Body For Life Program - A 12 Week Journey

Title: Body for Life – The Upper Body Workout

In my previous post I covered the Body for Life – Cardio Workout Summary. Before you begin your Body for Life program it is key to understand the Body for Life process, so today I will break down the Body for Life upper body workout. The upper body workout is mixed in with cardio and the lower body workout. The Body for Life upper body workout should be done twice the first week, then once the second week, then twice the third week and once the fourth week until you have completed your Body for Life Program. This is shown in the example below.

Body for Life Workout Week 1 Body for Life Workout Week 2
Monday: Upper Body Monday: Lower Body
Tuesday: Cardio Tuesday: Cardio
Wednesday: Lower Body Wednesday: Upper Body
Thursday: Cardio Thursday: Cardio
Friday: Upper Body Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: Cardio Saturday: Cardio
Sunday: Free Day Sunday: Free Day

Body for Life - Upper Body Workout
The Body for Life upper body workout utilizes the following muscles; Chest, back, shoulders, triceps and biceps. Every time you do an upper body workout you will work each one of the above mentioned muscles. My advice would be to do the muscles in the order listed above working the largest muscle first and then moving down to the smallest. This way you will have more energy when working the larger muscles. Remember it is always a good idea to stretch and warm up before you workout, even if you are just doing cardio that day!

You will work each muscle group with 6 sets. The number of reps per set varies but you start off with a warm up set of 12 reps, then add weight, do 10 reps, add weight, do 8 reps, add weight, do 6 reps. Then you do one set of 12 reps with the same weight you just did with 8 reps. Immediately after the set of 12 reps you do a different exercise (working the same muscle) for another set of 12 reps. This can sound a little complicated but I will give you an example workout below.

Body for Life – Example Upper Body Chest Workout

Set Exercise Reps Weight Rest Between Sets
1 Bench Press 12 135 lbs 1 Minute
2 Bench Press 10 185 lbs 1 Minute
3 Bench Press 8 205 lbs 1 Minute
4 Bench Press 6 225 lbs 1 Minute
5 Bench Press 12 205 lbs 0 Minutes
6 Incline Barbell Press 12 65 lbs 2 Minutes

During the upper body Body for Life chest workout the key is to hit your high points by only resting 1 minute between sets. Your high point should come on set 5 and carry over to set 6. Remember after set 5 there is no rest period. Immediately move onto set 6, changing the exercise. It is actually easier to have this workout set up beforehand, this way you can jump right over to it. After you have finished the two 6 sets you get a two minute rest period. Get some water and move on, two minutes is not as long as it seems. If you are new to working out or are accustomed to taking your time at the gym you are going to struggle at first. The pace is vigorous but it is the key to weight loss and building your body for life.

If you are new to weightlifting then you will find out that after this workout you will be sore. I found that Meal Replacement Shakes and Bars tend to help out with the recovery process. Combine this with a multi Vitamin and some aspirin and your muscles should forgive you, at least until the next days workout.

Feel free to post comments or questions. Tomorrow I will cover the lower body workout.

posted by Oshburg @ 2:48 PM