This week’s call features weeks 1-4 of TT for Athletes…

But first, let’s talk about all the reasons to be celebrating.

1) Next week is July 1st, Canada Day!

2) Next Sunday is July 4th, Independence Day!

3) Days are getting longer down under. It will be your summer time soon!

And this weekend is Vince Del Monte’s weddings. I’ll try and get some photos of the happy couple.

Click here to listen to this week’s celebration call

Now let’s get into this week’s TT workouts and tips…

Monday – June 28th

Transformation Tip of the Week:

“Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.”
Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

And now let’s look at a rare workout…

Turbulence Training for Athletes – Weeks 1-4: Workout A

• Strength train 3 days per week.
• Do interval training 3 days per week.
• Take one full day off from training each week.
• Take an extra day off (day 4 or 6) if you need more time off.

Workout A

1A) Deadlift – 3×8
1B) Chest Press – 3×8

2A) 1-Leg Squat – 3×6
2B) Back Extension – 3×12

3A) Prisoner Squat (25)
3B) Walking Lunge (15 per side)
3C) Inchworm (8)
3D) Elbow-to-Instep Lunge (8 per side)
3E) 1-Leg RDL (10 per side)

(Do 2-3 rounds of this circuit)

Tuesday

Interval training or 30-minutes of fun activity…now our research review:

Reference:
Obesity. The Effect of Physical Activity on 18-Month Weight Change in Overweight Adults. Jakicic, J, et al.

278 overweight adults were put into one of three groups for 18 months.

Group A did 150 minutes per week of low-intensity exercise.

Group B did 300 minutes per week of low-intensity exercise.

Group C was left on their own.

No diet advice was given to anyone.

Results: After 18 months, there was little weight loss in any group. When researchers looked at everyone individually, they found that anyone who had success also happened to improve their eating behavior.

This is another study that proves you can’t out-exercises a bad diet. At least not with 5 hours of low-intensity exercise.

Wednesday

Bodyweight strength training time. NOTE: I’ve updated the workout from the one in the manual to reflect what I’ve learned in the last 4 years…

TT for Athletes: Workout B

1A) Chinup (2xMax Reps minus 1) – means go one rep short of failure
1B) Dips (2xMax Reps minus 1)

2A) Jumping Jacks (100)
2B) Ab Wheel or Pike (8)
2C) Cross-Body Mountain Climber (12 per side)
2D) Inverted Row (12)
2E) Close-Grip Pushups (15)
2F) Stability Ball Jackknife (15)

Thursday – July 1st – Happy Canada Day

In the TT for Athletes program, you’ll use aerobic interval training, where you do a 2 minute interval at a pace you can maintain for 8-10 minutes. Rest 2 minutes and repeat up to 6 times.

Friday

TT for Athletes: Workout C

1A) Squat – 3×8
1B) DB Row – 3×8

2A) Y-Squat (20)
2B) Multi-Directional Lunge (12/side)
2c) Spiderman Pushup (12/side)
2D) Bulgarian Split Squat (15/side)
2E) 1-Leg Stability Ball Leg Curl (12/side)
2F) Burpees (10)

Social Support Saturday

I always like to cover a social support tip in this part of the call, so let’s talk about a related research study from the journal, Diabetes Education (36: 465, 2010). Authors, Dodani, S., and Fields JZ.

In Kansas City, they applied a program called “Fit Body and Soul” in a church. They had 4 ministers lead a group of 40 churchgoers on a Diabetes Prevention Program.

Only 35 members attended 10/12 sessions. Of those 35, seventeen lost 5% of their weight, while 14% lost over 10% of their weight.

This is a positive step showing that groups, such as churches, can help folks lose weight.

Sunday – Plan, Shop, and Prepare

One more study to review…this time, more proof that fruit helps weight loss.

Reference:

Nutrition. 26: 727-734, 2010.

The food diaries of 77 overweight dieters were studied. Results showed that the more fruit a person ate, the less they weighed. Plus, as a person increased their fruit intake, they lost weight.

This is the complete OPPOSITE of the bodybuilding myth that fruit makes you fat. That belief is ridiculous.

So remember these 3 shocking words for weight loss:

Eat MORE fruit!

Until next week,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Author, Turbulence Training & Simple Nutrition

You’re about to discover 3 interval training mistakes…but first, I hope you had a great weekend. I was lucky to be in NYC, where it was hot and humid, but also buzzing with energy as usual.

On Sunday, I walked over 200 blocks…so about 10 miles. From Central Park down to Union Square and back, and then I had a nap.

After that, I walked north over to Columbia University and then to Riverside Park and back to Central Park. Riverside is a hidden gem.

Earlier Sunday I had brunch at Serafina, ordering the risotto primevera with extra vegetables, along with lots of bread and a profiterole for dessert that fueled my travels.

On the way back to my hotel after brunch, we saw the legendary Michael J. Fox doing a photo shoot – with a large Great Dane dog – on 5th avenue in front of the Pierre Hotel.

Fox is a Canadian icon, and a inspiration to us all. Here’s one of his great quotes I found online:

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.”
Michael J. Fox

I hope he is doing well.

In addition to my Sunday walk, I did a workout on Saturday at an Equinox gym near Columbus Circle and Central Park.

I trained with a former US army soldier…and we had a bodyweight exercise battle. He taught me some new bodyweight exercises, and I showed him a couple. My abs & triceps were sore on Sunday from a bodyweight triceps move I did.

On Monday I’m off to Jersey to lift some heavy weights at the Renegade Gym with Jason Ferruggia, and on Tuesday we’re going to do a sprint workout.

We’ll be doing interval training right, but most people make these 3 mistakes with their interval workouts:

1) They work too hard during the recovery period.

It’s called a “recovery” period for a reason! So don’t worry about “keeping your heart rate up”. Interval training is NOT cardio. It is a totally different method of training. So give up the cardio mindset and get to love your recovery.

2) As a result of working too hard in the recovery portion, most people don’t work hard enough during the work period.

However, it is that hard, intense work that causes the body to change. So make sure you are doing QUALITY training.

3) Most people never changing their interval training workouts.

You should be using a variety of work-to-rest interval durations AND a variety of training methods. Also, be sure to keep track of your results so you discover what works best for you.

Interval training is the key to fat loss. And you need to do it right.

That’s why I put together this new free report for you on interval training – for both beginners and advanced TT users.

Grab it here to learn the latest on interval training for fat loss:

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

You’ll discover what research has shown to be the BEST interval training method for fat loss, PLUS five unique ways to do intervals.

Your friend and coach,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training & “Just Say NO to Cardio”

PS – Please forward that link…

…and share the interval training report with as many people as possible so that we can show the world how to lose fat fast without slow, boring, cardio.

Today, I want to share an old interview with you that I did with my
friend Tom Venuto way back in 2003 or 2004. Tom is the author of the
“Burn the Fat” that shows you how to burn fat & build muscle at the same time.

The interview covers his thoughts on interval training and cardio training, and I couldn’t agree more with his advice about “experimenting on yourself” to find what works best for you.

CB: Most of my articles and interviews on my sites promote interval training. However, traditional “cardio” has worked for people I know (mostly young guys). In your opinion, how does traditional cardio compare to interval training? What are the pro’s and con’s of each?

Tom Venuto:
Well, I would agree with what Ian King wrote in one of his Q & A columns:

“As to whether you respond best to higher intensity interval training (HIIT) or lower intensity steady state training will depend a lot on you. You should try both (not concurrently) and compare.”

You simply have to experiment. Test and discover for yourself what works best. How do you know what works best if you don’t test it and measure the results? I don’t create my own program based on what the latest research says or what the popular trend is.

I look at the research and pay attention to what’s going on at the “cutting edge,” but I don’t live and breathe by it. I do what produces results, period.

There’s no doubt interval training is highly effective and supported with research. A great benefit of interval training for many people is time efficiency. Another is that it is mentally and physically engaging. Long duration cardio can bore some people to tears.

My personal preference for my own fat loss cardio training is to work at the highest heart rate I can comfortably maintain for the entire duration of the workout, 20-30 minutes.

During pre-contest preparation, I often increase – in a progressive fashion – to as much as 30-45 minutes, so my program to this day is primarily conventional cardio.

I occasionally add in interval training more for variety than anything. I do like stair and hill sprinting though, and have done that for years. Oddly enough, I never really considered it “cardio” – I looked at it more as an adjunct to my leg workouts, although I’m sure I reaped some fat loss benefits from it.

We’ve all seen the research that compares low intensity, long duration cardio to HIIT, and we’ve seen the superiority of HIIT, but I’d like to see some research comparing, let’s say, 20 minutes of HIIT with 30-45 minutes of challenging steady cardio at the top of your target heart zone.

I find this type of cardio extremely effective and I imagine there’s a pretty substantial post workout afterburn in addition to the very large burn of fat calories during the workout.

It’s nice to know, though, that you CAN get a productive workout in just 20 minutes or less with HIIT.

Regardless of whether we’re talking about interval training or conventional cardio, you want to burn as many calories as you can given the time you have.

I definitely don’t believe in the idea that low intensity cardio burns more total fat. That myth has clearly been debunked by the research, even though it still persists.

Naturally, beginners and de-conditioned people need to build some kind of fitness base before doing the really high intensity stuff.

HIIT can be risky for certain people. Simple conventional cardio like walking is fantastic for the elderly and overweight, although cardio shouldn’t take precedence over weight training in any population.

CB: Tom, thank you so much for your suggestions.

***********

Even though this interview is at least 6 years old, Tom’s advice is still as effective now as it was then.

Now take that info and start experimenting on yourself to see what works.

That is winning advice,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Books I read this weekend on planes & during my travels to and from San Diego (America’s friendliest city):

“The Alchemist” by Paolo Coelho, “Linchpin” by Seth Godin (essential reading for any business owner or employee who wants to become indispensable), and Re-Work (another book for business owners & employees who want more productivity). Also read latest Wired and Fast Company magazines (highly recommend both).

Have a great day!

Hi folks…we took a bit of a break from the Abs Q and A, but there’s no better way to jump back in than by dissecting cardio and interval training.  So today, I’m going to take you inside my fat loss obsessive personality and reveal how it has helped me discover one very under the radar method for losing fat fast. Let’s go…

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

Is it better for me to cut back on cardio and focus on ab specific training or up the intensity of my cardio? I currently do one hour a day of steady state or light interval cardio.

Well, some of these questions were pulled from my blog and I guess this may not have been a long time reader, first time blog commenter, because obviously I would tell this person that one hour a day of steady state training is NOT THE BEST USE of your time.

We want to get into that interval training.

That’s obviously a basic answer, so what’s new in interval training? What can I talk about?

First of all, what I’ve certainly found in the last few months since I discovered the research study on this is that the shuttle type interval sprints are just awesome. They’re really effective, and they’re harder than regular sprints.

So, going back to the origin of this story, what I found while studying one of my research journals, and I do this every Sunday night generally, because I get this huge list of email alerts about the hottest new studies that have come out, so you’ve got like 100 or a 150 studies and I comb through them. Then I’ll pick the best and review them during the week.

What I found was this interval training study done on professional soccer players.

What they compared was straight line sprinting VERSUS doing the classic shuttle run or suicide type sprinting drill that so many athletes do in their practices. I’m sure you’ve seen them or done them back in your day. They were surprised to find that the shuttle run led to a greater cardiovascular and work response, so all that changing in direction made it harder than just running in a straight line.

You’ve seen me apply these shuttles to my Turbulence Training Adrenaline program, I think it was also in the transformation program. Getting these shuttles in there, and I’m playing around with it myself in my own workouts, I think has been a big boost to my interval training effectiveness. 

The second thing that’s kind of new in interval training is I’ve really started to dissect the interval training research coming out of Australia, more so than I think anybody else has done, because I’ve never come across any other personal trainer or fitness expert talking about this in their interval training articles.

What the guys from Australia reported is kind of confusing, but they first reported that doing the eight second sprint and twelve second recovery led to a greater increase in the hormone adrenalin, scientifically called epinephrine in your body.

The hormone adrenalin actually stimulates fat burning.

What they found by doing the eight second sprint and twelve second rest that you increase the adrenalin in the body more and you increase your fat burning. That’s the exact regimen, the eight seconds on, twelve seconds off, repeated as many times as possible for 20 minutes, so I guess they would have done that 60 times, because you go through that cycle three times in a minute.

They did 60 times on specially designed bikes in the research study and what they found was this is the one where they compared the interval training against slow cardio for fat loss and they found that ONLY the interval training group got results.

Now, here’s another thing that most people, I would say 99 percent of trainers, if not 99.9 percent of trainers don’t know about, because again, I’m the only person who has done this research, I’ve spent hours on the internet tracking down this researcher and all the media he had gotten. He had been interviewed mostly by Australian newspapers, but a little bit of American media as well.

What I found was they did NOT change the DIET of the subjects in this interval training study.

So, I read one other fitness expert and he was kind of trashing the results of this study saying, “They only lost five pounds in 12 or 15 weeks on this interval training, so how good can it be?” But, here’s the thing….

There was no change in diet.

One subject was even quoted in one of these media articles that she was eating doughnuts and sugar and all this stuff, her diet was terrible she said, and she lost, I believe eight kilos in 12 to 15 weeks. I can’t remember, I think the study was actually 15 weeks.

So, this woman actually was ABLE TO OUT TRAIN a bad diet with interval training with this eight on twelve off interval training method.

Very interesting results, very interesting report from this woman. So, I know that these researchers are doing more studies on interval training and it’s going to be very interesting to see what kind of results they’re going to get when they control the diet as well…

Just imagine if a woman can eat doughnuts and sugar and lose eight kilos in 15 weeks simply by doing 20 minutes of interval training three times per week. That is going to be a huge BOOST for interval training in fat loss and popularity.

The weird thing is as I was studying this group out of Australia, and I believe they’re from the University of New South Wales and the gentlemen who conducted these studies is Doctor Steve Boucher. I think he was a Doctor, he’s sometimes mentioned as Professor, but generally these guys are also Doctors, whether they have a PHD or medical doctorate.

There was another study that he was involved with and what they found was there was actually in this study they compared eight seconds on, twelve seconds off against 24 seconds on, 36 seconds off. So, instead of doing the cycle three times in one minute they just did 24 seconds of all out intensity and then rested for 36 seconds. But, they did the same workout, I think it was 20 minutes.

What they found was the 24 seconds worked just as well as the eight seconds, so you could either do eight seconds on twelve seconds off three times in a minute and do that for 20 minutes or you could 24 seconds on 36 seconds off and 20 times in this interval training. That’s what they worked their way up to. There was no difference in the increase in adrenalin from either one of those interval training methods.

So, it looks like from this other study that they did that you don’t need to do eight seconds twelve seconds off, which is good, because it’s almost IMPRACTICAL to do that on any type of machine. Now, it’s also pretty impractical to do it for 24 seconds as well, unfortunately.

I know, because I was doing interval training this weekend when I was down in Washington at this really nice hotel called the Gaylord Hotel, that’s where the seminar was in Washington Harbor Area. It’s a very new part of Washington, so if you’re ever down there it’s a very nice place to visit. You can walk around the water and there are shops.

Anyway, I was doing the interval training and what I would do is I would run for a minute and then I would immediately step off the treadmill and take the intensity down.

What I found was it takes 20 seconds to increase the intensity and about 15 to 20 seconds to decrease the intensity. Then you can basically walk on the treadmill for 20 seconds and then you have to turn it back up if you want to limit yourself to no more than a minute recovery.

So, it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to do 24 seconds on 36 seconds off on any type of machine.

If you’re thinking, “What about if you just increase the revolutions on something like an elliptical or a bike.” Well, that’s not how these studies are done. These studies are done with these people doing interval training against a resistance, so the resistance comes down automatically on these special bikes that they have so they don’t need to change the intensity through a machine or have it gradually increase.

Again, you’re probably left with if you really want to get scientific and you want to do 24 seconds sprint, 36 seconds recovery you’re probably limited to doing that running according to your stopwatch and then slowing down immediately to a walk.

I suppose if we combined those studies all together doing shuttle run interval training for 24 seconds and then resting for 36 may be the MOST EFFECTIVE way of interval training. That is what the research suggest to me, although obviously they haven’t proven that.

Often people ask me, “What’s the best interval training?” I used to say, “Everything seems to work, there’s no research, there’s definitely no comparisons.” That was the first time I’ve seen any type of interval training compared. Now, is eight seconds on twelve seconds off compared against 24 seconds on 36 seconds off, and they didn’t do a long term weight loss study, they only did a one session to see what the adrenalin response was.

So, very interesting stuff there, certainly some stuff to think about for your interval training. However, if you are a beginner all of that stuff is probably way too advanced. All we simply want to do is get you working at a slightly harder than normal cardio pace. Eventually, we’ll get you up to some more advanced interval training.

You’re going to lose fat, you’re going to be able to do interval training with less soreness in your muscles and in your joints, and you’re going to lose belly fat faster with the interval training. So, very interesting stuff there.

Going back, that obviously is a really long answer to that question for the person about what’s the best way to do their cardio training. But, the best way is simply to get rid of the cardio training, get into that interval training.

Again, if you are a beginner, just slow and steady, then increase. Start with one minute walking at 10 percent harder than your normal walking speed, and then decrease it down.

The other thing I want to mention is that so many people make the MISTAKE in interval training of working too hard during the recovery.

I hear from people all the time, they say, “I run my intervals at seven and then I do my recovery at five point five.” I hear all the time when I post my intervals, I was running my intervals at 11 miles per hour with a one percent grade for a minute, and then I go all the way down to three point five miles per hour for recovery and I walk. People were really surprised on Facebook the other day when I was posting that, but that is how you do interval training.

It’s called recovery and rest interval for a reason….

When people are doing seven miles per hour as their work and five miles per hour as their recovery, in my opinion they are doing cardiovascular training, they’re not doing interval training.

Even when you properly do what’s called aerobic interval training, which is what marathon runners do to increase their oxygen capacity even more so than anaerobic interval training, which is shorter sprints, they still do two minutes at a hard pace and then they recover completely for two minutes by what’s called passive recovery at moving at a very slow pace.

In fact, research shows that this passive recovery, the very, very light exercise helps you recover, because it removes the waste products from the muscles that are working. Gets into the bloodstream, takes it to the liver so it can be all returned to normal.

So, if you don’t recover your interval training is going to suffer. You’re not going to be able to work as hard as possible, you’re not going to pump up that adrenalin, and you’re not going to get the same fat burning effect.

It’s a complete mindset shift from regular cardiovascular training, complete mindset shift. It couldn’t be any more opposite from interval training unless it was a bench press, because cardio mentality engrained over the years is, “Got to keep the heart rate up, got to keep the heart rate up.”…

NO, you don’t.

In fact, none of anything changing your body, none of Turbulence Training has anything to do with heart rate. It’s interesting to know how high your heart rate goes up in interval training, how low it recovers, but…

…Heart rate DOES NOT dictate fat loss.

That one kind of needs to sink in on people, but just because you have your heart rate elevated for a certain amount of time doesn’t mean you’re going to lose fat, as all these cardiovascular studies have shown where the results have been disappointing.

It’s not about heart rate. It’s about the EFFORT and the QUALITY that you put into the training and the INTENSITY that then changes the hormone profile, decreasing the insulin, making you more insulin sensitive, increasing the adrenalin immediately after training and during training so that fat burning occurs, and possibly, because it’s such a debatable subject, increasing the metabolism for hours, or 24 hours after training, or 36 hours after training, like some studies suggest.

Again, heart rate does not impact and dictate fat loss. I should say heart rate does not dictate fat loss. Certainly you could say that it impacts it, but it doesn’t impact it directly. Heart rate has no direct effect on fat loss is what I’m saying. That one always gets me all worked up.

If you’re always wondering which ab exercises are the best at getting chiseled abs, then head on over to part 4 where I share simple tips and tricks you can start doing today.

In this week’s fat loss guide, you’ll get 10 interval training workouts from TT readers…plus a kettlebell workout,  some fat loss motivation, and the truth about measuring your body fat.

But first, a fat loss reality:

Everything you do either takes you closer to or further from your goals. Just remember that in everything you do this week.  I first heard this from Alwyn Cosgrove, and it’s so simple, yet so true.

Click here to listen to the call…

And now, our fat loss tips.

Monday – March 15th

Transformation Tip of the Week:
Everything we do has consequences…if we eat that pizza…if we decide to skip a workout…as my friend Simon Black said to me…”Bear in mind the single universal law of causality… there will be consequences from your actions, and you must be prepared to accept them.”

INTERVAL TRAINING

What have I been doing?

1) Adrenaline sprints – see the TT Adrenaline program for more details
2) Kettlebells – I just bought a 44lb, so now I have a 35, 44, 53, and 70
3) Treadmill intervals – Last workout was 6 intervals at 10.8mph (60s with 60s rest)

And now here are 10 of your favorite interval training workouts as posted on the TT Facebook Fanpage.

1. Sprints on the treadmill. 5 mins at 1min on 1min off.. 9.8 for the sprint then 3.8 for the rest
2. Bodyweight cardio TT style
3. 20-yard shuttles… throw five of them back-to-back for 100 yard total.
4. 30 on 30 off doing kettlebell swings, and tabata training for 4 minute rounds with the kettlebell or any other chosen exercise
5. Burpee pyramid.
6. 5-meter Interval shuttle runs
7. Stadiums- simple and effective. Motivating to see how many sections in front of me and how many I’ve completed
8. Prowler sled
9. We live on a hill, at the bottom of a dead-end. At least once a week we’ll do a dozen or so 50 yard uphill sprints. If I’m feeling frisky I’ll do Litvinov intervals: 30 heavy kettlebell swings, then the uphill sprint. You won’t see a dozen Litvinov’s however.
10. 1/4 mile sprints….90 seconds off in between.

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

Reference:
Obes Res Clin Pract. 3(4):209, 2009. Assessing Body Fat Changes during Moderate Weight Loss with Anthropometry and Bioelectrical Impedance.

Researchers from Vanderbilt U studied the best way to measure body fat, including testing Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA). If you have a body fat scale at home, it uses BIA…and this study is bad news for that scale.

• Fat mass changes were assessed in 34 overweight adults (24 females, 10 males) after a 12-week supervised weight loss induced by caloric restriction (-30% of requirement) using BIA and DXA.
• Diet intervention resulted in a significant decrease in body weight (- 7.86 +/- 2.87 kg), body mass index (BMI – 2.69 +/- 0.98 kg/m(2)), total body fat (- 5.22 +/- 2.32 kg), truncal fat (- 2.80 +/- 1.94 kg) and waist circumference (- 5.52 +/- 3.57 cm).
• Compared to DXA, BIA underestimated total body fat changes in males (- 8.8 kg, p<0.001) and overestimated total body fat changes in females (+ 2.1 kg, p< 0.001).
• Body mass index, body weight, and waist circumference provide simple and more accurate than BIA estimates of relative changes in total and truncal fat during moderate weight loss in adults.

You’ll notice the diet caused a lot of lean body mass loss, since there was no resistance training.

Bottom line:
The body fat analyzers you use at home are inaccurate. Wildly inaccurate.

Wednesday

First tip: Here’s how to double the number of bodyweight exercise you know:

For many exercises, including legs, pushing and pulling exercises, 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.) It makes any exercise harder.

Second tip: Some new exercise substitutions

What can you use to replace the deadlift?

Answer:
The only direct replacement is a dumbbell squat.

Otherwise, just replace with any lower body exercise paired with a row.

For example, do a barbell lunge and DB row.

Or pair a Stability Ball Leg Curl + DB Row.

Q: What exercises can I use to replace lunges if I have knee soreness?

Answer:
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)
Single-leg Hip Extensions (Used in the TT Bodyweight 4-week program)
Lying Hip Extensions with your feet on the ball
Lying Stability Ball Leg Curls (Used in the TT for Fat Loss program)

And remember, always talk to your doctor about the best possible exercise selection to help reduce your knee pain.

Thursday
Do 30 minutes of fun activity and then understand that the basics are what work the best…

You see, everyday I get so many weird/extreme/complex/technical fat loss questions…and the thing is, I don’t know anything about what you just asked me, but I just don’t see how it would change what you need to do.

To lose fat, you must:
Eat fewer calories than you need, avoid processed foods, do intervals, and resistance training.

That’s pretty much it. What could possibly change?

Friday

Here’s a list of kettlebell exercises I did last Saturday…

35lb 2-Hand Swing
35lb 1-Hand Swing
35lb 1-Hand Snatch
35lb 1-Hand C&P
53lb 2-Hand Swing
53lb 1-Hand Swing
53lb 1-Hand Snatch
53lb 1-Hand C&P

Click here for more info on Kettlebell Workouts

Social Support Saturday!
30 minutes of fun activity…

Research show that for 75% of people their biggest regrets in life are the things they didn’t do in life…not the things they did.

So…”Go to the effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Do it. The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.”
Max Lucado

Sunday
Plan, Shop & Prepare and do 30 minutes activity.

Earlier this week I wrote about whole grains and fat loss and I’ve found some gluten free, wheat free noodles…the brand is “King Soba” and the ingredients are:

1) brown rice + millet

2) brown rice + Wakame (a sea vegetable)

But I still think that all whole-grains are decent, as long as they are high fiber.

According to research from Penn State University, replacing processed carbs with whole grains will help you lose belly fat (probably by lowering insulin levels – insulin is a hormone that stores fat).

For most people, they simply need to worry about losing body fat and getting under 20 or 25% fat. So eating more whole grains will help.

Next week!
TT Workout – TT 2K10
Weekly Research Review – Hormone & Resistance Training Study
Nutrition – How to avoid night-time binges