Success With 1 Bodypart per Day

F

fitden

Cathlete
Hi, all!

I would like to share a success I have had (especially since so many of you are kind enough to share yours!). You are all so wonderful and I have learned so much from this forum. :)

Seven weeks ago I decided to start a 1 bodypart per day routine (i.e., Monday, Chest; Tuesday, Back; Wednesday, Legs; Thursday, Shoulders; Friday, Biceps; and Saturday, Triceps). I felt I had hit a plateau that even Slow and Heavy didn't seem to be helping with, and I was reading Muscle and Fitness Hers. In the issue I was reading, it explained how to put together your own routine or "split". They offered many options, but I decided to try the 1 bodypart per day option they described.

The success I have had doing this routine has been better than I ever hoped for. I have always lifted as heavy as I can and achieved a nice "base" of muscle, but my new routine really broke through the plateau. Before my arms were toned (by this I mean they didn't carry much extra fat), but if I wasn't flexing the muscle wasn't very noticeable. Now I don't have to flex in order for my muscles to be noticeable--they really have a muscular shape to them. Last weekend I was sitting with my husband having a conversation, and I was wearing a tank top. Suddenly he said, "Wow, look at your arms! You must be doing some serious lifting!" Now, in 5 years of lifting weights my husband never made a comment like that to me. I just beamed and said "Really? Really? It's noticeable?!" In the past when I thought I had made gains in muscle he never said anything, so I was surprised to hear his remark. I just couldn't stop smiling! Now I look at my arms in the mirror way too often! :)

Anyway, I guess my point is to let anyone who has considered trying this know that I tried it firsthand and I have been thrilled with the results. The hardest part is missing Cathe during weights, although of course I still see her in my cardio every week, and I will definitely be doing the new workouts when my DVDs come in! I do put music on that I find very motivating. I have also kept a log of what exercises I did and how much weight I used. The amount of weight has increased considerably in the 7 weeks I have been doing this!

So, if you are considering doing something different (maybe while awaiting those new DVDs!) try it! I am a very hardgainer and it worked for me. :)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Denise
 
Hi Denise
Are you doing a special routine of your own or are you using video's? Please share your routine.
Thanks
 
Please let us know sets/reps! I've been thinking of doing something similar to you after finishing my endurace rotation. My body looks as yours used to, and I want it to look like yours does now!

Thanks!
 
I am so glad to hear someone else say this.I also see wonderful muscle growth and strengh gains by doing this .I can bicep curl 25 pounds in each hand and mil.press 25 easily in both hand.So I have found when you combined exercise doing more per day by the time you get to the smaller muscles you just can't lift heavy.So I opt to really pay full attention to that part that day.I do like you do Denise except I do legs in the evening of a day when I have done upper in the morning.I do the tapes like pure strengh and the all the other series this way and am planning on doing the new series this way after I get done with a 2 week doing the tapes as a whole and as formatted.with the pure strengh I mix it up doing one week chest-back-shoulders-bicep-tricep next back-chest-shoulders-tricep-bicep and the next back-bicep-chest-tricep-shoulders and the final one chest-tricep-back-shoulders-bicep.you really have to find what works for you and I find 10min per body(upper)works for me.
 
Hi, Diane and Kotacam!

Diane, I do the routine all on my own, with no tapes. It seemed really strange at first not to pop in a Cathe tape, but I wanted to follow the formula outlined in Muscle and Fitness Hers. I wanted to go heavy at my own pace and take a recovery period that felt right for me, and that's so hard to do with a tape. The Slow and Heavy series (which I love), has a good recovery period but for some reason, was not getting me over my plateau. I'm sure it could be done with tapes, though, if you don't like the idea of just doing it on your own.

Kotacam, I base my workouts on choosing 4 exercises for the bodypart, and do 3 to 4 sets of each exercise. The exception is for legs--I do 5 exercises, 4 sets each. (Just to let you know, Muscle & Fitness said choose 2-3 exercises for shoulders, biceps, and triceps; and 3-4 exercises each for legs, chest and back, doing 3 to 4 sets of each exercise. So I do slightly more on shoulders, biceps, and triceps than they outlined.)

As for reps, since I wanted to gain muscle mass, I went for a heavy weight and aimed for low to moderate reps (between 5 and 10). Again, the exception was for legs--I did about 15 or 16 reps on those exercises. I can only hoist 60 pounds over my head, and I just didn't feel fatigued enough with lower reps. I'm looking into a weighted vest to help with that situation! On upper body exercises, I tried to go heavy enough that I reached muscle failure between 5 and 10 reps. There were days that I did slightly higher reps, maybe up to 12. There wasn't an exact formula--if I felt I could keep going, I did. Sometimes it was because I was ready to move up to a heavier weight, but other days I just felt stronger than others.

For cardio, the CTX series worked great! On my shorter days, which for me was back, shoulders, and triceps, I did either a CTX cardio, or the step portion of MIC. On one day I did a longer cardio, which was IMax every time. So, my total cardio is 3 to 4 times a week.

Today I noticed that Cathe said that she does 1 bodypart per day, and it takes her about 25 minutes. Mine take longer than that--the shortest is about 30 minutes (back), and the rest are longer. My biceps routine takes 45 minutes--I must be taking long breaks! However, my biceps and shoulders are my best-developed areas, so it must be because I am going so heavy and need the longer breaks. Cathe is so muscular already, I would think she doesn't need that long to maintain her muscle mass. Her legs take her 50 minutes--mine take a little over an hour. If you don't have that much time, then I'm sure taking shorter breaks would reduce the time. When I first started doing this routine, I kept my watch nearby and made sure I didn't go over 1 minute--now I don't, and my workout time has increased.

I'll continue this routine for a little longer, then do something a little different (hopefully the Intensity Series DVDs!). Like Slow & Heavy, it takes a great deal of focus and concentration, so I think it's a good idea to do a periodization type of thing with this routine. It takes a lot out of you, but it has been very rewarding. Mind you, I don't look like a bodybuilding competitor--but I have shapely, muscular arms that I am thrilled with! No other routine has ever given me these results in at least 5 years of weight training.

Boy, did I go on and on here or what?! haha I hope it helped answer your questions, but if you would like any more specifics, please ask! :)

Take care,
Denise
 
Hi, Shelia! I think it is so true that you can really put your all into a bodypart when you do 1 per day. By the time I get to triceps in whole body workouts I often have nothing left to put into it. I don't knock whole body workouts altogether, they definitely are great workouts for endurance!

Wow, 10 minutes per day! I think I need to find a middle-ground here in my weight lifting time! :) It's encouraging to hear your great results in that amount of time. I'm sure it comes from putting your all into that time!

Can you explain how you work this way using the tapes? Do you just pause it when necessary and do an extra set?

Thanks,
Denise
 
Thank You, Denise!

Thanks for sharing all of that information! How inspiring and motivating. I think I am at the point where something like your routine could make that difference for me. I hope so, anyway! Thanks again for posting this :)
Wendy
 
I have done this, too, meaning making up my own routines without tapes using the one-body-part-per-day routine. If you are hesitant to do it one your own, there are lots of resources out there in book form. Men's Health publishes a lot of good stuff, and my particular favorite is their "The Complete Dumbbell Workout."

Also, Joyce Vedral's books are good. I like her "Fat Burning Workout." DON'T BOTHER with her tapes - her books are much better.

Just Do It! :)
 
I only do what cathe does on the tape in her pure st. series except on back and triceps when she is doing bent over rows I will do lat pull downs on my wt. machine and when she does close grip bench press I will do tricep push downs on the machine.since this tape does 3 sets I don't add.For MIS I still do only one body part and add the extra from body max.I switch routines often after I do the new tapes as they are laid out I am going to do my pure st. as I have said above and do the pyrmid upper for 2 weeks(split up) and mis for 2 then back to whole series as a whole.Just back and forth.I want to get slow and heavy in the close future I figure this tape will really get the into some serious strengh gains.I have done it on my own and put way more time into it with no results so this is working for me.I also eat between 100-120grams of protein on lifting days and eat pretty clean 5 days a week the other 2 everything I can get my hands on(not really because you feel like crap physicaly when you are use to eating a certain way)
Also what you said about not being able to lift more than 60 pounds over your head hear is what I do I am assuming you have a regular wt bench.?I lift my barbell onto the holders and come from the front and slide my shoulders under it and lift it up with my back and legs and put it down the same way just look over your shoulder to get yourself into postion .than you can load it as heavy as you can manage and is a safer alternative than trying to hoist it over your head.well I better go muscle endurance is calling.first time doing it and dreading it.I am just now starting to like power hour I try to lift heavy and stop and pick up lighter wts.when I need to.So I am just now starting to get the hang of the endurance syle workout.
 
Thank you for posting all that! It wasn't too much. It was exactly the info and inspiration I needed to step away from the tapes for a little bit, build some mass and then go back to them. I definitely will be trying this after the next 3 weeks of my endurance rotation are over. I should be getting the CTX series in the mail before this rotation is over, so this will work perfectly for me. My dh is really getting great results doing something similar, but working all body parts 2x per week and doing 3 sets of 8 rep or failure whichever comes first. When he can do all 3 sets of 8 reps, he moves the weight up. Granted, he's a beginner, and I've been lifting 2 years, but I think shaking up the routine isn't going to hurt.

One more nosy question and then I'll leave you alone. What's your diet like? I've been playing with mine for the last 6 months (I'm already at goal weight, but trying to lower the old bodyfat percentage a bit), and when I eat more protein, low fat, almost no white sugar and few carbs, I've done better at staying lean and gaining muscle.

I'm always curious about what is working for others and trying it out to see if it works for me or not, so thanks for posting your success for us!
 
Fitden...

I was wondering what count you use for your lifting, ie. do you a 1 up, 1 down; 2 up, 1 down...etc. Also do you legs at home or at the gym? And, if at home, could you list your exercise selection for us??

Thanks!

Stacy
 
I am starting with this kind of thing next week. FINALLY I am going to hop on the CTX bandwagon!! I have been doing IMAX every Monday for as long as i can remember, but after previewing CTX, I don't think I have to feel guilty taking a break from it. Looks like CTX has got some good power moves very similar if not exact.

I thought about leaving CTX as it is, but I think I might do another posters (can't remember who) suggestion and put S&H on the other 30 mins. I just don't get into endurance routines and they just don't seem to produce very good results for me, which you would think they would since I am strongly mesomorphic. I don't really have the option of not working out to a tape though, since I work out with other people. I fear that if I left the tape out, everyone would start talking!!:) Except me, of course.

Thanks for the info Denise. I may do S&H and then throw in an additional few different exercises each evening for that same bodypart on my own. I am very excited to be doing cardio 5 x's per week, but it is 80 degrees here Mon. so I am fighting the urge to get outside instead!!

Thanks again..

Janice




http://www.picturetrail.com/thrashej
 
Hi, Kotacam!

I'll bet this routine works really well for you since you have already been lifting for 2 years; you must have a good muscle base and shaking them up this way will probably give you great results.

You're not being nosy at all asking about my diet! In fact, I was going to mention it in the last post but it was getting so long I decided not to. :)

I don't follow any diet in particular, I just try to eat clean and get plenty of protein. Like you, I'm lucky enough to not have extra weight to lose, and I actually started eating more when I began this routine. I think that it is partly why this worked so well, because your body really needs the calories to build muscle and recover for the next workout. I have to admit that I was a little bit apprehensive about eating more, especially since I was doing a little less cardio and more lifting, but I don't think I gained any weight at all (I don't weigh myself because I fixate!) . My clothes fit great, which is how I gauge myself now.

One thing I wish I had done at the beginning of this workout, which my husband brought up, was to "tape" my arms before starting. He was a "Master Fitness Trainer" in the Army until a few years ago, and also a bodybuilder, and this is what all the guys did. What you do is take a soft style tape-measure to measure around your current arm size, and do it again every couple of weeks to check for progress in muscle size. See, he thinks my arms look so muscular that I would have seen a big difference in size if I had measured them. How cool is that? :)

Anyway, back to the diet. I do think that I have a very healthy diet for the most part, but not perfect! I am eating a candy coated almond as I type this, but almonds are healthy, right? :) For breakfast I usually have oatmeal or toast with a little peanut butter and a banana. Then I workout, and have a protein shake right away. For lunch I usually have a chicken sandwich or a Boca Burger with cottage cheese. For a snack in between lunch and dinner, I usually have a chocolate Power Bar. I don't know that it's the best choice, as it has 20 grams of sugar in it, but also 10 grams of protein and some vitamins and minerals. It also keeps me away from other sweets, my big weakness. Anyway, I really look forward to having that chocolate Power Bar every day! Then for dinner, it's almost the same every night: chicken, rice, and broccoli. It's becoming a little boring! Last week we substituted the chicken with a tuna steak one night, and we joked that we were "living large"! haha A couple of hours after supper pretty much every night, I have a container of fat free yogurt with Kashi Go Lean Crunch (yum!) cereal in it. I started off with just a sprinkle of the cereal on top and ate the whole container that way; now, I put in a handful, eat the top layer, add another handful, eat that layer, etc., until the yogurt is gone, so that is not so good! It's a lot of calories about an hour before bed, and I am going to try to do better with it.

On the weekends I cheat a little. Lately, every Friday and Saturday night my husband and I rent a movie, make air-popped popcorn (sounds good so far, right?) then I pour myself a big honking glass of chardonnay to go with it....sometimes two! We sometimes get a pizza or chinese food on the weekends, too. If we go out to dinner I try to choose something not too sinful, but I usually order dessert and share it with my husband.

So, as you can see, I try to do good with my diet but allow myself some treats. Maybe if I cut out the treats I would look even more muscular, but I don't want to feel completely deprived and then really lose it someday. Sometimes when I am contemplating eating something a bit sinful, my husband says to me, "Go ahead and eat it! If anyone deserves a treat it's you for working out so hard." I like that way of thinking! :)

I really wish you luck with this, and if I can help you with anything, please let me know!

Take care,
Denise
 
Hi, Shelia!

Thanks for explaining how you do this with Cathe's weight tapes!

Also, thanks for the great tip telling me how you can get a heavier barbell on your shoulders using a regular bench. That's great! Unfortunately I don't have a regular weight bench. I have the barbell on the ground, then do this crouching kind of thing over it. I then hoist it to my chest and over my head, much the way Cathe does it in her weight videos. I have a bench on my cable machine, but the stack of weights is behind it where the bar you are talking about would be. My husband said he can show me a way to do squats with the cable machine, but for some reason I prefer to add weight using a weighted vest. I also use my step with extra risers as a bench.

I think you would love the Slow & Heavy series, by the way! :)

Denise
 
Hi, Stacy!

I don't have an exact count in mind when I do the exercises, but it's definitely on the slower side. It depends on the bodypart, but I would have to say in general for upper body it's about 3 up, 3 down. It gets slower as I struggle to get the weight up again!:) One exercise I do, negative biceps curls, I do 2 up and 8 to 10 down (ouch!). My husband said he used it as a very effective mass-building exercise in his bodybuilding days, and boy, you can really feel it! For legs, I do about 2 down, 3 or 4 up, and sometimes I make them low-ends.

I quit my gym a year ago because I felt self-conscious trying to go as heavy as I could in front of the men there and making these horrible grimacing faces. I know I shouldn't have felt that way, but it was actually hindering my progress because I would go lighter to avoid making the faces! I also loved doing Cathe's cardio at home--they were more intense than the classes at the gym, so I left.

For legs, I choose 5 from these exercises:

Squats
Plie Squats
Static Lunges
Step Ups
Sit and Stand Squats
Hamstring Deadlifts

I have a cable machine, so I also choose from leg extensions and hamstring curls on the cable machine.

I hope that was helpful! :)

Take care,
Denise
 
Janice, I think that would work great! I really love the Slow & Heavy Series. I think I was probably doing it too regularly for it to break my plateau, but it made me much stronger.

And you're right about the CTX cardios! They're really intense, so I always feel like the 30 minutes is actually the equivalent of about 40 minutes of cardio. Not a wasted minute, and you really feel like you got a great workout in! You are so lucky to be having 80 degree weather! I live in New Hampshire and we just got almost 2 feet of snow!

Good luck with your routine! :)

Take care,
Denise
 
Denise - you live in NH?!?!?! Where? I live in NH, too. In Northfield, exits 19/20 off the 93. This is great.

I eat similarly to you, except that I'm vegetarian, but I know what those protein sources are! I've been upping the protein and have seen improvements in muscle development department. I think I'm going to measure like your dh has done and see if I can get another visual as to progress. I don't weigh too often, either, same problem as you, but I do go by clothes fit. My clothes fit about the same before I started tweaking the diet/PS rotation, but I've gained about 5lbs. I think it's a little flab on the lower portion, but my upper body is visibly bigger. So, hence the 4 wk endurance rotation (which is kicking my butt - a good thing).
 
Kotacam, you live in NH too!

Hi, Kotacam!

Wow, another Cathe fan from New Hampshire?! Yahoo! I live in Salisbury, so it is exit 17 that I take off of 93--not too far from you! Maybe we could meet someday. If you want to email me, my address is [email protected]. Either way, it is so neat to know that there's a like-minded Cathe fan closeby! :)

I'm thinking of starting an endurance rotation for a few weeks to shake up this current routine, and then I will go back to it. I'm looking into periodization, where for a certain period of time you lift lighter weight, then switch to moderate, then to heavy, take a week off for recovery, then start all over again. It would keep things interesting and would also keep the muscles guessing and therefore progressing.

Take care!
Denise
 
RE: Kotacam, you live in NH too!

Whoa - that's closer than I thought. Just a few towns over. Well, at least I'm not alone. I'll e-mail you.
 
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