Product ReviewsBody for Life : 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength by Bill Phillips (1999, Hardcover)

Some good advice, but unrealistic for many people

I purchased this book on the recommendation of my chiropractor. It was a quick and easy read, but it ends up feeling like the book is a commercial.

I am pretty sure the diet and exercise program described in the book will work, but I don't feel it's realistic for most people to accomplish. (Unless, of course, you buy the author's nutrition supplements!)

However, if you look past the sales pitch, the book does discuss sensible eating habits. It also describes a lot of good, simple exercises. And the way the book explains how to go about exercising makes a lot of sense and really does make a difference.Read full review...

Bill Phillips' Body For Life is a great start to health

Bill Phillips instantly turned celebrity with his best-selling "Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength". Bill was famous in the body-building and workout worlds for years, but this book brought him mainstream - and rightfully so - its been a mainstay on the top selling since 1999. And that's absurdly rare for a self-help book - most of which fade in and out with time. But Bill has put together a beautifully simple workout plan that, if followed, will help anyone lose weight and build muscle because it not a gimmick / crash diet.

The fundamental point of Bill's recipe for health is 1) core conditioning and 2) healthy eating. Most people think that cardio and crash dieting are the only way to lose weight - but Bill stresses the power of strength and toning. He also stresses the importance of balanced nutrition - even suggesting Myoplex meals. Best yet, Bill demonstrates core exercises and provides recipes. Additionally, the book isn't written in a demanding or ego-centric manner.

Whether you are a conditioned athlete looking to improve your diet and nutrition or someone looking to lose weight - Bill Phillips has put together a long lasting guide to success that is simple and powerful. Excellent book.Read full review...

Excellent resource for helping you change your life.

This book is great if you are serious about making some serious changes in your life. this book walks you through the principles that you need to understand for not only becoming fit and healthy physically, but for finding balance and well-being in all aspects of your life. The premise is that you need make changes that affect the core of who you are in order to find lasting success in becoming the person that you want to be physically.

I am a nurse by background. While I don't consider myself an expert in nutrition I do have some professional training in that area. Nursing training is also focused on the well-being of the whole person, not just one aspect of the body at a time. Mr. Phillip's "whole-person" approach to fitness is very appealing to me, and, I believe, is a much more correct approach than those strategies that focus only on watching what you eat and what exercises you do.

The authors will walk you through some basic exercises that will assist you in changing the way you look at life and yourself and will help you set goals that are amazing and achievable at the same time. They will then teach you correct principles of nutrition and exercise, and will outline some sample menu plans and exercise plans with recipes and pictorial examples. These are all good, basic principles that can be used by fitness newbies or pros that have studied health and fitness for years. I have read some critics who say that the Body for Life plan is not is not personalizable enough to individual needs. I don't necessarily agree. For the beginner, it is easy to follow what may seem a cookie-cutter plan that is put forth in the book, and that is just what beginners need. For those, like myself, who are ready to take it to the next level, the principles in the book give you plenty of latitude to vary up your routine and fine tune it to your specific needs. The plan is designed to force your body to adapt and change, but the plan is also designed to be changeable to meet your body's changing needs. I also recommend that you visit the Body for Life website where you can find additional resources to help you in making the plan work for you.

The book is also full of amazing real-life examples of people who decided that they need to make some serious changes in their life. Their stories are amazing. Maybe you are someone who knows they need to make a huge change and don't know how. Maybe you've tried a lot of different things with little success. Maybe your just looking for something a little different. Regardless of your situation, I highly recommend that you add this book to your library. But, before you gloss through it and set it on you shelf to catch dust, take a serious look at what the authors are saying and actually try it out. It will make a difference. While I can't claim to have followed the book religiously, I have applied many of the principles and have seen success. I have increased my strength, energy and metabolism and I have decreased my body-fat percentage from an average level to and excellent level. It is a rewarding process. And, should you choose to take on Mr. Phillip's 12 week challenge, you may qualify to win an amazing award which can only be eclipsed by the feeling of achievement and success that you can gain by finding that body that you've been looking for your whole life.Read full review...

Amazing results

Anyone saying it is uuntealistic is dead wrong. If you stick 100% to the book for the 12 weeks you will in fact transform your mind body and soul. I did the program whole heartedly about 20 years ago. I went from 275lbs and 44% body fat to 195lbs and 6% body fat in 12 weeks flat. It is challenging, but the health benefits are so worth it. This book simplifies and educates you on proper portions, prtotein and car intake and make it easy to understand your body’s chemisty. Simple thing like working out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach will burn 300% more calories than the exact same workout after a meal. I am now 49 years old BBC and ready to give it a go again. A few bad injuries led me to become much less active and I slowly put the weight back on. Ready to take control again and shed these pounds, who is with me???Read full review...

Verified purchase: No

Good starting point and great motivation.

The book is very inspiring and gives you a good workout plan . Instead of just doing random exercises in the gym Bill gives you a workout routine that you can tailor to your abilities . His diet plan is okay but you really can't stick to it for a long time .Its really not practical . I've been on his system for over 3 years and no I don't look like anyone in his book . What I am is in better shape than ever and people tell me how good I look . I think most of the people that are in the book do a lot more weight training than 45 minutes a day and 3 times a week. This is the second copy I purchased because the first copy I loaned out and you know how that goes. My suggestion is to by the book and read it . Use what you can and tailor your workout and diet to your life.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: thrift.books

A book that gives reflective insight for success.

This book has a lot of what other self improvement books have. What is unique is that I have found out new ways of looking at what I am doing wrong which speaks to me in a way that gives me knowledge that I need to "want" to make the needed changes. Every Time I think I can't eat this way I remember that I have 1 day a week to eat anything and as much of it as I want and my heart quits beating out of my chest, and I know I can stay with the program. I feel there is enough items on the okay to eat list that I can stay satisfied and happy. Now I am ready to take the challenge in the book and you can go online and officially take the challenge. The challenge is a contest the author came up with and the winner will get $25,000 and some other nice gifts. There are about 6 other categories and whomever wins those will get the same as the big prize except the money is only $10,000 and did I mention one of the other gifts is a trip to Hawaii for a week fully paid. So there is an extra motivation besides the normal one that each individual has when they decide to change their life. My doctor is who told me to buy this book because he felt that it offered a real chance for me to make a life change. I think the exercise program is fair and doable. I like this book but I feel trying to eat 6 meals a day is going to be my biggest challenge. I think that any book that gives it's reader a real chance to succeed and want to keep it up for life is a real winner and to me this book is a winner.Read full review...

It Changed My Friend's Life

I bought this book upon recommendation of a friend who followed Bill Michael's step-by-step method. I didn't have much weight to lose but he had. He said he used to be teased a lot because of being overweight. Not anymore! He's got a beautiful, muscular body that fit his over 6" height. He probably does not read this book anymore, it's been several years since he bought it. But he lives it day-by-day to maintain his body beautiful. It's worth a try if you are on the biggy side. What would you lose? Lots of body fats.Read full review...

Body for Life by Bill Phillips

Bill Phillips had been publishing body-building magazines and marketing nutritional supplements for years when he had a weird revelation at a trade show: many of the most loyal and enthusiastic readers he had were totally out of shape. From that uncomfortable realisation came his popular Physique Transformation Contest (top prize that first year: Phillips's own Lamborghini), now world famous, and this book. The three-times-a-week weightlifting program in Body for Life is deceptively simple. If you have spent any time in the gym, you have already done all the exercises. But Phillips includes a couple of high-intensity sets at the end of each exercise that should compound the training effect on each muscle group. Same goes for the cardiovascular exercise he recommends: just 20 minutes, three times a week. But those 20 minutes are spent jacking the intensity up and down, accomplishing more in less time.

Phillips arranges all this into a 12-week programme, along with nutritional and motivational tips. Be warned that the nutritional advice gets a little spacey. For example, he puts "carbohydrates" and "vegetables" into separate categories, and recommends three daily doses of a nutritional supplement called Myoplex, which his company manufactures. (Fortunately, he gives tips on how to make each dose taste different, such as by adding drops of peppermint extract.) Despite this strangeness, Body for Life still motivates because so many others have achieved astounding results in similar 12-week windows, and the pictures and testimonials are here as evidence. amazon.comRead full review...

You need more cardio!

I liked the diet and the workouts, but there is a lack of cardio in the workouts. I could never reach a feeling of satisfaction with the 20 minute sessions, even though they use levels of perceived endurance. I would rather do the workouts and then add another session of cardio that would help me sustain the body fat processes at their peak.

This is a great read and is chock-full of great advice and inspirational stories. However, I think that people would lose more weight and learn to keep it off longer if the cardio sessions were explained in more depth.Read full review...

Your "Body For Life" is your body for life.

I've followed the training and the eating plan for the suggested period and I saw visible gains both physically and mentally. I was able to follow the program layed out on the "Body For Life" website. I recorded daily my training and diet plan. I believe the key is to record everything as difficult as it may seem. Writing was probably the easiest part of this whole thing. It is advisable to photo copy the pages you use to record the data and create your 12-week log as you will most likely do the program again and again to see further gains. The concept or training principles make sense. You can train as hard or as easy as you like and can alter the training enough to keep it interesting. Try it and you will understand what I mean.

I have confidence this book will allow me to fine-tune my workout regimen and diet plan by providing detailed ideas that I may have overlooked on the website.Read full review...