Body2Envy - Get the Body People Envy

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Hey!

We just wanted to let you know what that new funny looking thing in the sidebar does. If you’re a blogger (fitness or anything else for that matter), you absolutely NEED to be using BlogRush to get more traffic to your blog. Basically, every time your “widget” (the thing to the left) is shown, you get a credit. For every credit you earn, your site is shown on someone else’s widget in your site’s category.

This means people who are interested in your blog will see your site’s description all the time, and you’re doing a great service to your visitors by allowing them to explore other related blogs outside your personal blogroll.

“That’s cool and all, but I’m not a blogger!”

Well why not? Just kidding. (sort of…It’s really easy nowadays, and very fun!) If you’re a visitor, just keep coming back to read great posts, and whenever you see something that peaks your interest give it a shot.  It’s all about you and what you’re looking for, so BlogRush will help to provide you with another means of finding interesting information from the almighty Internet…=)

“So how do I get BlogRush, and What’s it Gonna Cost Me?”

First off, BlogRush is 100% FREE, so there’s no excuse not to use it. It’s also very easy to use.

1.) Simply click on this link: BlogRush Rocks!

2.) Watch the video on the home page to see how it all works.

3.) Click on this image:

4.) Go through the quick sign-up process to get your FREE account set up.

5.) Invite some blog friends to join through your link to get more free traffic!

6.) Set up the simple code on your blog and enjoy!

Well, that’s about it. Have an awesome day,

- The Body2Envy Team -

Bodybuilding goes beyond just lifting weights. A good weight lifting routine has several aspects. When bodybuilding you need to remember proper nutrition, daily cardio exercises, drink plenty of water specially when weight lifting, include plenty of protein in your diet, and remember to take proper rest periods between sets.

Warm-up.

To begin with, a good routine includes a cardio warm-up and light stretching before any weight lifting. A good habit to get into when you are weight lifting is to start with a warm-up version of your core exercise. After doing 5 minutes running, using the treadmill, or some other light cardio exercise, do five sets of increasing weight decreasing reps of the core lift you planned for that day to warm-up that muscle group.

You should start your warm-up sets by lifting 50% of your max weight for 10 repetitions. Increase the weight in the second set to 60% for six reps. Continue increasing weight by 10% as you decrease repetitions. Your fifth set should be slightly less than the weight you will be lifting during your actual workout and should only be done for one rep. This is meant to be a warm-up and should not fatigue your muscles. Lifts during the warm-up should be easy for you.

Don’t Try to do Everything in One Day, Split-up Your Workout.

Good weight lifting routines split your workout up by body parts. To do this you group large muscle groups together, for example; legs and abs on Monday; chest, shoulder and triceps on Wednesday; back, biceps and forearms on Friday. You should workout each muscle group once a week and allow time for muscle repair and muscle growth.

Muscle growth does not happen during your workout. Muscles actually repair themselves and increase in mass during rest periods between workouts. When you give your muscles more time between workouts your muscles have more time to repair themselves and increase your muscle mass.

Get the Most Out of Your Workout by Working to Exhaustion.

You build muscles through progression. Progress by starting each workout with five more pounds than you used in last week’s workout. For your weight lifting routine to do your body the most good, you need to work to exhaustion on all sets. Exhaustion is when your muscles can no longer safely perform that lift properly. You should spend about an hour a day and only 3 to 5 days a week lifting. Always use good form. Use slow, steady movements to protect your muscles from injury while lifting.

Reps

If you are using the right amount of weight, you should only be able to do 5-7 reps per set when working on your large muscle groups, 10-12 for small muscle groups. You should hit exhaustion somewhere within that range of reps, if not you didn’t start out with the right amount of weight.

Sets

A good weightlifting routine should include 5-8 sets for large muscle groups and 2-4 sets for small muscle groups. You shouldn’t be spending hours on end working out; a good weight lifting routine only takes an hour of your day. Keep track of what you were able to do this week as this is what you will base next week’s routine on.

Rest Periods Between Sets.

After you have completed each set, you need a rest period. Some people try to limit the rest between each set to a set time, this doesn’t work well. You should rest as long as you need for your muscles to be able to perform the next set safely. Some people might feel rested and ready after 90 seconds while others need a full five minutes, or perhaps even six. The key is to let your body tell you when it is time to move on to the next set. This will keep you from injuring yourself due to exhaustion.

Water

Drinking water is important. You need to wash impurities out of your system as you workout. If you are slightly dehydrated, you will have a drastic drop in muscle strength. Drink enough water before, during, and after your routine to keep your muscles hydrated. This is important if you want to get the most out of your weightlifting efforts

Nutrition.

While diet plays an important role in your overall health, it is important that your muscles have enough calories to burn during your workout. To keep your muscles fed through your workout you should have a high glycemic carbohydrate snack just before your workout. A piece of fruit for example, is a good high glycemic carbohydrate to have before your routine. Including a small amount of protein will help you regulate your blood sugar levels. This should keep you from having your blood sugar levels drop during your workout.

Post Workout Nutrition.

For three hours after your workout, your muscles need to be fed protein and good quality carbohydrates. High glycemic carbohydrates will get into your system faster and are a better choice during this period. A large portion of your day’s caloric intake should be during this time. For your body to build muscle it will need more calories than usual.

Protein.

After your workout, your muscles need protein to rebuild. You need to get protein into your system as quickly as possible. Many bodybuilders like to bring a protein shake or some protein powder and a liquid to mix it with (like orange juice or water) with them to drink right after the workout is over. Whey protein in milk with oatmeal or eggs is another good choice right after your workout. A tuna sandwich with a glass of orange juice, or any good quality lean protein and a high glycemic carbohydrate will work. You want to keep away from fats during the three post workout hours, fats will slow the body’s absorption of the protein and carbohydrates that it needs.

Sample Routines

All sets are done to failure, meaning done until your muscles fail to be able to perform that exercise using proper form. Keep track of what you do each week. You should lift five more pounds weekly. Muscle gain is done by progression; if you cannot progressively increase your weight weekly then you need to increase the number of reps you perform.

Warm-up
• Start with a 5 minute run on the treadmill to get your blood pumping
• Set 1 of main exercise at 50% of weight x 10 reps
• Set 2 of main exercise at 60% weight x 6 reps
• Set 3 of main exercise at 70% weight x 4 reps
• Set 4 of main exercise at 80% weight x 2 reps
• Set 5 of main exercise at 90% weight x 1 rep

Monday (legs and abs)
• Warm-up (see above)
• Squats: 5-7 reps, 5-8 sets
• Leg Curls: 5-7 reps, 5-8 sets
• Calf Raises: 10-12 reps, 2-4 sets
• Abdominal Crunches: 10-12 reps, 2-4 sets

Wednesday (chest, shoulder and triceps)
• Warm-up (see above)
• Flat Barbell Bench Press: 5-7 reps, 5-8 sets
• Incline Dumbbell Press: 5-7 reps, 5-8 sets
• Lateral Raises: 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets
• Barbell Shoulder Press; 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets
• Bench Dips: 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets
• Triceps Pull downs: 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets

Friday (back, biceps and forearms)
• Warm-up (see above)
• Dead lifts: 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets
• Standing Barbell Curls: 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets
• Seated Dumbbell Curls: 5-7 reps, 2-4 sets
• Wrist Curls: 10-12 reps, 2-4 sets

===============================================================================

Interested in following a pre-set weight lifting routine that will skyrocket you away from scrawny-ville, straight to muscle town?!?!

Then you NEED to check out Muscle Gain Truth! Read the official BodyEnvy review and sign up for our free email course to get sample chapters, tips and more here:

http://www.body2envy.com/musclegaintruth

===============================================================================

by Mike Geary -CPT, Founder - Truth About Abs .com

Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you’ve ever tried before and may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize you in a matter of weeks!

Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don’t have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.

Please keep an open-mind and don’t worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you’ll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that’s the case for you, then that’s your loss.

Here’s how it works:

Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for an hour at a shot, with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.

The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I’ve found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!

If you have a private office, then you don’t have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there’s no reason you can’t fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.

If you’re on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.

Some of the exercises that are the best to focus on are:

• bodyweight squats (and variations)
• pushups (and variations)
• forward, reverse, or walking lunges
• up & down a staircase if one is available
• floor planks (holding plank position from forearms and feet)
• floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
• one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts

This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don’t want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.

The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body’s muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it’s usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.

Here’s an example routine (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):

Mon/Wed/Fri
9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)

Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)

In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).

The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you’ve accomplished with these “mini” workouts completed throughout each day… You’ve increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.

Even though each “mini” workout was a very short duration, you’ve accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn’t even have to break a sweat during any of the “mini” workouts. And there’s hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.

Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don’t have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You’ve now got some extra free time on your hands!

Try this type of routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you’ll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these “mini” workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.

Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn’t mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I’d recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don’t worry so much about what other people think…have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you’ll be the one laughing back at all of the “blubber-bellies” that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!

If you liked these training ideas, my internationally popular ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs contains gobs and gobs more innovative training ideas to lose stubborn body fat and carve out a rock hard set of abs.

By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
www.BurnTheFat.com

Throughout my 18 years in the fitness industry as a trainer, nutrition consultant and motivational coach, I have noticed that some people who start a nutrition and exercise program give up very easily after hitting the first obstacle they encounter. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement or frustration, they will abandon even their biggest goals and dreams.

On the other hand, I noticed that some people simply NEVER give up. They have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. These people are like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a bone. The harder you try to pull the bone out of his mouth, the harder the dog chomps down with a vice-like grip.

What’s the difference between these two types of people? Psychologists say there is an answer.

An extremely important guideline for achieving fitness success is the concept that, “There is no failure; only feedback. You don’t “fail”, you only get results.”

This is a foundational principle from the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the first time I ever heard it was from peak performance expert Anthony Robbins back in the late 1980’s. It’s a principle that stuck with me ever since, because it’s a very, very powerful shift in mindset.

A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they’ll bail out and quit, just because what they try at first doesn’t work. They consider it a permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset change, or what we call a “reframe.”

Instead of saying, “This is failure” they can say to themselves, “I produced a result” and “This is only temporary.” This change in perspective is going to change the way that they feel and how they mentally process and explain the experience. It turns into a learning opportunity and valuable feedback for a course correction instead of a failure, and that drives continued action and forward movement.

It’s all about your results and your interpretation of those results.

Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and wrote about it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he referred to as “explanatory style.” He said that explanatory style is the way we explain or interpret bad events or failures.

People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. For example, they hit a plateau in their progress and explain it by saying, “diets never work” or “I have bad genetics so I’ll always be fat.” These explanations imply permanence.

Other people hit the same plateaus and encounter the same challenges, but explain them differently. They say things such as, “I ate too many cheat meals this week,” or “I haven’t found the right diet for my body type yet.” These explanations of the results imply being temporary.

People who see negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give up easily and often generalize their “failure” into other areas of their lives and even into their own sense of self. It’s one thing to say, “I ate poorly this past week because I was traveling,” (a belief about temporary behavior and environment), and to say, “I am a fat person because of my genetics” (a belief about identity with a sense of permanence). Remember, body fat is a temporary condition, not a person!

People who see challenges and obstacles as temporary and as valuable learning experiences are the ones who never quit. If you learn from your experiences, not repeating what didn’t work in the past, and if you choose to never quit, your success is inevitable.

================================================================================

Don’t quit! No matter what your goals, it will help to have some surefire methods and guidance to stick with it and get the body you dream about. Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is exactly what you need. Check it out, and at least take action and sign up for Tom’s free email course. He’ll never spam you, and you’ll get a bunch of great tips for FREE!

http://www.burnthefat.com

================================================================================

by Mike Geary - CPT, Founder - Truth About Abs

Working as a fitness professional, there is one type of question I get all the time that shows that many people are missing the big picture regarding the benefits of strength training. This popular question usually goes something like this:

“What exercise can I do to isolate my _______ (insert your muscle of choice – abs, quads, biceps, triceps, etc)?”

It doesn’t matter which muscle someone is asking about, they always seem to be asking how to ‘isolate’ it. My first response to this question is always – “Why in the world would you want to isolate it?”

The first thing I try to teach my clients is that the body does not work well in muscle isolation. Rather, it works better in movements along a kinetic chain; that is, large portions of the body assist other portions of the body in completing a complex movement. In fact, there really is no such thing as true muscle isolation. There is almost always a nearby muscle group that will assist in some way with whatever movement you are doing. However, this article compares attempting to ‘isolate’ body parts via single-joint exercises to the much more effective strategy of performing multi-joint complex movements.

When you attempt to ‘isolate’ muscles by performing single-joint exercises, you are actually creating a body that is non-functional and will be more prone to injury. Essentially, you are creating a body that is a compilation of body parts, instead of a powerful, functional unit that works together.

Now if you really want to end up hobbling around in a body bandaged up with joint problems, tendonitis, and excess body fat, then by all means, continue trying to ‘isolate’ body parts. On the other hand, if you would rather have a lean, muscular, injury-free, functional body that works as a complete powerful unit to perform complex movements (in athletics or even everyday tasks), then you need to shift your focus away from muscle isolation.

Believe me, focusing on how well your body functions will give you the side effect of a body that looks even better than it would have if you focused on muscle isolation. For example, take a look at the physiques of any NFL running backs, wide receivers, or even world class sprinters. Trust me when I say that these guys pretty much NEVER train for muscle isolation (their strength coaches wouldn’t be crazy enough to let them), yet they are absolutely ripped to shreds! Just look at guys like Maurice Green or Terrell Owens and tell me who wouldn’t want a physique like those guys.

Another benefit to moving away from the ‘muscle isolation’ mindset to a more ‘complex movement’ mindset is that you will find it much easier to lose body fat. The reason is that by focusing more on multi-joint complex movements as opposed to single-joint muscle isolation, you not only burn a lot more calories during each workout, but you also increase your metabolic rate, and stimulate production of more fat burning and muscle building hormones like growth hormone and testosterone.

Let’s look at an example. The machine leg extension is a single joint exercise that works mainly the quadriceps, can potentially cause knee joint instability in the long run, and doesn’t even burn that many calories. On the other hand, exercises like squats, lunges, step-ups, and deadlifts are all multi-joint complex movements that work hundreds of muscles in the body (including the quadriceps) as a functional unit, create more stable and strong joints in the long run (when done properly), and also burn massive quantities of calories compared to the single-joint exercises.

If you’re interested in discovering more ways to create a body that looks as good as it functions, pick up a copy of my innovative book The Truth About Six Pack Abs!

Developing the perfect bodybuilding diet meal plan for you will boost your muscle gains and healthy fat loss by 1000% or more! All the perfect lifting can only get you so far without the right diet plan. Think of it this way: by driving your car properly, you will keep it in good shape. But without putting the right fuel and oil in it, it will never perform as well, and it certainly won’t last as long. As you know, working out is vital, but utilizing a solid bodybuilding meal plan is essential to getting ripped. The key here is to work harder and smarter to maximize your results.

Some key points to consider when creating your bodybuilding meal plan:

1. Eat 5-6 small meals per day, about 2-3 hours apart to keep your metabolism and energy up, cravings down and muscles fed constantly which encourages growth.
2. Determine how many calories you should consume each day, and stick to it. You must consume more than you burn to gain muscle!
3. Shoot for 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 20 % fat of all calories consumed.
4. Get 10% of your target calorie intake in grams of protein. (E.g. 3,000 calorie diet: 300 grams of protein per day. 6 meals: 50g or protein each)
5. Drink water in ounces equal to 60% of your body weight in pounds. (E.g. 180 pounds: 108 oz. per day, or 3.2 liters)

These are all widely accepted fundamentals of a proper bodybuilding diet plan, so keep them all in mind when planning your meals. It can get really tough to find the time to meet all of these criterion properly, and follow the plan to perfection, but luckily there are pre-made meal plans you can tailor to your specific needs.

Many professional bodybuilders have come up with bodybuilding diet meal plans, but very few have done so for every level of caloric intake. So, you need to first figure out how many calories you’re going to consume, then work with a diet plan that will work well for your level.

Typical sample bodybuilding diet plans look something like this:

Meal 1 (Pre-workout): 6 egg whites, 1 cup oatmeal
Meal 2 (Breakfast): Meal replacement bar/shake, high in protein and flaxseed oil
Meal 3 (Mid-morning): 8 oz. lean meat, 2 cups green vegetables, 1 cup brown rice
Meal 4 (Lunch): Tuna in water, leafy salad, whole-wheat bagel
Meal 5 (Dinner): 8 oz. lean meat, 2 cups green vegetables, 1 baked potato
Meal 6 (Snack): Meal replacement packet, flaxseed oil

This type of bodybuilding diet meal plan will greatly increase your muscle gains, but it is difficult to tell how much of each item is right for your caloric intake. It is also hard to know what you can substitute when you’re bored of this regimen after a couple weeks of eating the exact same things every day.

Thankfully, there are some programs that provide detailed meal plans that stick to rock-solid diets like the one above, but allow you to mix up the meals as you see fit throughout each phase of your workout plan, all suited to your level.

It is an excellent idea to start by eliminating bad fats and processed sugars from your diet if you have not already. Do not try to jump into your new bodybuilding diet meal plan right away, either. It will take some getting used to, but by steadily building up to your perfect meal plan, and following the system, you’ll get ripped and stay that way!

Like the old saying goes:

“Plan your work, and work your plan!”

But keep in mind that it’s a lot easier when you can take out the guesswork by following a professional natural bodybuilder’s advice when coming up with your bodybuilding diet plan. Either way, once you have your plan, just stick to it, and you’ll love the result!

=============================================================================

Why do the hard work alone? Get the perfect bodybuilding diet meal plan made for you! Check out Muscle Gain Truth, and get 9 12-week meal plans, complete with every item you’ll need for your grocery lists, a wide variety of tasty meals and more:

http://www.Body2Envy.com/MuscleGainTruth
=============================================================================

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTrainingSystem.com

Are you ready for my 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 effectively.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

There are many different types of body cleansing fasts. You’ll hear them described as juice fasts, water fasts, protein fasts, and many other fasts. Fasting gives the body a break from having to digest food, giving the body a chance for cleansing and removing toxins from the body. Fasting also helps to improve the complexion and overall outlook on life. Many people fast to bring them more in tune with their body and spiritual side.

Fasts work very well when used to remove toxins from the body. Frequently people go on fasts to give their weight loss program to boost. Body cleansing fasts can boost weight loss, especially when dealing with stubborn weight that just doesn’t seem to want to leave no matter what diet you go on.

Fasting is a natural way to heal the body. Body cleansing fasts are done to return body back to its job of self-maintenance. The energy that the body would normally use on the gastrointestinal tract is diverted to other tasks. These maintenance tasks are ignored when the gastrointestinal system needs to digest foods.

In the wild, most animals have days in which they go without eating. Since humans have an evolved food production system we no longer need to hunt or gather our own foods. We generally eat multiple times daily and maintenance tasks are largely ignored and forgotten.

When given time off from breaking down and processing what we eat, the body is able to break down abnormal cells, remove fats, and detoxify the body as a whole. During the fasting detoxification process parasites are removed from the body and cells are repaired so they can do their numerous processes required for life. The many toxins we are exposed to from our environment have slowed this process down.

During the first stages of fasting the body uses reserves of glycogen in the liver as fuel. The liver holds about half a day’s worth of glycogen; after that supply is gone the body reduces its basal metabolic rate. This is the part of fasting that is generally the hardest. Hunger is greatly reduced, or completely diminished, after the stage (1-2 days).

During the next stage (days 3-9) the body starts to break down fats and convert them into glucose. At this time toxins may be released through the skin. As the toxins leave your body you may experience oily skin and possibly experience a break out of pimples. This is normal and is actually a good sign. This means that your body is removing substances from your system and truly cleansing your body.

There are many safe methods of fasting available. Nutrient-based body cleansing programs that include fasting and nutritional supplementation work well to assist the body in its healing process. Part of the body’s healing process is to remove excess fat stores from the body. Weight loss occurs as a result of removing these fat stores.

Fasting is not the same as starvation, your body is built for fasting: it is the program your body has set up for self-maintenance. Starvation is protein breakdown. Your body will give you clear signs before it moves into protein breakdown.

Fasting can be safely continued as long as fat stores remain, this is approximately 5 to 6 weeks for the average person. Obese people can fast longer, and of course emaciated people cannot fast as long. Body cleansing fasts that last longer than 4 to 5 days should be monitored by a Physician or other trained medical personnel.

However, finding a cleansing program that provides a detailed schedule to follow, and the essential vitamins and nutrients you need to stay healthy and energized during the cleanse is best.

Ready for the program that gives you everything you need to do a healthy body-cleansing fast, and get the body you deserve? Check out Isagenix, the only program created by the Doctor who developed many popular GNC products, and get your life back:

http://www.weloveisagenix.com

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

The secret to getting super lean – I’m talking about being RIPPED, not just “average body fat” – is all about mastering the art of “peaking.” Most people do not have a clue about what it takes to reach the type of low body fat levels that reveal ripped six-pack abs, muscle striations, vascularity and extreme muscular definition, so they go about it completely the wrong way.

Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your www.burnthefat.com website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner - like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth - natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

The Importance of Physical Variability in Cardio Exercise

By Mike Geary – CPT, Founder - Truth About Abs

Are you a cardio junkie? Everyone seems to think that “cardio” is the best way to get in shape and lose body fat. I’m going to show you with this article why I disagree!

It is quite common to hear fitness pros, doctors, and other health professionals prescribe low to moderate intensity aerobic training (cardio) to people who are trying to prevent heart disease or lose weight. Most often, the recommendations go something like this:

“Perform 30-60 minutes of steady pace cardio 3-5 times/week maintaining your heart rate at a moderate level”

Before you just give in to this popular belief and become the “hamster on the wheel” doing endless hours of boring cardio exercise, I’d like you to consider some recent scientific research that indicates that steady pace endurance cardio work may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

First, realize that our bodies are designed to perform physical activity in bursts of exertion followed by recovery, or stop-and-go movement instead of steady state movement. Recent research is suggesting that physical variability is one of the most important aspects to consider in your training.

This tendency can be seen throughout nature as all animals demonstrate stop-and-go motion instead of steady state motion. In fact, humans are the only creatures in nature that attempt to do “endurance” type physical activities. Most competitive sports (with the exception of endurance running or cycling) are also based on stop-and-go movement or short bursts of exertion followed by recovery. To examine an example of the different effects of endurance or steady state training versus stop-and-go training, consider the physiques of marathoners versus sprinters. Most sprinters carry a physique that is very lean, muscular, and powerful looking, while the typical dedicated marathoner is more often emaciated and sickly looking. Now which would you rather resemble?

Another factor to keep in mind regarding the benefits of physical variability is the internal effect of various forms of exercise on our body. Scientists have known that excessive steady state endurance exercise (different for everyone, but sometimes defined as greater than 60 minutes per session most days of the week) increases free radical production in the body, can degenerate joints, reduces immune function, causes muscle wasting, and can cause a pro-inflammatory response in the body that can potentially lead to chronic diseases.

On the other hand, highly variable cyclic training has been linked to increased anti-oxidant production in the body and an anti-inflammatory response, a more efficient nitric oxide response (which can encourage a healthy cardiovascular system), and an increased metabolic rate response (which can assist with weight loss). Furthermore, steady state endurance training only trains the heart at one specific heart rate range and doesn’t train it to respond to various every day stressors. On the other hand, highly variable cyclic training teaches the heart to respond to and recover from a variety of demands making it less likely to fail when you need it. Think about it this way……Exercise that trains your heart to rapidly increase and rapidly decrease will make your heart more capable of handling everyday stress. Stress can cause your blood pressure and heart rate to increase rapidly. Steady state jogging and other endurance training does not train your heart to be able to handle rapid changes in heart rate or blood pressure.

The important aspect of variable cyclic training that makes it superior over steady state cardio exercise is the recovery period in between bursts of exertion. That recovery period is crucially important for the body to elicit a healthy response to an exercise stimulus. Another benefit of variable cyclic training is that it is much more interesting and has lower drop-out rates than long boring steady state cardio programs.

To summarize, some of the potential benefits of variable cyclic training compared to steady state endurance training are as follows: improved cardiovascular health, increased anti-oxidant protection, improved immune function, reduced risk for joint wear and tear, increased muscularity (versus decreased muscularity with endurance training), increased residual metabolic rate following exercise, and an increased capacity for the heart to handle life’s every day stressors.

There are many ways you can reap the benefits of stop-and-go or variable intensity physical training. Most competitive sports such as football, basketball, racquetball, tennis, hockey, etc. are naturally comprised of highly variable stop-and-go motion. One of the absolute most effective forms of variable intensity training to really reduce body fat and bring out serious muscular definition is performing wind sprints. In addition, weight training naturally incorporates short bursts of exertion followed by recovery periods. High intensity interval training (varying between high and low intensity intervals on any piece of cardio equipment) is yet another training method that utilizes exertion and recovery periods. For example, an interval training session on the treadmill could look something like this:

Warm-up for 3-4 minutes at a fast walk or light jog

• Interval 1 - run at 8.0 mi/hr for 1 minute

• Interval 2 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes

• Interval 3 - run at 10.0 mi/hr for 1 minute

• Interval 4 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 minutes

Repeat those 4 intervals 4 times for a very intense 20-minute workout.

The take-away message from this article is to try to train your body at highly variable intensity rates for the majority of your workouts to get the most beneficial response in terms of heart health, fat loss, and muscle maintenance.

Full-body strategically-designed resistance training programs along with high intensity cardiovascular training programs guaranteed to strip off body fat when combined with a healthy diet are included in my book The Truth About Six Pack Abs. If you’re serious about getting lean for good, this book is a must.