Ah yes, getting out of the ol’ comfort zone.

It is something everyone deals with and struggles to overcome.

But unless we get out of our comfort zone, the reality is that we won’t make breakthroughs in our lives, our fitness, or our fat loss.

You simply can’t coast through life if you want to get better.

And yes, this goes for me as well.

As you can see I’ve posted 5 photos to go along with this blog post. They are a series of photos that chronicle the destruction and burial of my dad’s barn and silo. It happened just the other week, and the end results is quite shocking (at least to someone like me, who has spent the last 35 years expecting them to be there).

These photos also serve a powerful purpose…they’re going to help introduce one of my “comfort zones” to you, and the truth about what I need to do to break FREE from my comfort zone, AND how this applies to helping YOU lose fat by getting YOU out of your comfort zone. Trust me, it will all make sense in a minute…

Photo 1 (above) - Here we go. Okay, so you have your giant backhoe, the remains of my father’s old barn, an 80-foot silo, and the house where I grew up in the background.

Photo 2 - Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I wish I would have been there, but I was traveling that weekend…I still remember as an 8 year old kid, my old man climbing up ladder on the outside of that silo, no safety gear on, all 80 feet of the way to the top, and then turning to look down and wave to me. He sure was crazy.

Photo 3 – Every boy’s dream. Operating a big wrecking ball and absolutely destroying something. That guy has a pretty cool job.

The entire process lasted about 8 hours. And when they were done, it was almost as if they had performed a magic trick.

“Watch me make this silo disappear right before your very eyes!”

Photo 4 - Crush, crush, crush. Bury, bury, bury.

Photo 5 (left) - And then there was nothing.

Makes you think for a second…the very things you have spent your entire life building can be blasted to smithereens in seconds, minutes, hours.

And the world rolls on without you.

Pretty crazy, huh?

Okay, enough of the metaphysical stuff. Let’s move on to the point…the truth about getting out of your comfort zone,  attacking new challenges, and achieving incredible results.

And the fact is, EVERYONE has their comfort zones.

Mine is my parent’s house. I still go there a lot to retreat from the big city and all the travel. I sleep in the giant bed as I did when I was 12. I get my mom to make my meals and even do my laundry while I play with my dog, goof off, workout, and ride around town on my bike. Just like I did 18 years ago.

These habits are all just a part of my BIGGER comfort zone of refusing to grow up.

But I have some big goals that call for a “bigger me”.

My goal for the next 10 years is to help ONE MILLION people – just like YOU – to transform their bodies and their lives.

And I’m not going to get that done by “being a kid” and shirking massive responsibility.

And yes, it’s true, we’re doing awesome right now. We get 100-150 people in each of the 3 TT Transformation contests I run every year, but I want to do more and help more people.

So I need to build a team. I need to create systems. I need to convince large corporations and insurance companies that my fat loss system can help their employees while saving the company money.

But that’s not going to happen if I don’t change.

So what’s stopping me from changing? And more importantly, what’s stopping YOU from changing?

The saying goes of course, that “people fear change”.

But that’s not completely accurate. After all, if I gave you $1,000,000 dollars, you wouldn’t be scared of that life change, right? Of course not. In fact, we embrace positive change.

What we really fear is NEGATIVE change.

I know my goal requires getting out of my “teenage kid comfort zone”. It requires meetings with my team (see the awesome TT Team in the photo below). It requires serious conversations with adults (one thing I’ve tried to avoid my entire life). And it requires “cold-selling” my system to executives who have never heard about me. These aren’t my favorite things in the world, but the BOTTOM LINE is that if I want to reach my goal then I MUST change.

For you and your fat loss journey, giving up some of your favorite TV shows and foods to do your TT workouts and stick to your Simple Nutrition fat loss plan will require changes that feel negative at first (until you start noticing more energy and looser pants  within a few days).

You need to look at what you might think are negative changes, and reframe them as positive changes to your lifestyle.

You have to focus on the dramatic increases in energy you’ll have from exercising just a few minutes each day. You’ll need to have gratitude for the new friends you make in your fitness social support groups, both online and offline. And you’ll need to appreciate how energetic you feel after lunch thanks to your new nutrition plan.

Trust me, there will still be a time and a place in your life to slip back into your comfort zone to enjoy your favorite foods and relax with your favorite TV show or a movie. Just like I will always be able to find some comfort zone time each month to do “kid stuff” and avoid responsibility for a bit.

But if we want to make those big changes in our lives, then we need to break free from our comfort zones. We need to challenge ourselves. And we need increase the organization, planning, preparation, and action-taking in our lives.

If we do this consistently, we will develop new, stronger habits that will allow us to reach our goals. Yours of transformation, and mine of helping people just like you to transform.

We’re in this together.

We’ll start by…

1) Setting deadlines for our new behaviors. You have the 9th TT Transformation Contest dates, and I have a deadline for my Turbulence Training Personal Trainer Certification (that’s part of the One Million Transformations plan…to get other TT Trainers out there helping hundreds and thousands of clients in their cities).

2) Making small changes every day. For you, that means eating more fruits and vegetables and doing more exercise today than yesterday. And for me, that means spending 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and eventually more and more time creating the certification and videos. We’ll both keep going till we have “Mission Accomplished”!

3) We will prepare for those days when we feel like doing the opposite of what we should be doing. You’ll be ready with healthy snacks for days when you feel like going to Dunkin’ Donuts, and I’ll be prepared with a checklist of tasks to  complete when I feel like skipping work and going to the lake with ol’ Bally the Dog.

You can do it. You can break free from your comfort zone.

If you believe in yourself as much as I believe in you, you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

It may not be easy, but you can AND will do it. I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.

Let us do this,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Creator, Turbulence Training Transformation Contest

Let the games begin! Turbulence Training Transformation Contest #9 has started!

=> Click here for the rules and info on how to submit your entry

Remember, there are both 6-week and 12-week contests. You can enter both. And you don’t have to be a TT member to join…anyone can enter! However, I will say that most winners tend to use the Turbulence Training forum for social support.

In this week’s fat loss guide, we discuss the perfect TT workout, the transformation mindset, and muscle-building research…

=> Click here to listen to the call

Now let’s get into the TT Workout and tips…

Monday – Sept 6th

Transformation Tip of the Week sponsored by my motivational quotes website:

You must have a clear and concise personal philosophy about what you are willing to do and not willing to do. You must be clear in your own mind about your goals. You must know what you are willing to do to succeed. And you must have a clear understanding about the consequences of your actions. When you have this clear foundation for your behaviors, then you will have a blueprint for success.

Next…in our workout section, let’s review the “perfect workout template” I told you about last week. Here’s one of my programs that fits the plan.

TT Hardcore 2K10 Workout A

Start with the total-body mobility warm-up:
1) Bodyweight Squat – 10 reps
2) Leg Swing – 12 reps per side
3) Lateral Lunge – 6 reps per side
4) Prone Stick-up – 8 reps
5) Close-Grip Pushup – 10 reps
6) 1-Leg RDL – 8 reps per side
7) Psoas Stretch – 30 second hold per side
8] Chest Stretch – 30 second hold per side

Follow that with Specific Warm-up Sets
Do one set of 1A and do 1 jump.
Do one set of 1B with 50% of the regular weight and do 5 reps.
Do one set of 1C with 50% of the regular weight and do 5 reps per side.
Do one set of 2A and do 1-2 pullups.
Rest 1 minute and move on to the first circuit.

Then move into the metabolic resistance training.
1A) Vertical Jump – 3 reps (1-0-X)
1B) DB Chest Press – 8 reps (3-0-1)
1C) DB Reverse Lunge – 8 reps per side (2-0-1)
1D) Stability Ball Plank – 45 second hold
Rest 1 minute before repeating 2 more times for a total of 3 circuits.

2A) Pull-up – 2 reps short of failure (3-0-1)
2B) Dips – 2 reps short of failure (2-0-1)
2C) DB Row – 12 reps per side (2-0-1)
2D) Cross-Body Mountain Climber – 10 reps per side (1-0-1)
2E) DB Rear Deltoid Raise – 10 reps (2-0-1)
Rest 1 minute before repeating 2 more times for a total of 3 circuits.

Finish with Interval Training (You can also wait and do this on Day 2 instead.)
5-minute warm-up.
24 second interval at 8/10 or 9/10 intensity level.
36 second recovery at 3/10 intensity level.
In week 1, repeat 5 more times for a total of 6 intervals.
In week 2, repeat 7 more times for a total of 8 intervals.
In week 3, repeat 9 more times for a total of 10 intervals.
In week 4, repeat 11 more times for a total of 12 intervals.
5-minute cool-down.

BTW, that is an ADVANCED workout. If you are a beginner, try this Beginner Workout.

Tuesday
Get 30 minutes of fun activity – now grab a Green Tea and do this week’s research review.

Reference:
Resistance exercise volume affects myofibrillar protein synthesis and anabolic signalling molecule phosphorylation in young men

This study was completed by my former colleagues at McMaster University, and lead by TT user, Dr. Stuart Phillips. It addressed the age-old debate about whether one-set of resistance training was better than 3 sets of resistance training. Only this time, the study was done with advanced scientific measurements.

The study went like this:

• 8 young men performed two separate workouts.
• In one workout, they did ONE set to failure (at 70% 1RM) of unilateral leg extensions.
• In the other workout, they did THREE sets to failure (at 70% 1RM) of unilateral leg extensions.
• Muscle biopsies were taken at training, 5 hours after training, 24 hours after training, and 29 hours after training.
• A protein shake was given after training, and they ate their regular meals for the rest of the day. However, the 24 hour biopsy was taken while fasted. Also, the training was done while fasted. (By fasted, that means not having eaten since the night before.)
• The muscle biopsies were studies for levels of muscle protein synthesis using molecular biology.

The results:

The ONE set to failure increased muscle protein synthesis (MPS) at the 5 hour mark, but had returned to resting levels after 29 hours.

The THREE sets to failure increased MPS significantly higher than the ONE set group and MPS stayed elevated for 29 hours.

The researchers conclude…

“These data suggest that 3SET of resistance exercise is more anabolic than 1SET and may lead to greater increases in myofibrillar protein accretion over time.”

CB’s thoughts…

Of course, many factors go into play here, but this tends to be in line with the thinking of most strength coaches.

The application for you:

If you want to build muscle, do more volume (i.e. 3 sets).

If you don’t want to build muscle, do less volume (i.e. one set).

Wednesday

Let’s review the 3 most Over-rated abs exercises I’ve covered on this blog. I call these over-rated because they give “okay” results but have a big downside (low back injury risk). So avoid:

1) Situps
2) V-ups
3) Flutter kicks

Thursday

Do 30 minutes of fun activity…and now let’s review this week’s Facebook Fitness Question of the Week from the Turbulence Training Fanpage.

Q: I’ve lost some fat but now I’m struggling. I don’t think I could ever look like the Transformation finalists!

Answer:
First, be happy with your results. Progress has been made.

Second, if you get a chance, take a quick review of our Transformation Contest entries…you’ll notice that for most of our biggest success, this was NOT their first attempt. It was their second, third, fourth or 21st attempt at trying to transform.

Its just like how someone doesn’t quit smoking without difficulty on their first try. It’s like a how a child doesn’t just hop on a bike and start cruising around the first day they get it. There will be stumbles and stops and starts, but you’re not going to quit right? No way, you’re going to come back stronger than ever in round two. Looking forward to your success!

Friday

Here are the 3 top tips I wrote down from the September 2010 issue of Men’s Health magazine:

1) Research shows the best stability ball exercise for your abs is the ab rollout
2) People eat 35 percent less when family style meals are served away from the table
3) Stretch on off days, 12 hours after you wakeup

Social Support Saturday!
30 minutes of fun activity…

Go for a walk and listen to this Bill Phillips interview on Transformation Success Stories.

And check out Bill’s website to sign up for his daily text messages. Here’s one he sent last week.

“Please remember to not be too hard on yourself. None of us are going to live a perfectly healthy life. Focus on progress not perfection, always.”

…You can sign up to get these daily texts for free from www.Transformation.com

Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
30 minutes activity and plan, shop, & prepare.

Here are 5 tips that will help you prepare to avoid night-eating:

1) Develop routines and rituals that end the feeding frenzy (keep your hands busy with knitting or crossword puzzles)

2) Set up rules, such as no eating after 8pm

3) Get out of house when a craving attacks

4)Go for a walk

5) Chew gum/brush teeth – again, do anything to end the feeding frenzy

Next week!
TT Workout – Old school bodyweight
Research Review –  Why French women don’t get fat …and Attitudes toward obese people
Nutrition – Healthy eating on the cheap

Over the past week TACFIT Commando and Deisger, Scott Sonnon has been sharing with us his unique program that offers bodyweight movements, active recovery and injury prevention designed for anyone from a beginner, to intermediate or at an advanced level.

Before we end this expert interview series I would like to jump back to yesterday’s post where Coach Sonnon touches on motor progression.

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Craig Ballantyne: So, Chang from Toronto asks a question unique to women. If you’re women who isn’t able to do a pushup with your elbows tucked in close to your side. What would you recommend for a basic pushup in the recruit program?  Do you recommend a wider pushup or knee pushups?

Scott Sonnon: So most westerners have tweaked peck minor and interior deltoid, because of our seated culture we tend to sit slumped forward with our neck extended. This is mainly due to the fact of modern technology like laptops, smart phones, the way we drive sitting behind the wheel and working behind desks. So, our shoulders tend to be junk as well as our hips and knees.

When it comes to being able to regain that strength instead of thinking wider, which is immediately what you want to do is go wider. Only because it feels like it’s stronger, that’s because the peck minor and the interior deltoids are doing so much work. You don’t want to train those right now; you want those to be the backup band. What you want to do is to hit into the long fronterior chain.

In order to perform this think of doing a knee pushup up the stairs. So, start at the bottom of the stairs, with your arms tucked in (these are little techniques that we use in TACFIT), then go up to stair four, start your pushups form there. This might be too easy for you, if so you may be able to go back to step three or even step two possibally down to step one. USE THE INCLINE in order to use the proper technique instead of changing the technique to where you feel strong.

We know that you’re strong there, but what we want is to give the strength back to the large tissues and let the small tissues to just be supporting personnel. They’re there to stabilize you, we don’t want to use those to actually do the work.

Craig Ballantyne: All right. Then our last question comes from Mike in Kissimmee, Florida, who asks when you’ve completed each phase of recruit, grunt, and commando. Where do you go from there? Do you continue to do the commando phase and just up to the intensity?

Scott Sonnon: No. It like it’s a gradual progression you just keep doing more and more, it’s just like martial arts. You work from white belt up to black belt and then as you continue to progress as your black belt starts to fray turn grey it gets tattered and turns white again.

So, you want to go all the way back to recruit level and see what you’ve capitalized upon. A lot of people tend to get greedy; they don’t want to lose the results.

So what we have to do is go back down to your recruit level do the same program again, if you’re prepared for this. You should see about a 25 percent gain  over the last time that you did the cycle.

When I travel I hit recruit level very hard, because I have a very busy day the nervous system can’t differentiate between types of stress. I’ll drop all the way down to the recruit level so I can get my exercise in, in a way that doesn’t fry my nervous system and then do more recovery methods.

When you do this you should be more thorough on your recovery and your compensation movements so you can go deeper into the actual technique. It takes about two to three years to develop  what I would call a mastery level of any one program. You’re not doing the same program over and over again; actually you cycle out of it.

So if you put down your TACFIT Commando, go through a full cycle of Turbulence Training and then come back to your TACFIT, you will see that you’ve contributed to your ability to do better in TACFIT and vice versa. If you know how to cycle effectively start all the way back at the beginning and you’ll see a 25 percent gain.

That’s why there are nine different programs in TACFIT Commando; actually TACFIT has a fleet of all different types of programs.

Craig Ballantyne: That’s awesome. Well, Scott, man I learned a lot it’s really motivated me to get back and do some more TACFIT and train in different ways. So, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this to everybody.

Scott Sonnon: Oh, I appreciate it, Craig. It’s really been an honor for me. I’ve heard so much about you and all of the people that come from your audience who come to me, they are hard workers and they all have positive things to say about you. So, it’s really been an honor for me to be on the call.

Craig Ballantyne: Great, Thanks so much and hopefully one day I’ll learn from you in a seminar. But, until then thanks everyone! I really enjoyed it and maybe we’ll do another one to follow up. Thanks, Scott. We’ll talk to you soon.

Today is your chance to win one of 3 FREE copies of my new TT For Abs DVDs that will be ON SALE next week on Tuesday, September 7th.

But first, let me tell you WHY I’ve worked so hard to give you the DVDs…

In your responses to my surveys last year, you said you wanted:

1) Follow along workout DVDs you can use at home
2) More ab exercises
3) More short workouts

So last winter, I spent 3 months filming 2-3 nights per week to create the new TT for Abs DVDs and bonus workouts (like the 15-Minute Express circuit and the Total Torso Training program).

Those DVDs will be ON SALE next week.

But today you have a chance to win one of 3 copies of the entire DVD package (that also includes my new Simple Nutrition DVD filmed at the old TT Headquarters).

All you need to do to enter to win is:

1) In the comments section below, please post your #1 question about getting a flat stomach and six pack abs OR how to lose belly fat.

2) You must also tell me why you need the TT for Abs DVDs.

NOTE: This isn’t about financial reasons, but about why the TT for Abs DVDs will finally help you reach your goals of getting a flat stomach or even a set of six-pack abs.

So just follow those 2 steps and I’ll announce the 3 winners on Tuesday, Sept 7th. You’ll also get a copy of my Simple Nutrition manual and DVD as part of the bonus package.

The blog contest ends at 7pm EST on Friday, Sept 3rd.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you.

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Creator, TT For Abs

PS – The contest closes at 7pm on Friday. No Exceptions.

So make sure to post your entry below.

I’ll read each and every entry and pick the winners on the weekend.

I have 5 research-prove belly fat burning tips for you today, but the first thing I want you to do today is download this free ab workout program here.

Once you’ve that, come back for some awesome belly fat burning tips.

Ready?

Okay, you’re NEVER too old and it is never too late to lose belly fat.

My mom’s doing it at 68 (she’s still young in my opinion!), and hundreds of TT users are going to enter the 9th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest even though it goes over the holiday season!

But they aren’t letting that stop them. They’ll plan ahead and work around special events. Let’s get real, it’s not that hard.

Most of us just say it’s hard because we are looking for an excuse.

But if you plan, shop, and prepare yourself – both mentally and with a proven fat burning schedule – you can lose fat EVEN during the days between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.

So today I’m going to give you five RESEARCH-PROVEN methods to help you lose fat 24/7/365.

Alright, let’s do this.

Proven Fact #1 – Eat More Fruits & Vegetables

Subjects on a low-fat diet that ate more fruits and vegetables lost more fat than another group on only the low-fat diet.

After 1-year, the low-fat, fruits and vegetables group (LF-FV) lost more weight than another group of woman on the low-fat (LF) diet only. Why?

Because the LF-FV group reported being less hungry, thanks to being able to eat more food than the LF group.

Here’s the reference:
Amer. J. Clin. Nutr. 85: 1465-1477, 2007.

So eat nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables to fill you up. Time to enjoy peaches, watermelon, apples, melons, and berries. Don’t let any “guru” tell you that fruit is bad, that’s nonsense!

2) Drop the Cardio and Use TT-Approved Interval Training

Our research friends in Australia have found interval training to be the solution to stomach fat.

According to Professor Steve Boutcher, an Australian expert on interval training, “high intensity intermittent exercise may result in greater fat loss in the abdomen”.

That means that unlike doing hundreds of crunches, interval training can work to burn belly fat over everything else. And that’s why the Turbulence Training for Abs workouts use intervals, not cardio.

3) Okay, There is ONE Type of Cardio That Can Help

In another study, researchers compared high-intensity cardio against low-intensity cardio. Both groups burned the same amount of calories in their workouts (400), but the high-intensity group exercised less.

Results?

The subjects in the Low-Intensity Exercise group did not lose fat. So “Boooo!” to low-intensity cardio.

On the other hand, the HIC (high-intensity cardio) group lost a significant amount of abdominal fat.

Once again, research shows that exercising harder results in more belly fat loss in less time. And in fact, slow cardio does NOTHING for fat loss.

Reference:
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Oct 8. Effect of Exercise Training Intensity on Abdominal Visceral Fat and Body Composition.

So if you insist on doing cardio, I will allow you to do one extra high-intensity cardio session per week in addition to your three Turbulence Training for Abs workouts per week.

4) Burn More Calories AFTER Exercise with Supersets

The latest research shows that superset training – the type of resistance training used in Turbulence Training for Abs – boosts metabolism more than traditional straight set training.

Reference:
J Str Cond Res 24:4 2010.

Sure, Turbulence Training was 10 years ahead of this research, but it is always nice to have more scientific proof that the Turbulence Training for Abs workouts are the best way to train for fat loss!

5) Stick with Lower Reps in Your Workouts for Calorie Burning

This is from one of the first studies I used to formulate Turbulence Training. In the study, researchers had women do two workouts. One workout was done with light weights and high reps, and the other workout was done with heavier weights and 8 reps per set (this group was called high-intensity).

The study found that the high intensity group burned more calories AFTER exercise and therefore the scientists recommend high intensity resistance training rather than low-intensity high rep lifting.

Reference:
A Comparison  Of Two Different Resistance Training Intensities On Exercise Energy Expenditure And Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Thornton, K, Potteiger, JA. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Volume 33(5) Supplement 1, 2001, p S73.

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So there you go…I use ALL five of these RESEARCH-PROVEN methods in my TT for Abs workouts that I filmed on DVD for you.

Burn belly fat with scientifically proven workouts and nutrition,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training for Abs

Now there are many benefits of having a strong core. In last day’s post Flow Coach, Scott Sonnon gives a few tricks and tips in order to get more volume out of an exercise so that you can hit that high intensity workout.

Proper form and technique is something we have to keep in mind with all levels of exercise. TACFIT Commando programs are specifically designed with this in mind guiding you through pain free movements. Today were going to discuss how to strengthen the most common injury most people have.

******************
Craig Ballantyne: All right, Curtis in Las Vegas and Mark from Chicago ask a good question. So people who have shoulder injuries that do exercise like the tripod overhead and the arm swing, how are those done properly to avoid shoulder injury or do they need to be modified or avoided if somebody has preexisting shoulder injuries?

Scott Sonnon: Okay. That’s a great question. There’s obviously a surgical limit to certain exercises. Let’s say you’ve had a disc fused in your neck, there will be movements that you will not be able to do. In the tripod overhead, I’m assuming that you’re talking about the Israeli Special Forces TACFIT challenge. I used with the IDS and their secret service. Now, this is a Commando level movement.

The basic version of the tripod overhead extension is where your feet and your hands are flat, and you’re in a crab position with your legs together. The basic motion is being able to press your hips up until you have full hip extension and your head is in alignment with your spine so you look like a table belly up.

If you CAN’T do that without pain or pins and needles in your shoulder or running down your radial nerve then you’re at the surgical limit, and you should not do the exercise, because that’s the screening test for whether you can work up to the overhead extension that you see in the Israeli Special Forces challenge.

If you CAN do this without pain, but you can’t perform the table position with one arm your legs separated then you should stay at the full table position. You’re still getting 100% of the fitness and medical benefits even though you’re doing it at a lower level.

I know it’s really cool to do complex movements, I get it, and I’m a fan, but the point isn’t to do the higher level movements. The point is for there to be an option to increase the complexity so that the nervous system can create more fingers in your brain. It increases the plasticity this is the technical term used in neuroscience.

Your brain becomes more complex, which is the same neurological phenomenon that happens when you experience A SECOND WIND. It happens when you are in a circular respiratory distress, you’re breathing really heavy, you’re panting, you have cold sweats, and you have little phantom pains, all of these things.

People think that this is the limit of their conditioning, that’s just a first gear. If you’re able to step through that safely, I’m talking without pain or pins and needles, and you step through it. The brain makes it easier for the rest of the body to continue the rest of the activity.

So, if you start with a primary exercise, in this case, the table, and you’re able to do the 20/10 program. With a lower sophistication, you’re still going to be able to hit that second gear getting that second wind and that’s really where it starts to happen with the fat burn and the muscle gain, because the brain forces a change to happen in the body. As long as you don’t have pain and pins and needles.

So you first have to screen the movement, in this case with the shoulder, if you can do the table without pins and needles and without any local sharp pain in the shoulders then do that movement. Soon as you can do that movement without feeling pain than the next time you do it separate your legs and lift one arm off the ground pointing it at the sky.

The next step is to take the arm overhead to get the full spinal arch. The HEALTH OF THE SPINE is directly related to backward flexion. If you can’t flex your spine backward it’s an unhealthy spine basically.

So, the goal is first to get it into normal alignment then slowly encourage backward flexion. Each one of the motor progressions is a screening for the next subsequent one. If you have pain choke down in sophistication until you can do it without pain.

Remember that you have to do the mobility exercises to prepare for it. Then the compensation exercises afterwards to unload the tension so that you don’t diminish the movement. That’s the other end of the spectrum.

The cool down is absolutely critical to your ability to do the next workout. Remember bigger is not better, faster is not better, stronger is not better, only better is better.

Craig Ballantyne: Awesome. That’s it for today’s post. Join us tomorrow where Scott Sonnon explains how to properly perform another compound exercise that uses muscles in the chest, shoulders, triceps, back, abs and even the legs. Click here to read part 9.

Hey folks, there’s no doubt that high intensity and low intensity exercise such as a Tai Chi program, or a light Pilate’s work out can also be very beneficial.

In part 6, of this interview series TACFIT Commando Designer and Founder, Scott Sonnon recommends integrating“circuit style” training into high and low intensity level programs.

Now today, we’re going to look at what a new person coming to TACFIT can expect.

*******************

Craig Ballantyne: What can an average person who works out and has been doing more traditional weight training, some interval training, a little higher intensity stuff except to feel like after those first workouts?

You mentioned having more energy as soon as you’re done, which is going to be great compared to you know most people who do these work outs until they’re completely exhausted. Tell us a little about the physiological response they’re going to have from the first couple of workouts they’re going to have?

Scott Sonnon: Okay, it’s a solid request. So, basically what happens to be if we move in a way that is a natural to the range of motion of our joints, this is what tactical means, and when we think of tactical we immediately think of camouflage, for some reason, but we’re all neurological predators. The way our nervous system is organized is to be able to survive in a crisis. We have binocular vision; our eyes aren’t on the sides of our head like fish.

So, when we move in a certain way that opens up all of our joints throughout the movements we get flushed with this sudden influx of energy. All of our energy isn’t locked in cold storage; it takes a high intensity workout to not just give us the movements to release that, but also the intensity to burn off the barriers to releasing that energy.

When we go into a workout, say there are six movements from a very basic movement to some of them you may not have seen before. You’ll be able to do them right away because there are four levels of sophistication to each movement. The basic three levels we call recruit, grunt, and commando.

Everybody gets to use the same family of a skill. If I’m doing a push up and the guys who are training next to me may be doing a ply metric screwing push. It’s the same skill family but we all train together. I can do the same basic gross movement even on my knees, the point isn’t to do the movement but to complete the program with the caveat that I must progress in complexity, to BECOME BETTER not just bigger.

Bigger, stronger, faster is fantastic when it’s necessary, but it’s only the first step, it’s sort of like nutrition. Calories in, calories out isn’t all of nutrition, but it is the first step. We have to first be able to consider what we’re putting in our body and what we’re putting out energetically. The same is true when it comes to movements.

We also have to realize that only better is better. So we have to improve the movement that we’re doing. These six exercises you could be doing a basic knee push up; there are little tricks that we give you to be able to put out more volume. If we know how the core works, it is like a Coke can, you know you have a bottom and a top on the can. The only way to truly crush the can is to spiral twist it and then press it together and that’s the way our core works.

We have the transverse abdominals that we have to pull in. We have the rectus abdominals that have muscle (six packs) on top we have to crunch down. However, we also have the pelvic wall on the bottom which we can only do by squeezing, gals you know it as Kegels, guys you know it’s the muscle that you have to squeeze in order to avoid peeing. We have to pull up the bottom of the can as we crush down with the tight exhale to push the diaphragm down and that crushes the can.

If we don’t have a solid core then anybody that has children knows that when a child’s having a tantrum trying to pick up that child is like trying to pick up a 200 pound sandbag. The sand just pours out the other side, and you have this really awkward heavy thing to try and pick up. A 200 pound plank is much easier to pick up because the weight is evenly distributed, so the tighter the lighter. The goal is to make the body as tight as possible and that means it’s as light as possible.

We have to start with the CORE so that we can create a union between the upper and lower bodies. Every technique has little components to it in order to get more volume out of it so that we can truly have high intensity. Even though there are only six movements that we have to do there are little tricks and tips to each one of those movements and the protocol that we do them is very important.

The first protocol that we use is 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest, also known as Tabata protocol. It’s the first in six protocols, six programs that we use in TACFIT. This is the entry level, because we have to trick the nervous system.

Nobody can tell us that we need to work harder. To be able to actually do that requires some type of motivation that doesn’t come from our mind. You can’t tell the mind to do more you have to tell the spine to do more.

So, “In 20 seconds I have to do as many of these as I can, and then I have 10 seconds to recover before I have to do it again,” that encourages us through time to be able to push harder and recover faster. And there are specific recovery methods during those 10 seconds. THE 10 SECONDS are more critical than the work.

Recovery is king workout is queen. It tends to be viewed the other way around. It’s the recovery methods that we need to focus on in the 20/10. So, the methods that we use are, they can seem a little strange, but it’s amazing the change in numbers that happens.

If you think of doing one activity for 45 minutes, let’s say riding a stationary bike unless there’s some type of program on the stationary bike that encourages us to have the intensity our mind can’t push to high intensity.

When we compress it to 20 seconds we can push hard for 20 seconds chemically. We can push really hard and in those 10 seconds we can RECOVER before the next set. It’s much different than doing the same thing 45 minutes in a row. Twenty seconds is short enough that the spine can push, 45 minutes, we lose focus. It’s like Zen Buddhism, 45 minutes of the same activity.

Being able to hold your form, most people are damaging themselves every single time they’re taking another turn of those pedals, because if the minds not absolutely prepared to handle the technique than the body starts to find a cheat, it tries to find the easiest way to accomplish the activity.

In 20 seconds, we can hold our attention. We can actually use high intensity and use these little tricks and tips that will give us all the benefits that we need. Twenty seconds are more important than 45 minutes and that’s the first protocol, the 20/10.

That is it for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with part 8, as the TACFIT author  Scott Sonnon answers more questions on complex movements.