Situps and Steady pace Cardio - The route for minimum results!

It never amazes me when at the gym, how many times I see the 2 exercises above being performed. The "situp" and the "steady Treadmill run".

Quite often, people will go from the treadmill to some situps and then home! To them, that is their workout done!

"The Situp"
Yesterday at the gym, I saw some overweight men, huffing and puffing on the treadmill, who then moved to the matted area and wrenched out a few variations of the situp. Each repetition looked strained and performance wise, would have been ineffective.
Let me state here and now, Situps WILL NOT REMOVE BELLY FAT .... period! If you're doing situps in an attempt to lose that belly, then I'm afraid you're fighting a losing battle. It takes 3,500kcals to rid just 1 pound of fat, how many calories do you honestly think some situps will burn?!

Agreed, to a degree, situps or crunches will be strengthening the muscles, but if there is a huge layer of fat overlaying them, it's pretty pointless.

If you have say a stone or more to lose, and you're hoping situps will rid that tummy, think again, no matter how many you do.
You will be better off performing BIG exercises, like the Squat, Pressups, Pullups, Deadlifts etc. Learn the correct form and each of these exercises will burn more calories, use more muscles, and work your core at the same time.

"The Treadmill"
Again, if the treadmill is your choice of exercise for Fat Loss, then you need to re-think your workouts.
Sure the occasional run is fine if you enjoy it, but if you are doing multiple runs a week to try and lose weight, there are so many better routes to take.

If you are just going to run for say 30mins, sure you will burn some calories, maybe around 400kcals, but that will be all, after you finish your heart rate returns, and you've burnt off 3-400 kcals...wow! A sandwich or latte later, and you've re-instated those calories.

However, if you were to perform say 15-20mins of interval training, combining a period of intense running, backed with a period of recovery (even walking) you will burn a greater number of calories, both during the workout, and for up to 36 hours later, because of your EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.

When performing strenuous exercise, your body has to process oxygen throughout the body at a much higher rate, resulting in your metabolism being highly elevated, and your body working overtime to replenish energy stores, rid by-products which have been produced, and generally return the body back to a "recovered state." This system requires calories to work, and therefore your body will be burning those additional calories for hours after your workout.

Throw in some full body resistance or bodyweight exercises after your intervals, and you have 'ramped up' your body and it's metabolic state, big time! You will leave the gym knowing you've worked out!
Compare this to a laboured run on the treadmill, and 2 strained sets of 15 on the ab cradle or situps, and hopefully you can now see the benefit!

As I aways relay, exercise and results is about INTENSITY. Only with INTENSITY, and a clean diet, and commitment, will you get worthwhile results.

What excess weight are you carrying?

The other day I was talking with one of my PT clients, as we were setting his goals for this year. His target was to lose a stone, and at that stage he asked, "What does a pound of fat feel/look like?!"

I said, "Let's forget a pound, let's look at the bigger targets!" and picked up a 7kg dumbbell.

"There you go, that's about a stone of FAT!"

Now, to those of you that workout, you will know that a 7kg Dumbbell is quite a weight! Imagine that as excess FAT that you're carrying. Imagine even further if you're targets are 2, 3 or 4 stones of fat?!

That is quite an extra load you are carrying around, and your joints have to support.

For your interest, the picture top left is what just 1 pound of fat looks like, and the picture at the top right, is just 5 pounds of FAT. Pretty gruesome, and quite a size, when you think what most people are looking to, or need to drop.

Start eating sensibly, workout regularly and with intensity, and you will drop fat.

Who wants Fat like the above in their body?

Everyone wants abs, a flat stomach, shapely arms and legs, but without shedding the fat you won't see, or get those results.

Make the choice, make the effort, and make the change.

A touch of humour to lighten your day!

Laughter, and comedy are great stress relievers, and should be integrated into your week to relieve stress, lighten the workload, and to lift your spirits and positive attitudes.

I received the below via email, I hope some of them make you laugh!

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to E spresso.

5. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

6. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

7. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.

8. Sing Along At The Opera.

9. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.

10. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'

11. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards theParking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'

12. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'
And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity -

13. Pick up a box of condoms in the pharmacy, go to the counter, and ask where the fitting rooms are.

Gym Users - Don't waste your valuable time and money!

To people using gym's or planning on joining a gym - "read this post to ensure you don't waste your time, money and effort!"

Most of the equipment you will find at the gym, and most likely are inducted on, are a waste of time, and will get you minimal results.

Let's forget the X-trainer, stepper etc for now, I'm talking about the 'fixed range of motion' gym kit/machines that take up most of the gym floor space. Born in the 70's and primarily designed for Bodybuilders, these pieces of kit will do nothing to shape your body, and assist you in losing body fat.

Take the machine in the picture above for example, the shoulder press. Firstly you are sat down, so all the muscles from your hips down are switched off - already you are using less muscles and calories than you could be. Secondly, as you push the handles up, to work the "shoulder muscles", the arms will only move in 1 fixed, plane of motion.

Therefore, every time you use this machine, you will use the same group of muscles, in the same fixed movement.
Swap this to an everyday functional movement, such as lifting a box up or down from a top shelf - that box isn't going to move straight up and down is it?

The load will shift, it might wobble to the left or right, it might even start to topple backwards, but because you have trained your shoulder and tricep muscles to work straight up and down, you will not be in a strong position to correct the imbalance, and re-adjust to push that box up, or bring it down safely. Basically, you are not working additional muscles such as you core, and assistor muscles to the primary moving muscles.
It is just not a functional movement.

On the other hand, if you perform a kettlebell, dumbell, or sandbag overhead press, it will NOT move in a straight line, it WILL be more challenging, and therefore will use more muscles, will burn more calories, and fat, and will shape your body in a quicker time compared to static, fixed range machines.

I would go as far as to say 80% of the machines in gyms are a waste of time. Click here to see my video, and comments on the machines at my gym!

This evening while training one of my PT clients at the gym, I saw an induction being carried out, and every exercise the instructor gave them was on a static gym machine. The Chest Press, the shoulder press, leg press, leg extension..... the useless list went on!

Get people carrying and supporting their bodyweight when exercising, get them moving and using multiple muscles and calories, get them moving in a functional way that will help them in their daily lives, but will also get them results, in a reasonable time frame.

Use bodyweight exercises, cable machines, dumbells, barbells, sandbags, kettlebells etc, all external resistance which will move erratically and challenge the body further.
If you want further ideas for workouts, and places to talk about exercises, workouts and nutrition, come and join my Fat Loss and Fitness Solutions forum, it's free, as is the information, and my aim is to help you get your results!

No wonder, so many people give up early when joining a gym, they don't see results, they lose motivation, they lose interest, and most of this is because of such inductions and exercises.

Signup below for my 'controversial' list of Exercises that WORK and DON'T WORK at the gym!

Then feel free to comment about what you have seen and read, or your thoughts?!!

The Fat Loss Secret for Success!

The post below is taken from Craig Ballentyne's Turbulence Training Blog. If you read it, digest it, and keep it at the forefront of your thoughts, you can succeed at anything!

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"You want the secret to fat loss?

Well, you're not going to like it.

It has nothing to do with Green Tea, acai berry gummy berry juice, or the Master Cleanse.

Instead, the secret to fat loss is a state of mind. Once you're in it, you can't fail.

So here it is...

"Once you accept how HARD it is to lose fat, then it becomes easy."

Do you understand what I mean?
It's like saving money.
Once you understand and accept how much discipline is required to save money then it's easy, and becomes 2nd nature to do so. You understand the difficulty but just do it automatically.

It's the same with fat loss.
Once you understand that you must...

- Plan, shop, and prepare your meals in advance...
- Do three high-intensity workouts per week...
- Keep yourself active on off days and keep your butt off the couch for at least 30 minutes...
- Develop rituals that help you avoid night-time eating...
- Take time to set goals and to plan solutions for every obstacle that gets in your way each week...

Only then will fat loss become 2nd nature to you, so much so, that you couldn't get fat if you tried!
Seriously, once you "get it", you literally couldn't get fat if you tried, because your mind is on autopilot to stop you from binge eating or from skipping workouts.

So work on that...apply that secret mindset and you'll succeed.
You'll lose as much body fat as you want.

Heck, you can apply this to any aspect of your life and you'll experience success beyond your wildest dreams.

If only you accept the reality of the situation.

The secret doesn't come in a pill, potion, or powder"
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I would just add that anything that you want to achieve needs to be one of the most forefront of you thoughts. If you are thinking about the task, and have planned for it, then you are prepared for any obstacle that may occur. This doesn't just have to be fat loss again, but any task you have set for yourself. When you 'buy into the whole package', as talked about in this previous post of mine, you are fully focussed on the task at hand, and there should be nothing but a successful outcome. It's again the old favourite of "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail"!

Set the goal / Accept the task / Plan for obstacles and solutions / Follow the goal / Success!

Madonna - good or bad body at 50?

In the paper at the weekend was an article with Tracy Anderson, Personal Trainer to Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebrities. Some of the quotes pulled from there were, about Madonna, "I want to keep her body looking like it's 20 years old ".

Now, I know a lot of people actually dislike Madonna's body! Fair play to her for exercising regularly, but when veins start popping out of arms, well, I haven't seen that on a 20 year old! Author Fay Weldon put's it as "Madonna does not have the body of a 20 yr old. She has the body of a 50yr old who is well-exercised and half-starved!"

"Using her training system, The Method, Anderson uses low weight (only up to 3 pounds) but high reps - 60 for most people, but 100 for Madonna. She exercises with Madonna for 2 hours per day, 6 times a week".
- COME ON! Up to 3lb weights?! How is that challening? Though the fact she probably eats so little, could make that challenging?! What is 3lb going to do for anyone?! And 2 hours a day?! No wonder, the weights have to be so light!
Do yourself a favaour, lift heavy/challenging weights, keeping reps under 12, keep workouts under 50mins, and 3-4 times a week is more than enough! I have a client who is 51, and I've trained for 5 years now. She has a much better look to her body than Madonna! We will often Deadlift 45kg, DB Press 15kg DB's, 25 full pressups, Bodyweight rows etc. She would have words to say if I handed her a pair of 1kg weights!

"When Anderson first met Paltrow and Madonna, they were horrified by her junk food diet. I had gotten cocky about the fitness programme I designed and I was eating 4 cupcakes a day, cheeseburgers, dunking Oreo's in processed icing. But I had such a serious sweet tooth, and because I got such good results from my fitness regime I could get away with it!"

- No, you probably have a high metabolism from exercising regularly, which generally means you can get away with eating a few extra cheat meals, but come on?! Food and calories are what put weight on. Either you did that junk food diet for about 2 days or you weren't telling us how much weight you gained during that time, because you would have put it on!

The lives of celebreties are there for us to read about! To follow, or emulate their lives would be wrong, and not very practical!

For us 'normal' folk;

Write down your specific goals, and the date you want to achieve them by.

Reduce wheat, dairy, sugar and alcohol in your daily diet.

Eat more fresh meat and fish, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit.

Exercise 2-4 times a week, incorporating challenging weights, and short, sharp, interval training.

You will then see good results...I can't promise a 20 year old body, but I can promise a body you will be proud to show off!

What do you think?! Does Madonna have a good body at 50 or not?! Feel free to comment!

Are you a "Can DO!" or a "I Can't Do That?" person?!

Recently I've had a few comments from people finding it hard to stick to the specifics of my MRPT nutrition plan. With the plan, you eliminate wheat, dairy, caffeine for 4 weeks, and eat natural, wholesome foods. In return, you can lose a dress size, drop a considerable amount of fat, have a flatter stomach, and more energy and vitality.

Sounds good doesn't it?! I won't deny it, It is challenging to stick to, because you are breaking your 'usual routine.' Normally you would probably eat cereal and toast for breakfast, a few coffees during the day, a sandwich at lunchtime, then maybe some pasta in the evening. That is a lot of wheat and dairy that you are consuming, which you need to eliminate! Therefore, change will be tough!

But, if it was easy, everyone would look great, there would be no obesity issues, and everyone would have the body they are after! And that, is what separates the;

"Can's" from the "Can'ts"

the "I CAN DO THIS", from the "Oh, I can't do that",

the "Look what I HAVE DONE", from the "I'm NOT happy with how I feel or look".

Look at it as a challenge. Everybody wants to achieve, and everyone feels fantastic when they do conquer, or achieve something. So be strong, be focused, be committed, and DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF, STARTING TODAY! You won't regret it.