Body For Life

Home > Body for life > The Beginning

In the Spring of 2000, I was living the American dream. Well paying job, travel for business and pleasure, nice restaurants, good apartment, disposable income. What more could I want? This dream life had also lured me into complacency about my health. I had not worked out in months and had reached an all-time high on the weight scale. I weighed 163lbs at 21% bodyfat and I am 5 feet 6. My clothes did not fit me anymore and I was literally waddling around. I felt terrible about "letting myself go" and so I decided to run on a treadmill. Seemed logical that I would get in great shape doing that. Did I cut back on my food intake? No. Did I do any sort of weight training program? Nope. Did much happen to my body from 3X per week of low intensity jogging? Sadly enough, no.

I saw the Body For Life book and was mesmerized by the transformations. Still I was passive and did not implement what I read in those pages. Tejas Patel, a close friend of mine visited me in February of 2000 and looked at the same book and he was captivated. He went one step further and asked me if I wanted to do this program with him? That's all I need. A little push in the right direction. I was in. I was going to do this no matter what my obstacles were.

I was still traveling 4-5 days a week to a client site. I signed up at a gym in Utah where I traveled every week and a gym in Austin where I live. It was hard. I had to be at work at 8am. Getting up at 5.45am was very difficult. I did it anyways. I was very sleepy when I got to the gym and I would say to myself that I will just take it easy. But then I would remind myself how badly I wanted to change and I would push myself hard. At work, while my co-workers would eat Rice Krispe treats, I would eat a nutrition bar. It was definitely not easy but I decided that this time around, I was going to be a doer not a talker. At the end of the first 12 weeks I thought I looked great (I did not realize at the time that I had a long way to go!). I was down to 153 pounds and 11% bodyfat. I had lost 16 pounds of fat and put on 6 pounds of muscle. I was so excited that I even showed my clients my before and after pictures! I don't know if they really wanted to see me in my swim shorts, but this was a turning point in my life and I had to share this discovery with as many people as I could.

And then the magic started happening. I kept on going. I kept setting myself new goals. I reached for new highs. And I started motivating others by my example. People were beginning to see the change. They wanted to know what it is I was doing and was so revved-up about. Giving those people hope that this was something they could do themselves really made me realize that giving back is so much more rewarding that even taking.

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Home > Body for Life > My fitness philosophy

Fitness has become a way of life for me. I don’t workout to try and make myself look a certain way anymore. I workout regularly and I workout hard because I like the way it makes me feel. Working out gives me a structure to my day. I know that I am always going to have a high point every single day. Not many people can say that each day is accentuated by a moment when they truly believe in themselves and their abilities. Working out and being active gives me that opportunity and I can honestly say I have never felt better about myself.

Trust me, it has not always been that way. I love eating good food (I am Indian, and those Indian buffets are oh so good). I love getting a lot of sleep. I really enjoy sitting around. I still do. But it’s a little different now. When that morning alarm goes off and I am still sleepy, I tell myself, "You have a choice. Go to bed and be happy with getting more sleep. Or go workout hard and reap the benefits for the rest of the day and your life." I almost always choose the latter. It’s not always that easy. But as the saying goes, "Nothing that is worth it ever comes easy". Trite but very true.

When I am working out, I am in the working out. People who have seen me working out know what I mean when I say this. My gym time or workout time is my time, and I make it count. There is plenty of other time to do the other things that might distract me while I work out. I go in with a purpose and I give it my very best and then I am done.

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Home > Body for life > My workouts

I workout 5 to 6 times a week. I train with weights and do mostly high intensity interval training for aerobics. Each workout session that I undertake is intense. I feel good somedays. I feel downright terrible other days and don’t think I need to put myself through this. I have worked out enough to differentiate pain from just feeling mentally sluggish. If it is real pain I stop. If it is just me being a drag, I know I can find a way to make this session worth it. And I almost always find a way to beat the blues. It is a very empowering feeling to do well even when you are not "feeling up to it". To me, that is when your true character emerges.

I started off very simply in February 2000. I bought the book, "Body-for-Life" by Bill Phillips and followed it to the T. Lots of naysayers dissed the workout. Here are some of the many things I have heard:

• Six days a week working out. You must be crazy.
• Working out the entire upper body in one day and the entire lower body on another cannot build muscle.
• I do a lot more than 20 minutes of cardio. How can 20 minutes do anything for you?
• A woman might ask if lifting weights is going to make them "bulk up"
• You should split your workouts into opposing muscle groups so that you can really focus on all the parts of the muscle.

People, people, people. What are we trying to achieve here? You have not even started working out and you are already trying to be a professional athlete or bodybuilder? To me, doing the Body-for-life program gave me a no-nonsense, no-excuses way to get in the best shape of my life. If you think this is easy, or change comes overnight, I can tell you to disavow those thoughts immediately. It is difficult and it takes a lot of commitment to make lasting change in your life.

Ultimately, this is what I truly believe about the Body-for-Life program. If you are truly looking to change the way you look and feel, invest 2 twelve week periods sincerely living the Body-for-Life style. The results that people have achieved do not lie. Sure, there are a million other ways to work out, but here is why it worked for me:

• I did not have a whole lot of time when I started working out. Body for Life takes a sum total of 3 hours and 15 minutes of your time in a week.
• It teaches a beginner like myself what a workout routine consists of. I did not know that an upper body workout consists of 5 major muscle groups, a lower body workout consists of 3 major muscle groups, abdominals, and on top of that cardio. Make it easy on yourself too. The more complex workouts you can devise when you are already a seasoned veteran and you know your way about the gym really well.
• Most importantly, Body-for-Life worked for me because it made me consistent. Consistent with my workouts, consistent in what I was looking out for from each workout. You know a high point when you hit a high point in your workout. I learned what it felt like to give it everything I got. I realized I could get to a high point anywhere – my apartment complex gym, a fancy gym, a great gym at a hotel, a ratty gym at a hotel, running outside, even with exercise bands. Body for Life truly gave me the understanding of what pushing myself to my limit meant.

I am light years away from where I started out as in February 2000. I am leaner, I am stronger, more experienced. I now change around my workouts every 4 weeks to keep my muscles from adapting. But if I had a major setback and had to get back on the path to fitness all over again, I would do it the very same way. I would do the Body-for-Life program because it makes you physically fit. More importantly it makes you mentally fit and replenishes your belief in yourself.

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Home > Body for life > BFL Workout Tips

• Don't cheat on form. A full range of motion gives your muscles a better stretch and keeps your tendons flexible.
• Keep your workouts at or under 46 minutes for weight days. If you are going above this, you are losing out on the intensity of the workout.
• Make it burn. Doing the exercises at the intensity levels as indicated in the Body For Life book will get you maximum results.
• Plan your workout before you lift the first weight. I cannot emphasize this enough. It takes at most 5 minutes. It will be your workout log that will be invaluable to you in the future and a great memoir as well for your efforts.
• Focus on isolating and contracting the muscle you are working.
• Finish the workout. You might be tired and want to quit -- do the rest of the workout with tomorrows aerobic workout. Resist that temptation. Finishing what you have set out to do will build character and inner strength.
• Change your workouts every 4 weeks. Keep your body in shock. There are many ways to change around your workouts. Even simply changing the exercises makes a big difference.
• Keep your faith in the workout. This weight routine works for many different reasons. For some it will work faster, for some it will take more time. Remember, its Body For Life, not Body for 12 Weeks!

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Home > Body for life > Keeping BFL Exciting

Have you gotten to a point that your muscles are no longer sore and you feel like you are bored with the routine? Your body has gotten very used to the BFL routine and you want something to spice things up and keep your progress steady. I am a great fan of the Body For Life program and have gotten amazing results so far sticking quite closely to the program.

1. Change the exercises that you do. This is the simplest way of incorporating a change in your routine.
2. Shorten the rest period to 45 seconds between sets. You might have to lower your weights just because you are so aerobically maxed out. Its ok to lower your weights. It is not a statement of who you are based on the amount of weight you can hoist.
3. Really focus on range of motion and go slow. I know that I tended to sacrifice range of motion once I got to some heavy weights. Refocus your efforts on your range of motion and see how your muscles feel worked after the workout. You might have to lower the weights. Remember, you are not taking a step backwards by lowering your weights.

4. Feel like you cannot get strong because the number of repetitions (12, 10, 8, 6, 12/12) are too high? Try this rep routine for a change and watch your strength increase. Do the same 12, 10, 8, 6 repetitions of the main exercise and then choose another exercise for the same muscle group and do 8 and 6 repetitions. The 8 and 6 repetition sets should both be to failure. Take a minute break between each set.

   Exercises	Repetitions
   Dumbell Bench Press	12
   	10
   	8
   	6
   Incline Dumbell Bench Press	8
   	6

 

 

 

 

 

5. Do aerobic 4 times per week and weight train 2 times per week. I would recommend against the other way around. Your body will just not be able to handle 4 BFL weight workouts a week (lift more than 3 times per week only if you feel you are an advanced weight lifter. If indeed you are, then you might be ready for alternative lifting routines)
6. Do abs on aerobic days instead of leg days. Remember, abs are just like any other muscle group. Make them burn. Shawn Phillips' Absolution is a great resource for ab routines. Add another basic group of exercises to your leg workout. It might be a good chance to focus on a weak point.

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Home > Body for life > Advanced Workouts

I am a staunch believer that spending more than an hour in the gym does you more of a disservice than good. The contents of this website are not geared for the professional bodybuilder so I have devised workouts that the average person can do quite easily. Do these workouts after you have really gotten comfortable in the gym. Change can be great, but it could also be discouraging till you get used to a new routine. Experiment once you know that a new routine will not derail you completely from your workout program.

Advanced Workout 1
Goal	Build Core Strength
Weight Training	Split Routine with 3 exercises per muscle group, opposing muscle groups, low repetitions, higher weights
Aerobic	20 minute BFL Aerobic workout
Download Workout

Advanced Workout 2
Goal	Accelerate Fat Loss
Training	Mix in high intensity interval aerobic bursts with weights. Workout 5 times per week and take 2 days off.
Download Workout

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Home > Body For Life > My Stats

Name: Nik Bhattacharya

Height : 5 feet 6 inches

Pictures:

Read about my transformation.

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