Intensity levels...also a few questions

[Derek]

Hi, I just finished reading the book but I'm still a little confused about the intensity levels. I don't know how you can accurately measure something like that because it seems so ambiguous. Like what is a level 8 compared to a level 9?

Also- he says to plan your workouts the night before. But since tomorrow will be my first day, I can't really decide the weights yet, right? So I should go tomorrow and give them a test run. Should I count this as a day or just practice?


Thanks!!!!!

[Wardrobe]

The first time you have a crack at it, it's a bit of trial and error.... after you've done it a few times, you'll have a better idea of what an 8 or a 9 is. Difficult to gauge for a first time though. It has taken me a while to get appropriate weights to match the difficulty... I'd try working back from a 10 in the future (though you won't be able to do this for the first time obviously). Where a 10 is 12 reps of a given weight after which you literally don't think you could complete another rep. 9 is a heavier weight, but getting close to the point of not being able to do one more... I find 8 actually the hardest to gauge, as you're only doing 6 reps if you're following BFL. For me, this is usually 6 reps of the highest weight I can lift, but since it's only 6 reps it's a lot easier than trying to punch out 12 of them.

Trial and error will get you there though!

Just be honest with yourself about the degree of effort you're putting in!

[Chris]

Yeah, it seems ambiguous.. but once you get the hang of it, those intensity levels are easy to spot. You'll know right away where you are on the scale. I agree that for your first couple workouts (may take a few weeks) it's a lot of trial and error. Don't be too concerned about it. Just try to do the best you can, and then make the adjustment for the following workout.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Derek

Hi, I just finished reading the book but I'm still a little confused about the intensity levels. I don't know how you can accurately measure something like that because it seems so ambiguous. Like what is a level 8 compared to a level 9?

Also- he says to plan your workouts the night before. But since tomorrow will be my first day, I can't really decide the weights yet, right? So I should go tomorrow and give them a test run. Should I count this as a day or just practice?


Thanks!!!!!

what i did was i gave myself as much practice as i need before i started body for life. i didnt say ill give myself 2 weeks of practice to figure out what weigths to lift and i didnt say ill give myself 3 weeks of practice. what i sed was - i'll practice with the weights until ive figured out the exact amounts that i should be lifting and then when ive done that ill start body for life.

you could end up wasting a good month of body for life by lifting weights that dont hit the right intensity levels and by fine tuning everything. if you practice before body for life then when u start you'll be hitting the right intensitys from day 1 which is great for your results at the end of the 12 weeks.

you will have the best results at the end of the 12 weeks :

person A) who for the first 4 works was hitting 7 and 8's in his high point cos he was still in the process of adjusting his weights
person B) who knew exactll what to lift from day 1 and hit all of his 9's and 10's int he high point from day 1 to day 84

another good thing about practicing before you start bodyforlife is that you get the muscle soreness out of the way. when i first attemtped body for life my legs were so sore on the thursday (after lower body workout on wednesday) that i could only manage to do 5mins cardio before i had to stop. obviously that 5 mins effected my overall fat loss cos i was supposed to do 20 mins. if you practice for a few weeks first then you wont be sore anymore when u eventaully start.

with practice you can tell the difference between a 9 and an 8. once youve done bdoyforlife for a few weeks u will just know, it comes with experience.

here is a few pointers:

* increase the weights between sets by 10%. e.g if the 4th set of 6 reps is 10kg then 10% of 10kg is 1kg therefore you should increase sets by 1kg. it wud look something like this :

12 reps - 7kg
10 reps- 8kg
8 reps- 9kg
6 reps-10kg

the 10 % thing doesnt have to be perfect but just use it as a rough guidline. what i do is anyhting that is 2kg or below i increase by 0.5kg between sets. anything that is in in between 2kg and 10kg i increase by 1kg between sets. anything between 10kg and 20kg i increase by 2.5kg between sets and then anything more than that i increase by 5kg between sets.

*figure out what can lift for 6 reps only (the 7th rep should be impossible. now that weight required a level intensity 10 from you cos u couldnt lift anymore. but for 6 reps ont he official bodyforlife workout only require alevel 8 intensity so simply knock a bit of weight off it. once youve done that then workout what 10% of that weight is so you can decide what to lift for the 12, 10 and 8 reps. test it out and if its too heavy then simply lower the weights. if its too light higher them and if its perfect then stick with them

here is an example.

i try squats. i pick up some 9kg dumbells and i squat 6 times. after the 6th rep i try a seventh and i can do it. so i write down in my diary that 6 reps with 9kg dumbells is a level 9 . therefore im going to try 10kg dumbells instead.
i squat 6 reps with 10kg dunmbells before trying a seventh rep which is impossible. i cant find the strengh to complete the 7th rep so i record in my diary that 6 reps with 10kg dumbells requires a level 10.
i know that 6 reps in the body forlife workout only requires a level 8 so i decide to knock 2kg of the 10kg to make it 8kg. i presume that squating 8kg 6 times would require a level 8 intensity. so i decide to use 8kg for the 4th sets (6 reps ) in my workout.
from there i work out 10% of 8kg. this works out at just below 1kg. because i dont have weights that are a bit less than 1kg i just call the 10% 1kg (rememebr it doesnt have to be perfect) and i increase the weigths between sets by 1kg which looks like this :

12 reps - 5kg
10 reps -6kg
8 reps -7kg
6 reps -8kg

i give it a shot, i practice. becasue i havent done this before and cos im new to body for life i cant really tell the difference between a level 4 or 5 so i dotn really know what to record after my first 12 reps. they felt pretty light but i couldnt distinguish the difference between a level for or a level 5. but anyway i could only do 5 reps instead of 6 with 8kg so i record that as a level 10 intensity.
the 6 reps is supposed to be a level 8 not a level 10 so i know the weights are too high. i decide to knock another 2kg of each set and try that for my next session in a few days time. the new plan now looks like this:

12 reps- 3kg
10 reps-4kg
8 reps-5kg
6 reps- 6kg

i give it a try and its perfect. now im ready to start body forlife.

also try to increase each weight by 5% every single session or at least every week to make sure you are growing and progressing. good luck , i hope this makes sense

[Chris]

I have to disagree with my friend here... while his formula for success seems to work, I don't advocate putting off starting BFL until you can get it perfect. 12 weeks of working out is 12 weeks of working out. If you don't achieve your wildest dreams in 1 challenge, then do another one... this is the for LIFE part of the program. Putting it off until you can get it perfect is almost cheating, IMO. Well not exactly cheating, but I think it's not being honest with yourself. Another part of the challenge is the learning phase, there's nothing wrong with learning as you go. Just do it!
The thing is, there will always be bumps in the road. If you start and restart challenges every time you make a mistake, you'll never reach the end of your 12 weeks. How can you feel accomplished if you're not checking off your progress?

Take the time you need, by all means... but don't wait to long. Strike while the iron is hot!

[yakubu]

i dont like chrises advise there. everyone would love too achieve fantastic results in 12 weeks. you can do that but if for the 1st few weeks of bodyforlife you are messing round with weight changes and intensity levels then its almost like youve only dont 10 weeks of body for life and this shows in your results.

when i say practice , you are still doing body for life - you are still using the diet , still doing the cardio and still doing the weights but you just dont officially class that as part of the 12 weeks. youve still started really when you are practicing,. its not like you are putting things off

one of the body for life champions - mark unger lifted for 2 weeks before he started body forl life officially.

seriously, to stress this again - if u fanny round for a few weeks with intensity levels etc... then at the end of the 12 weeks your results will SUFFER the consequences

[Rhone]

Yakubu, your advice makes some sense if you're entering the contest and you want to pick out your best 12 weeks to enter, but otherwise what you're advising really isn't different from what Chris is advising other than the mindset.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with taking a "practice" week or two, but there's also nothing wrong with working on getting things right in the first couple weeks of your "challenge" -- it's not like you have to stop after 12 weeks. You do your 12 weeks, take a week off, and then get right back to it. You make more progress that way than you do by fretting over whether you've gotten every detail just right.

Maybe you should consider what Chris said... I don't mean to pick on you, but you joined this forum in early March and haven't finished a "challenge" yet. I suspect quitting your challenges to try to make things perfect has sabotaged your progress far more than any of the imperfections you've tried to fix.