Burn fat with the Deadlift

This month's featured exercise is the deadlift

One of the best full body exercises for burning fat is the deadlift.

When performed correctly it works you legs, back, buttocks, arms in fact most of the major muscle groups are involved.

After the squat this is the best exercise to build lean muscle get the heart pumping and increases your metabolic rate so you will still be burning calories long after your workout.

Deadlifts will also teach you to pick up an heavy object with a straight back - this will prevent injuries like hernias which usually result from repeatedly lifting with a round lower back.

How to Deadlift.

Proper technique is the key to deadlifting and preventing backpain.

Always start with the bar on the floor. Pulling from the safety pins is a Rack Pull. Deadlifting top down is a Romanian Deadlift. With conventional Deadlifs the bar must always start on the floor. Here's how to Deadlift in 5 easy steps:

1.    Stand with the bar above the center of your feet - your stance should be a bit more narrow than shoulder-width to give your arms room.

2.    Grab the bar overhand so your arms are vertical to the floor - if your hamstrings are tight, do Squat 2 stands to boost your hip flexibility.

3.    Bend through your knees until your shins hit the bar which must remain above the middle of your feet. Shoulder-blades directly over the bar.

4.    Lift your chest but don't squeeze your shoulder-blades like on Squats. Just put your shoulders back & down, head inline with rest of your spine.

5.    Pull - keep the bar close to your body, roll it over your knees and thighs until your hips and knees are locked. Do not lean back at the top.

And that's all there is to it. Lower the bar by pushing your hips back first, and then bend your knees once the bar reaches knee level (NOT before otherwise the bar will hit your knees). Repeat for 5 reps on StrongLifts 5x5.
(Check out this crazy fat burning routine)This simple exercise can accelerate your fitness progress dramatically, and should be preformed by women as well as men.

You will find when you start doing deadlifts and squats the extra strength you gain carries over to all your other exercises, not to mention improved posture.

So what are you waiting for lets get deadlifting.

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Get your cardio done in under 20 minutes!

If your like me and do not enjoy endless hours of cardio training trying to burn off stubborn body fat then read on.

One thing I have never enjoyed or included in my routine is the hours of jogging either on road or on the treadmill, I find it so boring not to mention the damage the long term impact can have on your knee joints.

Don’t get me wrong running has helped a lot of people achieve their fitness goals but I found it is just not for me.

The truth is you really do not need to run at all to achieve a toned fit body.

There is another great way to complete a cardio workout in only 15-20 minutes and get your heart pumping plus work all your major muscle groups at the same time.


Yes I am talking about the good old tried and tested rowing machine.

Rowing machines have moved on a great deal from the old flimsy looking models people used to hide under their beds.

They are now state of the art machines which can be programmed to give you a very intense workout all in under 20 minutes.

You could easily include this before or after your weights session to really get your body to shed the pounds and build lean muscle.

Here's how a rowing machine could help your weight or other exercise fitness:

.Uses upper leg muscles

.Uses shoulders

.Tones majority of muscle groups and helps improve power

.Burns fat fast and therefore keeps weight down

.Increases lung capacity

.Impact free, so less chance of injuries

.Allows you to monitor your fitness levels, by comparing your previous times

.Panders to your competitive nature!

.Enables you to do speed work or slower longer sessions

.Rowing machines are hard work, so you feel mentally as well as physically that you’ve had a good workout.

.Easy to increase resistance

With all this going for them, why wouldn’t you want to include them as part of your training schedule?


http://www.getabsatlast.com/

What is the Best Ab excercise to burn belly fat?

Many people have asked this old question, “what is the best single exercise to burn excess belly fat?" well wait for it the answer is...

None! Ab workouts alone do not get your heart rate or muscles working hard enough to kick start start the metabolic process of fat burning.

The problem I have found over the years of training is that people want to find the one exercise that will cure all their problems, and burn of the belly fat in no time at all.

The thing is... they looking for the solution in all the wrong places.

I myself was guilty of this for a long time until one day a wise old man at the gym told me the truth.
“Listen “ he said to me “you will not get abs by doing strictly abs exercise’s”

The problem is that focusing most of your time and effort on abdominal exercises and abs workouts to try to flatten your stomach and bring out 6-pack abs is simply wasting your time from doing the correct workout programs that will actually reduce your body fat for good.

If I were to choose an answer as to what the best exercises are for losing belly fat, my answer would include full body exercises such as the following:

various forms of squats, lunges, deadlifts, clean & presses, snatches, swings, presses and pulls, mountain climbers, sprinting, etc.

These types of full body exercises would encompass a much higher percentage of the workouts I would design instead of abs exercises directly targeting the midsection. The way you combine those full body exercises into a strategic workout that maximizes your metabolism is also very important.

Don't get me wrong... I do recommend a certain amount of exercises that directly target the abs and core, but these are only a small fraction of the programs I design for my clients as your time is better spent focusing on the full body exercises that stimulate the greatest hormonal and metabolic changes within the body.

In addition, a side-effect of working out using mostly full body multi-joint combo exercises are that you indirectly work your entire midsection even though you are not specifically targeting the abs.

But the number one tool for getting ripped six pack abs is nutrition.

No amount of exercise will work if you are still eating junk which will form a layer of fat over your abs, stopping them from showing.

Remember nutrition is "king of getting a six pack".

So let's clear this up for good...

Stop wasting so much of your time focusing on situps, crunches, leg raises, and all those silly worthless "ab contraptions" in your efforts to try to develop 6-pack abs. Instead focus on high intensity full body lifts using combination multi-joint exercises all strategically combined into highly effective fat loss workouts. Couple that with a healthy diet full of natural unprocessed whole foods as close to their natural state as possible, and those elusive six-pack abdominals will yours in no time!


http://www.getabsatlast.com/

Are cardio workouts or weight training more effective for losing fat...

Do You Really Need "Cardio" Workouts?


Are cardio workouts or weight training more effective for losing fat...

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

In this article, I have an intriguing discussion about cardio workouts, which will hopefully get you thinking differently, and trying new things.

You may know I've been called the anti-cardio guy before, but this week I'm back posing the question to you... Do you really need cardio training to get lean and in great shape? By the way, you'll see in a minute that I'm not really "anti-cardio", just "anti traditional cardio".

Most fitness buffs, weekend warriors, or anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a fact that they need "cardio" exercise to accomplish these goals. They would never even question it.

However, I'm not only questioning it, I'm going to refute it! In fact, you may be surprised to know that some of the leanest and meanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. And I've spent over 15 years working out in various gyms, and hanging out with athletes of all sorts, so I've seen it all.

I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can be more effective methods.

But what exactly is "cardio"?

Most people would consider cardio to be pumping away mindlessly on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or coasting on an elliptical machine, while watching the TV screen at their state of the art gym. This is what I call "traditional cardio". Hmmm, no wonder the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results.

But if you look closer, "cardio" exercise can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. I'm not going to get into anything technical like increasing your VO2 max or anything like that. To keep it simple, if it gets your heart pumpin, and gets you huffin and puffin, it's cardio. I don't care if you're holding dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training exercise...it's still conditioning your heart.

Let's take a look at a couple examples. Take a barbell (or dumbbell, or kettlebell) clean & press for example, which involves lifting a barbell from the floor up to shoulders, then push pressing overhead. And listen up ladies, because even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, it doesn't matter if you're not lifting 250 lbs; if 45 lbs is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much.

At first glance, most people think of the barbell C&P only as a weight training exercise or strength exercise. However, I challenge you to do a hard set of around 10-15 reps on the C&P. If you used a challenging enough weight, what you'll find is that your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max, and you are huffing and puffing like you just ran a 100-meter sprint (which by the way, sprinting kicks the crap out of jogging any day if you want the easiest way to lose the flab).

Try the same thing for a set of 20 reps of one-arm snatches or swings with each arm with a kettlebell or dumbbell, and tell me your legs aren't burning, heart racing, and you're gasping for breath. How about trying 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats, lunges, and pushups with very little rest. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breaths!

Try and tell me you're not conditioning your heart with this style of training! Conventional thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are fullfilling your cardio workout needs as well (saving you time!).

Not only do you save time, but you strengthen and condition almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body exercises if you do them with enough intensity...something that can't be said for that boring stationary bike ride or treadmill jaunt while reading or watching TV.

Reading or watching TV while you workout is a joke!

Seriously, if you can read or watch TV while doing any exercise, you're not concentrating enough on what you're doing, plus you're probably not working out hard enough to see any real results.

I challenge you to give the "traditional cardio" a rest for a month or two, and start training the way I explain in my internationally-selling Truth about Six pack Abs Program, and see how you start getting leaner, more defined, and your six pack starting to show through what used to be stubborn stomach fat deposits.



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The Top 3 Fat Burning Foods - Surprising Hidden Gems

In all of my years as a professional Nutrition Specialist, I've noticed that most people are shocked to hear some of my picks for the top fat burning foods that are best for weight loss and good health.

I won't bore you with all of the typical "healthy foods" that you hear about all of the time such as fruits and veggies... everybody knows those. Instead, I'm going to show you some shockers that most people don't realize are super healthy foods for fat loss.

1. Egg Yolks - yes, that's right... full fatty egg yolks with all of their fat and cholesterol. By the way, you've been mislead about the cholesterol in egg yolks -- it actually raises your GOOD cholesterol and helps balance proper ratios, so don't be afraid of the fat and cholesterol in these little nutrition power packed gems. And if you choose cage-free eggs from free roaming hens, the omega-3 content is higher with a more balanced fat profile.

Egg yolks are also one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet in terms of vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients. Trying to list all of the vital nutrients in egg yolks would take up an entire page so I won't even try that here. Just realize that egg yolks should NOT be avoided in favor of egg whites. Even the protein is more bioavailable when you include the yolks!

So don't be afraid to eat those delicious and healthy eggs and start burning belly fat faster.

2. Avocados - This is yet another "fatty food" that is also one of the best fat burning foods! Not only that, but avocados make just about everything creamier and more delicious. They are also power-packed with healthy fats, fiber, and antioxidants, as well as vitamins and minerals. The healthy fat in avocados also helps control appetite and fat burning hormones in your body.

Try adding avocado slices or guacamole to everything from morning eggs, salads, sandwiches, and burgers, and starting burning body fat faster! I would definitely consider avocados one of the best healthy super foods.

3. Grass-fed beef - While most beef you see at the grocery store is grain fed beef from cattle that are in poor health and has lower nutrition values and omega-6 to omega-3 fat ratios that are far out of whack, there is a better option... and that is Grass-Fed Beef!

Grass-fed beef is known to have much higher levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and lower omega-6 fats (which most people get too much of anyway). Grass-fed beef also contains higher levels of many vitamins and minerals, as well as containing high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is a healthy fat that is known to help muscle building and fat burning.

So don't be afraid to live it up a little and eat more beef, as long as you choose healthy grass-fed beef instead of grain fed beef. Enjoy and start burning more body fat with these so called "fatty" foods!

If you want to lose body fat faster, check out these 5 tips to Burn Stomach Fat the smart and effective way.
Enjoy, and good luck with your fitness endeavors!
Mike Geary

Author - The Truth about Six Pack Abs

3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster - Get Lean and Ripped

Let's face it... building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.

So, I'm going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.

1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises. It doesn't matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle... big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

It's easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):


•upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
•upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
•upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
•upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
•lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
•lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
•lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
•abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements... your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc. However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.

2. Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism. You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.

Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train. My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don't interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity. The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).

These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program -- caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.

3. Eat clean with quality whole foods... REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.

Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement "stacks" that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag... Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you've never seen before!

If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.

Enjoy, and good luck!

Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author - The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Study Shows 1 Obscure Trick to Make ANY Exercise Program or Workout MUCH More Effective

Study Shows 1 Obscure Trick to Make ANY Exercise Program or Workout MUCH More Effective

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-seller: The Truth About Six Pack Abs

I've read about this very interesting Harvard University study about exercise multiple times in the past, but I was just recently reminded about this study again while reading the fascinating book called 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman.

Pay attention, because this actually shows a pretty powerful trick that you can use to literally make ANY workout or exercise program a LOT more effective and results producing.

According to the book 59 Seconds, here's how this study was carried out:

Researchers at Harvard University studied over 80 hotel room cleaning attendants from 7 different hotels. The hotel room attendants naturally received a lot of exercise from their daily jobs, which included cleaning an average of 15 rooms per day at about 25 minutes per room. This work involves a good deal of exercise in carrying things, scrubbing, lifting objects, vacuuming, and so on.

The researchers knew the hotel maids led an active lifestyle from their work, but also questioned whether most of the maids may not realize that their work was actually good for their health. The researchers set out to study the effects on the hotel attendants of making them very aware of how beneficial the exercise they got while working was for their health, and to see if this increased the results that they actually received from the exercise.

Basically, the question was... Would telling them that their work was great exercise improve their health, lower their blood pressure, and help them to lose weight compared to the hotel attendants that didn't realize their work was in fact "exercise"?

The hotel attendants were split into 2 groups:

1. This group was informed about the benefits of exercise and told how many calories they were burning while doing their hotel cleaning work each day. They were specifically told how many calories activities such as changing sheets, vacumming, and scrubbing bathrooms were burning each hour.

The researchers also wanted this information to stick in their heads daily, so they gave the attendants a handout showing the quantities of calories they were burning doing each activity of their jobs. They were also shown a poster daily that reinforced how many calories they were burning.

2. The control group of hotel cleaning attendants was simply informed of the benefits of exercise, but were NOT told how many calories they were burning doing their work, and also were NOT told that their work actually constituted a good form of exercise.

The researchers studied the existing lifestyles of all of the participants in both groups as well as giving them various health tests, including weigh-ins.

The study was conducted for 4 weeks. The researchers made sure that none of the participants had actually changed their exercise habits, smoking, or eating habits outside of work. This assured that there was no external lifestyle factor that could have accounted for the results of the study.

In addition, the hotel managers assured that the workloads of both groups stayed the same throughout the entire experiment.

Here are the VERY interesting results:

It turned out that the group of hotel cleaning attendants that was informed daily about the calorie-burning effects of their normal work routines ended up losing a significant amount of weight, lowered their body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio, and decreased their blood pressure.

The control group of hotel attendants that was not told about the calories they burned while doing their work showed NONE of these improvements.

Wow... very interesting huh!

Remember that each of these groups received the SAME amount of exercise and did not alter their lifestyle, eating habits, drinking habits, smoking, or anything else. The only thing that was different between the 2 groups was simply that the one group was constantly being reminded of how beneficial the exercise during their work was for their health and how many calories they were burning, and therefore their minds were busy believing in the benefits of it.

This actually doesn't surprise me... this is classic placebo effect at work here, and reinforces how powerful our brains are in relation to the results we get from exercise, food, supplements, etc.

How to use this info to burn more fat in your workouts, build more lean muscle, and improve your health more from exercise and nutrition

There's a good lesson in this study. If you strongly believe in your mind that the workouts that you are doing are drastically improving your body, your results will increase dramatically from those workouts.

The trick I've used over the years is to really "get mental" during your workouts and believe strongly that the exercise you are doing is transforming your body into a lean chiseled machine. (This is assuming that you're actually doing legit workouts such as Truth About Abs routines and not just wasting time reading a magazine while pedaling away on a boring exercise bike or treadmill).

So, if you want to burn more fat, not only do you need to workout intensely (for your individual capabilities), but you also need to mentally visualize the results you're getting, the bodyfat you are burning, and really strongly believe in how powerful the workout routine that you are doing really is for your body.

Along the same lines, if your goal is to build more muscle, then you really need to strongly believe in your mind at how powerfully your workouts are helping you to build muscle.

And this can be applied to your food intake too!

Don't underestimate how powerful your mind really is... If you are eating healthy foods such as those detailed in my Truth About Abs manual, make sure that you are also actively thinking in your mind about how those foods are dramatically helping your body, making you stronger, making you leaner, improving your energy and health, and so on.

Don't ignore this... this will drastically improve your results if you actively think about how truly healthy the foods you are eating every day are and how they are changing your body. This is assuming that you actually are eating truly healthy foods every day.

Another benefit of this "mental programming" is that it trains you to actually want to avoid junk foods, because you want to be able to think about how everything you eat is improving your body instead.

So there you go... an interesting study that shows how you can legitimately increase your results from your exercise and nutrition by just actively thinking about the benefits of both every day!

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The single best exercise for burning fat.

The single best exercise for burning fat?

Good question.

When it comes to fat burning exercises we can learn a lot from the world of bodybuilding.
I am not saying to rush out and join golds gym and try to get a body like Arnold or Phil Heath.
But the fact is when it comes to nutrition and dieting the world of competitive body building is light years ahead of the game.

In fact when in competition shape these athletes can range in the 2-4 % body fat range.
This is not particularly healthy in the long term but the fact that can achieve this is admirable.
The normal healthy range for top Athletes is 6-13 % for men and 14-20% for women,and for an “average” “individual 18-24% man 25-32% for women.

Anything over this is classed as excess fat.
Well now doctors have proved the more muscle mass we have the more calories we burn even when sitting still.
Its like having your own built in fat burning furnace.
So if your going to taget your muscles it stands to reason to target the largest muscle group in the body to get the best benefits and quicker results.

So what is the single best exercise for burning fat?
The humble squat.

Please check online the correct way to do them before performing these.

Try to include squats into your routing with or without weights two or three times a week, and as you build up your leg muscles you will relies you will burn more calories without even trying.
And the weight will stay off too.

PS also a great way to shape your booty as well as burn fat.

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Good luck with your fitness goals