How often should I go to Body Pump

monkeypantz
monkeypantz Posts: 288 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I love Body Pump and really love the 500 calorie burn that it provides...plus I also tend to see results in my clothes pretty quickly. I'm just getting back to it, after having a few months off (moving house, falling off the wagon etc) and I want to do it three times a week - is this too much? As I don't want to get bulky, just lose weight (about 70lbs) and tone up in the process, I do not want excess skin!!!

Replies

  • BlobbyBunny
    BlobbyBunny Posts: 3 Member
    Three times a week should be fine as long as it's not on consecutive days, as resistance work needs gaps between sessions for your muscles to repair (cardio work can be done on consecutive days). Bulking up really depends on your body type, but if you're female, it should be minimal because it requires testosterone and women don't have very much of that. If you've seen good results before, you should do again. Good luck!
  • rstein18
    rstein18 Posts: 17 Member
    Three days a week is not too much, that's what i aim to do also. As for bulking up, I doubt that you will bulk up. There are women that I talk to before and after the class that have been doing it for a while and even with the heavy weight that they use they are not bulky, but they are extremely toned.
  • THuffman1967
    THuffman1967 Posts: 114 Member
    I love BP too, and go three days a week, never on consecutive days.

    Just curious, how did you calculate a 500 calorie burn? The calorie burn for Body Pump is a mystery to me, as everywhere I've looked I see different reports as to how much you will burn. I wore a HRM a couple of times, and it showed between 300 to 350 so I always low-ball my calorie burn at 300 for Body Pump. I'm 5'4" and my CW is 130. I would love to believe that I'm burning more in that hour of power!
  • monkeypantz
    monkeypantz Posts: 288 Member
    Thanks for the advice guys I am planning on going Mon, Wed & Fri or Sat - and doing some cardio on Tuesday and Thurs, therefore working out 5 times a week!

    I took my HRM to a class with me over the summer and it calculated a 550 calorie burn - however I've since broken it and can't really afford a new one for a while, so I just stick to 500 calories. My CW is 216lbs - so I'll probably burn quiet a lot more than you in one class.
  • kiykiy79
    kiykiy79 Posts: 177
    I love BP too, and go three days a week, never on consecutive days.

    Just curious, how did you calculate a 500 calorie burn? The calorie burn for Body Pump is a mystery to me, as everywhere I've looked I see different reports as to how much you will burn. I wore a HRM a couple of times, and it showed between 300 to 350 so I always low-ball my calorie burn at 300 for Body Pump. I'm 5'4" and my CW is 130. I would love to believe that I'm burning more in that hour of power!

    I burned 246 tonight with my HRM on... I need to know about 500 because I must really be slacking.
  • kiykiy79
    kiykiy79 Posts: 177
    Thanks for the advice guys I am planning on going Mon, Wed & Fri or Sat - and doing some cardio on Tuesday and Thurs, therefore working out 5 times a week!

    I took my HRM to a class with me over the summer and it calculated a 550 calorie burn - however I've since broken it and can't really afford a new one for a while, so I just stick to 500 calories. My CW is 216lbs - so I'll probably burn quiet a lot more than you in one class.

    Ok your burn makes sense to me now... I burn around 250-300.
  • Loftearmen
    Loftearmen Posts: 380
    I love Body Pump and really love the 500 calorie burn that it provides...plus I also tend to see results in my clothes pretty quickly. I'm just getting back to it, after having a few months off (moving house, falling off the wagon etc) and I want to do it three times a week - is this too much? As I don't want to get bulky, just lose weight (about 70lbs) and tone up in the process, I do not want excess skin!!!

    Body pump will not make you bulky. You will not accidentally gain too much muscle. If you are eating less than you are burning you probably won't gain any muscle at all. Also, body pump classes do not impose enough demand on your recovery abilities to warrant you taking many days off. It is not strength training, it's cardio with a small weight so treat it as such. You can do it as much as you feel like and you'll be just fine. Because of my schedule, I work up to max effort lifts (Squat, Bench, Deadlifts so heavy that I can only do 1 rep) Friday, Saturday and Sunday and am still okay to do cardio/pushups/sit ups on my off days and have one more heavy weight lifting session during the weight (usually I work up to a 5 rep max on Wed). So if I can do all of that, you can survive 4 or more body pump classes a week.
  • Natihilator
    Natihilator Posts: 1,778 Member
    Body pump is really more a cardio-type exercise I would say, since you are doing fast-paced high reps with low weights, so three times a week isn't too much. But instead of doing more BP, I would suggest adding one or two days of a proper strength training routine. You will LOVE what it will do to your body, I promise :flowerforyou:
  • Debbe2
    Debbe2 Posts: 2,071 Member
    If you enjoy it go! And go as often as you enjoy it!
  • tanetti
    tanetti Posts: 38 Member
    I'm not sure where people are getting that it's a cardio-type class, but you don't want to do BP more than 3x/week, and never on consecutive days (as with any strength training using the same muscle group, which in this case is all of them). I wouldn't call the weights people in our classes lift "light weights," either. Most of the men go as heavy as they can with the Les Mills Smart Bars (so that's about 75 lbs. including the weight of the bar), and even more than that with the normal barbells our Y had before (reportedly Les Mills's company is making heavier "smart" weights than 11 lbs. but we haven't seen them yet). Many of of the women use about 50 lbs. in their squats (granted, it's not *heavy* lifting but it's not light weights either), about 40 lbs. for the back track, and up to 20-25 lbs. for biceps and triceps. Granted, classes I've attended in other areas seem to lift lighter weights, but I can attest that our classes (Houston area) have some heavier lifters. It's a great class--I've never seen results like I have now, and it's a great complement to cardio!
  • Blue_EyedGemini
    Blue_EyedGemini Posts: 9
    ^^This.

    I usually use 50+ on my back for squats, 25+ for bicep curls. I work to failure. I experience DOMS. When I was powerlifting and following a pyramid set/rep plan, my body changed much slower than it has with BodyPump. Just make sure you do lift as heavy as you are confident with (not going so heavy that your form is shot but going heavy enough to fail the last rep). We have a few women in my classes who do the little pink weights, but most of us don't, and most of us are fairly ripped.

    That said, if you wanted to supplement BP with some stand-alone strength training (I do MF, BP; Tuesdays are pyramids, some random cardio throughout the week), you might see different kinds of gains, but the BP alone will get you far. Good luck!
  • denezy
    denezy Posts: 573 Member
    I do it twice a week. Anything more than that and you probably could be lifting heavier weight. Challenge yourself!
  • tiffany5839
    tiffany5839 Posts: 104 Member
    I know a few body pump instructors and was told that Body Pump is only beneficial if u are taking it atleast 2-3 times a week.
    3 times a week is ideal.

    You will not bulk up at all with this class because the weights are not heavy enough to even do that. One of the instructors has to teach the class 5 days a week and has the most toned petite body ever so it hasn't bulked her up.

    I only burn about 250-300 cals a class but I weight 145 lbs.

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