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.

Last day, I explained to fitness expert, Scott Colby, that what you’ll find in my19 DVD Home Abdominal Workouts is more than just ab exercises, it’s a complete guide to overhauling your current physique.  Because achieving your dream body isn’t just about abs exercises…not by a long shot!

Today, we’ll continue the abs discussion, specifically, my recommendations on the BEST ab exercises if you’re looking to develop ripped, six-pack abs.

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

Scott Colby:  We have Raymond who asked a question from Facebook, “Having low body fat around 8%- 10%, what are the best types of exercises that will make your abs more defined or do you just continue to lower your body fat more?”

Craig Ballantyne: Well, in my kind of famous photo I’m only 10% body fat. A lot of people say, “Oh, I thought you were 6% body fat.”  Most people underestimate how much body fat they really have even when they’re getting lean.

So, at 10% body fat you should be able to really see your abdominals if you’re a guy, for a woman it’s somewhere between 14% and 18%. If you are at 10 % body fat, and you can’t see your abdominals, you need to put more muscle on in general, so I would probably switch to a muscle building program.

If you take a look at the ABDOMINAL exercises that I use, this will help you to put some size on your abdominals. Really, they’re a very thin muscle, so it’s very difficult to hypertrophy your abdominal muscles. Stability ball rollout would be one, because of the eccentric stretch. That’s going to put a lot of damage on the rectus abdominals and as a result in an increase in muscle size.

The chin up-knee up, hanging leg raise, and the stability ball jackknife, are going to make the big difference.  Again, it’s not something that is really going to hypertrophy or grow the lot on its own. More it’s going to be about making sure that you do have the body fat down to 10 %, and then you should be able to see your abs quite well.

Scott Colby: Very cool. Mike in Orlando, just asked a question, and has followed some of your advice. He says; Craig, I follow daily that carb protein and fat ratio you recommend, in which you suggested carb and protein ratios equal to your goal weight. It has helped a lot, however, given the amount of fruits and veggies I eat every day I normally go well over on carbs even though all my carbs are from fruits and veggies.

I train one to two hours six times a week, AND just complete my first triathlon at age 39. I just have to say thanks for all your help to get me ready to compete at this level.  So my question is; “Should I try and cut back on the fruits and vegetables to bring the carbs back in line with my goal weight?”

Craig Ballantyne: Well, very cool, that’s excellent to hear. Now, if he’s training that much, it’s kind of hard to understand how he could he eat too many fruits and vegetables, because they’re pretty low in calories. So, that’s the type of thing where we need to see the actual diet.

Is that pretty much the only concern? It seems like things are going pretty well. Did he mention body fat levels that he wanted to change or anything?

Scott Colby: No, he didn’t, He seems to have a set number of carbs that he thinks he might need to stick to and he’s going over that with the fruits and vegetables and getting the results that he wants.

Craig Ballantyne: I think, especially with that type of training those numbers may not necessarily apply to his type of training. Those are really for fat loss and not for fat loss plus endurance athlete training. Things do change with fat loss and endurance athlete training.

A great book that he should check out is called “The Thrive Diet”, by Brendan Brazier. I was recommended this book many times, but I didn’t think it was going to be that good. It turned out to be one of the most important nutrition books that anybody can read, because it expands on the Simple Nutrition philosophy.

It is a vegetarian book, so it certainly can change your mind about whether or not you want to eat meat, or you can add meat to his plan. Really, it just shows you the incredible amount of variety, of all the fruits and vegetables that are out there. It obviously shows what an endurance athlete takes on and how it uses maximum energy.

It shows you how many other fruits and vegetables, there are. Honestly, I’ve never heard of half of these. So, if you think it’s just apples, oranges, and bananas, clearly not. It’s not just broccoli and spinach. There’s so much out there.

Easy for me to say when I live in a city that has farmers markets, and Asian markets, but I think even in smaller cities you should be able to find a lot of the new stuff that is not necessarily going to be known to you right now.  It’s a great book, I highly recommend it.

Scott Colby: Cool. Ryan out in Toronto, has one of those myth types of questions here, “Is morning cardio on an empty stomach much more efficient at fat burning than cardio after weights?”

Craig Ballantyne: No, not at all.

What it really comes down to is the INTENSITY of your training and your diet. I don’t know too many guys in our peer group who think that it’s important at all and there are a lot of smart cookies, bodybuilders, and guys with low body fat.

On the other hand, if you want to do that IT’S FINE.

What I would recommend is that everyone treat your bodies like a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, and you record what happens when you change the variables. Record what happens when you eat a certain food.

If you go to Applebee’s at lunch, and you eat five slices of bread and you’re tired at 2:00 p.m. you’ve got to be able to make that type of connection. If you train in the morning at 6:00 a.m. without having breakfast you need to be able to realize after three weeks, “Is this making a difference? Is this significantly increasing my fat loss?” If it is, stick with it, if it’s not then clearly it’s not working for me.

In my opinion, it’s not going to be beneficial or essential or anything to worry about, but again it’s really going to depend on his body’s science experiment that he does. I highly RECOMMEND that everyone try a whole bunch of stuff and make sure that you’re doing everything and giving it a fair shot.

Everything that’s safe, of course, if you’re worried about something that might not be safe then check with a professional. But, if you want to try out stuff, there’s certainly no harm in doing that. I would give it a three week trial to make sure that it does or doesn’t work for you.

I wouldn’t change too many things at once. I’m not going to change my cardio, then change my weight program, then change my diet drastically and then say one of them doesn’t work, because that’s not a good science experiment.

That’s what I would recommend in the end.

Hey, you know how I said in my last email to you that getting a tan helps you look better?

Well, I posted a comparison shot of my abs with and without a tan on the TT Fanpage here:

=> http://www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com

What do you think? The tan makes me look leaner, right?

After you’ve taken a look, c’mon back, because I have good news and bad news for you today.

Don’t worry…I’ll wait right here for you!

OK, so first, the bad news.

The truth is that sometimes you just won’t have the equipment, space, or strength to do some exercises in Turbulence Training.

Fortunately, there’s GREAT news about that, which I realized last week while writing up a new exercise column for Men’s Health magazine.

And the GREAT news is this:

Almost every single TT exercise can be substituted by an equally amazing exercise from my repertoire.

So let’s go through a huge list of exercise substitutions. This will be perfect for you to print out and keep with your TT program or in your workout area.

The Exercise Substitutions

This list will make your life a lot easier…

1) To replace Squats, you can do:

1-leg hip extensions
Step-ups
Deep Step-ups
Split squats
Reverse lunges
Forward lunges
Bulgarian split squats (with back foot elevated on a bench)
Reaching lunges
1-leg deadlifts
1-leg squats (use bands or straps for assistance if necessary)
1-leg squats standing on a bench

2) To replace Deadlifts:

The only “direct replacement” is dumbbell squats.

Otherwise, just replace deadlifts with a superset pairing of any lower body exercise paired with a row.

For example:

Barbell lunge supersetted with a DB row
Stability Ball Leg Curl supersetted with Inverted Row

3) If you have sore knees and need to replace lunges:

First, see a doctor and have them diagnose the problem. Second, see a therapist and have them treat the issue. Third, see a trainer and have them assess where you need to work on flexibility and how you can include some “knee-friendly” exercises in your workout program.

These exercises include:

Lying Hip Extensions (also known as Lying Hip Bridges)
1-leg Hip Extensions
Lying Hip Extensions with your feet on the ball
Stability Ball Leg Curls

4) To replace Bench Presses or Dumbbell Chest Presses (of any kind), you can do one of these:

Pushups
Close-grip pushups
Decline pushup
Elevated pushups
Off-set pushups
Pushups with your feet on the ball
Pushups with your hands on the ball
Pushups with your feet on the ball and hands on the bench
Suspended strap pushups
Spiderman pushups
Spiderman climb pushups
Pike pushups
Dips
Decline close-grip spiderman pushups

By the way, if you have dumbbells but no bench, you can replace flat dumbbell bench presses by lying on the floor. And you can replace incline dumbbell presses with standing 1-arm dumbbell shoulder presses.

5) To replace any kind of row, here are alternatives:

Dumbbell rows
Dumbbell rows with elbows out
Dumbbell chest supported rows
Barbell rows
Inverted rows
Underhand grip rows
Seated cable rows
Renegade Rows (with flat dumbbells or kettlebells)
Dumbbell rear deltoid raises
Rows with TRX or blast straps
Chin-ups (these are done with an underhand grip)
Eccentric chin-ups
Sternum chin-ups
V-grip chin-ups
Pull-ups (these are done with an overhand grip)
Eccentric pull-ups
Sternum pull-ups

And in place of pull-ups or chin-ups, you can do:

Dumbbell rows
Dumbbell pullovers
Underhand grip pulldowns (kneeling) – replaces chin-ups
Overhand grip pulldowns (kneeling) – replace pull-ups
Assisted chinups/pull-ups using machine

However, if you have absolutely no equipment (i.e. no dumbbells, no barbell, no cables, no straps, and no bar) then unfortunately there is no way to train your upper back. The best you can do is to add a lot of prisoner squats, prisoner lunges, stick-ups, and WYT’s to your bodyweight program.

6) To replace dips, you can do:

Any version of close-grip pushups
Dumbbell floor presses
Dumbbell close-grip presses
Close-grip bench press

7) To replace dumbbell split squats, you can do:

1-leg lying hip extensions
Bulgarian split squats (use higher reps or the 1 & 1/4 rep method)
Split squats with your front foot elevated 4-6 inches
1-leg deadlifts
1-leg squats (holding straps or cables for assistance)
1-leg squats standing on the bench
Step-ups
Deep step-ups
Reaching lunges

(NOTE: For many exercises, including pushing and pulling too, you can play around with the 1&1/2 rep style – lowering to the bottom position, coming halfway back up, and then lowering again, and then coming all the way back up.)

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

Whew…now after writing all that out, I think I need to make some new youtube videos, huh?

Stay tuned for that!

And I’ll cover ab replacement exercises in a future email.

In the meantime, let me know what other exercises need replacing in your program.

(And please forward this list to your friends or print them a copy.)

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Creator, Turbulence Training

Five pieces of fruit…before 10AM! Excessive?  Hinders fat loss results? Welcome to my morning ritual in which I indulge in a savory and nutritious blender drink ripened with a banana, and mixed berries, followed by apple soon thereafter.

Now many of you have probably heard that eating too much fruit will cause you to gain weight, but that is simply a load of BS! Find out why in last day’s interview excerpt with fitness expert, Scott Colby.

Flat, sexy abs. They may seem elusive, especially after spending countless hours doing crunches that leave you with nothing more than mediocre results or even worse, back pain. So today I’m sharing some of my beginner and advanced ab exercises that will make your abs sizzle, while also removing the boredom and often dangerous side effects of sit-ups and crunches.

Let’s get started…

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Scott Colby:  Nancy from Albany says, “I’m a 49 year old woman who has been following the Turbulence Training outline for two years. My diet is good, I cleanse once biweekly eating fruits and water for two week intervals, and then I resume my regular diet, which does not include any white flour, sugar, or carbonated drink products. However, my stomach is still fat and is just plain ugly. “What am I doing wrong?”

Craig Ballantyne: We always want to make sure we’re changing the program, which it sounds like she probably is if she’s using the Turbulence Training program. So, you definitely want to make sure that you’re changing the program every three to four weeks as you get more advanced.

If she’s ADVANCED she might want to switch up her program every three weeks instead of four weeks. That might be something that will kick start some results. In addition, we will want to really take a look at that diet.

It’s really kind of tough to analyze it right now without seeing everything that’s being consumed on a regular basis. But, she does make a great point that she’s doing really well with it. So, maybe it’s just changing the program a little more frequently that is going to help.

As long as she is making sure that she’s consuming lots of water, that’s another thing that we talked about in the Simple Nutrition. Women that were only consuming a liter of water per day were not losing weight and then when they added another liter of water they started to get the results.

There are some things to definitely take a look at, but it’s the kind of thing where you’d have to really sit down with somebody and review everything on a step by step, meal by meal basis. Hopefully, just the simple tip of changing things every three weeks will help her continue her progress there.

Scott Colby: That was my first thought. Let’s see… Heidi says, “Hi. I have a very sensitive stomach; therefore many stomach exercises cause me quite a deal of pain to get the results I want. I do crunches and sit ups.”

OUCH! It sounds like she is having some pain doing crunches and sit ups, these will cause pain. Planks and sit ups on the exercise ball are the least painful. Do you have any suggestions?

Craig Ballantyne: Again, if you want to have flat sexy abs…

…crunches and sit ups are way down on the list out of the top 75 things you can do. So it’s very low on your list of things you can do.

You want to make sure that you’re doing total body resistance & interval training to burn belly fat. Make sure that your nutrition is in place to help you keep the belly fat off and to burn the belly fat. These are the three MOST IMPORTANT things we need to do.

Now, when it comes to the abdominal exercises I use what is called TOTAL BODY abdominal exercises, none of them involve crunches. The MORE ADVANCED ones like the stability ball jack knife, stability ball rollouts, and stability ball plank involve the ball and are more difficult, but again we don’t spend 30 or 40 minutes on that type of stuff.

We barely spend 30 or 40 minutes on the entire workout, let alone the abdominal portion, which is only about five to seven minutes of the entire workout. We’re also are doing exercise like mountain climbers, cross body mountain climbers, planks and side planks as our BASICS for our beginners.

One thing that most people don’t know is when I was reading Dr. Stewart McGill’s books he recommends that everyone be able to hold a plank for TWO minutes, before they move on to anything else as a measure of healthy abdominal endurance and low back safety.

So, if you are not able hold a plank for two minutes straight with proper form then you definitely want to spend more time on that exercise. Side plank as well, and then move on to stability ball plank, which Men’s Health Magazine says works the abs 35 percent harder than a regular plank. Obviously, that’s a more advanced one.

Those are the types of exercises we do. None of them involve the crunching, so hopefully you should be able to do those exercises without the stomach pain. That is what is going to get more results.

Scott Colby: Jane in Wisconsin says, “Besides a modified plank what is the best beginner ab exercise for women with little to no abs successfully AND understand how to properly fire the abdominal muscles?”

Craig Ballantyne: That’s a great question. Here’s an interesting answer. When you’re working with your client’s one of the things to do, and obviously this will be requiring some communication, trust, and understanding, make sure that you put your hands or they can use their own hands, on the muscle that is supposed to be working.

Research shows that if you do that you will get the muscle to fire better than if there was no tactile stimulation, touching stimulation there. So, that’s one thing that she can do in every exercise.

In addition to that, you also want to teach her how to BRACE her abdominals. The simple instructional tool for this is to brace as if someone is going to punch you in the stomach. So, get her to visualize that and then she can touch her abs and she’ll be able to feel her abdominals that way.

She can be doing this while she’s doing the plank or a modified side plank, those are some basics. Also, I think she can do kneeling pushups, and you touch her abdominals. She should be able to feel her abdominals working.

Anytime, she’s doing an exercise it should be done with a braced set of abdominals, so you can just simply remind her to put her hands on that area  and just focus on BRACING and SQUEEZING. She should quite quickly increase her ability to recruit those muscles, then she’s going to be rocking and you’re going to be moving on to more advanced quite quickly.

Scott Colby: That’s awesome. That’s a great answer, because I know a lot of people can’t do a plank properly. That should help some of the beginners out there who are having a little bit of trouble.

Diet and meal planning is essential to help you lose weight. If you want a few great tips to encourage smart eating habits then jump to over to part 5.

Thanks to all my past ab workouts and Turbulence Training sessions, I had a great time around the Hard Rock Hotel pool in San Diego on Memorial weekend.

Believe it or not, I also ran 6-7 miles on Saturday morning…

But why?

Because my friend Bedros Keuilian is running the San Diego marathon with his wife next weekend, and he invited me on a training run. The next day I was sore…but not as bad as I thought. But don’t get too excited, I don’t plan on running a marathon anytime soon.

I also had a couple of great weight workouts, and visited a cool gym called Fit. Right downtown by the ballpark.

This weekend, I’m off to NYC for a meeting and I’m going to the world-famous “Per Se” restaurant (one of the world’s ten best)…and then spending 3 days in the Renegade Gym with Jason Ferruggia.

More info in the 7-week fat loss guide:

Click here to listen to the call

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

Monday – June 7th

Transformation Tip of the Week:

I actually want to share the May 2010 Turbulence Training Success Story of the Month. This month’s winner of the 1-year Platinum TT Membership is Chris, from Nashville.

Here’s his story…

“Craig, I just wanted to send a note to let you know that your Turbulence Training program has been a great blessing to me in the past 5 weeks. For a little background, as of last December, I was 5′8″, 248 pounds, depressed, and struggling with diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol. I was almost ready to give up on life completely. I wound up in the hospital overnight due to stroke-level blood pressure.

Once I got out, something awoke inside of me. I quit my pack and a half a day cigarette habit, stopped eating garbage food, and began exercising. Within a month I had already lost 25 pounds. Then, I discovered Turbulence Training on the internet. I thought this may be the program to take me to the next level and I was totally right.

I embarked on the 4-week beginner workout and shed another 10 pounds. I’m now in week one of the intermediate workout and, while it’s a challenge, I know it’s going to keep my progress moving forward. I haven’t felt this good since high school and my wife and kids are thankful that it looks like I will be sticking around a little longer.

You don’t know this but you have played a role in saving my life and I owe you big time. Thanks for spreading your fantastic workout with all of us and please keep up the good work. I am forever changed.”
Chris C.,
Nashville, TN
****************

Wow, amazing!

Congratulations Chris, stay strong and get healthy!

And if you have a TT Success Story, please send it to:

Support (AT) TurbulenceTraining.com

Thank you!

Now for an under-rated abs workout…

TT AAA Abs – Workout A

1A) Chin-ups OR Underhand Inverted Row – As Many Reps As Possible (2-0-1) – You could also use the chinup with knee up, or the V-grip Chinup
1B) Max Push-ups – As Many Reps As Possible (1-0-1) – Lately I’ve been playing around with ring pushups and those are even harder for your abs.
1C) DB Forward Lunge – 8 reps per side (2-0-1)
Rest 1 minute & repeat 1 more time for a total of 2 supersets.

2A) DB Step-Up – 10 reps per side (2-0-1)
2B) Stability Ball DB Pullover – 12 reps (3-0-1)
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets.

3A) DB Renegade Row – 8 reps per side (1-0-1)
3B) KB Swings – 20 reps (1-0-1)
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets.

4) Bodyweight Intervals

4A) Squat Jumps (or Bodyweight Squats for beginners)
10 repetitions followed by 10 second rest x 4 rounds.

4B) Calf Jumps (or Calf Raises for beginners)
10 repetitions followed by 10 second rest x 4 rounds.

4C) Stability Ball Jackknife – You could use the Power Wheel instead of the Stability Ball if you have one of these…I just ordered one the other week from Lifeline USA.
10 repetitions followed by 10 second rest x 4 rounds.

4D) Turkish Getup – DO IT! So many folks complain about this exercise…but it should be on your list of moves to do more often.
5 reps per side followed by 10 second rest x 2 rounds.

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

Reference:
Appetite. Volume 54, Issue 2, April 2010, Pages 282-288. Catherine M. Murtya, Jane K. Pittaway

In this study, 42 subjects followed their regular diet for 4 weeks, then switched to 12 weeks on a chickpea supplemented diet (104 grams per day),  and then switched back to their regular diet for 4 weeks.

• Food intake was lower during the chickpea supplemented phase, particularly foods of the Cereal food group (P = 0.01).
• Participants tended to eat more processed snack foods (high energy, low fiber) after ceasing chickpea consumption (P = 0.09), a trend supported by focus group discussion.
• Perceived “fullness” increased while participants consumed chickpeas and perceived bowel function improved.

Health benefits, increases in dietary variety and satiation with legume consumption were the main perceived benefits, while inconvenience and gastrointestinal upset discouraged legume consumption.

SOLUTION:
Start slowly. Increase your fiber & chickpea intake little by little. Practice. Find more chickpea recipes. Make eating more fiber a habit.

Wednesday
If you want abs of steel and a rock hard body, then you have come to the right place.  TT AAA Abs is loaded full of fun ab exercises. Again, a highly under-rated workout program.

TT AAA Abs – Workout B

1A) DB 1-Arm Squat & Press – 8 reps per side (2-0-1) – You could use a KB snatch instead.
1B) Pull-up + Knee-up – 8 reps (2-0-1) OR DB Row – 20 reps per side (2-0-1) – Try using the rings if possible.
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets.

2A) Front Loaded Bulgarian Split Squat – 8 reps per side (2-0-1) – Try using the 1&1/2 reps method.
2B) Stability Ball Plank Rollout – 10 reps (1-0-1) – Try this using the power wheel instead.
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets.

3A) 1-Leg Stability Ball Leg Curl – 8 reps per side (1-0-1) – Another exercise you could try with the power wheel.
3B) Side Plank + DB Lateral Raise – 10 reps per side (2-0-1)
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets.

4A) Burpee Chinup Combo – 10 reps (1-0-1)
4B) Jump Rope or Jumping Jacks or Run in Place – 20 seconds – Do hill sprints instead, if possible.
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 supersets.

Thursday
Do 30 minutes of fun activity…

The truth about emotional eating…

Reference:
Obesity 2009 Aug 20. Mediators of Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance in Middle-aged Women. Teixeira PJ, Silva MN, Coutinho SR, Palmeira AL, Mata J, Vieira PN, Carraça EV, Santos TC, Sardinha LB.

From Portugal, researchers studied the behavior patterns of women who were able to lose weight and keep it off over 2 years.

225 Overweight and obese women were randomly assigned to a control or a 1-year group weight loss program.

The weight loss group lost -7.3% bodyweight after 1 year and kept off 5.5% over 2 years.

Predictors of success over 2 years were:

• Flexible cognitive restraint
• Disinhibition
• Exercise self-efficacy
• Intrinsic motivation
• Body dissatisfaction

Predictors of success in the 1-year weight loss study included lower emotional eating.

The researchers concluded that lowering emotional eating and adopting a flexible dietary restraint pattern are critical for sustained weight loss.

For long-term success, interventions must also be effective in promoting intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy.

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I’ve said quite a few times that internal motivation is a key to your success, and this study proves it. So YOU must find YOUR reason and your OWN motivation to change. You can’t depend on someone else to motivate you.

Friday

Fun circuit to end the week…

TT AAA Abs – Workout C

KB Swing – 20 reps (1-0-1) – Try KB snatches instead
X-tended Pushup – 10 reps (2-0-1) – Spiderman pushups could be used
Stability Ball Back Extension – 10 reps (2-0-1) – Glute ham raises could be done if you have access to equipment
Stability Ball Pike – 8 reps (2-0-1) – Try the Power Wheel for this one!
KB 1-Arm Swing – 10 reps per side (1-0-1)
Pushup – 20 reps (2-0-1) – Use decline pushups or close-grip 3/4 rep pushups
Stability Ball Leg Curl – 20 reps (1-0-1) – Another exercise for the Power Wheel
Ab Wheel – 8 reps (2-0-1) – The Power Wheel can also be used here
Sprint or Burpee – 20 seconds or 8 reps
Rest 1 minute & repeat 2-3 more times.

Social Support Saturday!
30 minutes of fun activity…and just remember this quote when it comes to how you interact with your social network:

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
30 minutes activity and plan, shop, & prepare. And should you add “Cheerios” to your grocery cart?

Well, I was flipping through a Woman’s World magazine the other week because the cover promised outrageous weight loss from eating cereal. Turns out the article was based on this study…

Reference:
J Am Diet Assoc. 2010 Feb;110(2):205-14. Whole-grain ready-to-eat oat cereal, as part of a dietary program for weight loss, reduces low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in adults with overweight and obesity more than a dietary program including low-fiber control foods. Maki KC, Beiseigel JM, Jonnalagadda SS, Gugger CK, Reeves MS, Farmer MV, Kaden VN, Rains TM.

Researchers studied204 overweight and obese adults. One group was given 2 servings per day of cheerios (containing 3 g/day oat b-glucan) while the other group ate energy-matched low-fiber foods.

Both groups were on a 500 kcal/day energy deficit diet and they were given advice on avoiding bad foods.

Cheerios resulted in:

• Greater LDL cholesterol level reductions (-8.7 vs -4.3%, P=0.005).
• Greater total cholesterol reductions (-5.4 vs -2.9%, P=0.038)
• Greater decreases in waist circumference (-3.3 vs -1.9 cm, P=0.012)

So cheerios might help you lose an inch from your waist if you are overweight or obese. I know it’s hard to believe this study with all that “anti-grain” information out there, but its tough to argue with this study.

Next week!
TT Workout – TT Buff Dudes & Hot Chicks Update
Research Review – Fat Burning Secret for Older Adults
Truth about eating fish