cuff work and the balancing work. I think doing 2 total body endurance workouts per week would be good, Judy. In fact, because you were plagued with a lot of over use kind of injuries recently, it is probably a safer and more effective approach then going overboard on Body Max or adding additional workouts.

I've got to warn you that I am no expert and I am sort of learning from my own successes and mistakes on this stuff. So please listen to your own body as you go along. For instance, when everyone was so enthused about the one body part per week rotation, I tried that for 3 weeks. Daily, intense strength work was just too much for me ... I exhausted myself and got sick. Maybe I will try it another time, but I will really pay more attention to my body's cues the next time.

See you in two more weeks!
 
I'll let you know how it's working

Daphne,

Thanks for your input. I think I'm going to try to do the aerobic and circuit part of BodyMax tomorrow and try SB&F on Monday and see how that works - I'll let you know. You're right about my having had problems with over use injuries. I *definitely* listen to my body now - I don't want to injure my shoulder again - that was a drag! I never quite previewed SB&F all the way through so I'm glad to hear there is rotator cuff and balancing work.

Did you try a one body part per week or per day? I've thought of trying that because I like doing 5-6 days of aerobics and it might be easier to do a few exercises each day for one body part than trying to fit longer strength sessions in, but I'll see after I finish this endurance rotation.

Seeya in two!
Judy
 
I did one body part per day

I used the PS series and MIS. It went something like this:

Mon. -- PS Chest week 1 and 2; MIS Chest week3
Tues -- PS Back week 1 and 2; MIS Back week 3
Wednesday -- PS LEgs and Shoulders (OK, so I did 2 body parts on this day), MIS for week 3
Thursday -- PS Biceps week 1 and 2; MIS Biceps week 3
Friday -- PS Triceps week 1 and 2; MIS Triceps week 3

When I used MIS, I slowed the reps down. I seldom did more than 10 reps in a set. (Exception being the leg work.) I went as heavy as I could through the sets and almost always hit failure before Cathe had completed her reps.

Oh, and whatever the first bodypart exercise was, I always started with a warm-up set at a lighter weight, then rewound the tape and did all the sets at my heavy weight.

I did make some strength gains, but I was happy to go back to a three-day split. One body part per day really wore me out.
 
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