If you are searching a better way of living, a life that doesn't
depend on
chemicals - literally, drugs! - to keep you awake and
motivated, if you are
tired of being tired, then being wired, and
then being tired again, then set
the coffee cup down, step away
from the supersized Diet Cokes, and turn to
holistic living.
There are better, healthier ways to achieve higher levels of
physical and
mental energy.
Here are ways to get more energy, naturally.
1) Exercise
It doesn't matter what time you exercise, just be consistent. Fit
it in
based on your schedule and personality. If you have to do it
first thing when
you wake up, just do it. Don't even let yourself
think about it. Just get
started.
A lot of people think too much about their plan. That's why
Turbulence Training works for so many people...they don't have to think, they just follow
the workouts and get done fast.
Focus on intense strength training for 20 minutes followed by a
brief
interval training session to boost your metabolism all day
long.
Exercise is a drug. Like caffeine and nicotine, exercise causes the release
of many chemicals into your blood, resulting in mental stimulation and an
improved sense of overall well-being. Exercise just makes you feel good.
2) Eat smaller, more frequent meals.
Skip the cycle of starving and feasting characterized by no
breakfast, a
high-carbohydrate lunch, and a huge dinner. Instead, eat breakfast and then
continue to eat every 3 hours for the rest of the day.
Research shows that a high-fiber breakfast helps control appetite and
increases mental alertness all morning, and improves your ability to process
information.
Do not skip breakfast and rely on a coffee to get you through the
day. You can get up 10 minutes earlier to have a
protein shake, some almonds, and an apple.
3) Eat only whole, natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables,
organic
proteins, raw nuts (not roasted in oil), Green Tea, water.
Trying to run on processed foods is a recipe for an energetic
disaster.
Stick to whole, natural foods during the day, snacking
rather than binging on
big meals, and you'll never feel like dozing off.
If a food is from a bag or a box, it doesn't deserve a place in
your
nutrition plan. Avoid all added sugars.
Bonus Tip!)
Take mini-breaks during the day to work on your mobility.
Work environments zap our 'energy'. From poor posture, to
eye-strain from
computer screens, your office, cubicle, and car
seat will suck the life out
of you.
Daily exercise breaks are essential to not only boost energy,
but
mobility. Each day, as your computer sucks you into its visual
vortex,
your upper body becomes rounded forward and tense. You need to reverse that
movement. Here's how...
Stickup
Stand with your back to the wall and feet about 4 inches from the
wall. Place the back of your arms against the wall with upper arms parallel to
floor and forearms at 90 degrees. Stick up your arms over head while keeping
your arm against the wall at all times. Slowly return to below the starting
position tucking your elbows into your sides and bringing shoulder blades
together. Repeat for 12 reps. Do this every 60-90 minutes.
In addition, get outside into natural light whenever possible.
For a complete exercise and nutrition plan to help you burn fat,
sculpt
your body, and give you all-day energy, get started with
Turbulence Training
today!
Showing posts with label exercise routine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise routine. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Did You Know Ab Workouts Slow Fat Loss?
Not only are most traditional ab workouts a waste of time, but they also slow
your fat loss efforts. Each workout you spend crunching takes time away from
more effective fat loss methods - such as interval training.
That's right, the common man's and woman's ab workout taken from Shape magazine or Muscle'n'Fitness often hurts their fat loss program more than it helps it.
Instead, focus on exercises that build a 6-pack AND burn a lot of calories at the same time. That's why I'm a big fan of making EVERY exercise an ab exercise (by bracing the abs in every movement), as well as using total body ab exercises (such as Mountain Climbers, the Spiderman Lunge/Climb, and the Stability Ball Jackknife).
These exercises use far more muscle mass than a traditional crunch. In fact, some of the total body ab exercises are "interval-like" in nature, helping to put more metabolic turbulence on the body, and as you know, that's what burns calories during AND after the workout.
Now of course you know that you can't spot reduce the fat on your body - so doing an endless number of crunches not only does little for you in terms of losing fat, it also wastes your time in your quest for a 6-pack.
Here are a couple of strategies to maximize your workout time when your goal is to get lean, and get down to a low-enough body fat percentage to see your abs in as little workout time as possible:
A) First, simply cut back on your ab training - If your goal is to
simply lose fat, gain a little muscle, and just look as good
possible, then you can't spend 30 minutes on abs everyday. You can build your 6-pack by doing less than 30 minutes of ab exercise per week.
B) Second, replace your crunches with the total body ab exercises I mentioned earlier. Also, if you have access to a cable machine, you can do weighted ab exercises such as kneeling cable crunches.
C) And finally, if you are doing intervals for fat loss as I
recommend, you can use the following approach to increase the
difficulty of your ab and interval training. However, this is an
advanced method only.
During your interval workout, perform an ab exercise during your active recovery period. For example, if you are doing running intervals on a treadmill...
Run for 60 seconds at your work interval speed. Immediately stop the treadmill, get off, and go into a set of 20 Mountain Climbers. Climb back on the treadmill and start it up for your next interval. Repeat for 3-6 intervals.
You can also use basic spinal stabilization "ab exercises" such as
the plank, side plank, or advanced plank versions (i.e. plank with your arms on the ball) to train your spinal stabilization while under heavy breathing stress.
Remember: Always train safe, with good form, and be conservative. Don't try to be a hero in the gym, but you should safely challenge yourself in each workout.
Stick to the Turbulence Training if you don't know where to start.
That's right, the common man's and woman's ab workout taken from Shape magazine or Muscle'n'Fitness often hurts their fat loss program more than it helps it.
Instead, focus on exercises that build a 6-pack AND burn a lot of calories at the same time. That's why I'm a big fan of making EVERY exercise an ab exercise (by bracing the abs in every movement), as well as using total body ab exercises (such as Mountain Climbers, the Spiderman Lunge/Climb, and the Stability Ball Jackknife).
These exercises use far more muscle mass than a traditional crunch. In fact, some of the total body ab exercises are "interval-like" in nature, helping to put more metabolic turbulence on the body, and as you know, that's what burns calories during AND after the workout.
Now of course you know that you can't spot reduce the fat on your body - so doing an endless number of crunches not only does little for you in terms of losing fat, it also wastes your time in your quest for a 6-pack.
Here are a couple of strategies to maximize your workout time when your goal is to get lean, and get down to a low-enough body fat percentage to see your abs in as little workout time as possible:
A) First, simply cut back on your ab training - If your goal is to
simply lose fat, gain a little muscle, and just look as good
possible, then you can't spend 30 minutes on abs everyday. You can build your 6-pack by doing less than 30 minutes of ab exercise per week.
B) Second, replace your crunches with the total body ab exercises I mentioned earlier. Also, if you have access to a cable machine, you can do weighted ab exercises such as kneeling cable crunches.
C) And finally, if you are doing intervals for fat loss as I
recommend, you can use the following approach to increase the
difficulty of your ab and interval training. However, this is an
advanced method only.
During your interval workout, perform an ab exercise during your active recovery period. For example, if you are doing running intervals on a treadmill...
Run for 60 seconds at your work interval speed. Immediately stop the treadmill, get off, and go into a set of 20 Mountain Climbers. Climb back on the treadmill and start it up for your next interval. Repeat for 3-6 intervals.
You can also use basic spinal stabilization "ab exercises" such as
the plank, side plank, or advanced plank versions (i.e. plank with your arms on the ball) to train your spinal stabilization while under heavy breathing stress.
Remember: Always train safe, with good form, and be conservative. Don't try to be a hero in the gym, but you should safely challenge yourself in each workout.
Stick to the Turbulence Training if you don't know where to start.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Fat Burning Exercise Tips for Busy Parents & Professionals
The great thing about strength training and intervals for fat burning is "efficiency". Because you are working harder, the signal to your body to change is stronger. You cut time when you increase intensity and you burn fat faster.
Now don't worry, I won't be asking you to do hill sprints tomorrow if you aren't exercising today. For a beginner, we just do some slightly faster than normal walking intervals. For intermediate fitness levels, we'll pick up the pace about 20% compared to their normal cardio levels, but again, the work periods are much shorter.
The key is, you must shift to a slightly higher intensity in order to cut time from your workout. But the workout also goes faster, and much more importantly, you will get more results and better fitness from these methods.
It's easy to do these workouts first thing in the AM, at lunch, or after the kids go to bed. Plus, you can get a great workout at home with only a bench, dumbells, and an exercise ball. You don't need fancy machines or an expensive gym membership.
And another bonus, you only need three hard fat burning workouts per week. You don't have to be in the gym six days per week.
On your off days, it's important to stay active for at least 30 minutes, but these days should be unstructured and revolve around being active with your family or hobbies. Don't think of them as workout days, think of them as fat burning, stress reducing activity days.
Now don't worry, I won't be asking you to do hill sprints tomorrow if you aren't exercising today. For a beginner, we just do some slightly faster than normal walking intervals. For intermediate fitness levels, we'll pick up the pace about 20% compared to their normal cardio levels, but again, the work periods are much shorter.
The key is, you must shift to a slightly higher intensity in order to cut time from your workout. But the workout also goes faster, and much more importantly, you will get more results and better fitness from these methods.
It's easy to do these workouts first thing in the AM, at lunch, or after the kids go to bed. Plus, you can get a great workout at home with only a bench, dumbells, and an exercise ball. You don't need fancy machines or an expensive gym membership.
And another bonus, you only need three hard fat burning workouts per week. You don't have to be in the gym six days per week.
On your off days, it's important to stay active for at least 30 minutes, but these days should be unstructured and revolve around being active with your family or hobbies. Don't think of them as workout days, think of them as fat burning, stress reducing activity days.
How to Gain Muscle & Lose Fat
Are you ready for the famous "gain muscle or lose fat" chart?
I know this is going to make a few people mad, but it's the truth about whether a guy should lose fat or gain muscle. If he doesn't stick to my recommendations, he won't get the ripped abs and muscles he wants.
I often get scrawny guys asking me how to lose fat, when they have no muscle underneath the fat...they think they will look good if they "get ripped", but in reality, will look like they are starving. They should focus on gaining muscle instead.
This is a harsh lesson in reality, but too many guys are trying to lose weight when the focus should be on gaining muscle.
In fact, through my experience in working with athletes and dozens of men in the gym trying to lose fat and gain muscle, I've come up with a height-weight chart that determines whether or not you should lose weight.
Here's the chart identifying the cut-off weight for muscle building, and the rule below.
5'6" - 140 pounds
5'7" - 145 pounds
5'8" - 150 pounds
5'9" - 155 pounds
5'10 - 160 pounds
And so on. For every inch taller, add 5 pounds. For every inch shorter, subtract 5 pounds.
For example, if you are 5'8", 150 pounds, you should NOT be focusing on losing weight. You need to gain muscle if you want to look good on the beach and have muscle. Focusing on weight loss would be the worst thing you could do. If you do, you'll look like crap, and practically anorexic, to be blunt.
Instead, you must focus on gaining muscle. This will improve the appearance of your body, and take you from a stick-figure to a lean, muscular physique with a better chance of seeing your abs.
And don't worry, you're not going to look huge. At 5'8", a guy would have to be at least 180 in order to be considered "jacked" or "huge".
And the best news of all? Because skinny guys are untrained, simply starting a muscle building program will give them maximum fat loss and muscle gain at the same time. They are going to get the best of both worlds.
To use Turbulence Training to gain muscle and lose fat, simply stick to the weight training workouts only. Avoid the hard interval cardio for at least 4 weeks as you gain muscle, and eat extra calories right after your workout (as well as having a bigger breakfast than normal). These two changes will
allow you to gain muscle and lose fat.
I know this is going to make a few people mad, but it's the truth about whether a guy should lose fat or gain muscle. If he doesn't stick to my recommendations, he won't get the ripped abs and muscles he wants.
I often get scrawny guys asking me how to lose fat, when they have no muscle underneath the fat...they think they will look good if they "get ripped", but in reality, will look like they are starving. They should focus on gaining muscle instead.
This is a harsh lesson in reality, but too many guys are trying to lose weight when the focus should be on gaining muscle.
In fact, through my experience in working with athletes and dozens of men in the gym trying to lose fat and gain muscle, I've come up with a height-weight chart that determines whether or not you should lose weight.
Here's the chart identifying the cut-off weight for muscle building, and the rule below.
5'6" - 140 pounds
5'7" - 145 pounds
5'8" - 150 pounds
5'9" - 155 pounds
5'10 - 160 pounds
And so on. For every inch taller, add 5 pounds. For every inch shorter, subtract 5 pounds.
For example, if you are 5'8", 150 pounds, you should NOT be focusing on losing weight. You need to gain muscle if you want to look good on the beach and have muscle. Focusing on weight loss would be the worst thing you could do. If you do, you'll look like crap, and practically anorexic, to be blunt.
Instead, you must focus on gaining muscle. This will improve the appearance of your body, and take you from a stick-figure to a lean, muscular physique with a better chance of seeing your abs.
And don't worry, you're not going to look huge. At 5'8", a guy would have to be at least 180 in order to be considered "jacked" or "huge".
And the best news of all? Because skinny guys are untrained, simply starting a muscle building program will give them maximum fat loss and muscle gain at the same time. They are going to get the best of both worlds.
To use Turbulence Training to gain muscle and lose fat, simply stick to the weight training workouts only. Avoid the hard interval cardio for at least 4 weeks as you gain muscle, and eat extra calories right after your workout (as well as having a bigger breakfast than normal). These two changes will
allow you to gain muscle and lose fat.
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