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/

How to keep your face looking young without surgery.

How to keep your face looking young without surgery.




I may be going a bit off track with this post as I usually write about weight loss and training tips and how to lose belly fat.

But today I’m going to share with you a tip I picked up many years ago from a very old book I read in a library but for the life of me cannot remember the name.

Anyway this tip works just as well for men and women of any age and best of all does not cost anything yes it’s completely free.

Well here goes.

First every morning when you have your morning wash use hot water to wash your face.
Now you maybe saying what’s so original about that, well read on.

Please make sure you wash your hands using a mild soap first, then use water which is hot enough to bear but not uncomfortable.

Please use caution I do not want anybody to go out and burn themselves, this is just ordinary water from the hot tap, not boiled or treated in any way.

Just let it run until it is as hot as you can bear without burning yourself and bath your face five or six times just using your hands.

Now what this does is open up the pores and washes away the dead skin and trapped dirt just beneath
And acts like a mini sauna.

Now part two.

Run the cold tap until it is as cold as can be and then using your hands bath your face again five or six times.
This closes the pores and sort of forces your skin to contract making it feel tighter and glowing.

Then just moisturize as usual.

Simple isn’t it.

But trust me do this routine every morning and you will begin to see a more youth full and fresh glow to your complexion over time.

For the brave amongst you this works for all over body as well using the hot and cold on the shower unit.

Rodney

Copyright:

http://www.greatnnatural.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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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.
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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

A Type of Trans Fat That Burns Belly Fat?

A Type of Trans Fat That Burns Belly Fat?

As a Certified Nutrition Specialist, I usually shock people with this fact... it's true that there is a type of healthy natural trans fat that actually helps you to burn off abdominal fat.

Sounds far fetched, but it's true.

First of all, as I'm sure you've heard a million times by now, artificial trans fats in our food supply from hydrogenated oils are one of the most unhealthy foods (if you can actually call it suitable to eat) you can put in your body. Artificial trans fats cause everything from obesity to various cancers to heart disease, and more. They are pure evil, and everyone knows by now that this is a fact.

Stay away from artificial trans fats from hydrogenated oils at all costs!

However, what most people don't know is that there is a specific type of natural trans fat (yes, it occurs naturally) that can actually stimulate fat loss and lean muscle building.

This specific type of natural trans fat actually occurs in the meat and milk from ruminant animals such as cattle, goats, sheep, venison, bison, kangaroo, etc. It is called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and is not only known to help prevent cancer, but is also a potent fat burner.

CLA is highest when these animals are grass-fed instead of grain-fed.

Now before you think that you can just buy the CLA supplements that you'll see most supplement stores selling...

WARNING: Do not buy CLA supplements! The only form of healthy CLA is from grass-fed ruminant animals such as grass-fed beef, bison, lamb, etc. The CLA that's found in CLA pills is an artificially created form that is a different isomer than the natural CLA isomer found in grass-fed meat or dairy. The CLA isomer in the pills is NOT a healthy form, and will not benefit you.

Only the CLA that you get naturally from grass-fed ruminant meats actually has health benefits and can help increase fat burning (particularly from stomach fat) and building lean muscle, which helps increase your metabolism.

While most trans fats (the artificial ones) will just make you unhealthy and fat, now you know that there actually is such a thing as a healthy natural trans fat that makes you burn fat instead!

If you liked this unique tip to burn belly fat with grass fed meats, I have tons more Fat Burning Tips here to give you a leaner, healthier body.

Enjoy... and good luck on your lean healthy body!

Mike Geary
Author of the best-seller: The Truth about Six Pack Abs