For those who hit every body part 3Xwk.....

[JamminX3]

....in the immortal words of Dr. Phil, "How's that workin' for ya?"

I've read through some old posts on another forum and saw that some folks make sure to lift wts and hit all parts 3Xwk or they don't see results. Just wondering if that's the case with anyone here. I really have a hard time building muscle and I haven't *really* found 'what works for me' yet. Wondering if a long run of 3Xwk might do the trick.

Input, People, Input!!!!:*

 

[susanz]

What I have found working for me is doing strength training every other day. I do a total body video(PH,MIS,M.E),then an upper body(PUB,MIS-upper),then a lower body(PLB or LL) then another total body( CM,C&W,Bootcamp).I've also been doing cardio 5-6 times per week. My arms are getting much more defined and my hips are really slimming down too.
I've heard alot of good things about the Slow and Heavy series if you're having a hard time putting on muscle. Also Cahte's Pure Strrength series too. Hope this helps- Susan

 

[Lynn M.]

Hi Robin--

For me personally, I have found that working 1 bodypart 1x a week works best. However, when I do, its extremely intense and the muscles are wiped out. I have used S and H for this and it has worked great.

For a change, sometimes I will add bootcamp or cardio and weights in during a week as well. I haven't really noticed a big difference doing that, except for variety.

Good luck,
Lynn

 

[tsut]

Hi Robin

I am an ecto so it's hard for me to build muscle. I have tried lifting weights two ways:

(1) heavy lifting and one body part per week and (2) doing a total body workout 2-3 times a week.

Lifting heavy definitely got my legs into top condition (lean with no cellulite), blasted away a lot of body fat, and I got strong.

When I lifted 2-3 times/week with total body workouts, I got a lot of definition, esp. in the upper body. I also added interval cardio 2-3 times/week, and I was able to burn a lot of extra fat around the middle. Yeah!

So to make this not so long...I really liked the results I got from doing total body workouts 2-3 times week - with interval cardio added of course. I rotated a lot of different tapes so I didn't get bored. I think I did a maximum of 3 days of cardio per week. I think when you're an ecto you need make sure you don't too much cardio because you can actually hinder muscular gains. Everyone is different though so you'll have to experiment. I think one thing that made this rotation so successful is that I didn't restrict myself to a certain rotation of specific tapes. I just followed something like this and did tapes that fell into that category:

Mon-total body weights
Tue-cardio
Wen-total body weights
Thr-cardio
Fri-total body weights
Sat-rest or walk
Sun-rest or walk

Week 2:
Mon-cardio
Tue-total body weights
Wen-cardio
Thr-total body weights
Fri-cardio
Sat-rest or walk
Sun-rest or walk

Total body tapes included: Firm Vol 2, Power Hour, MIS, Weights First, Core First, etc...
Cardio tapes: Intense Moves, Imax, Firm Power Cardio, CTX cardio, MIC, Circuit Max

For cardio, I tried to make sure I didn't do the same type every day. One day I would do step, next day hi/lo, next time kickbox, etc...I also varied intensity. Not having to stick to any particular tapes made the rotation so much more fun. And I think it kept my body guessing a lot. I think that's why I saw good results with this rotation.

I guess this wasn't so short after all. HTH

 

[JamminX3]

Thanks so much, Guys!

Lynn, I did the once a week thing last summer. Didn't do much for me...of course I used S&H, so I was ravenous and ate A LOT!:9

Susan, I've been kinda doing that for a couple of weeks now. I've also been doing too much cardio with it and wore my legs out. Wonder if the cardio was hindering my progress...well, I guess it was, if I couldn't even keep up with it. DUH me.:+

tsut, I'm not sure what you're saying. The heavy part that built your legs was good, but the 3Xwk was better overall? hhhhmmmmmmm. My friend talked me into Body Rx today. It's s'posed to be no cardio and hit each muscle group once a week, then the plan changes a bit in 6 wks and you can add some cardio and I believe more wt. workouts (I'll have to check that tho).

Thinking......

Again, I TRULY appreciate the replies, Everyone.:*

 

[LuvCardio]

Hi Robin! Oh I feel your pain girlfriend! You should come join us on the BFL board. We have many similar discussions.

I too have struggled with the same problem as you. I have actually had better results with only hitting each muscle no more than 2x a week. Anymore and I see NO results.

At first with the Intensity series I had amazing results. Then, I like you started to overtrain. I like TSUT's rotation above as I think it is more sane and doesn't promote overtraining so much. Maybe if I would have done something like that I would have had better luck. I think I was just doing too much cardio, eating too much and getting no where. I also was lifting wts too much and not letting my muscles recover.

Now I am doing BFL and can already tell a difference and I only started last Saturday (4 days ago.) I am going to start cutting my cardio down to only 30 minutes (high intensity... not including warmup/cooldown) 3 days a week. If I use the treadmill than I am going to follow the BFL guidelines 100%. He believes strongly that too much of anything doesn't DO anything for ya' and that it is all about intenisty. I figure why not try it... I sure haven't been successful the past couple months on my own and have been working out 1.5 -2 hrs a day! ;(

I also had great results before with S&H and PS!

Good luck in finding a solution. Would love to chat with ya' more on our BFL thread.

 

[honeybunch1]

Three times a week for every body part is really not necessary,
IM(Humble)O. The focus should be on quality and not quantity, and Cathe designed her weight workouts to be done (that is the PS, CTX & S&H anyway) only once per week. I can't speak for the Pyramid series 'cause I haven't done much with them, and can't remember what she wrote about them.

I've always done the above mentioned upper body tapes just once per week and gotten really good results. Of course, with the workouts like MIS, Power Hour and ME, you'd want to do those 2 times per week for sure.

I'm sure our beloved Dr. Phil would suggest that we all work smarter and not harder!

 

[robyn6002]

Interesting... at least for me - Going HEAVY rather than doing it a lot has much better results... When my 14 year old told me I'm really getting buffed... well that made my day.

I have had great results with S&H. PH is good for maintenance SUPRISINGLY I'm doing a CTX rotation and am getting GREAT results and that is once a week.

I use to do 2-3 times aweek but not as heavy got results but not like this.. so I guess I my case it is NOT an issue of quantity but intensity is more important!

 

[prfitness]

Hey Robin - Have you tried the TTR? I think that involves hitting the upper body 3 times. That rotation did work for me and I normally have a really hard time gaining muscle in the upper body. I have also tried reversing the technique for legs but found that 3 times for the legs was a bit much. I've also tried 3 total body workouts a week but once again it was a bit much for me and I don't think it helped me gain muscle. I lost some weight though.

You haven't mentioned which part of your body you have the hardest time with. With legs, I would really recommend doing PLB with a weighted vest in addition to barbell. The weighted vest has done wonders for me (particularly when doing those leg presses) - something about the weight distribution in a vest is totally different compared to a barbell. I had to be larger jeans because my thighs are finally bulkier but I am not complaining!! As far as upper body goes, I have been doing one body part per day from the S&H in the evening and cardio (only half hour) seperately in the morning. This is giving me awsome results. I don't eat like a pig, my cardio doesn't tire me out before lifting or the lifting doesn't tire me out for the cardio. Plus I think my metabolism is benefitting from this because for the first time I am finally beginning to see my tummy flatten out a bit. Have fun with experimenting and good luck with finding what works for you.