It's The Intensity, Stupid!

Too many people continue to think that exercising longer is automatically better. No so. It depends on your goals.

If you're training for a marathon, of course, you'll need to do some long training runs. However, if your primary goal is dumping fat and getting in shape, the intensity of your workouts is more important than the duration.

Numerous studies have shown high intensity exercise, especially cardio intervals, are more beneficial for fat loss than low or moderate exercise.

When strength training, concentrate on compound exercises, ditch the straight sets for supersets, lower your rest periods and make sure the weights you use are challenging.

All that said, remember, intensity is relative. Don't kill yourself when you're starting out but as your fitness level increases, you'll need to up the intensity level, too.

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Are You Working Hard Enough?

I recently participated in a health fair and a woman who was familiar with my gym approached. Her first question was, "Do you have TVs in the cardio area yet?" I really wanted to say, "If you can watch TV or read a magazine while doing cardio you're not working hard enough" but I bit my tongue.

If people would stop reading or watching TV while they're doing cardio and CHALLENGE themselves, they'd get far better results and be done in a fraction of the time.

Cardio intervals - that's the way to go.

I ran across this fake sign in an email the other day. I love it.

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Get The Most Out Of Your Cardio Intervals

I'm on vacation with limited internet access and this is only the second time I've been able to check my email. I just found out that Craig Ballantyne is having a half-price sale on his 31 Interval Training Workouts program.

If you've read this blog more than once, you know I'm a proponent of interval training. It takes less time and is more effective than slow, boring cardio.

I'm glad to see that intervals are becoming more mainstream but, unfortunately, that also means there's a lot of misinformation out there. While away, I've been reading a few fitness magazines and while some of their programs would be considered interval training because you don't maintain a steady space, I don't think the way they've designed the programs is optimum.

Did you know there's a right and wrong way to do intervals for best results? Did you know that even if you're already doing intervals you need to change it up regularly so your body doesn't adapt?

If you're interested in varied and effective interval programs, check out Craig's 31 Interval Training Workouts.

Craig knows his stuff; he's not some Johnny-come-lately jumping on the interval bandwagon. He's got all kinds of interval workouts in the program, including kettelebell intervals, hill sprint workouts, ladders, and lots more. No equipment? No problem. Craig includes no-equipment bodyweight cardio circuits.

Whether you're new to intervals and looking for guidance or you're a veteran exerciser looking for variety in your interval workouts, check out Craig's 31 Interval Training Workouts.

The sale ends tomorrow (Friday) at midnight.

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Get The Most From Your Cardio Training

If fat loss is your goal, steady state cardio should not be your primary form of exercise. Below is a link to an excellent free report from Craig Ballantyne about the benefits of interval training, how to do it correctly, and 5 unique methods.

You can get it at Free Interval Training Report

Walking Is Great Exercise- Another Myth Exploded

In an effort to get a sedentary public moving, magazines, doctors and others often recommend walking as exercise. Walking doesn't cost anything, most everyone can do it and it has a low risk of injury. Too bad it doesn't do much.

As reported in the June 2009 edition of The Physician and Sports Medicine, walking alone does not result in enough physiologic stress to be considered a significantly beneficial exercise.

Our bodies need to be challenged. They adapt to the stress you apply to them. That's why if you're lifting the same weights or running the same 2 miles in the same amount of time that you were a month ago, you are actually getting less benefit (and burning fewer calories). As your body gets stronger and more fit, you need to increase the challenge.

Walking is not the be-all end-all exercise that so many tout it to be. In fact, according to research, people who continually walk as exercise typically lose 4 to 6 pounds of lean muscle mass. That's really bad!

Less muscle means less strength; less strength means everyday life is harder than it needs to be. Many of the characteristics associated with old age are actually the result of loss of strength due to the lack of strength training, which results in loss of muscle.

Regular walkers also experience a reduction in their resting metabolism of 2 to 3 % each decade.

The loss of lean muscle and the metabolic slowdown in walkers are close to those found in completely sedentary individuals. This means that if walking is the most physically demanding stress an individual experiences, there is not enough of a physiologic challenge for the body to positively adapt. In other words, no results.

As we age, without the right type of regular exercise, we experience musculoskeletal and metabolic deterioration. To offset that process you need to work at a level that stimulates the body to improve.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't walk. Some individuals use walking as a stress release, to plan their day, to brainstorm or to think through problems. I think walking can be a great activity on your off-days (along with riding bike, recreational sports, dancing, etc.). Just make sure to incorporate 3 days a week of challenging exercise including strength training and cardio intervals or metabolic resistance circuits.

(If you're a competitive power walker please don't leave a nasty comment or send me an irate email. Obviously, that's not the type of walking the researchers are talking about.)
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5 Simple Fat Loss Guidelines

There is still time to get in better shape for swimsuit season. Use these 5 simple fat loss guidelines. Keep in mind I said simple; that doesn't necessarily mean easy.

1. Good Nutrition. I say it (and write it) over and over. You can't out-train a bad diet. Just accept it.

Eat as much non-processed food as possible. Focus on fruits, vegetables and lean meats. Keep your carb intake lower (especially refined carbs). Ditch the liquid calories; drink water instead.

Make sure you have a caloric deficit. Learn proper portion sizes. Although harder, it is possible to overeat good foods.

The best and healthiest way to create a caloric deficit is through a combination of both diet and exercise.

2. The Right Type of Exercise. Contrary to popular misconception, steady state cardio is not the best exercise for fat loss.

Cardio: Cardio intervals and bodyweight circuit training will give you far more bang for your buck than long bouts of steady state cardio.

Research shows that even hundreds of hours of cardio per year barely make a dent in your belly fat. Replace the cardio with 20 minutes of interval training done at the end of your fat loss workout. Interval training has beat slow cardio workouts in a head to head study for burning belly fat.

Plus, that study tested only 20 minutes of interval training compared to 40 minutes of slow cardio, so you can cut your workout time in half! ~~~Craig Ballantyne

Strength training: Stick to total body strength workouts concentrating on compound exercises; they are not only more functional but will burn more calories. If your goal is fat loss, leave body part split routines to the bodybuilders.

Total-body, integrated movements are more effective for boosting metabolism than exercises that train one muscle group... so get rid of most isolation exercises! You get a lot more out of a squat than you do from a biceps curl! I refer to total body exercises as “big bang” movements... capitalize on them! ~~~Sarah Rippel

3. Be Active 6 Days a Week.

If you combine strength and cardio intervals on the same day, get 30 minutes of activity on your "off" days - anything that won't interfere with muscle recovery. Go for a bike ride, play with your kids, go for a walk, play some tennis, etc. Or, do strength training one day and intervals the next.

4. Mental Attitude.

You must make a commitment to lifelong change and believe in your ability to achieve your goals. Until you believe that you CAN change, it will never happen.

Allowing a constant loop of negative self talk to run through your head will derail you in no time. You cannot beat yourself up over ever little slip; don't turn every minor misstep into major failure.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. ~~~Thomas Jefferson

5. Consistency

It's not about dieting strictly for a day or a week or a month; it's about eating nutritiously 90% of the time for the rest of your life. It's not about working out for 3 hours in one day; it's about being active 30-60 minutes most days of the week.

Strive for progress not perfection. You are not going to eat perfectly at every meal or never miss a workout. If you screw up, just start again.

If you cheat: get right back on track. A lot of people think after cheating- I've blown it- so I might as well REALLY blow it! Let me ask you- if you get a flat tire do you get out of your car and slash the other three? Hey, you have a flat tire- might as well have four, right? ~~~Alwyn Cosgrove

5 Reasons Why The Term "Cardio" Is Lame

5 Reasons Why the Term "Cardio" is Lame
by Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

"Cardio" is the "Economic Stimulus Bill" of the fitness world. You can put your hopes in it, but generally it isn't going to do anything for you, and it will just waste your time and resources.

Most people don't realize that there was "life before cardio". People used to exercise outdoors. They participated in sports. They played games - outside! - with their family and friends. They used their feet or bicycles for transportation (rather than driving 15 minutes to the gym to go do "cardio").

So here are the top 5 reasons why I think the term "cardio" is lame.

1) People hate doing cardio.

Have you ever met a person who smiled when they said, "Oh, I have to go do cardio now." (That's not the same as the excitement an endurance athlete gets when they go "training". That's different from "cardio". Endurance athletes don't call their workouts, "cardio".)

NOTE:
So if you are a runner, and you love to run, and you tell me (with a smile), "I'm going out for a run", then that's cool by me. Nothing wrong with that. But if don't like to run, and you tell me (with a pout), "I'm going out for a run because I have to get my cardio", then I say, "Boooooo to that". Life's to short to hate your workouts!

2) People mistakenly believe that 30 minutes of half-assed cardio (which is what most people do) will help them lose weight.

But it won't. It just wastes their time. People are obsessed with the calorie counters on machines. I truly believe this is how folks get hooked and obsessive compulsive with cardio...because all they can think about is how many calories they have burned, and how much food that means they can eat.

"Cardio" does not promote healthy relationships with food.

3) People think you have to "cardio" (i.e. go to a gym and exercise on a machine that doesn't go anywhere) for 30 minutes in order to be healthy.

You don't have to do "cardio" to be healthy. There is so much more to health than 30 minutes of "cardio". Your diet is more important for your cardiovascular health than your exercise regime. Plus, as long as you're active each day (doing manual labor, "cardio", playing sports, or lifting weights), you're doing enough to meet the minimum required amount of exercise for cardiovascular health.

4) People think "cardio" will help them with sports performance or their short, burst fitness (like climbing stairs).

It rarely does.

In fact, the guy who does "cardio" in preparation for his basketball, soccer, hockey, or Ultimate Frisbee league is going to be sorely disappointed by how slow he is - and by how he lacks sports-specific fitness as much as all the guys who just lifted weights all off-season. Plus, doing traditional "machine cardio" does not prepare you for sports-specific movements or speed of movement, so you're just as likely - if not more likely - to get injured during the early season.

5) It signifies a waste of time, inefficiency, and a sheep-like mentality towards doing something just because everyone else is doing it.

Seriously, if you were from another planet and you came down to earth and went into a big commercial gym and look at the "cardio" section, pardon me, the "cardio theater" section, you'd smile to yourself and say, "wow, this planet is going to e easy pickens".

"Cardio" is also lame because people use cardio as a time to catch up on their magazine reading and TV watching (and now Internet and email time). That about says it all. Workout time is not multi-task time.

So what should you be doing instead if you want to sculpt your body, burn fat, lose your belly, and get lean before summer?

You should skip the "cardio" (let's not ever use that phrase again) and focus on total-body, multi-muscle resistance training and interval training exercises to help you build "everyday" strength and fitness (like the ability to carry groceries or children, or climb 3 flights of stairs as fast as possible).

Plus, with these total body workouts, you'll save time and get more health benefits than you will with straight "cardio". (Sorry to use that term again.)

Helping you get more results while saving time and money,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS - If you want the best, fastest, and most effective fat burning workouts that you can do at home...

...(without the indignity of driving to a gym to use a sweaty, disgusting "cardio" machine), then grab your copy of Turbulence Training for Fat Loss.

Click here for a $4.95 Trial Offer of Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

Top 10 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Workouts

It’s January and that means lots of people are starting a new exercise program in an attempt to lose weight. Here are a few tips to make your workouts more productive.

1. Your results will be in proportion to your exercise intensity. You do not have to spend hours exercising. In fact, if you can, you’re not working hard enough. Your weights are too light while lifting, your speed is too slow while doing cardio or both. Don’t try to kill yourself the first day but you will need to challenge your body to get fat loss results.

2. Stop spending hours in the cardio area. If you are doing 30, 40, or even 60 minutes of steady state cardio in an attempt to lose weight, stop. Walking, running or hopping on the elliptical or stationary bike for extended periods of time will not get you the body you want. Cardio intervals or bodyweight circuits are more effective alternatives.

3. Make sure you are weight training. Don’t be fooled by magazine articles and uninformed sources who tell you that cardio is the key to weight loss. It is not. To learn more, check out "The Hierarchy of Fat Loss" by Alwyn Cosgrove or get Craig Ballantyne's "The Dark Side of Cardio" report at TurbulenceTraining.com. (Watch for the drop down screen.)

4. Get a professionally designed strength training program. Picking exercises willy-nilly because they look fun or because you think they’ll work a certain area, won’t get you far. To avoid injury and get maximum benefits, you need a balanced program that works opposing muscle group evenly. Invest in a couple of personal training sessions or check out program recommendations on the right hand side of the screen.

5. Concentrate on compound movements. Squats, Pulldowns, Presses, Lunges, Pushups, Kettlebell Swings, Rows, Deadlifts, Pullups, etc. are far superior to Leg Extensions, Bicep Curls and Tricep Kickbacks. Compound exercises are more time efficient and burn more calories because they work multiple muscles at one time.

6. Step away from the machines. Although I often incorporate one or two machines in the workouts I design, the bulk of my programs focus on exercises where you support your own body weight. Free weight and body weight exercises place a greater demand on your muscles to stabilize, control and balance your body and the weight you’re lifting, forcing you to work harder and get better results.

7. Record your workouts. Studies have shown that people who track their training sessions- exercises performed, weight used, repetitions completed, etc.- make better progress. Tracking your workouts will also help you...

8. Always try to improve upon your previous workout performance. Our bodies quickly adapt to the physical stresses we place upon them. Strive to do a little better each workout. Try to increase the weight you use or to perform more reps (always with good form, of course) or do your cardio intervals a little faster or with more resistance.

9. Change your workout routine every 4-6 weeks. Because of adaptation, you should change your exercise routine regularly. However, I personally don’t recommend switching exercises too often. If you don’t stick to a routine for a few weeks, you probably will not get the full benefit from it.

10. Clean up your nutrition. Eliminate as much processed foods as possible (anything that comes in a bag or box). Focus on eating a variety of fresh, unprocessed foods. You can’t out-train a bad diet.

Oprah, Get With The Program!

Yesterday, I promised to critique Oprah's current exercise program (or at least the parts she mentioned on her show on Monday).

The Good:

* Oprah said she is doing more strength training than previously. Yes!

* She also said that she's cut back on her cardio (to 20 minutes, I think). If I remember correctly, a few years ago she had worked up to an hour a day so this is definitely a step in the right direction.

* Although she didn't mention intervals, Oprah performs her cardio at a decent pace. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't see her reading a magazine while she exercises.


The Bad:

* Oprah demonstrated some of her strength training exercises. She did exercise after exercise, one right after the other with the same weight, which didn't look real challenging for any of them. I realize that she might not work out that way - it may have just been to demonstrate some moves for the camera- but I doubt it. Ladies, stop wasting time with light weights and lots of reps. If you want to reshape your body, you need to challenge it.

* Even though there was a short article in her magazine a few months back praising cardio interval training, I don't think she's doing it. Even if you're working hard, your body will adapt to doing the same time on the same machines at the same pace, etc.


The Worst

* The worst aspect for me was when she mentioned that she works one or two body parts a day. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Oprah, you are not a bodybuilder. Your goals right now are dropping body fat and overall health. You should be doing three non-consecutive total body strength training workouts a week, concentrating on compound exercises. Big movements, that work multiple muscles will burn more calories and get you out of the gym quicker. With your schedule, you need efficient, effective workouts not time wasters.


If you live in the Lancaster, PA area and have the same goals as Oprah and want to get maximum results for minimum time, call me at (717) 509-7777. If you aren't in my area, check out Craig Ballantyne's Ultimate Turbulence Training Fat Loss Solution which I blogged about below. If you grab it before midnight tonight, you'll still get all the terrific bonuses.

Mickey

Do You Want A "Bargain" or Do You Want Results?

I've written about this before but considering the phone calls I've received in the last week or so, it obviously needs repeating.

Your el cheapo gym membership is no bargain if you are not getting results.

Call #1 came from a woman who's been faithfully attending her discount gym but seeing no results. She had received no direction and they have no personal trainers.

I designed a program for her. She's been amazed at how much faster and more challenging her workouts are now. Instead of wasting hours on the cardio equipment, she's doing far more productive but shorter workouts.

Call #2 was from a woman who's been attending the same cut rate gym as #1 for a year and a half and isn't happy with her results. There's no one there who can give her knowledgeable advice so she'll be coming in to speak with me.

Previously, I had worked with the husband of a Body & Soul member because his entire "orientation" to his new gym (the same one as above) consisted of some pathetic group machine demonstration.

Yes, it's come to the point where some of these gyms don't even give newbies a basic circuit workout and make sure they're set up with the proper seat positions. People are basically on their own.

As someone who has worked in this field for 13 years and really cares about people getting fit, this kind of "service" really ticks me off. I think most of those new to exercise would expect to get at least a minimal level of instruction when they join a gym. I believe that's reasonable.

On the other hand, I don't cut the same slack to those who are previous exercisers. You should be asking what kind of new member orientation the facility offers.

Will you get an individualized routine? If not, will you get taken through some basic workout that incorporates all the major muscles of the body? If it's a circuit workout, will you be properly set up on each piece of equipment by a knowledgeable staff member? Will you get a workout card listing your exercises, seat positions on machines, starting weights, etc.?

If you base your decision on which gym is the cheapest, don't be surprised if you don't get the results you want.

Now, if you're a fitness junkie who is really knowledgeable about exercise and knows the real experts from the pretty boy/girl just out to make a quick buck, that type of gym may be fine for you. That description, of course, doesn't apply to most people.

So, is the cut-rate gym really a bargain ...

* if you spend hour after hour at the gym when you don't have too? What's more valuable than time?

* if you don't get results?

* if you injure yourself due to lack of instruction?

Remember, you get what you pay for.

How To Get The Most From Your Interval Training, Part 2

If you've visited No Pink Dumbbells before, you know I'm a big fan of challenging strength training and cardio intervals for fat loss.

The other day, I wrote about a member whose intensity was not high enough during the hard portion of her intervals. On Sunday, I ran into kind of the opposite scenario.

One of my male clients, who I only see once every month or so for a new workout routine, mentioned that his performance really falls off by his 3rd or 4th interval. As we discussed it more, it was obvious why- he was not performing the recovery portion of the intervals correctly.

I see this often on internet forums. Someone reports that they run at 8.5 mph for 30 seconds or a minute and they "recover" at 5.5 or 6.0 mph. Wrong.

It's called recovery for a reason.

If you are running, recovery should be a walk, probably no faster than 3.5 mph. If you are walking fast during the challenging section of the interval, slow down significantly for the easy part. If you're using a stationary bike, lower your resistance. You should be ready for your next interval when it's time to go hard again.

The challenging part of the interval should feel like an 8 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10; recovery should feel like a 3.

If you don't allow your body to recover properly, you will not be able to push yourself as much and you will not get the best results from your session.

For a more thorough description of how to perform cardio intervals correctly, go here.

Hate Mail

Craig Ballantyne, creator of Turbulence Training, recently found the following threatening post on his TT members website:

Dear Craig:

I am the spokescell for Dan's fat cells. We hate you. We knew we were in trouble when Dan woke up at 4:30AM on a SUNDAY!

He did workout 1 from Hardcore Fat Loss, and we are hurting. For starters, the triple press was difficult, although we really enjoyed when our enemies, the muscle fibers, were screaming bloody murder, that made us feel good. But then, doing 20 deadlifts, we couldn't hear the muscles screaming over the shrieks of pain from my fellow fat cells.

We thought it was over, but then Dan decided to do a 4x6 3-minute arms circuit. Jeez. We know he's not in the NBA, nor does he yet deserve to be, but he was giving it his all to be among those elite TT-ers.

Finally, the intervals...oh those intervals. No treadmill for Dan today...oh noooooo...he did 30/60 intervals using burpees for the intervals. While we hate that infernal treadmill, that was the worst thing we've ever gone through.

Craig Ballantyne, we fat cells hate you. Since we are falling off of Dan's body, we are going to band together, come up to Canada and picket you wherever you go. We're sure there are many of us who have been looking for new jobs since you came around, so we will band together and make your life difficult.

We miss playing w/ Dan's kids when they would poke us and call him "Squishy".

We HATE you, Craig. We're meltingggggg!

W/ much hate.

-Dan's fat cells



There's a lot of serious fat loss going on with the TT members but there's always time for fun on the forum.

If you're interested in having your fat cells threaten Craig Ballantyne, check out www.TurbulenceTraining.com
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How To Get The Most From Your Interval Training

Yesterday, a member told me she planned to do 12 intervals on the treadmill. I usually follow Craig Ballantyne's recommendation of 6 intervals although, occasionally, I'll do a couple more. But 12? No way. I told my member that if she was capable of doing 12 intervals, she wasn't working hard enough.

The member explained that she wanted to increase the number of intervals because her previous session didn't feel like a good enough workout. That time, she ran at 5.5 mph for 35 seconds and and recovered for 85 seconds at 3.7 mph. I told her to slow her recovery speed down to 3.5 but to increase the challenging part to at least 6.0.

Later she reported that she ended up completing 8 intervals - running at 6.3 mph and recovering at 3.5 mph. There's no way she could have made it through 12 intervals at that intensity.

If you're thinking that you'd keel over trying to do that workout, it doesn't matter. The great thing about cardio intervals is that the intensity is relative to the individual exerciser. There are people for whom that workout would be far too easy and others who will never be able to work at that level.

It's about challenging yourself, not about competing with someone else.

If you're new to the concept of intervals, here's how to get started:

After a 5-10 minute warmup, increase the intensity to a level that’s higher than what you normally do. As you get acclimated to this method of training, you want the hard part of the interval to rank about 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. (If you're using a stationary bike, increase the resistance rather than pedaling wildly. Try to stay around 80-100 rpm.)

Maintain that level for 1 minute and then lower the intensity to about 3 out of 10 and recover for 1 minute.

If after a minute, you don’t feel prepared to increase the intensity again, simply extend your recovery time. You can do 60 seconds hard paired with 60, 90 or 120 seconds recovery. As you progress, you can increase your intensity even more and perform 30 seconds hard and then recover. Personally, I found that 30 seconds easy is not long enough for adequate recovery at that intensity so I use a 60 or 90 second recovery time on those. Listen to your body.

There are no magic intervals lengths; I simply chose those above because they are easier to keep track of when using equipment. If you're doing a high intensity training session, I recommend keeping the challenging part of the interval to 1 minute or less. Going for 2 minutes or more during the hard part is considered aerobic intervals.

One interval consists of the intense portion plus the recovery time.

Try this at your next workout: Warm up, perform 4 or 5 intervals, then cool down. If you are going to do this type of workout on a day when you strength train, always do it after lifting. Change interval times and equipment regularly. Work up to 6 intervals total per session and do not do more than 3 (4, if you're an advanced exerciser) interval workouts per week.

If you're interested in better fat loss results...
If you want to continue burning more calories after your workout...
If you want to spend less time exercising...
If you want reduce your risk of repetitive motion injuries...

...give cardio intervals a try.

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Cardio Kills?

If you been on this blog more than once you know that I prefer cardio intervals for fat loss over long duration, steady state cardio.

Here's an excerpt from an excellent article by Darin Steele that I recently came across.


The common myth that jogging is better for fat loss, fitness, & health is a strong one that is wrong;

The old school text books & simple minds say; "To burn fat, you must stay in the fat burning zone (heart rate between 50-65%) for 60-70 minutes. You don't start burning fat until about 20 minutes into the work-out. So if you do a 70 minute session, you will get 50 minutes of fat burning.

I am going to clear this up for you once and for all. You see, for fat loss, it is not about where your body gets the energy from the work-out for (slow go cardio / fat, interval / glycogen) nearly as much as it is total calories.

You see, the instant that you are done with low intensity jogging, your body is done burning calories. But, do an intense set of intervals, and your body burns calories for the 2-4 hours after the work-out. So the total amount of calories burned form intense interval far exceeds that of jogging type cardio.

Another big advantage that you get with interval cardio that most do not know about is that it changes the way your body stores your calories in the future: and in a very good way. You see most of the benefits of exercise come after the exercise is completed. It is how the body adapts and changes. Tear down muscles by weight lifting, and in the 1-2 days after, the body repairs the tiny micro tears back so they are a little bigger & stronger.

Well, cardio is much the same way. When you do low intensity jogging type cardio, your body says, "It's a good thing I had that fat there to supply energy for that work out". So it makes sure that it has plenty of fat there in preparation for the next "slow go cardio" session.

But when you do intense intervals, your body says, "It's a good thing I had that glycogen in the muscles for that interval cardio". So when it breaks down your future meals, it stores more of the carbs as glycogen in the muscles and the liver in preparation for the future "Interval Cardio" sessions. In essence, your gas tanks enlarge with useful energy. This is great for at least two reasons.

The entire article is here.

Random Thoughts #4

I'm b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-c-c-c-k-k-k-k

Did you miss me? I was on vacation for a week. Sorry for the lack of content- I thought I'd have more access to the internet.

As you can imagine, with just getting back yesterday, I'm pretty busy catching up on things but I wanted to do a quick post and let you know that I didn't drop off the face of the earth.


* I'm far from a fanatic about eating perfectly when I'm away but I sure wouldn't be feeding my kids cheese popcorn (or eating it myself) at 9:30 in the morning.

* Speaking of junk food, does anyone else think that Thrasher's french fries aren't as good as they used to be? What a bummer to decide to indulge only to be disappointed.

* Don't let what anyone thinks or what you imagine they might think, affect you. Three days last week, I did intervals on the Boardwalk. Although I was always focused straight ahead, I'm sure that a fifty-something woman sprinting down the Boardwalk elicited some odd looks but so what? Just me, my trusty Gym Boss and a quick, intense workout.

* Why are there always some people who insist on bucking traffic? Whether it's on the Boardwalk on in a mall, there's always a few people who feel the need to make others get out of their way. Why?

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Still Think That Cardio Is The Key To Fat Loss?

Rachel Cosgrove (wife of Alwyn) recently trained for and completed an Ironman triathlon. She was already a proponent of weight training and cardio intervals for fat loss but even Rachel was surprised at how her body reacted to all that endurance training.

Fortunately, I now have first-hand experience that steady-state aerobics is absolutely, completely, utterly ineffective for fat loss. After working my way up to twenty training hours a week, I can tell you that long, steady-state endurance is not the answer for a defined, lean physique and it's a waste of time if your goal is fat loss.
It's only the answer if your goal is to complete an endurance event.

You can, and should, read the entire article here.
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From Your Belly Fat

Below is a great e-mail I received from Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training.com It's a very creative way of stressing the value of training the right way to get rid of body fat.



How's it goin'!

This is a letter from your ol' pal, Belly Fat. We had a great run this summer, didn't we? Lots of good times, great food, and plain ol' sitting around eating too much.

Well, I'm thinking about sticking around another year if you don't mind. But you might need to get a bigger pair of pants, as I was thinking about expanding my place down here.

So do me a favor, avoid that interval training you were thinking of doing. The last time you did that stuff, I nearly had to look for a new place to live. I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West in the land of Oz. Did you hear me yelling, "Help me, I'm melting!"?

Instead, stick to that slow cardio stuff. Sure I get a little sweaty, and the ol' brain up there thinks it's doing "a real fat burning workout", but it's never enough to melt me outta here.

Another thing, keep listening to those experts who say strength training doesn't burn body fat. Since research shows they're wrong, if you added strength training to your program, you'd practically need to throw me a going away party!

After each one of those superset workouts you tried last January it felt like someone lit a match under our collective butt. I was burning up down here!

But boy oh boy, I sure was glad you gave that up and went back to just lifting utensils and not dumbbells. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to celebrate another summer together this year.

Sometimes I wonder, what did you ever do in college without me, your trusted belly fat? Back then, you were probably one of those people that couldn't wait to get to the beach to show off your body, unlike these days.

Nope, stay in the shade and keep the cover-up clothes on, that's the way to go now. Besides, its a lot closer to the cold beer and the BBQ when you're sitting in the shade avoiding all the fun down on the beach.

Well, it sure was good catching up with you. I'm sure we'll be in touch more often, as long as you stay away from that Turbulence Training workout routine.

Brings a tear to my eye whenever I even think about that workout program and all the belly fat it's burned. Heck, it's fried more fat than a short order cook at a roadside truckstop.

So again, if you want to keep your dear old belly around for another year and another summer, do NOT use Turbulence Training - otherwise, its all over pal, and you'll never see me again.

Belly Fat says, "Don't use this"

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

Your friend and spare tire,

Belly Fat

PS - Seriously, don't go near that Turbulence Training program unless you want to see me, Thunder Thighs, Manboobs, Jigg Lee Arm Fat, and Luv Handles pack our bags and hit the highway.

It will be a sad farewell, and you'd be stuck with ripped abs, gorgeous glutes, and toned arms, and you know how much attention those guys get from the opposite sex. Who needs it, I say.

PPS - Don't do what this guy and gal did. They used Turbulence Training and look what happened to their belly fat. Now please go get me some more comfort food...

"Hi Craig - First, I LOVE your program. In just under two weeks, I have already started seeing definition - that has been my goal for as long as I have been working out (a LONG time). Keep up the GREAT work, and thanks!"
Susan Siceloff

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

"I lost 14 pounds this month and the weight is just falling off me. My wife says I now look like when we first met and I still have more to go. I can fit into my old jeans again which is a big deal for me. I just cut back on starches and bread and do your routine 2-3 times a week. I never thought in a million years that just 10-20 minutes of weight training followed by some cardio would get me such steady results. I even cheat a bit on the weekends."
Billy Williams



If you're in Lancaster and are serious about dropping body fat, call me at (717) 509-7777. Craig and I share a belief in challenging workouts using supersets and cardio intervals for best results.

If you're not in the Lancaster area, do yourself a favor and check out www.turbulencetraining.com I now design my own client workouts based on Craig's system and I highly recommend it.

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Cardio Intervals for Fat Loss and Health

I haven't beat the drum for cardio interval training lately so here's an excerpt from an article in the June issue of Men's Health.

One quibble. Unless someone is training for a race, I prefer to keep the intense part of the interval to a maximum of 60 seconds. At 2 minutes you've moved into aerobic intervals and you obviously can't maintain the intensity of shorter bouts.

What would impress me is you doing high-intensity intervals as your cardiovascular training. That means alternating between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. In fact, you can achieve more progress in a mere 15 minutes of interval training (done three times a week) than that guy grinding away on the treadmill for an hour. An intelligent man draws maximum benefit from a minimum time investment, and smarts are sexy. So are abs, a benefit of this training style. Researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales found that intervals burn three times as much fat as running twice as long at a moderately hard, steady pace.

But interval training's benefits don't end with heart health, fat incineration, or the preservation of that most precious of commodities, your time. Most sports worth playing involve stopping and starting, not running at one pace, so you'll rule on the court or field. What's more, your muscles will learn to contract more forcefully. Ultimately you'll live longer, too, because intervals elevate the good cholesterol that makes your arteries whooshing streams and not plaque-strewn rapids.

How can stopping and starting during cardio do all that? Pretend you're back (or still) in college, and I'm your hot new teaching assistant. Class is now in session, so pop the lid off your latte and listen up.

Lesson 1: When your muscles contract repeatedly during intense training, they quickly use all available energy. So your body searches for fat. While that's going on, your body is quickly losing its ability to flush metabolic by-products from muscle. Ever heard of the burn? That's a buildup of ammonia and other bad stuff. Along with burning, this waste interferes with your body's ability to contract muscles forcefully. If you don't learn to manage the burn properly, your workout is doomed.

Lesson 2: When repeated bouts of high-intensity intervals are separated by short rest periods, each bout begins with a lack of available energy, and muscles that are already fatigued. "Interval training stresses energy systems in the body that aren't accustomed to being used," says Jeramie Hinojosa, M.S., director of the East Texas Medical Center Olympic Center, in Tyler, Texas. "Blood supply to cells increases, the cells use oxygen more efficiently, and the enzymes that help create energy also increase. This improves fitness." What's more, recovery from interval training forces the body to continue burning fat for energy. This all leads to an increase in postworkout calorie burning.

Lesson 3: There are lots of ways to do intervals. Over time you can adjust your ratio between rest and work, change the intensity of your work segment, or alter the length of the entire session. The new interval program that my university colleagues and I have developed produces truly amazing results, and it's perfect for people who don't like endurance training. As part of an experiment to test the ability of a dietary supplement to flush metabolic waste products from muscle tissue, we put a group of active college students (36 men and 33 women) through 6 weeks of high-intensity interval training on the stationary bike. Instead of the usual 30-seconds-on, 30-seconds-off approach, we had the students pedal intensively for 2 minutes, rest completely for 1 minute, and then repeat that sequence four more times. That's only 10 minutes of training! Even with the warmup and rest periods, they were looking at a 20-minute time investment.

After 3 weeks and a total of nine workout sessions, all 69 participants saw huge improvements. The maximum amount of oxygen they could consume--a measure of cardiovascular fitness -- increased 11 percent. What's more, they were able to pedal 12 percent longer and complete 44 percent more work. After 6 weeks, the improvements were even more dramatic -- 18 percent in fitness, 17 percent in time to exhaustion, and nearly 100 percent in work completed.

Break Your Speed Limits

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How To Get The Most From Your Workout

If you are like the average person interested in dropping some body fat, improving your health and getting stronger, then follow these guidelines to get the best results from your workouts:

* Always begin a workout with a full warmup. A good dynamic warmup prepares the muscles for what’s to come and allows you to work harder and with less risk of injury. If you are short on time, cut back on your working sets, never on your warmup.

* Perform a total body workout 3 times a week with at least one day of rest in between. Forget the bodybuilding mags and their body part routines. Muscles work in groups and trying to isolate them during a workout is a waste of time for the vast majority of people.

* Concentrate on compound exercises. Exercises like Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, Pushups, Rows, Pulldowns, Presses, etc. work multiple muscles at a time, are more functional, and burn more calories than isolation work.

* Forget about the "low weight, high reps to tone" B.S. that is still floating around out there. Challenge your muscle using a resistance that you can only perform 6-10 times with good form. (There are some exceptions, of course.)

* Make sure your strength training program is balanced between opposing muscle groups. Don't ignore exercises you don't like or do extra sets just of those that you do like. Either scenario can cause muscle imbalances.

* Choose cardio intervals over slow, steady state cardio for shorter, more productive workouts. However, limit interval training to 3 times a week, 4 if you are advanced exerciser.

* For fat loss, increased strength and energy, and overall good health, incorporate good nutrition into your lifestyle. Exercise without healthy nutrition will produce mediocre results. Remember, you can’t out-train a bad diet.

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Cardio Machine Readout Accuracy

Do you diligently check your calories burned at the end of a treadmill, elliptical, rower or stationary bike workout? If so, you need to know that those calculations can be highly inaccurate.

Some machines determine calories used based only on the resistance level and the amount of time exercised. Although some machines do include your weight and age in the calculation, even those may offer only a rough estimate at best because of other factors not taken into consideration. For example, using a machine incorrectly by leaning on the handrails will result in a reading that is higher than the actual number of calories burned. Another factor is the fitness level of the exerciser, which will also affect the number of calories burned during a workout.

Readouts can be somewhat useful as a measure of progress or as a basis of comparison, if you use the same type of equipment correctly and consistently. For example, if the number of calories burned reads higher now than when you started using a certain machine a month ago, you are obviously working harder and progressing. Or, if today's readout after walking on the treadmill is lower than usual, your workout was probably less intense than it normally is.

Another factor to consider is the type of workout you're doing. Although a vigorous cardio interval session will most likely register as fewer calories burned than a steady state workout, because of the intensity of a challenging interval workout your body's metabolism will remain elevated for hours after you've stopped exercising. This is commonly referred to as "afterburn" and is pretty much non-existent after low intensity exercise.

So, don't get hung up on the calorie readout on the cardio machines; they're most likely inaccurate anyway. However, if you do want to use them as a basis of comparison just make sure you are sizing up exercise on the same machine, performed in a similar manner.

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