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.

Get even more great tips here!

Crazy Belly Fat-Burning workout

Crazy Belly Fat-Burning Workout...

A uniquely different style of cardio combined with weight-training workout.
Burn belly fat fast with this crazy routine

 The Truth About Six-Pack Abs

When you get stuck and just cannot seem to shift those last stubbon traces of belly fat.

Then maybe it is time to shock your body and include these cool tips into your training routine.

Idea #1 - The weights / cardio high intensity 60 seconds combo workout...

This is a great unique way to structure your workouts and is great for breaking through a plateau and getting exciting new results.

Most people usually fit in their cardio workout at the end or beginning of their gym or home workout, or even dedicate a whole session to jogging, swimming, or whatever.

But if you are like me and find the whole cardio routine slow dull and boring,try these new tricks to liven things up and plus get two workouts for the price of one

Now the key to this workout is to alternate short 1-minute bursts of high intensity cardio work in between your usual weight training sets.

Now what this does is shock your body into increasing your metabolic rate by introducing something new, this in turn increases your fat burning rate dramatically

So for example, let's say that you're doing 4 sets of arm curls or 4 sets of bench press.... well, in between the weight training sets, you simply add in any type of cardio at a high intensity for 1 minute.

This 1 minute burst of cardio could be a 1 min blast at high speed on the treadmill, the bicycle or rowing machine at a high setting. You could even try grabbing a jump rope and banging out a super high speed intense 1 min of jump roping between sets.

So your routine would look something like this:

weight training set #1
1 minute high intensity cardio

weight training set #2
1 minute high intensity cardio

weight training set #3
1 minute high intensity cardio
etc, etc

new exercise weight training set #1
1 minute high intensity cardio

new exercise weight training set #2
1 minute high intensity cardioetc, etc

Now this is a very powerful technique but please note it is quite tough and not for the beginner.

But if you have been working out for a while and have hit a wall and just cannot seem to shift those last few pounds, then try this tip and you will be pleasantly surprised just how fast this really works.

Idea #2:  the "quirky pullup"...

I've tried this on many occasions to mix up my pullups to give me a harder variation as a challenge and to increase my results.

This type of pullup is only for advanced trainees that can already do at least 8-10 normal pullups or more per set.

What you do on this challenging style of pullup is use 2 small towels and wrap them around the bar at about shoulder width for each towel. The small "hand towel" size towels work best, as a large towel will make too large of a grip for grabbing onto for pullups.  You wrap each towel around the pullup bar so that at least 6-8 inches of towel are hanging below the pullup bar.

Then grip the towels as hard as you can (from the hanging towel sections below the bar) and start doing pullups.  You're basically only gripping the hanging towel and not the pullup bar itself.  You won't be able to do as many pullups as normal because of the tough grip, so do a few extra sets.

I can tell you... these are HARD pullups and challenge your grip immensely! Only try these if you are already very strong on pullups.  Great variation though to mix things up.

I hope you enjoyed these tips today and they help you get better workout results!

To get the full programme please check out http://www.getabsatlast.com/

 Ive found some more great tips also on this site http://www.greatnnatural.com/

The 2 Vital Secrets You Need for Losing Your Belly Fat for Good

The 2 Vital Secrets You Need for Losing Your Belly Fat for Good

I bet you're thinking that you've tried every technique in the world for losing your stubborn belly fat, but it just never seems to budge... right? I'm sure you see TONS of commercials and ads making all kinds of miracle claims for losing your belly fat overnight with their magic pill or wildly-hyped snake-oil supplement.

How about all of the bogus infomercial gadgets out there claiming you can shrink your stomach in a matter of days just by strapping some worthless "ab-belt" around your waist, or sizzle away the stomach fat by using their patented "ab-roller-rocker" do-hicky.
Come on now! I hope you've been insulted by all of these fraudulent marketers and the gimmicks and scams that they are pushing down your throat by trying to get you to believe that a fat-loss miracle is possible overnight.

So let's get past all of the scams and gimmicks and get right down to the hard science and reality behind what techniques and strategies really do help you for losing your stubborn belly fat and keeping it off for life!

1) The first important principle we'll discuss is how you structure your workouts. In order to stimulate fat-loss from your stomach, you need to stop wasting so much of your time doing all kinds of various abdominal exercises and hundreds of reps of crunches, leg lifts, and torso twists in the hopes of "spot-reducing" your belly and love handles.

I'm sure you know by now if you've read any reputable fitness publications over the last decade that spot-reduction DOES NOT occur. It's a myth that just won't seem to go away. The truth is, losing belly fat does NOT occur by doing exercises that target the stomach area. Unfortunately, even though most people by now do understand this (or at least they should), they still spend WAY too much of their training time trying to target the stomach with tons of abs exercises.
Now don't get me wrong, a certain amount of abdominals exercises are great and they do help to strengthen your core and help you maintain a healthy back. But the fact is that direct abs exercises should only be a small portion of your workout routines. The majority of your time should be spent focusing on big multi-joint exercises that work the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, chest, and back.

Now that is one of the REAL secrets for ridding yourself of that sloppy belly fat for good. Focusing on big multi-joint exercises for the largest portions of your body greatly increases your metabolic rate both during the workout, and for 24-48 hours after the workout. In addition, this also stimulates an increase in fat-burning hormones within your body. You simply don't get this type of metabolic and hormonal response by wasting most of your time with "abs-pumping" exercises.

Want to lose your belly fat the right way... Well, get your butt under a barbell and do some squats, some lunges, some deadlifts, step-ups, some back and chest work. For you ladies, don't worry...it's not going to "bulk you up".

It doesn't matter per se if it's barbells, dumbbells, or even bodyweight exercises... the focus needs to be on big multi-joint exercises at a high intensity. That means no 5-minute rest periods between sets while you flap your gums with half of the people at the gym. Losing that stubborn belly for good requires some focus and intensity in your workouts! Anybody who tells you that you can do it while sitting on your couch watching TV with some "ab-belt" strapped to you, or doing only 2-minutes of crunching with your "ab-rocker-roller" is flat out lying to you!

2) The second important principle to rid yourself of that flabby belly revolves around your nutrition. The first thing you need to realize is that "diets" only work against your body in your effort to lose the stomach fat. You see, if you follow any of these fad diets like extremely low-carb, or low-fat, or the grapefruit diet, the soup diet, or anything else that restricts 1 or more of the macro-nutrients (protein, carbs, and fat), most of the time you will actually lose lean muscle and lower your metabolic rate. This only makes you fatter in the long run, when you start to eat normal again!
I could go into all kinds of details, but essentially you are messing up processes related to your hormonal balance in your body, the muscle glycogen process, insulin, blood sugar, etc., and this stops your fat loss dead in its tracks!
It's important to stop falling for the fad diet gimmicks, and understand that as humans, we are meant to eat a balanced diet full of a diverse array of foods from healthy natural sources of carbohydrates, proteins, AND fats. This gives your body all of the macro-nutrients as well as all of the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes that your body needs to run like a well-oiled fat-burning machine!

I could go on and on with dozens more strategies for losing your belly fat faster, the natural way, but I've rambled on long enough for one article. You can find all of my best fat-loss strategies to help you uncover those hidden abdominals of yours, laid out into actual programs for you to follow in my Truth about Six Pack Abs Program for

Losing Belly Fat

If you've been thinking of getting a copy of The Truth about Six Pack Abs Program, but just haven't made the move yet, now is the time to take action, and get started on your lean ripped flat stomach today!

Secret List of fat burning foods

List of Best Fat Burning Foods.




There are many foods which can aid the body in the natural fat burning process.
But before we get to the list of fat burning foods, it is important to understand the reasons we accumulate fat in the first place.

The process of fat accumalatation


A body needs food for acquiring the energy to feed/sustain its cells and for performing internal and external functions.

The energy present in a food can be measured loosely in terms of “calories”. The more calories that are present in a food, the more fuel/energy that the body can get from it. The body also needs to expend energy in order to digest the foods to get energy from them – so a small percentage of old fuel is burnt off in the process of acquiring new fuel.

The harder the food is to digest the more energy is expended by the body to digest it.

Macro-nutrients and their calories – There are three macro-nutrients, or fuel units, that can be present in a food – Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat. Fact, 1g of protein yields 4 calories, 1g of carbohydrate yields 4 calories and 1g of fat yields 9 calories. So basically fats can provide more (double) calories to the body compared to the other two nutrient units.

But please refrain from coming to the conclusion that fats are bad for you, they are not. Many healthy fats are essential for the harmonious functioning of the body and foods that provide these fats need to be an integral part of your diet.
The process of fat deposition in the body – When you consume foods, the body gets the fuel in the form of carbohydrates, proteins or fats. It starts generating energy from these fuels through the process of digestion and assimilation.

The body uses up a part of the fuel to fulfill its sustenance, and functional, requirements and the excess fuel is stored up eventually in the form of “Fat” in the “fat cells” of your body, some amount of fat is also stored around the kidneys and in the liver.


The reason for the “Flab” – One important point to understand is that a human body, under normal conditions, has “limited” fat cells and there is a limit to how much fat can be stored up in these cells. Once these cells reach their limit, the fats start getting stored up in muscle linings.

Fat cells are usually present in the regions of your chest, waist and hips. As more fats get deposited in these cells, the larger they grow in size and this enlargement is what shows up as flab around the chest, waist and hip regions in men and women. Once the fat cells reach the limit of their expansion, the fats start getting stored in the muscle linings of arms and thighs creating flabbiness in these limbs also.

How can foods help burn fat in the body?


Once you understand the process of fat deposition, you would question as to how a food can ever help in burning fat when it’s a source of calorie, and hence a possible source of fat creation rather than fat reduction. It’s true that all foods can be a possible sources of fat creation, but certain foods can help burn fat or reduce fat in the following ways.

• Some foods contain certain vitamins or minerals that help improve the metabolism, and improve the fat burning capacity, of the body and act as virtual fat burners.

• Some foods contain less calories while requiring more complex digestion and assimilation causing the expenditure of energy and thus acting as virtual calorie burners

• Some foods create a sense of satiation even when consumed in small amounts while also being low of calories

• Certain means of cooking reduces the calorie profile of the food and thus helps in reduce fat creation.

Eating these foods, in the right quantities, over a period of time will ensure that the fat profile starts reducing. When we talk about burning fat it also includes foods that help reduce the possibility of new fat creation, because this would indirectly help you burn fat at a faster pace through your activities (like
exercising).

A list of practical foods for burning fat (and reducing fat deposition)
A lot of people try to starve their nutrition in a bid to reduce fat. This approach can have spurious effects on the harmony of the body and is not a wise or healthy way to reduce fat.

The right way to reduce fats would be to eat foods that reduce the possibility of further fat deposition, or foods that assist in burning fats, while also taking up calorie-burning exercises (like aerobics, yoga and resistance/weight training) to use up the past-stored fat in your body. So here’s a compiled list of some easily available foods that can help in this process of burning fats or reducing the fat profile of your body.

Citrus Fruits


I would rank these as the best fat burning foods around. Eating a breakfast of citrus fruits, or other Vitamin C rich fruits, is one the best ways to start reducing the fat profile of your body. Citrus fruits provide the body with easy energy to hike up its metabolism while also supplying a rich amount of Vitamin C which is scientifically known to help burn fat as it’s a vital chemical used by the body in the process of fat metabolism.

Some citrus fruits you can try are Oranges, Kiwi fruit, Grape fruit, Tangerines, Kumquats, Clementine and Fresh Lime. While fruits like Strawberries, Apples, Tomatoes, Plums, Grapes, Cherries, Raspberries, are also good sources of vitamin C. Depending on your budget, and fruit availability, try to use a mix of these fruits for your breakfast to combine health with taste. You can also try out a “citrus fruit only” breakfast for a few weeks to see how effectively it helps in burning fat around your waist and hips. I’ve personally seen excellent results with this method of eating a fruit only breakfast.

Fruits in general are excellent foods for fat reduction because they are natural, they are rich in vitamins & minerals, high in water content and low on calories compared to refined foods. Fruits are known to improve body metabolism and reduce bad cholesterol. Papaya, bananas, mangoes, sapote, pomegranates and blueberries make for excellent snack foods as well as breakfast foods.

Oats


The benefit of eating cereals like Oats is that they contain a huge proportion of their calorie profile in terms of insoluble fiber. This insoluble fiber not only gives you a feeling of satiation and thus keeps you from feeling hungry for a long time but also does not contribute to any calorie addition to the body. In fact, any foods that contain a good amount of insoluble fiber would help you in the process of reducing the fat profile of the body. Raisin and Barn cereal is another good example of breakfast food that’s rich in insoluble fiber, so is cooked barley.

Vegetables

Except for certain calorie rich vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams, most other vegetables have a low calorie profile while containing essential minerals and vitamin that improve the metabolism of the body. When you eat potatoes, if possible, cook them with their skin on because their skin is a good source of insoluble fiber. Veggies like broccoli, spinach, artichoke, lima beans, peas, cabbage and carrots are excellent sources of minerals while being low on calories. Veggies don’t contain fats either and their carbohydrate count is very low (even compared to fruits).
Cucumbers are excellent as a salad food, low on calories and rich in water content.
The best way to cook veggies would be to boil them or stir fry them with healthy oils like olive oil, sunflower oil, Soybean oil or sesame oil.

Lentils


These foods, also known as edible pulses, are not only filling and nutritious (in terms of minerals) but are also low on calories and rich in plant proteins/amino-acids. In countries like India, it’s very traditional to have lentil soups, broth and gravies with breads (wheat rotis) and rice. You can also make several food items using the flour of ground lentils. They are excellent sources of dietary fiber and are known to lower the bad-cholesterol (and thus contribute to heart health).

Poultry

If you are a non-vegetarian it would be a good option to eat more poultry than red meats. Poultry like chicken are low on fats and carbohydrates while have a good protein profile. Proteins are not only more complex to digest & assimilate (and thus require a higher expenditure of energy) but they also require more energy to be stored as fats. Go in for lean cuts and avoid eating the skin of the poultry as it contains a lot of fat. Red meats, or white meats, from lamb, beef or pork, can be consumed in moderate quantities a few times a week, instead of eating them regularly in your diet, because they have a high fat profile (but these meat are a good source of minerals and proteins that can assist in the over-all health of the body when consumed in moderation).

Eggs

An average adult can consume one or two eggs a day (whole eggs with yolk) and obtain necessary protein and minerals from it while also keep a low calorie profile. Eggs are not high on calories and are also low on unhealthy fats. The possibility of a variety of food preparations using eggs make them ideal as snack foods as well as regular meal foods. It’s been found, in many studies, that eggs don’t contribute to increasing your bad cholesterol profile but can serve to improve your good cholesterol (necessary for a healthy body) when eaten in moderation.

Almonds and walnuts

These are excellent snack foods and can help you feel satiated with just a fistful of these nuts. These nuts are a great source of healthy fats. It has been seen that people who don’t consume healthy fats are more likely to gain weight than people who do. This is the reason why it’s very imprudent to eliminate healthy fats from your diet in a bid to reduce weight. Remember that healthy fats are needed for a harmonious functioning of the body because most of the body’s cell structure is made from these fats.

Salmon

Fish is a good source of protein and healthy fats (rich in omega-3, omega-6 fatty acids), and makes for a great lunch or dinner meal. Salmon, mackerel, trout and tuna are not only tasty but are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids while also being low on calories and saturated fat content.

Water

Though water would not count as a food, because it has no calories, it would need to mentioned that water helps improve the over-all metabolism of the body and thus helps burn fat. And of course, water helps flush out toxins and thus improves the capacity of the body to stay healthy. Certain foods are rich in their water content and thus help in the process of fat reduction (also foods rich in water content make you feel satiated quickly), some examples are water melons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, snake gourd, papaya and chard.

The benefit of eating these water rich foods is that they supply minerals (electrolytes) along with water and hence do not cause “water intoxication” which can results from drinking too much water while not balancing out the minerals (especially during work outs).

In conclusion

Whole foods are better than refined or processed foods when it comes to reducing the fat profile of the body. If there is a choice between a processed foods (like pastries, pizza, pasta etc) and whole foods (like milk, eggs, chicken, vegetables and fruits), make it your second nature to make a bee-line for the latter. You can use the list of fat burning foods, given above, to come up with ideas for your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks on a daily basis to keep it enjoyable and healthy at the same time. Of course, don’t be hard on yourself – it’s totally okay to eat/drink foods that you like (that may not be totally healthy) once in a while in moderation, just don’t overdo it and make sure you workout or exercise to burn off the excess calories.

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.



Get your copy now

Why Are women Wary of lifting weights?

I have been training with weights for the past twenty years.

And some of the best leanest female physiques I have seen in the gym (not that they caught me looking) were from the women who were not afraid to lift heavy weights.




The fact is there is some urban myth amongst women that if you so much as look at a weight you will become heavy and muscular and masculine looking.

This could not be further from the truth.

The female bodybuilders who compete in the muscle category have to train everyday and take numerous supplements and hormones to achieve that look which 99% of average women could never achieve.
The fact is the benefits of including a weight program once or twice a week into your training regime are vast.

Despite the universally acknowledged health benefits of resistance training (and there are scores, from reducing blood pressure to warding off arthritis and strengthening bones, muscle, and connective tissue), of the 12.7 million women who belonged to a commercial health club last year, only about half used weight machines and only one-third lifted free weights, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). Although those numbers are up slightly from four years ago,but they're still low.
.
That's why experts want to get the message out that weight training -- even just two times a week -- is an essential part of the total wellness package. "We need to make it clearer that for both optimal health and fitness benefits, women especially need to do a combo of aerobic and strength training on a regular basis," says Dixie Stanforth, a lecturer in kinesiology at the University of Texas. Here, surprising new research on how weight training can change your body, boost your mood, even keep you looking younger.

How Strength Training Fights Aging, Boosts Mood, and Burns Fat
There are literally hundreds of studies published each year expounding on the payoffs of resistance training. Researcher William Kraemer, PhD, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, has authored dozens touting the benefits for women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Some of the benefits, like improving muscle tone, bone density, athletic performance, and strength (about 30 to 50 percent more after three to six months of training), are obvious.
But there are a few surprises: Resistance training helps women fight the aging process by maintaining lean muscle tissue. Women who regularly lift weights have better self-esteem and get sick less often. Others have found weight training improves the way the body processes sugar, reducing the risk of diabetes.

For women who want to lose weight or prevent weight gain (and most of us fall into one camp or the other), strength training is key: In our mid-30s, we begin to lose 5 to 10 percent of muscle strength each decade. Since muscle burns an estimated three times more calories than fat, adding two to four pounds of muscle can translate into an extra 100 calories burned each day. A high-intensity strength routine has been shown to bump metabolism by 20 percent for several hours post-workout.

Couple weight training with cardio and the benefits are exponential. One study found that women who did 25 minutes of step classes plus a total-body resistance routine for 12 weeks significantly reduced their resting heart rate, body-fat percentage, and blood pressure, and increased their strength and endurance significantly more than those who only did aerobics.

Finally, there's the reality that when you have more strength, many of the daily demands of life -- from picking up a child to carrying armloads of groceries -- are simply easier.
In fact in conclusion I would go so far as to say every woman who wants a tight toned body should give weight training a try.
The results may surprise you and trust me you will not end up looking like a she hulk.

http://www.getabsatlast.com/

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

Does Canned Food and Bottled Water Increase Your Abdominal Fat Through Hidden Chemicals?

...and 9 Tips to Minimize Your Exposure to these Harmful Chemicals

by Mike Geary - Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-selling program - The Truth About 6-Pack Abs

You may have started hearing in the news about some of the hidden chemicals that might be lurking in your canned foods and bottled water and other drinks. Some of them are known as xenoestrogens, which have the potential to cause serious health problems over time, as well as increase abdominal fat from the estrogenic effect.

Today, I want to share with you some important details about one of the MOST problematic chemicals that you're being exposed to specifically from canned foods and bottled drinks, etc...

It's called Bisphenol A (BPA).

BPA can be found as a component of some types of plastic bottles, and also in the lining inside of canned foods.

Since BPA is a known "xenoestrogen", it's been linked in animal studies (at surprisingly small doses) to all sorts of various health issues such as cancer, metabolic disorders, heart disease, diabetes, and fertility problems and birth defects or miscarriages... and of course, any xenoestrogens in large enough amounts can trigger your body to hold onto abdominal fat (aka - stubborn belly fat).

The major offenders to look for are polycarbonate bottles (some plastics with the #7 symbol on the bottom are polycarbonate, but not all) and also canned foods, since the lining of most canned foods contains BPA, which can leach into food. The longer that a can of food sits on a shelf and the higher the temperature, the more BPA can leach into your food. The same can be said for polycarbonate bottles that contain food or drinks.

According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), BPA was detected in the bodies of 95% of Americans in one CDC study (this is a worldwide issue though, not just limited to the US). This is nothing to shrug off either... look at this scary finding...

The Environmental Working Group reports, "analysis of our tests reveals that for one of every five cans tested, and for one-third of all vegetables and pastas (ravioli and noodles with tomato sauce), a single serving would expose a pregnant woman to BPA at levels that fall within a factor of 5 of doses linked to birth defects — permanent damage of developing male reproductive organs".

If that didn't get your attention, how about this...

The EWG also reports evidence of... "An investigation demonstrating that low doses of BPA spur both the formation and growth of fat cells, the two factors that drive obesity in humans (Masumo et al. 2002)."

This is not surprising, since as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, BPA is a known xenoestrogen, and any xenoestrogens can contribute to what's been referred to as "stubborn abdominal fat" as well as cancer and other health problems.

It's also important to note that any canned tomato products (canned ravioli, pastas, canned tomato pastes, tomato sauces, etc) are some of the biggest offenders with the highest BPA concentrations due to the acidic nature of tomatoes, which leaches more of the BPA.

So what steps can you take to minimize your exposure to BPA and it's negative effects on bodyfat and other health risks?

1. Try to always avoid canned foods as much as possible and choose frozen or fresh foods instead. Buy the ingredients yourself and prepare the meal the old fashioned way instead of resorting to canned foods. Also, a better alternative to canned foods is products in glass containers.

2. If you do resort to using canned foods instead of fresh foods, try to find labels that say that the cans are free of BPA.

3. If you need tomato products, always avoid canned varieties and search for tomato sauces, pastes, etc in glass bottles instead (unless the can specifically states that it is BPA-free). Or just make your own tomato dishes from scratch with fresh tomatoes.

4. If you use plastic wrap, plastic ziplock bags, plastic containers for food storage, etc, try to investigate on the label if the product is BPA-free or not. Some brands packaging will label if their products are BPA-free.

5. If you for some reason choose to use a microwave with your food (which by the way, microwaved food is thought to have negative health effects), then by all means, do not microwave the food in plastic containers as it can increase the leaching of chemicals including BPA.

6. If you drink bottled water, or water from reusable plastic bottles, make sure that it is not a polycarbonate bottle, or make sure that the label says BPA-free. Plastic that shows #7 on the bottom will sometimes contain BPA, but not always. If a bottle shows "PC" on the bottom, it is made from polycarbonate, so it will contain BPA. In addition, sometimes aluminum bottles will contain a lining that has BPA, so avoid these.

7. Avoid soda cans, as the EWG states analysis showed that 42% of soda cans contained BPA. Of course, if you care about your health and your body, I'm sure you never drink soda anyway -- it's pure evil for your body... and yes, that includes unhealthy diet soda too, with it's dangerous artificial sweeteners.

8. Never use plastic cups for hot liquids such as hot tea or coffee, as this can accelerate leaching of BPA and other chemicals, depending on the type of plastic.

9. As much as you can try to avoid BPA and other xenoestrogens, you will most likely still be exposed to some levels of xenoestrogens from various chemicals in your foods (from pesticide/herbicide residues, packaging chemicals, etc), chemicals in your water supply, chemicals from cosmetics, lotions, etc.

However, you can help to protect yourself and counteract these harmful xenoestrogen chemicals in your body with certain powerful phytonutrients in foods like onions, garlic, chamomile and green teas, and cruciferious vegetables. In fact, read this article to see how 3 specific veggies can help you to fight abdominal fat by counteracting xenoestrogens.

If you stick to most of these guidelines, you can help to protect yourself and your family from the health dangers of bisphenol-A (BPA). And you can also help protect yourself against the issue of "stubborn abdominal fat" that can be caused by the xenoestrogen effect of BPA exposure too... which I'm sure you'd rather avoid!

http://www.getabsatlast.com/

The Salad Dressing You Should NEVER Eat -- and my Alternative Super-Healthy Recipe

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

If you want to eat truly healthy, support your fat loss goals, and avoid some of the nasty additives in processed food, one thing you should eliminate is typical store-bought salad dressing.

I personally NEVER buy pre-made salad dressings from the store anymore, and here's why:

1. Almost all store-bought salad dressings contain fairly large amounts of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Unless you're in a health food store, it's almost impossible to find a salad dressing that doesn't contain large amounts of HFCS.

2. Almost all store-bought salad dressings contain heavily refined soybean oil and/or refined canola oil... both of which are VERY unhealthy. Yes, that's correct, canola oil IS unhealthy, despite the marketing propaganda you've been fed claiming that it's healthy. You can read more about why canola oil is NOT healthy here.

Due to the refining process of both soybean or canola oils, the polyunsaturated component of the oils is oxidized and makes these oils very inflammatory inside your body. In addition, soybean oil is WAY too high in omega-6 fatty acids which throws your omega-6 to omega-3 balance out of whack.

We know that olive oil is healthier, but when it comes to store-bought dressings... Even salad dressings that claim to be "made with olive oil" on the FRONT label are deceptive, because if you read the ingredients on the BACK label, they are almost ALWAYS made of mostly refined soybean oil or canola oil as the main oil, with only a very small amount of actual olive oil as a secondary oil.

So here's how to avoid all of these horrendously unhealthy store-bought salad dressings and make your own quick and easy SUPER-healthy dressing...

My Quick and Easy Recipe for Super-Healthy Salad Dressing

Geary's Healthy-Fat Blend Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Fill your salad dressing container with these approximate ratios of liquids:

•1/3rd of container filled with balsamic vinegar
•1/3rd of container filled with apple cider vinegar
•fill the remaining 1/3rd of container with equal parts of extra virgin olive oil and "Udo's Choice EFA Oil Blend"
•Add just a small touch (approx 1 or 2 teaspoons) of real maple syrup
•Add a little bit of onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper and then shake the container to mix all ingredients well.
This homemade salad dressing mixture is delicious and healthy, and I pretty much never get tired of it!

The reason I choose to blend the extra virgin olive oil half & half with the Udo's Choice Oil is that they make up for what each lacks... Although extra virgin olive oil is healthy and contains important antioxidants, it is mostly monounsaturated, and is low in the essential fatty acids (EFAs). The Udo's Choice Oil is higher in unrefined polyunsaturated oils with a good healthy balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids.

There are several variations of the Udo's Choice Oil, and one of them (labeled DHA 3-6-9 Blend) even contains a DHA algae oil blended into the mix along with organic flax oil, coconut oil, evening primrose oil, rice bran oil, oat germ and bran oil, and a few others.

Overall, blending Udo's Oil with extra virgin olive oil makes nearly a perfect oil blend for salad dressings with a great taste and maximum health benefits. If you can't find Udo's Choice Oil Blends (you can find Udo's at almost any health food store), there are other EFA oil blends on the market...just make sure that they are COLD-processed to protect the EFAs. You should never heat an EFA oil blend!

Give this homemade super-healthy salad dressing a try! You'll do your body a favor by avoiding the harmful additives in store-bought salad dressings.

Enjoy!

http://www.getabsatlast.com/

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!

Check out the best selling abs programme on the web today.

http://www.getabsatlast.com/

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.

http://www.getabsatlast.com/

Good luck with your fitness goals