Today we’re going to cover one of the biggest myths in fitness. The one that says:

“You should do cardio on an empty stomach to burn more fat.”

I bet you know where this is going…after all, I just called it a myth.

Well, first we have to go all the way over to Italy, to hear from researchers who had a study published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition Exercise and Metabolism (21:48-54, 2011).

The Italian researchers wanted to see what would happen when eight healthy young men did the following workouts:

Workout A: 36 minutes of slow cardio at 65% maximum heart rate in the morning without eating

Workout B: 36 minutes of slow cardio at 65% maximum heart rate in the morning AFTER a small meal

The RESULTS?
24-hours after exercise, the results found that eating before cardio increased both calorie burning AND fat burning.

That’s right, eating before the workout increased fat burning in the 24-hours after exercise.

The scientists concluded that “fasting before exercise does not enhance lipid utilization; rather, physical activity after a light meal is advisable.”

BOTTOM LINE:
The truth about fasted cardio is that it is NOT a magical way to boost fat burning.

But the REAL TRUTH about cardio in general is this:

You’re not going to get the best results from slow cardio, fasted or fed. We’ve covered that dozens of times in our TT newsletters here, and you already know to skip it and use interval training or bodyweight exercises instead.

For example, you could try this, the infamous 5 rounds of 5 minutes from the TT Bodyweight Cardio 3 program.

Day 3 – Workout B
• Start with the general bodyweight warm-up circuit
• Do each exercise for 1 minute and then move to the next exercise without rest.
• Rest 1 minute at the end of each round before moving to the next round.

Round #1
• Jumping Jacks
• Bodyweight Squats
• T-Pushups (alternate sides)
• Repeated Vertical Jumps
• Prisoner Lunges

Round #2
• Pushup
• Prisoner Squat
• Squat Thrust
• Duck Under
• Burpee

Round #3
• Seal Jump
• Spiderman Climb
• Get Up
• Side-Step
• Run in Place

Round #4
• Split Shuffle
• Side to Side Jump
• Side Plank (30 seconds per side)
• Total Body Extension
• Run in Place

Round #5
• Seal Jump
• Close-Grip Pushup
• Lateral Lunge
• Mountain Climber
• Side-Step

Get the complete exercise photos and descriptions, along with the rest of the Bodyweight Programs on sale this week only at this special bodyweight workout website.

Burn fat WITHOUT slow boring fasted cardio,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Just say no to slow boring cardio on an empty stomach.

The Truth About Fasted Cardio will be told this week, thanks to some new cardio research from Italy (of all places).

But first, I’m back from Tampa… There for Joel’s b-day, but tough to leave…hanging out with Joel Marion, Vince & Flavia Del Monte, and Roman Fitness Systems was fun and inspiring…can’t wait to train harder, serve you better with greater  workouts, and drive towards the TT Mission of helping 1 Million men and women transform their bodies and lives. All because of the energy and motivation from my friends.

Good times, good people.

Inspired by Vince and Flavia…here’s a photo of me and Flavia…taken by Vince…Vince and Flavia Del Monte are two of the most dedicated and inspirational people in the fitness industry today…now to be frank. I don’t agree with all of their training philosophies, but I’m getting a mental butt kicking by their perseverance.

Click here to listen to the call…

Let’s get started with…

Monday – April 11th

Transformation Tip of the Week – If you want something in life that you aren’t getting now, you have two choices: 1) Change your ways to behaviors that will move you to that goal. 2) Accept that nothing is going to change because you refuse to change…..It’s that simple. Stop dreaming and start doing.

Training Tips

I have a friend using Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 program, and it’s working perfectly for him. If you want to get stronger, you need Jim’s book – and I know a lot of TT readers already have it, but keep spreading the word. Example from my client’s program that is using 5-3-1.

Week 1 – 3 sets of 5
- 5×75    5×80    5×85
- 185    200    215×5

Week 2 – 3 sets of 3
- 80×3    85×3    90×3
- 200×3    215×3    225×3

Week 3 – 1 set of 5, 1 set of 3, 1 set of 1
- 75×5    85×3    95×1
- 185×5    215×3    240

Deload
- 60×5    65×5    70×5

Also, you do a rep max in the final set…so in week 1, in set 3, if you can do more than 5 reps, go for it.

Great program, and I’ll interview Jim Wendler soon.

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

Reference:  Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2011 Feb;21(1):48-54. Exercising fasting or fed to enhance fat loss? Influence of food intake on respiratory ratio and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption after a bout of endurance training.

Researchers from Italy investigated the contrasting reports on whether training in a fasting condition can enhance weight loss by stimulating lipolytic activity.

Subjects were 8 healthy young men who performed early morning slow cardio (36 min of cardiovascular training on treadmill at 65% maximum heart rate) under 2 conditions:

1) Empty stomach
2) After eating

Eating increased both VO2 and RER significantly and 12 hours after the cardio, VO2 was still higher in the eating condition, although RER was significantly lower in the FED test, indicating greater lipid utilization.

The difference was still significant 24 hr after exercise.

The authors conclude that when moderate endurance exercise is done to lose body fat, fasting before exercise does not enhance lipid utilization; rather, physical activity after a light meal is advisable.

BOTTOM LINE:

The truth about fasted cardio is that you do NOT need it.

Use interval training/Turbulence Training instead.

Wednesday Workout Tip – Some tips on pull-ups and chinups from the April 2011 issue of Men’s Health magazine.

Pullup facts
•    Hits the hard to work infraspinitus
•    Squeeze shoulder blades down and back to work lower traps
•    Pull elbows to ribs to hit lats hard
Chins
•    Chest muscles help
•    96% biceps activation
•    Hold top for 2 seconds for biceps

Trainer Thursday – Do 30 minutes of fun activity…

Ran the Gauntlet today at the Powerhouse Gym in Tampa. This gym is addictive. It’s the workout version of all-you-can-eat-buffet. It’s massive, has platforms for heavy lifting, turf for speed drills, KB’s, TRX’s, and an outdoor Gauntlet area…which is where I did Sled drags + Sledgehammer tire smashes, tire flips + MMA dummy carries, and finished with prowler pushes. Great times. Now back to Toronto.

However…there was some bad training in this gym by others…including jumps on a bosu ball, but researchers in Spain discovered that performing total-body movements on an unstable surface doesn’t work your abs harder. In fact, when men did deadlifts on a bosu ball, their core muscles were LESS activated than when they stood on the floor. The reason? When you are unstable, you use less weight and your muscles don’t work as much. How does everyone not know this?

Facebook Friday – I’m doing a lot of QnA sessions over on Facebook at www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com

Question: Craig I’d like to gain muscle but minimize the belly fat for the summer. I’m lean and thin? Any advice?

Answer: Ferruggia’s Muscle Gaining Secrets. You’re not going to get fat overnight, but you’ll stay skinny unless you suck it up and train and eat.

Question from Me: What’s the safe level of Ipod volume for your hearing?

Answer: At the gym this week, a woman’s Ipod was louder than the music from the gym’s stereo, so I looked up safe Ipod volume levels…here’s a study => http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2006/10/19/music-earphones.html ….. and here’s a tip from Apple on setting a MAX volume for your ipod => http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38403?viewlocale=en_US

Great question…please ask yours at: www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com

Social Support Saturday –   30 minutes of fun activity…

“Let me tell you something about YOU. YOU can do anything you want. YOU are in control. YOU can achieve as much success as you want to. YOU can and will pick yourself up when life knocks you down. I BELIEVE IN YOU. Look …if you’re struggling, I’ve been there…and I can tell you first hand that it’ll get better if you keep on trying. I believe in you. Go for it.” – Frank Kern

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

Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2011 Feb;21(1):27-32. Effect of caffeine intake on pain perception during high-intensity exercise. Astorino TA, Terzi MN, Roberson DW, Burnett TR. Dept. of Kinesiology, California State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, CA, USA.

Researchers from California wanted to see what would happen when consumed caffeine and then did a hard workout.

15 active men did workouts of hard leg extensions and leg curls under these conditions:

A)    placebo
B)    2mg/kg (about 150mg = 2 red bull or 1 tall starbucks coffee)
C)    5mg/kg (350mg = 4 red bull or 1 vente starbucks)

no effect (p > .05) of caffeine on pain perception or RPE.

Various measures of muscle function were improved (p < .05) with a 5-mg/kg caffeine dose vs. the other treatments.

In the 5-mg/kg trial, it is plausible that subjects were able to perform better with similar levels of pain perception and exertion.

PERSONALLY…I can train harder with caffeine, and as a result sometimes have extreme muscle soreness…as I did this week after that strongman-style workout at Powerhouse. My forearms were sore for almost 5 days.

Next week!
•    Training Tips – How to avoid injury
•    Research Review – Supplement Research Study Rundown
•    Nutrition – A simple SWITCH to get people to eat better

I just got back from an amazing weekend in Niagara Falls where I celebrated Vince Del Monte’s wedding. It was quite a party, and fitness experts John Romaniello and Joel Marion tried their best to prove that the best cardio for fat loss is dancing.

But I’m not convinced. More about cardio in a second…

First, I just want to mention in this Friday’s email, I’m going to give you the complete rundown on the wedding, including two HUGE life lessons I learned from the Del Monte family, but today I want to talk to you about the best cardio for fat loss.

Why?

Because last Friday night, before heading off to the wedding in
Niagara Falls, I spent 3 hours reviewing your answers to the latest
TT client survey, and boy did I learn a lot about what you need to
help you lose fat.

Surprisingly, MOTIVATION was the #1 request for help, and I’ve got some great articles and audio programs in the works that will help.

The second biggest request was for more nutrition, and I’m working on some free reports and articles that will help you eat right for fat loss.

Finally, the 3rd biggest request was for the best interval/cardio program for fat burning.

Fortunately, I can cover a LOT about this topic in just one article, plus I also have a free interval training report already done for you, so I’ve chosen to start by helping you solve the “best cardio” problem.

Now a lot of people make a big mistake with cardio, and funny enough, this conversation came up over and over again at the wedding on Saturday night.

And this “theme” really makes me roll my eyes and shake my head.

I can’t remember how many times I heard someone say, “Oh, I’m going to have to hit the gym extra hard on Monday to burn this off.”

I find it ridiculous…because first, it’s not healthy thinking, and second, it is not accurate thinking.

Seriously, let’s look at this for a second.

The wedding meal, beginning with the post-ceremony celebratory drink,
right through to the anti-pasta buffet, followed by the main dinner (I had eggplant parmigiana), and then dessert, PLUS the late night sweets spread (the Del Montes know how to host a party!) would EASILY result in over 2400 calories.

And how long would it take you to burn that many calories doing your
average cardio workout?

You’d need to do cardio for just a little less time than it would take you to run a marathon.

So 3 hours for the fittest TT readers, 4-5 hours for the average TT reader, and more than 6-8 hours for beginner TT readers.

Does that sound like a “regular cardio session” to you?

Heck no!

So FORGET the “I’m going to burn off this big meal with cardio” mentality.

It’s WRONG thinking.

Plus, as I’ve mentioned time and time again, research shows that regular cardio doesn’t really help with fat loss.

1) One study showed interval training was better than cardio at burning belly fat (and cut the workout time in half) – more about interval training research here:

=> http://www.TurbuenceTraining.com/intervalreport

2) A second study found that 300 hours of cardio per year helped men lose only 6 pounds (and women lost only 4 pounds). So that’s about 50 hours of cardio per pound of weight lost – at BEST!

(Obesity 15:1496-1512 (2007). Exercise Effect on Weight and Body Fat
in Men and Women. Anne McTiernan*, et al.)

3) A third study found SOME folks start eating MORE when they start a cardio program. These folks end up gaining weight on aerobics.

(Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).

So if long, slow, boring cardio doesn’t work, what’s left for to burn fat?

Well first, I will acknowledge that high-intensity cardio seems to work better. In one study, subjects who burned 400 calories doing high-intensity cardio ended up losing fat while subjects who did only low-intensity cardio did not lose ANY fat at all!

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

But the best way, the fastest way, and the most enjoyable way to burn fat is with interval training.

If you haven’t read my interval training report on how to lose fat with this scientifically proven exercise secret, please go to this website and get your free report:

=> http://www.TurbuenceTraining.com/intervalreport

And soon I’ll be revealing over 31 different interval training methods for fat loss. And it won’t just be sprinting on a treadmill for 1 minute straight. Trust me, there are a lot of unique ways to burn fat with interval training.

In the meantime, FORGET about slow, boring cardio. It is a generally a big waste of time for fat loss. Sure, it’s good for running marathons, but not for busy people who only have 2-3 hours per week to burn fat.

More interval training secrets coming soon!

Stay strong,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS – If you don’t have access to any equipment for intervals…

…you can get started burning fat faster than with traditional slow cardio by using my “Bodyweight Cardio 3″ circuits. You’ll discover muscles you didn’t even know you had with this program!

Click here to try Bodyweight Cardio 3

I challenge you to try the 5-round fat loss program in Workout B and tell me that isn’t 10x’s better than slow cardio.

Hey y’all….if you’re just checking in after a brief break, then you’ve picked the perfect time to catch up!

Over the past week I’ve been sharing with you an interview I did with underground strength and fitness expert, Jason Ferruggia.  If you’ve never heard of Ferruggia, then I highly recommend getting to know him because the training he does with his clients is producing some incredible results – This guy knows his stuff.

And last day was no exception…

Training younger athletes is a very delicate process. You don’t want to push them too hard and risk injury, but you also want to get the most out of them.  So, how can you achieve maximum results with younger athletes?  Check out part 6 and find out.

On tap for today, Ferruggia reveals just how much cardio you should be doing to gain muscle and keep fat at bay.  But that’s not all, if you’re going to be doing cardio, then you want to make sure you’re doing the RIGHT type of cardio.  Get it wrong, and you’re wasting your time….

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

Craig Ballantyne: Now, one question that I wanted to ask that you were talking about a bit before is you make the skinny guys sit out of the conditioning stuff. Guys are always asking how much cardio, how much conditioning should I do if I’m trying to gain muscle?

So, what are your general rules and how does that differ from young guys to older guys, to guys who want to get really jacked and guys who just want to gain a little bit of muscle?

Jason Ferruggia: It’s funny, because now in the internet, YouTube, train like an athlete kind of phase everybody asks me all the time about what kind of conditioning they should do. We never heard of the word conditioning when I was coming up. Looking at bodybuilders in the 80’s there was lifting and there was cardio and no one did conditioning and maybe we’d do cardio.

To gain size and strength you really shouldn’t do any at the beginning if you’re SKINNY, it doesn’t matter what age you are. If you have a fast metabolism, the genetics to keep you lean, and your goal is to gain 30 pounds, you probably shouldn’t do any for at least 12 weeks if that’s your main goal.

If you want to do some, do what [Inaudible] Yates did and get up in the morning and go for a walk. I like to the two opposite ends of the spectrum, the two extremes, either HIGH intensity or really LOW intensity. I think the middle ground stuff is what causes cortisol release, which eats up muscle.

Basically, like I said, I would either have guys just follow Yates’ guidelines and walk OR I would do sprints OR some kind of high intensity method like that.

The in between stuff is NO GOOD.

Someone like me, 25 years old, I do not stay ripped by any means, I do NEED conditioning or I will get fat. So, I would train three days a week and then I would recommend two high intensity sessions. Personally, I prefer sprints above all else, so hill sprints.

The flat ground sprints are the riskiest, because you’re at risk of a hamstring pull, sometimes you’ll even pull a quad if your running form is horrible. Hill sprints really minimize the RISK, because of the angle of your body, so I recommend hill sprints twice a week. If you don’t have a hill near you sprint with a sled or sprint with a prowler.

The jump rope is great, it worked for every boxer in history, it will work for you.

Those are really the two basics.

Then I know people like to get into more of the fun stuff, which we do at the gym too, so if you have access to strong man kind of stuff, medleys like that are great where you take kettlebells and go into the battling ropes from a kettle ball swing, to a battling rope, to a body weight drill, to a sledge hammer swing.

That kind of stuff is great. If you’re going to do that you’ve got to be careful that it doesn’t interfere with your strength training, so that kind of workout might have to replace one of your strength training days. You can do two strength training days, one kind of crazy conditioning, kind of a strength based conditioning day.

For everyone else, like I said, it’s either LOW intensity or HIGH intensity. That middle ground stuff where you just get on the bike and ride pretty hard for 30 or 40 minutes, that kind of stuff I hate. That definitely causes MUSCLE LOSS and cortisol increase.

It’s either interval training or some kind of high intensity stuff or the real low intensity.

If you do the real LOW intensity you’ve got to do it obviously for a LONG TIME, six days a week for 30 to 45 minutes. But, those two won’t cause muscle loss where the other middle range stuff will.

Craig Ballantyne: Very interesting. Excellent stuff.

Now that you have the cardio element figured out, let’s talk exercises, specifically, which are the best for each  body part.  Let’s head to part 8 of the interview and find out.

On Saturday morning I was walking home from the gym when I passed by a young women – about 28 years old – who was talking on her Iphone.

And I heard her say, “I’m going for a walk now to get some exercise because I’m going out for a bad dinner tonight.”

And I just wanted to yell, “No – no – no – no – no! That doesn’t work. It never has, it never will.”

You can’t out-cardio a bad diet.

Every woman I’ve ever met has made this mistake and had that “cardio confessional mindset” at one time or another – and it goes for most of the guys I know, too.

Unfortunately, at best, this poor girl will probably burn an extra 300-500 calories during her walk – if it’s a really, really long walk. But at dinner, she’s likely to eat 400-700 calories during the appetizer or consume that in liquid calories alone!

(NOTE: By “bad dinner”, I’m guessing she meant a high-calorie meal, and not a pity date with a deadbeat ex-boyfriend.)

The bottom line is that a single cardio session will not beat a bad diet.

Now you might be thinking, “At least it’s better than nothing.”

But is it?

Remember, as I’ve mentioned in the past, one British study found that some people OVEREAT in response to cardio exercise.

So when dinner comes around, this poor girl might think, “Oh, I did that long walk today, so I can treat myself to a bigger dinner or dessert.”

The only thing that comes close to beating a bad diet is interval training and resistance training.

Back in 2007, an Australian research study on interval training was getting a LOT of press for the surprising results. In the study, women who did interval training were able to lose belly fat without changing their diet.

In fact, one subject, named Louise, said this:

“My diet was pretty bad back then, with lots of sweets, lots of junk food…doughnuts and sugar — it was awful.”

And yet by the end of this study, interval training helped Louise burn 8kg of fat in just 15 weeks – WITHOUT changing her diet.

Perhaps it IS POSSIBLE for you to out-train a bad diet – but only if you use interval training.

And that’s just another reason Turbulence Training is based on this specific type of fat burning exercise.

So here’s what you need to do:

1) Give up the “Cardio Confessional Mentality” and understand that you can’t “out-cardio a bad diet”.

2) Stick to your simple Turbulence Training lifestyle nutrition plan 90% of the time and then enjoy your 10% reward meals GUILT-FREE.

3) Use interval training to burn the fat and resistance training to sculpt your body.

It’s that simple – a 3-step system for fat loss success that is guaranteed to work every time.

Enjoy guilt-free eating and fat loss with this mindset.

Your friend,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training