Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week Paperback – January 1, 2009

I have been lifting weights for about 2 years on a multiple times per week basis. I have a home gym with both a Vectra machine and bench and free weights. I am a victim of Dr. Kenneth Cooper's aerobic revolution of the 70's and 80's, now with bad knees and bad ankles and chronic tendinitis and 2 herniated disks and spinal arthritis, which is what brought me to weight training in the first place. Over the years I have tried my own program, and I have purchased several programs from the "Guru's" and I pretty much always wound up either injured or I would make progress for a while and then it would seem I would start going backward. My most recent program was the New Rules of Lifting program which I have found to be a very good program. I've done that for a year and have made progress and remained injury free. That program is basically a two or three times per week program and I noticed that I needed the rest between sessions to keep improving. Sometimes I would go down to one session per 5 or 6 days and I found when I lifted next it was easier to make an advance. That couple extra days allowed a more complete recuperation. The exercises in the new rules program are basically the big 5 that is described in the Body by Science program, so over the course of the year I have developed good form with each exercise and a good knowledge of how my body feels during the lift and post lifting.

When I read this program it seemed to fit well with what I had been doing. I was of course skeptical of the 12 minute claim as the New Rules program is a timed set of reps across the exercises of about 45 minutes per session. In the New Rules program if you were anal about the timed aspect you would be forced into an anaerobic state of metabolism which I think is desirable in a workout. You can tell you've gone anaerobic when you quit lifting and ten minutes later your respiratory rate is still elevated. Your body at that point is working off the metabolic acid load it accrued during the anaerobic activity and converting it to CO2 and that extra CO2 load is being expelled by your increased resp rate. I could tell the by the way I felt that was the hormonal changes and increased metabolism associated with micro damage. I decided to give slo mo pumping as described in Body by Science a whirl. What it claims is true. I do 6 exercises bench press, reverse grip pull down, overhead press, seated row, squats and dead lifts, using the time under load method of accounting and trying to maintain 10-15 seconds during reps and it kicks my hind end. I go deep into anaerobic metabolism as I start huffing like a choo choo. I can also tell I am going deep into anaerobic metabolism because I get hot and start to sweat, signs of big sympathetic outflow and my heart starts beating like a trip hammer. I can tell the muscle micro damage and metabolic changes are greater with this slo mo methodology and I find I NEED a week to recover. I could probably compress that to 5 full days but the difference between 5 full days of rest and a week is not enough to push it. I'm still getting into the method trying to keep my form perfect during the time under load.

I am a physician, so I read with interest the physiology described in the book, and what is described in general is correct. I'm not sure I would hang my hat on the "fact" that we grow big muscles so we can run away from tigers, in fact to me that is an unlikely reason. If you have to run away from a tiger once a week in order to build big muscles its unlikely you are going to escape from being dinner. I think it is probably more steeped in a protective adaptation to inflammation response that lifting causes, than running away from tigers. The cardiovascular information is absolutely true in terms of this kind of training being better than the typical "cardio" kind of exercise. Your heart responds to the demand of your muscles. The whole reason you have a heart and lungs is to deliver 2mm of Oxygen tension to the mitochondria in your cells to provide for aerobic metabolism and to wisk away CO2 and metabolic byproducts. When your energy utilization overwhelms your aerobic potential that is when your muscles need more oxygen than your heart and lungs can deliver that is when you get a cardiovascular adaptation. Aerobic exercise by definition NEVER gets you there precisely because it is aerobic. If you ain't huffing like a choo choo (the sure sign of anaerobic metabolism) you may as well be sipping a drink by the pool in my opinion. I also believe every single beneficial claim proposed in terms of anti-hypertension and anti-diabetes improved flexibility and relief from back pain etc etc to be true. I have a pain management practice and I encourage my patients to do weight training to the extent they can, especially those who have managed to escape surgery.

So I think this plan is a worth while plan. I think if you are not well trained in weights you absolutely MUST have someone who truly knows about weight training train you. If you go off half cocked in this kind of program eventually you will hurt yourself. If you have a home gym like I do then I think you should spend 6 months learning how to lift with perfect form using something like the New Rules program before you venture into the Body by Science program. If you have a trainer he can adjust you during an exercise, but if you don't then you need to take a good while getting to know your own body and lifting with not other expectation than developing perfect form until it become second nature. Once you get into lifting it will become a long term part of your life so there is no reason to be in a hurry and not learn to do it right.

I think the exercises proposed are the exact correct exercises. I am a big fan of multi-muscle complex exercises like the dead lift as opposed to doing a billion of hammer curls with a dumbbell trying to increase the size of the third head of the triceps (total waste of time) I have also come to believe based on my experience over the past 2 years you won't see results quickly if you over train. In other words you need the time for the biochemistry to work and to let the damage you are producing heal. If you sprain an ankle (a big injury, not a micro injury) it doesn't get better in 2 days in gets better in 3 to 6 weeks. In other words you need to give your body the real time it takes to heal and that is based on its own physiology, not on some artificial schedule of lifts per week. If you are an old pro at lifting then before each exercise run over in your mind what perfect form means. I like to take 5 seconds to read a card I have prepared that forces me to think about the few things that define perfect form for each exercise. It takes me out of remote control mode and brings my focus back to the task at hand. Finally for this exercise regimen I have a big clock with a second had sitting right in front of each station, and I keep records so I can watch my progress.

As to the diet, I'm less involved. I like the idea of eating non processed food, but I think a ration of about 1:1:1 of fats, carbs and protein on a calorie adjusted basis is probably easier to maintain. I think the problem with processed foods is they tend to really concentrate the calories

I purchased this book several years ago and used this method for over a year with excellent results. Having come back and read the reviews of the book, I would like to clarify several misconceptions:

This Exercise program is designed for two types of people:
1. People already involved in a very active lifestyle, and
2. People who are not capable or interested in spending a large amount of time in the gym.

For people in the Group 1, the authors insist that fitness is best achieved using the S.A.I.D principle; that is, Specific Adaption to Imposed Demands. They teach that fitness for any sport is best achieved by direct participation in that sport or performing sport specific drills. Their weight program is designed to supplement the sport program and is intended to maintain or increase strength while participating in the program. One is able to focus most of their time on the sport specific training without sacrificing a lot of time in the weight room, since a minimal amount of time is actually required to maintain or increase strength. Dr. McGuff uses specific examples of his BMX training as well as examples from other sports to illustrate how the program is meant to be used to augment sports training.

Long distance runners who want or need a higher level of cardiovascular training are not discouraged to "supplement" their strength training with long distance running or sprints. In fact, it is the other way around; those people who need or desire a high level of cardiovascular fitness do not need to sacrifice a lot of training time in also developing or maintaining a significant level of strength.

For people in Group 2, this program greatly reduces the amount of time spent in the gym while still producing the primary goal of increasing strength and providing a moderate level of cardiovascular fitness. It meets the needs of the elderly and very sedentary people in teaching them it does not take a large volume of exercise to achieve a moderate level of strength or fitness.

The authors never indicate that this type of training program is meant for bodybuilders. Their primary interest is fitness.

I hope this clarifies things.