If you prefer a healthy physique, you must do more than just workout. You have to eat proper. You must consume a sufficient diet to lose body fat which actually includes wholesome nutritional fats. Fats are essential because they are part of your cell membranes which go through the entire body.
By eating healthy food, the cellular processes works regularly. However by eating poor meals: the ones that tend to be man-made processed, as well as chemically treated, you will discover your own cellular framework will break down through lack of appropriate nourishment. Your cell structure will end up damaged plus your cells must work hard in order to compensate. At these times, regrettably, illnesses do take place.
Wholesome eating likewise helps keep your body well balanced. Hormone manufacturing is normal. Muscle development takes place at a regular rate and fat burning takes place. The nutritional supplements the body uses are absorbed and used for enzyme regulation.
We do not consume good meals for numerous factors. The initial reason happens because the right diet can be difficult to do. The store offers food items which are processed and filled with rubbish. However they taste so great that people tend to be enticed to purchase them. The next cause is we have been fooled for quite some time to think that good fats (the ones that are pure as well as unprocessed) happen to be stripped away from foods or had been combined in along with bad foods. And the last reason happens because we're lazy therefore all of us eat at restaurants. The dining places we visit usually do not utilize the proper oils to cook with. They constantly choose the least expensive goods.
If you wish to produce a sound body, you have to learn how to consume the proper foods. For example knowing what oils to use in food preparation. A well balanced diet to lose body fat must contain carbohydrate, protein,fat, vitamin, mineral salts and fiber in well proportionate quantity. Carbohydrates are the source of energy therefore these play a huge role in a balanced diet. Deliberate addition of all foods from fruits to vegetables and meats to grains is essential.
Michael has been writing articles on a wide variety of subjects. Come visit my latest site at http://diettolosebodyfat.com You will find information on a lose body fat here.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Chastain
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Free 65 page E book How to Lose Belly Fat and Flatten Abs, Here is an excert
It is common to hear fitness professionals and medical doctors prescribe low to
moderate intensity aerobic training (cardio) to people who are trying to prevent
heart disease or lose weight. Most often, the recommendations constitute
something along the lines of “perform 30-60 minutes of steady pace cardio 3-5
times per week maintaining your heart rate at a moderate level”. Before you just
give in to this popular belief and become the “hamster on the wheel” doing endless
hours of boring cardio, I’d like you to consider some recent scientific research that
indicates that steady pace endurance cardio work may not be all it’s cracked up to
be.
Get this full E Book Free 65 pages to a fit body, click here! Secrets to a lean body
First, realize that our bodies are designed to perform physical activity in bursts of
exertion followed by recovery, or stop-and-go movement instead of steady state
movement. Recent research is suggesting that physical variability is one of the
most important aspects to consider in your training. This tendency can be seen
throughout nature as animals almost always demonstrate stop-and-go motion
instead of steady state motion. In fact, humans are the only creatures in nature
that attempt to do “endurance” type physical activities. Most competitive sports
(with the exception of endurance running or cycling) are also based on stop-and-go
movement or short bursts of exertion followed by recovery. To examine an
example of the different effects of endurance or steady state training versus stop-
and-go training, consider the physiques of marathoners versus sprinters. Most
sprinters carry a physique that is very lean, muscular, and powerful looking, while
the typical dedicated marathoner is more often emaciated and sickly looking. Now
which would you rather resemble?
Another factor to keep in mind regarding the benefits of physical variability is the
internal effect of various forms of exercise on our body. Scientists have known that
excessive steady state endurance exercise (different for everyone, but sometimes
defined as greater than 60 minutes per session most days of the week) increases
free radical production in the body, can degenerate joints, reduces immune
6
Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body
function, causes muscle wasting, and can cause a pro-inflammatory response in
the body that can potentially lead to chronic diseases. On the other hand, highly
variable cyclic training has been linked to increased anti-oxidant production in the
body and an anti-inflammatory response, a more efficient nitric oxide response
(which can encourage a healthy cardiovascular system), and an increased
metabolic rate response (which can assist with weight loss). Furthermore, steady
state endurance training only trains the heart at one specific heart rate range and
doesn’t train it to respond to various every day stressors. On the other hand,
highly variable cyclic training teaches the heart to respond to and recover from a
variety of demands making it less likely to fail when you need it. Think about it this
way -- Exercise that trains your heart to rapidly increase and rapidly decrease will
make your heart more capable of handling everyday stress. Stress can cause your
blood pressure and heart rate to increase rapidly. Steady state jogging and other
endurance training does not train your heart to be able to handle rapid changes in
heart rate or blood pressure. Steady state exercise only trains the heart at one
specific heart rate, so you don’t get the benefit of training your entire heart rate
range.
The important aspect of variable cyclic training that makes it superior over steady
state cardio is the recovery period in between bursts of exertion. That recovery
period is crucially important for the body to elicit a healthy response to an exercise
stimulus. Another benefit of variable cyclic training is that it is much more
interesting and has lower drop-out rates than long boring steady state cardio
programs.
To summarize, some of the potential benefits of variable cyclic training compared
to steady state endurance training are as follows: improved cardiovascular health,
increased anti-oxidant protection, improved immune function, reduced risk for joint
wear and tear, reduced muscle wasting, increased residual metabolic rate
following exercise, and an increased capacity for the heart to handle life’s every
day stressors. There are many ways you can reap the benefits of stop-and-go or
variable intensity physical training. One of the absolute most effective forms of
7
Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body
TruthAboutAbs.com
variable intensity training to really reduce body fat and bring out serious muscular
definition is performing wind sprints or hill sprints. Also, most competitive sports
such as football, basketball, racquetball, tennis, hockey, etc. are naturally
comprised of highly variable stop-and-go motion. In addition, weight training
naturally incorporates short bursts of exertion followed by recovery periods. High
intensity interval training (varying between high and low intensity intervals on any
piece of cardio equipment) is yet another training method that utilizes exertion and
recovery periods. For example, an interval training session on the treadmill could
look something like this:
• Warm-up for 3-4 minutes at a fast walk or light jog
• Interval 1 - run at 8.0 mi/hr for 1 minute
• Interval 2 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes
• Interval 3 - run at 10.0 mi/hr for 1 minute
• Interval 4 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes
Repeat those 4 intervals 4 times for a very intense 20-minute workout.
The take-away message from this section is to try to train your body at highly
variable intensity rates for the majority of your workouts to get the most beneficial
response in terms of heart health, fat loss, and muscle maintenance. This e book will quickly help you flatten abs and lose belly fat.
Get this full E Book Free 65 pages to a fit body, click here! Secrets to a lean body!
moderate intensity aerobic training (cardio) to people who are trying to prevent
heart disease or lose weight. Most often, the recommendations constitute
something along the lines of “perform 30-60 minutes of steady pace cardio 3-5
times per week maintaining your heart rate at a moderate level”. Before you just
give in to this popular belief and become the “hamster on the wheel” doing endless
hours of boring cardio, I’d like you to consider some recent scientific research that
indicates that steady pace endurance cardio work may not be all it’s cracked up to
be.
Get this full E Book Free 65 pages to a fit body, click here! Secrets to a lean body
First, realize that our bodies are designed to perform physical activity in bursts of
exertion followed by recovery, or stop-and-go movement instead of steady state
movement. Recent research is suggesting that physical variability is one of the
most important aspects to consider in your training. This tendency can be seen
throughout nature as animals almost always demonstrate stop-and-go motion
instead of steady state motion. In fact, humans are the only creatures in nature
that attempt to do “endurance” type physical activities. Most competitive sports
(with the exception of endurance running or cycling) are also based on stop-and-go
movement or short bursts of exertion followed by recovery. To examine an
example of the different effects of endurance or steady state training versus stop-
and-go training, consider the physiques of marathoners versus sprinters. Most
sprinters carry a physique that is very lean, muscular, and powerful looking, while
the typical dedicated marathoner is more often emaciated and sickly looking. Now
which would you rather resemble?
Another factor to keep in mind regarding the benefits of physical variability is the
internal effect of various forms of exercise on our body. Scientists have known that
excessive steady state endurance exercise (different for everyone, but sometimes
defined as greater than 60 minutes per session most days of the week) increases
free radical production in the body, can degenerate joints, reduces immune
6
Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body
function, causes muscle wasting, and can cause a pro-inflammatory response in
the body that can potentially lead to chronic diseases. On the other hand, highly
variable cyclic training has been linked to increased anti-oxidant production in the
body and an anti-inflammatory response, a more efficient nitric oxide response
(which can encourage a healthy cardiovascular system), and an increased
metabolic rate response (which can assist with weight loss). Furthermore, steady
state endurance training only trains the heart at one specific heart rate range and
doesn’t train it to respond to various every day stressors. On the other hand,
highly variable cyclic training teaches the heart to respond to and recover from a
variety of demands making it less likely to fail when you need it. Think about it this
way -- Exercise that trains your heart to rapidly increase and rapidly decrease will
make your heart more capable of handling everyday stress. Stress can cause your
blood pressure and heart rate to increase rapidly. Steady state jogging and other
endurance training does not train your heart to be able to handle rapid changes in
heart rate or blood pressure. Steady state exercise only trains the heart at one
specific heart rate, so you don’t get the benefit of training your entire heart rate
range.
The important aspect of variable cyclic training that makes it superior over steady
state cardio is the recovery period in between bursts of exertion. That recovery
period is crucially important for the body to elicit a healthy response to an exercise
stimulus. Another benefit of variable cyclic training is that it is much more
interesting and has lower drop-out rates than long boring steady state cardio
programs.
To summarize, some of the potential benefits of variable cyclic training compared
to steady state endurance training are as follows: improved cardiovascular health,
increased anti-oxidant protection, improved immune function, reduced risk for joint
wear and tear, reduced muscle wasting, increased residual metabolic rate
following exercise, and an increased capacity for the heart to handle life’s every
day stressors. There are many ways you can reap the benefits of stop-and-go or
variable intensity physical training. One of the absolute most effective forms of
7
Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body
TruthAboutAbs.com
variable intensity training to really reduce body fat and bring out serious muscular
definition is performing wind sprints or hill sprints. Also, most competitive sports
such as football, basketball, racquetball, tennis, hockey, etc. are naturally
comprised of highly variable stop-and-go motion. In addition, weight training
naturally incorporates short bursts of exertion followed by recovery periods. High
intensity interval training (varying between high and low intensity intervals on any
piece of cardio equipment) is yet another training method that utilizes exertion and
recovery periods. For example, an interval training session on the treadmill could
look something like this:
• Warm-up for 3-4 minutes at a fast walk or light jog
• Interval 1 - run at 8.0 mi/hr for 1 minute
• Interval 2 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes
• Interval 3 - run at 10.0 mi/hr for 1 minute
• Interval 4 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes
Repeat those 4 intervals 4 times for a very intense 20-minute workout.
The take-away message from this section is to try to train your body at highly
variable intensity rates for the majority of your workouts to get the most beneficial
response in terms of heart health, fat loss, and muscle maintenance. This e book will quickly help you flatten abs and lose belly fat.
Get this full E Book Free 65 pages to a fit body, click here! Secrets to a lean body!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Energy Drinks - Do They Give You Energy or Just a Fat Gut?
I receive a ton of questions about all of these new "energy" drinks that have hit the market over the last few years. They seem to be all the rage, especially with the youth, and they promise you the world with outrageous claims of all of the super energy that you are going to have, and how you'll be crushing the competition in your sport, and so on.
So a couple questions arise:
Are these "energy" drinks really any good for you? Do they actually increase your energy? Do they really have some sort of magical energy formula? Will they help you lose weight?
First of all, let's look at what most of these energy drinks are usually made of. Most of them are simply carbonated water loaded with gut-fattening high fructose corn syrup, caffeine, the amino acid taurine, and a few random B-vitamins thrown in for show to trick you into thinking there's something healthy about these concoctions.
Let's start with the high fructose corn syrup. Well, here we've got empty calories that will go straight to your belly fat, and that are actually even WORSE for you than plain old refined sugar.
Ok, so you say that they have low-sugar or sugar-free varieties as an alternative to the HFCS-laden energy drinks. Yes, but now you have the problem of the harmful chemicals in the artificial sweeteners.
Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that there are some researchers that believe artificial sweetener use leads people to inadvertently consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run. I won't go into the details on that because that would fill up an entire discussion by itself. Just trust me that artificial sweeteners and artificial chemicals in food in general, are all bad news for your body!
What about the caffeine? Well, first of all, caffeine in itself doesn't provide "energy". Technically, the only substances that actually provide energy are calories (from carbs, protein, and fat).
However, caffeine can be an aid for livening or waking some people up, by means of stimulating the central nervous system. Keep in mind though, if you're a regular coffee drinker, you're probably addicted to caffeine and probably wouldn't receive too much benefit from the caffeine in an energy drink anyway.
Besides, instead of caffeine added to some carbonated drink, I'd rather get my caffeine from a natural source like green, white, or oolong teas, which actually provide healthful antioxidants too!
Now what about that so called magical blend of taurine and B-vitamins that they load into these energy drinks? Well, big deal...you can get taurine in almost any protein source. And the vast majority of those B-vitamins are simply coming right out into the toilet in your pee. Vitamins are best obtained naturally from real food sources, not artificially added to some carbonated drink. Your body just doesn't use fake sources of vitamins as readily as natural sources from real food.
So as you can see, in my opinion, I give all of these energy drinks a big time THUMBS DOWN! You're better off mixing up your own homemade energy drink with some iced unsweetened green, white, and oolong teas, a little bit of 100% pure berry or pomegranate juice, and maybe a touch of a non-denatured whey protein.
Well, I hope this article cleared up some of the confusion about these energy drinks that are being so heavily marketed these days, and will help you make more informed decisions for your health. Flatten Abs the right way--click here!
So a couple questions arise:
Are these "energy" drinks really any good for you? Do they actually increase your energy? Do they really have some sort of magical energy formula? Will they help you lose weight?
First of all, let's look at what most of these energy drinks are usually made of. Most of them are simply carbonated water loaded with gut-fattening high fructose corn syrup, caffeine, the amino acid taurine, and a few random B-vitamins thrown in for show to trick you into thinking there's something healthy about these concoctions.
Let's start with the high fructose corn syrup. Well, here we've got empty calories that will go straight to your belly fat, and that are actually even WORSE for you than plain old refined sugar.
Ok, so you say that they have low-sugar or sugar-free varieties as an alternative to the HFCS-laden energy drinks. Yes, but now you have the problem of the harmful chemicals in the artificial sweeteners.
Another problem with artificial sweeteners is that there are some researchers that believe artificial sweetener use leads people to inadvertently consume more calories and gain more weight in the long run. I won't go into the details on that because that would fill up an entire discussion by itself. Just trust me that artificial sweeteners and artificial chemicals in food in general, are all bad news for your body!
What about the caffeine? Well, first of all, caffeine in itself doesn't provide "energy". Technically, the only substances that actually provide energy are calories (from carbs, protein, and fat).
However, caffeine can be an aid for livening or waking some people up, by means of stimulating the central nervous system. Keep in mind though, if you're a regular coffee drinker, you're probably addicted to caffeine and probably wouldn't receive too much benefit from the caffeine in an energy drink anyway.
Besides, instead of caffeine added to some carbonated drink, I'd rather get my caffeine from a natural source like green, white, or oolong teas, which actually provide healthful antioxidants too!
Now what about that so called magical blend of taurine and B-vitamins that they load into these energy drinks? Well, big deal...you can get taurine in almost any protein source. And the vast majority of those B-vitamins are simply coming right out into the toilet in your pee. Vitamins are best obtained naturally from real food sources, not artificially added to some carbonated drink. Your body just doesn't use fake sources of vitamins as readily as natural sources from real food.
So as you can see, in my opinion, I give all of these energy drinks a big time THUMBS DOWN! You're better off mixing up your own homemade energy drink with some iced unsweetened green, white, and oolong teas, a little bit of 100% pure berry or pomegranate juice, and maybe a touch of a non-denatured whey protein.
Well, I hope this article cleared up some of the confusion about these energy drinks that are being so heavily marketed these days, and will help you make more informed decisions for your health. Flatten Abs the right way--click here!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The 2 Worst Foods That Make You Fat - One May Shock You
The 2 fattening foods that I'm going to talk about in this article may actually shock you... most people falsely believe these 2 foods are "healthy". In all of my years working as a Certified Nutrition Specialist, this usually surprises people when I mention they should consider eliminating these foods from their diet.
Everybody these days knows how bad trans fats and high fructose corn syrup are for you, so I figured I'd spare you yet another lecture on those... Instead, read on to see a couple foods that may shock you that they may be packing on the blubber.
The first type of food that is often falsely believed to be healthy is wheat products... this includes most breads, cereals, bagels, muffins, pasta, crackers, and so on. And yes, I am including "whole wheat" in the category of this fattening food.
First of all, a large percentage of the population has some degree of intolerance to the gluten in wheat and some other grains. Full blown celiacs are the most sensitive to it, but what most people don't realize is that the majority of the population was never meant to eat large quantities of wheat. The human digestive system has never adapted to large amounts of wheat in the diet.
The introduction of wheat into the human diet has only been in the last couple thousand years, and it has NEVER been in such large quantities in the human diet until the last 80-100 years. This is a small time frame compared to the traditional diet that the human digestive system developed over several hundred thousand years eating a hunter-gatherer diet of meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
From my experience with many of my clients, when they heed my advice and eliminate wheat from their diet for 2-3 weeks to see if they start to lose weight and feel better, this almost always makes a HUGE difference. Many times, they not only start losing body fat much faster, but they also finally get rid of headaches and indigestion that has plagued them for years. Sometimes even skin problems go away when eliminating wheat from the diet.
The 2nd example of the worst fattening foods that shocks many people because it is thought to be "healthy" is -- fruit juice.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti-carb advocate per se... I actually think most fruits are VERY healthy for us. However, we were NOT meant to separate the juice from the rest of the fruit and only drink the high calorie sugary mixture and leave behind the fiber and other beneficial components of the fruit.
When you only drink the juice of fruits (apple juice and orange juice being 2 of the worst culprits in the western diet), you are not getting the appetite satisfying effect of the fiber in the fruit, and you're left craving more carbs. Also, the fiber in whole fruit helps to slow the blood sugar response when eating whole fruit compared to fruit juice.
Bottom line... overconsuming fruit juices makes you fat and make it harder to flatten abs. On the other hand, eating whole fruits including all of the fiber helps you maintain a healthy balanced diet and high nutrient density (as long as the rest of your diet is whole unprocessed foods as well).
Enjoy, and good luck with your nutrition endeavors!
Everybody these days knows how bad trans fats and high fructose corn syrup are for you, so I figured I'd spare you yet another lecture on those... Instead, read on to see a couple foods that may shock you that they may be packing on the blubber.
The first type of food that is often falsely believed to be healthy is wheat products... this includes most breads, cereals, bagels, muffins, pasta, crackers, and so on. And yes, I am including "whole wheat" in the category of this fattening food.
First of all, a large percentage of the population has some degree of intolerance to the gluten in wheat and some other grains. Full blown celiacs are the most sensitive to it, but what most people don't realize is that the majority of the population was never meant to eat large quantities of wheat. The human digestive system has never adapted to large amounts of wheat in the diet.
The introduction of wheat into the human diet has only been in the last couple thousand years, and it has NEVER been in such large quantities in the human diet until the last 80-100 years. This is a small time frame compared to the traditional diet that the human digestive system developed over several hundred thousand years eating a hunter-gatherer diet of meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
From my experience with many of my clients, when they heed my advice and eliminate wheat from their diet for 2-3 weeks to see if they start to lose weight and feel better, this almost always makes a HUGE difference. Many times, they not only start losing body fat much faster, but they also finally get rid of headaches and indigestion that has plagued them for years. Sometimes even skin problems go away when eliminating wheat from the diet.
The 2nd example of the worst fattening foods that shocks many people because it is thought to be "healthy" is -- fruit juice.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti-carb advocate per se... I actually think most fruits are VERY healthy for us. However, we were NOT meant to separate the juice from the rest of the fruit and only drink the high calorie sugary mixture and leave behind the fiber and other beneficial components of the fruit.
When you only drink the juice of fruits (apple juice and orange juice being 2 of the worst culprits in the western diet), you are not getting the appetite satisfying effect of the fiber in the fruit, and you're left craving more carbs. Also, the fiber in whole fruit helps to slow the blood sugar response when eating whole fruit compared to fruit juice.
Bottom line... overconsuming fruit juices makes you fat and make it harder to flatten abs. On the other hand, eating whole fruits including all of the fiber helps you maintain a healthy balanced diet and high nutrient density (as long as the rest of your diet is whole unprocessed foods as well).
Enjoy, and good luck with your nutrition endeavors!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Double Calories Burned With Five Minutes Of Exercise!
Recent studies have shown that if you perform just five minutes of reasonably intense exercise in the morning you can potentially burn up to twice as many calories you normally would during the day and flatten abs!
What this means is that for those people who often claim “I don’t have time!” there really is no excuse now for not doing five to ten minutes of physical training each day.
This is in reach of everyone!
There is no need for people to run five miles before breakfast. A healthier more focused you is within five minutes reach! Also there are other benefits of doing something physical upon rising in the morning. Breathing deeply and moving your body first thing not only allows you to burn more calories throughout the day but it also puts you in a better mood as well as obviously going a long way to providing yourself with better health.
In short, you will be more inclined to take the day by the “scruff of the neck”, so to speak, and to want to pursue goals and objectives if you are fully awake and energized for the day.
Below are listed some of the major benefits of doing something active each morning. Remember them when you think it is “too much effort!”.
1. Increased calorie burn throughout the day.
2. Higher energy levels.
3. Better health and fitness.
4. Due to point number three, a higher chance of living a longer more abundant life.
5. An increased likelihood that you will want to reach and achieve targets and ambitions in your life due to feeling positive and energised through exercise.
6. Flatten Abs
Remember, then, that success in fitness, or indeed in any area of life, is so often dictated by what you do (or do not do) each and every day for as little as five minutes at a time to get your belly flatter!
Develop daily positive habits where your health is concerned and see and feel your results soar!
What this means is that for those people who often claim “I don’t have time!” there really is no excuse now for not doing five to ten minutes of physical training each day.
This is in reach of everyone!
There is no need for people to run five miles before breakfast. A healthier more focused you is within five minutes reach! Also there are other benefits of doing something physical upon rising in the morning. Breathing deeply and moving your body first thing not only allows you to burn more calories throughout the day but it also puts you in a better mood as well as obviously going a long way to providing yourself with better health.
In short, you will be more inclined to take the day by the “scruff of the neck”, so to speak, and to want to pursue goals and objectives if you are fully awake and energized for the day.
Below are listed some of the major benefits of doing something active each morning. Remember them when you think it is “too much effort!”.
1. Increased calorie burn throughout the day.
2. Higher energy levels.
3. Better health and fitness.
4. Due to point number three, a higher chance of living a longer more abundant life.
5. An increased likelihood that you will want to reach and achieve targets and ambitions in your life due to feeling positive and energised through exercise.
6. Flatten Abs
Remember, then, that success in fitness, or indeed in any area of life, is so often dictated by what you do (or do not do) each and every day for as little as five minutes at a time to get your belly flatter!
Develop daily positive habits where your health is concerned and see and feel your results soar!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Unique Lean-Body Workouts for the Time-Crunched Individual: Quick Exercises to do at Home or the Office
Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you've ever tried before and may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize you in a matter of weeks!
Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don't have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.
Please keep an open-mind and don't worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you'll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that's the case for you, then that's your loss.
Here's how it works (these workouts can be done at home or even in your office):
Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45 miutes to an hour at a shot... with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.
The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I've found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!
If you have a private office, then you don't have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there's no reason you can't fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.
If you're on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.
Some of the bodyweight exercises that are the best to focus on are:
* bodyweight squats (and variations)
* pushups (and variations)
* forward, reverse, or walking lunges
* up & down a staircase if one is available
* floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
* floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, to flatten abs.
* one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts
This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don't want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.
The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body's muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it's usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don't have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.
Here's an example workout routine at home or the office (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):
Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)
Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)
In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).
The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you've accomplished with these "mini" workouts completed throughout each day... You've increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.
Even though each "mini" workout was a very short duration, you've accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn't even have to break a sweat during any of the "mini" workouts. And there's hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.
Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don't have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You've now got some extra free time on your hands!
Try this type of time-efficient workout routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you'll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these "mini" workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.
Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn't mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I'd recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don't worry so much about what other people think...have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you'll be the one laughing back at all of the "blubber-bellies" at your office that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!
If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs and a flat stomach.
Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try these types of unique quick daily workouts. Heck, try to get your co-workers to do these with you if you can!
Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don't have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.
Please keep an open-mind and don't worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you'll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that's the case for you, then that's your loss.
Here's how it works (these workouts can be done at home or even in your office):
Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45 miutes to an hour at a shot... with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.
The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I've found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!
If you have a private office, then you don't have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there's no reason you can't fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.
If you're on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.
Some of the bodyweight exercises that are the best to focus on are:
* bodyweight squats (and variations)
* pushups (and variations)
* forward, reverse, or walking lunges
* up & down a staircase if one is available
* floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
* floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, to flatten abs.
* one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts
This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don't want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.
The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body's muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it's usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don't have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.
Here's an example workout routine at home or the office (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):
Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)
Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)
In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).
The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you've accomplished with these "mini" workouts completed throughout each day... You've increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.
Even though each "mini" workout was a very short duration, you've accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn't even have to break a sweat during any of the "mini" workouts. And there's hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.
Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don't have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You've now got some extra free time on your hands!
Try this type of time-efficient workout routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you'll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these "mini" workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.
Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn't mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I'd recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don't worry so much about what other people think...have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you'll be the one laughing back at all of the "blubber-bellies" at your office that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!
If you liked these training ideas, my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains hundreds of more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs and a flat stomach.
Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try these types of unique quick daily workouts. Heck, try to get your co-workers to do these with you if you can!
The Top Fat Loss Secrets to Flatten Abs and a Lean Stomach
I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Certified Personal Trainer, Geovanni Derice. The interview is below and I think you're going to like it... I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.
"GD: Welcome Mike to our 4-ever-Toned Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself and how you can help our readers with their fitness and health.
MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 17 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning.
At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I'm 33 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.
I decided earlier in my 20's that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we've reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That's why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.
I've expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.
GD: Now Mike, there's so many things out there as to what works and what does not work... if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to flatten abs, what would they be?
MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get your belly flatter and get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.
There's so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is... after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There's so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn't even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.
The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.
In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.
For the third thing, let's talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.
I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.
"GD: Welcome Mike to our 4-ever-Toned Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself and how you can help our readers with their fitness and health.
MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 17 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning.
At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I'm 33 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.
I decided earlier in my 20's that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we've reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That's why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.
I've expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.
GD: Now Mike, there's so many things out there as to what works and what does not work... if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to flatten abs, what would they be?
MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get your belly flatter and get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.
There's so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is... after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There's so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn't even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.
The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.
In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.
For the third thing, let's talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.
I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.
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