question: Body pump as cardio

L

latin_blast

New Member
hmmm..... I have a friend who is doing body pump and he finds it very good as a cardio exercise and tunes up your muscles, better than anything....... so, I decided to give it a try and bought the weight kit & DVD ..... my intention is to do it as a substitute of 1-2 joggings in the week first thing in the morning (usually I have 2 jogging sessions and 2 rowing sessions, stationary, in the week).... I have a couple of question
1) has anybody tried this ??.......
2) do you think it may hinder, hamper or hurt my HST training ??... in terms of causing hypertrophy.... it is supposed to be done with low weight (10-30 lbs or so) and 45-60 minutes moving..... rowing is very demanding for my rear delts, back, abs, legs, even biceps and I do not feel it hampers my HST, I presume it is the low resistance in comparison to the real stuff we lift at the gym.
 
We have Body Pump group classes at my gym, and I gave it a go for a few weeks, doing a 45-60 minute session on Tuesdays and Thursdays during a cutting cycle.

I quite enjoyed it. With much lighter weight, I took the opportunity to keep my form really strict - and doing the same lift or variations of the same lift non-stop for a couple of minutes really lets you feel where it's hitting.

However, I didn't find it very effective at losing fat or building muscle tone - The results of weeks where I did 3 sessions HST & 2 sessions Body Pump were fairly similar to those where I just did 3 sessions HST.

The claim that Body Pump is "the best for muscle toning" seems to be fairly widespread, and seems to originate directly from the manufacturers. It seemed a little odd to me - what precisely is "muscle tone"? Are you building muscle? Losing fat? A study I found claimed that the same amount of time on an exercise bike burned the same amount of calories. And I'm pretty certain the the same amount of time spent on a weight-lifting routine with heavier weights for fewer reps would result in a better hypertrophic effect. But does Body Pump claim to be able to do both at the same time? Unfortunately, they don't seem to have any research backing up their claims.

Chris.
 
Thxs Chris,
Actually I was thinking of it as a cardio exercise.... to tell you the truth, I don't think low weight-high reps combination can beat HST(along with work calculations) for hypertrophy.... and I don't buy that definition comes from there, I believe definition is a good combination of low BF and some hypertorophy.... I jog outdoors but sometimes it is raining or too cold, etc... so, I was thinking about bodypump as a cardio and to stretch the muscles..... I consider rowing far better than jogging because you really feel your heart is pounding and several muscles are being trained.... and I guess bodypump is the same but with even more muscles in action..... I believe I will just have to experiment it by myself, ... one thing is sure, my intention is not to do it more than once or twice a week... don't want to take the risk of overloading my CNS.
 
body pump is a commercial fitness product.
It is to get people into the FITNESS.
In my eyes for rehabilitation and older people.
I found no real scientific references for its effectivness per se.
Observe some people who do it regularly and see if you notice any change in
body shape.
 
It couldnt hurt if you wanted to do it for a cutting cycle.

I would do it if it doesn't interfere with your HST workouts.

Or better yet just drop your volume with HST and increase frequency for ultimate body pump!
biggrin.gif
 
I've been thinking about using it during my deconditioning, twice a week..... that shows how light I think it is..... to decrease the volume in HST...... really, I am loving the high volume I am having.... and the pump I get this way is unbeatable
 
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