Strengthening your abs is very important for building washboard abs. It is also very important for overall body building since strong abs are the basis for a strong spine. They protect the centre of the body as well the organs of the body from crumbling. When targeting the abs, it is important to target all parts of the abs and not just focus on one part.

Following are the 4 easiest and most effective ab strengthening exercises that you can include in your routine. And, you can also use a Flex Belt along with the following exercises for faster effect.

Ball crunches

For this exercise, you need to position the ball under your back and lie on it, with your feet placed on the floor. Put your hands on the sides of your head or on chest, and lift your torso off the ball using the abdominal muscles. Then fall back on the ball slowly. This exercise is very effective since it focuses completely on the abs to lift the body up. This exercise is excellent for strengthening the ab muscles as well as working on the rectus abdominus.

Vertical legs crunch

Lie on a mat with legs crossed at the knee and raised straight up. Place your hands behind your head. Pull your torso up, as if trying to touch your legs with the chest. Flex the stomach and abdominal muscles towards the bottom of the floor. Hold and release. It is important to not pull your torso by pushing the neck with your hands, or to pull yourself up using your arms. This exercise focuses on the obliques or sides of the abdomen. Since they also focus completely on the abs, they are good for giving it strength.

Bicycle exercise

The bicycle exercise is an extremely popular workout for building and strengthening abs. It focuses on lower back and obliques. Lie on the mat with hands touching the two sides of the head. Bring your folded knees up to your chest and bring your body up. Now air paddle bringing the right knee toward the outstretched left elbow and left knee toward the right elbow. This exercise has been widely recognized to contribute to core strength training, as well as building a six-pack. Since the exercise involves bicycling motion it is called as bicycle exercise. The twisting also helps lose weight from the waist and tone up the obliques. To know more on how to lose tummy fat, click here.

Using the torso track machine

Using the torso track machine could be tricky if you have a bad lower back. Otherwise, it is a very effective exercise for training the abs. You need to sit on all fours, on your arms and knees on the torso track. You must roll the front wheel out as high as you can, without moving your legs. Hold the position and then slowly come back to the starting position. The same exercise could be performed using a simple wheel found in all fitness stores.

Building abs is not very easy, but if you have strong abdomen, then the rest of your body can easily take care of itself. Six-packs is the most coveted part of a body, and following these simple exercises will easily enable you to get one.

To make the most out of your weight loss program, finding the most effective ways to

burn fat will maximize your results and minimize your waistline! Follow these 10

tips to burn fat, if you want to lose weight and live a healthier life.

1) Drink more water

One of the best fat loss secrets is to ditch soft drinks and stay with water!

Experts say you should drink eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated and

healthy. Instead of resorting to load of drinks high in sugar calories, grab a glass

of water. In addition to flushing toxins from your system, drinking water encourages

you to build muscle.

2.) Eat more meals

The traditional three meals a day just will not cut it up, if you are on the market to burn fat. Your body is capable of metabolic meals quickly and the excess into fat. Many experts believe that you should eat six small meals a day. Make sure that you have to cut the consumption of foods at each meal, otherwise you will be doubling and doubling the intake of fat storage!

3.) Working with weights

A great way to maximize the amount of fat you burn is a program to add weight to

your routine work. Weight training will not only tone your physique, but it will

strengthen your body and improve your overall health. Lifting weights will also burn

calories and fat faster than traditional training, and it will also increase your

metabolism.

4) Select protein

Foods loaded with protein improve your metabolism and allows the body to burn fat

fast. In addition to burning fat, consuming a protein-enriched diet will help you

build the muscle after work outs and maintain the subtlety of that muscle. Wisely

choose proteins for your diet. Be careful to choose low-fat protein so as not to

consume excess calories.

5). Cut Calories wisely

It may be tempting to drastically reduce your calorie intake when you start a

healthy life. Instead, use a step method when cutting your calorie intake to

minimize risk. Reducing calories too quickly results in your body rapidly burning

all available calories, which will lower your metabolism. In addition, you are more

likely to maintain your healthy lifestyle through this step method.

6) Reward yourself

When it comes to dieting successfully to burn more fat, be sure to reward yourself.

Everyone has temptations and favorite treats – so permit indulgence. You are less

likely to cheat on a new diet, if you give yourself small rewards. If you are a

chocolate lover, treat yourself to a small square of chocolate or single chocolate

kiss each evening.

7) Avoid exercises Marathon

The biggest mistake people make when trying to burn fat and lose weight is to have

one long, extensive work out session, rather, break the work out plan into small

chunks throughout the day. Take a walk in the morning, enjoy a session at noon, then

do more exercise in the evening. In addition to staying active throughout the day,

cut their work better than keeping your metabolism.

Mix It Up

Choose to participate in a wide variety of quality exercises will keep your interest

and best allow you to maintain your goal to burn fat. Instead of doing the same

exercises each day, the mix! Choose one day to swim, jog another, and the bike the

next day. Rotating your activities will not only allow you to discover a wide

variety of athletics, it will also allow you to better tone your body.

9.) Happy Hour Go

For people who want to burn fat quickly, avoid alcohol. Rich in sugars and

carbohydrates, alcohol is a substance rich in calories. These empty calories can

quickly add and remove nutrients that should be included in your daily diet. Alcohol

also acts as an inhibitor of burning fat, allowing your body to store more quickly.

10.) Try a low GI diet

A low GI diet is an excellent way to burn fat fast. This diet encourages people who

consume high amounts of foods low on the glycemic index. These foods are nutritious

and help the body burn fat and calories at a faster pace. This diet includes many of

your favorite fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products and cereals.

Get a free pdf that reveal how I was able drastically lose 51 pounds in 4 months

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So today, I’ve got a kettlebell expert for you by the name of Chris Lopez (he’s an RKC, which is basically means a certified kettlebell instructor) to run you through a couple of very cool drills using a single kettlebell.  You’ll find those videos below  – just click on the link and they’ll open up in the appropriate video player on your computer.

And one quick note, if you’re interested in a full at-home kettlebell fat-loss program put together by Chris, definitely check out his Kettlebell Revolution program now – I’ve got a copy of it and it’s excellent stuff.  Chris is a great instructor and will run you through everything you need to know to get GREAT results with your kettlebell training. 

You can right-click and choose “save video as” or “save target as” to download these if they don’t show up when you click them.

Chris Lopez Kettlebell Complex 1

Chris Lopez Kettlebell Complex 2

So those are the two drills you can do with your kettlebell(s). In Chris’ Kettlebell Revolution program, he’ll take you through a TON more stuff just like this.  It’s very well put together and if you’re interested in learning more about how to use kettlebells to change your body, it’s definitely worth picking up.

MW: Ya my boss is a real jerk. No, I’m just kidding, I’m my own boss. Most people don’t even know that’s my site. I’m kind of coming out from behind the curtain so to speak to share some workouts I’ve been experimenting with lately.

NN: What exactly do you mean by Hybrid?

MW: It’s pretty cool because it has a double meaning in this case. The general definition of “hybrid” is combining two or more different things. In this case we want to take the best of several training philosophies in order to accomplish multiple goals at one time.

We also have what’s been called the “Hybrid Muscle” which is really what Lean Hybrid Muscle Building is all about.

NN: Okay Mike I’ll take the bait, what the heck is a “Hybrid Muscle”?

MW: When talking about “super hybrid muscle,” we’re referring to a muscle that has essentially been reconfigured, adding mitochondrial density, which results in a bigger stronger muscle with more endurance capacity. This is accomplished by combining cardio and strength training into a single activity.

I learned a lot about hybrid super muscle through the book The Purposeful Primitive, written by Marty Gallagher. It’s one of my all time favorite books.

By combining cardio and resistance activities it causes the composition of muscles to transform from predominately type II or type IIb into Type III. By doing this, we are able to push “beyond our genetic limits”.

Having more mitochondria in the muscle cells means that more nutrients can be processed, giving the muscles the ability to work considerably harder for longer periods. They’re also able to grow larger and are able to resist getting tired for longer periods.

NN: Type III muscle? Did you make that up or are you claiming to have invented a new muscle fiber?

MW: I wish I could take credit for that, but no. After reading Marty’s book I started my research and learned that a lot of guys have been preaching this stuff for a while. It’s nothing new. It’s just something a lot of people haven’t heard about.

Early adaptors of this theory included Dr. Len Schwartz who in 1995 coined the phrase “Long Strength”. Dr. Schwartz describes Long strength as “the ability to exert significant strength for an extended period of time.”

John Parrillo-the second proponent of long strength-began having his bodybuilders doing really high intensity cardio. He claimed that doing this actually altered the muscle composition. He called this form a resistance training the “100 rep extended set,” saying that it helped the body to construct more mitochondria-the muscles’ “cellular blast furnaces.” He also says that this increases muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles.

Ori Hofmekler is the third early adopter of the long strength concept. Ori developed a weight training system that he called, “Controlled Fatigue Training.” According to Ori, this type of training was specifically designed to develop these super hybrid muscles-ones that were capable of generating and sustaining strength for extended periods.

NN: How would one go about building this super hybrid muscle fiber?

MW: For starters, you can look to the ancient warrior cultures-the Spartans, the Vikings and the Gladiators-and learn from them. Remember that all of the training they did was in preparation for the battles ahead. In other words, they were training for functionality rather than aesthetics, meaning that their training routines would have incorporated activities that simultaneously developed both strength and endurance.

Today, to build Hybrid Super Muscle we can start by engaging in aerobic activities that have a strong element of resistance.

NN: That reminds me, you wrote a report called, The Warrior Physique. What’s that about and where can the readers grab a copy?

MW: That was a fun one to write. Having a Swedish background I’ve always been interested in the Viking culture.

It’s no secret that our ancestors were physically, in much better shape than overall, we are today. For ordinary people, their day-to-day lives were much more physically demanding than ours. Back in the day if you wanted to eat you had to go hunting or catch some fish. Everything was functional. In today’s world most of us are subject to the triple seated threat as I like to call it-sitting at our computers, sitting in the car or sitting on the couch.

In this report we’ll explore how some of this planet’s all-time greatest elite warriors of the past developed some legendary physiques.

Right click here and choose “save target as” to download that report now!

NN: So, does this all mean you have a problem with cardio machines?

MW: Not really. If you want to add some resistance to your cardio machines just put the treadmill on an incline. There are numerous ways to make cardio machines “hybrid”.

There’s nothing wrong with regular cardio on exercise equipment. I just think training the hybrid way can be a big time saver. I mean who has time to do a 45-minute workout with the weights just to go pedal on the bike for an additional 45 minutes.

I live in Florida so I’m fortunate that I can go for a walk outdoors any time I want. Sunlight and fresh air can do some wonders for your hormone levels.

Cardio machines have their place. Hybrid cardio just provides a faster more entertaining alternative for some people.

NN: How did you wind up partnering up with Pro Strongman Elliott Hulse in creating this system?

Elliott’s an awesome guy. We’ve become really good friends. I like that we have similar values and he’s someone I can count on.

A while ago I tweaked my back doing some powerlifting and I knew Elliott owned a sports training gym in St. Pete, FL. I paid him a visit and he helped me rehab my back.

We just had a lot in common. We actually played football against each other in college without knowing it and we both compete in strength sports.

The thing we really had in common is that w had both put on some un-needed body fat during our quest for strength. (Okay a lot.)

We both wanted to lose fat extremely fast, but didn’t want to sacrifice one ounce of muscle or strength. We knew this was going to be a challenge and something that most people would say is impossible.

Elliott is a beast. I think it’s good that I’m there to tone him down sometimes. He’s the outspoken motivational coach and I’m more laid back and shy at times.

NN: I’ve seen videos from Elliott’s underground gym. If someone is going to do the Lean Hybrid Muscle program, do they need all that fancy strongman equipment?

MW: Nope. That’s a common misconception. We’re fortunate to have access to a lot of cool training tools but I don’t expect someone living in a NYC apartment to store a 600 pound tire…lol.

If the weekly workout includes any specialty equipment there are always exercises that you can substitute or swap out.

NN: What about a gym membership…is this a gym workout or a home workout?

MW: It can be either. There’s a big trend, where people are trying to save time and money by working out at home. Some people simply prefer training outdoors.

Personally I do some workouts at home and some at the gym. You can do this program at the gym, at home or a combination of the two.

NN: Mike, your results were pretty amazing. Do you guarantee this is going to work for everyone that tries it? In 8-weeks you dropped 12% body fat and stayed the same weight. The pics look like night and day. And dude, what’s up with the swimmers cap and speedo, we didn’t need to see that!

MW: Haha. First of all, that thing in the background is a Bod Pod and it took my bodyfat measurement. They made me wear the hat and the speedos….trust me I’m not a fan of that picture either and it definitely motivated me to make a change!

Do I guarantee results? No, I don’t. I have no control over whether or not you’ll do the workouts. Whether or not you’ll get the sleep you need and supply your body with the fuel it needs to transform.

Plus everyone is different. I’m not going to say this is the only way to train. I just know that it worked wonders for me. It worked for Elliott. And it worked for dozens of his clients at his gym. Will it work for you? Probably. If you get even half the results, would you be happy?

NN: How is Lean Hybrid Muscle Training different than Cross Fit, some of the videos look similar?

MW: Cross Fit is a great training style. I respect the discipline and think they have some great workouts. From what I’ve read about Cross Fit it focuses on stamina, flexibility, speed, agility, balance, cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, coordination, and accuracy.

The rest intervals are very short and the workouts are fast and often. What I like about Cross Fit is that it incorporates resistance cardio which I’m all for.

However I had a goal of not just dropping weight and fat, but also wanted to build muscle mass and build my strength.

Sure, Lean Hybrid Muscle Building and Cross Fit may use some of the same exercises but they are done with different rest periods, volume and intensity. Just like a bodybuilder and a powerlifter may both perform the bench press, but how they perform that lift is very different from each other.

Lean Hybrid Muscle Building is cross-disciplinary like Cross Fit but it has a much greater emphasis on gaining strength and muscle mass than Cross Fit does.

In summary Cross Fit is an excellent training program that can produce great results, but I think it’s better suited for goals of conditioning, toning or developing agility, speed and endurance. If that’s your goal, go with Cross Fit.

On the other hand, if you want to get lean while building strong powerful muscles than Lean Hybrid Muscle Building is a clear winner in my book.

NN: If you had access to any equipment, what would your 3 favorite hybrid exercises be?

MW:

1. Well I love kettlebell circuits.

Similar to EDT by Charles Staley I try to make it through this circuit five times. Next time I do the workout, I want to beat my previous time. This is great for conditioning. For this is resistance cardio at its finest. It’s a nice break from my heavier strength building days to avoid overtraining.

KB Snatches: 5 reps per arm

KB Clean & Press: 5 reps per arm

KB Lunges: 5 reps per leg

KB Squats: 10 reps

KB One Armed Rows: 10 reps per arm

KB Two Handed Swings: 20 reps

Remember you have to make it through this 5x’s so don’t start off with a really heavy kettlebell.

2. Tire Flips

If there ever was an exercise that trains the entire body, from your ass to your elbow, it’s tire flipping. Getting your hands on one is easier than you think. Tire companies have to pay to get rid of them so they’ll be glad to give them to you. Storing them is another issue though.

3. Sledge Hammer Slams

Nick I know you’re into using heavier weight when you train your abs. Well this is a killer. This exercise helps build explosive torso strength and power. To do this exercise you’ll need a sledgehammer and a large tire (not on the rim), bales of hay or something similar to hit. Don’t use something with enough bounce to cause the sledgehammer to come back up and hit you in the face. Work your abs and get a cardio session in at the same time.

NN: What about Hybrid exercises for the gym?

MW:

1. Do the same kettlebell circuit above but use dumbbells instead.

2. Dumbbell Farmers Walk. No rocket science here. Just pick up a heavy pair of dumbbells and go! Great for the traps, grip, stability and core.

3. Dumbbell Overhead Walks. Grab a pair of dumbbells, hold them over your head with your arms almost locked out and start walking. Think this isn’t challenging enough? Try doing lunges holding the dumbbells over your head.

The cool thing about these exercise is they can be used either as hybrid cardio at the end of a regular workout instead of the treadmill, or they can be the workout if you increase the weight and adjust the rep ranges and rest intervals. The possibilities are endless.

NN: Did your wife really call you fat?

MW: Not really, kind of. I started getting some looks when I would head to the fridge late at night. It didn’t take a genius to get the point. Especially since I had placed my Bod Pod pic on the door to the freezer.

NN: Okay I have to ask this. People have been emailing me saying it’s impossible to burn fat and build muscle at the same time. It all comes down to calories in versus calories out. You’re either gaining or losing but you can’t do both. Care to elaborate?

MW: Ummm I’d like to buy a lifeline. Call a friend? Seriously though that’s exactly what I did. I called my friend Eric Talmant who’s a diagnostic nutritionist, metabolic typing advisor and powerlifter.

I knew I had personally experienced adding muscle while dropping fat when I was playing football in college. I couldn’t really explain how, but I thought Eric might be able to answer the question for me.

I asked him, “Is it physically possible to build muscle and burn fat at the same time?” I was pumped when he explained in his interview that it was.

He said that you can keep your body in an anabolic state by creating the perfect internal and external environment through attitude, atmosphere, training, sleep, stress levels, and nutrition. Calories are just one piece of the puzzle and not the entire picture.

NN: How come you don’t just do a bulking season where you pack on muscle and than do a typical cutting cycle to burn off the fat and reveal the new muscle?

MW: Instant gratification maybe. I wanted everything at once. I wanted to recreate what I was able to do in college. I’ve tried bulking and cutting. I wound up getting strong and fat when bulking up only to get lean and weak when dieting.

NN: Okay Mike, this worked for you, but what if you’re just a freak. I mean who benches 315 for 15 reps and still tries to burn fat at the same time? Do you have any other “average Joe” success stories?

MW: I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m not a freak, I’m just extremely stubborn, persistent and determined. Things don’t come easy for me, but when I make up my mind that I want to accomplish something I can usually do it.

I’m also pretty open minded and don’t accept that something isn’t possible just because someone said so.

NN: Awesome, thanks for info. Talk to you soon buddy.

MW: Anytime, Nick thanks for having me.

1. What’s your background and/or experience in the fitness business?

I have no formal qualifications when it comes to fitness. I’ve never been a gym instructor, I’ve never taken a formal course in fitness. I do have a lot of experience of being fat and not being able to change it. A few years ago I decided to get into shape. But being a uni student meant I had all the time in the world.

I’d get up early, go for a run, then hit the weights in the middle of the day, followed by another 45 minute cardio session. I had plenty of time to prepare meals and in a few months I got in the best shape of my life. However, the next year I dropped out of uni, got a job and entered the real world.

It just wasn’t possible to train for a couple of hours everyday. And I put on a lot of weight. So I had to figure out a way to get in shape without spending forever in the gym. And that’s kinda how the Lazy Man’s Guide came about.

2. Why the “lazy man” in the title of the book?

The “lazy man” thing is a bit of a misnomer. If you’re lazy, then this program’s not going to work for you. It’s just not possible to get lean while sitting around on the couch all day. The impatient man’s guide probably would’ve been a more accurate name, but I don’t think it sounds as cool.

Like I mentioned above, this is the result of my finding out how to get as lean as I was in university, but without spending half my day in the gym. It’s more about how to get in shape while spending as little time possible actually working out. This doesn’t mean it’s easy at all. Because the workouts are shorter, they’re more intense, which means you’ll be working really hard.

It’s not really suited for people who are obese. If you think you’d drop dead after running up a hill a few times, then you should probably stay away from this until your fitness improves. But if you are fit enough to do a few sprints here and there, then it might be for you. I know most people are busy these days and getting to the gym can be tough, so by being “lazy”, it’s a lot easier to squeeze into a busy lifestyle.

3. What’s the single most common thing people mess up when training to get abs?

By far the most common mistake I see is (interestingly enough) too much emphasis on ab training. While implementing crunches and other ab exercises is good, it’s not going to get you ripped. If you don’t have a six pack, chances are it’s because you’re too fat. Men tend to store a lot of fat around the midsection, which means that in order to get a six pack, you’ll need to get really lean. For most guys, this is around 10% or so, which is possible for anyone who goes out there and trains hard and sticks to a good nutritional plan.

So instead of doing crunches until the cows come home, switch your focus to fat loss. And note, I didn’t say weight loss, I said FAT loss. There’s a difference. One of the keys to getting ripped is to build, or at least keep, as much muscle as possible. Building muscle will help you burn more calories regardless of how active you are.

Whether you’re at the gym, or just sitting on the couch, extra muscle will be burning more calories. If you just wanted to lose weight, you could just cut your calories and up your exercise and watch the scales drop quickly. The problem with this method (and far too many people try to get into good shape this way) is that while you will lose some fat, you’ll also lose a lot of muscle.

And the more muscle you lose, the slower your metabolism becomes, so it’s like a downward spiral. People who diet this way often become “skinny fat”. Sure, they might look skinny, but they still have a high body fat percentage and if you’re after the ripped six pack look, then this isn’t what you want to be doing at all.

So focus on fat loss while trying to maintain (or even build, if you’re new) as much muscle mass as you can. This method will require you to eat more as well as train more and you’ll be much better off in a few months.

4. What’s one of your favorite fat loss “tricks” for getting lean fast?

One of the best tricks I know to get lean fast would have to be carb manipulation. It’s not something that’s really necessary from day 1, but if you’re approaching your six pack and you’re finding that you’re starting to plateau, then carb manipulation can help your smash through the plateau and get even leaner.

While I’m not really a fan of long term low carb diets, low carb works. And carb manipulation is basically a way to get the best of both worlds. You can lower carbs for a little while, then bump them up again so that you don’t fall into starvation mode, which is the slowing down of your metabolism after you’ve dropped carbs for too long. And you don’t want to slow your metabolism down at all, we want to get it raging.

The details of how to manipulate carbs is going to differ a little for everyone because everyone reacts to carbs a little differently. Some people can get away with eating carbs all day, others have to cut back a little if they want to get really lean. Chances are if you’ve always struggled to get lean, you’re one of the latter.

And a good plan looks a little like this. For three days, cut your carbs down a little. Instead of eating carbs all day, cut it down to only eating carbs during the first half of the day. So if you normally eat carbs 6 times a day, cut it in half to 3 meals a day. Then, on the fourth day, bump your carbs up. Eat about 1.5 times the carbs you would’ve eaten normally.

This is one way to really smash through fat loss plateaus although it can be hard (psychologically) the first time you do it. Eventually, you might find that the 3:1 ratio no longer works for you, in which case you need to increase the ratio to 4:1. If you’re struggling to get past a certain point, give it a shot.

5. Nutrition plays a huge role in fat loss…what are throughts on the role of protein in fat loss diet?

Protein is vital when it comes to a fat loss diet. Like I mentioned above, fat loss is all about losing as much fat, while maintaining as much muscle mass as possible. So one of the things you must be doing is eating enough protein. A rough guideline is around 1.5 grams per day for every pound of body weight.

By doing this (and training with heavy weights), you’ll ensure that you keep as much muscle as possible. And this is because when you workout, you’re actually causing tiny little tears in your muscles. To repair your muscles, your body needs protein. And without eating enough of it, you’re going to end up losing muscle and I don’t think I need to repeat how important that is.

Another great reason for eating lots of protein is the thermic effect of protein. It takes a certain amount of energy for your body to process the food you eat. Fats are very easy to process, carbs are a little harder, but protein takes a lot of effort. Which is a good thing! Around 20% of the calories in protein are burned off just from digestion.

I have had some people ask me about whether high protein diets can lead to kidney problems, but I’ve never seen anyone who was already healthy get kidney problems from eating “high” levels of protein. Unless you already have kidney issues, there should be no reason why you can’t eat lots of protein.

6. How do you feel about fat-loss supplements? Good, bad, anything worth taking?

Supplements are always a good talking point. I think they can be decent, but only when people use them properly. If you’re already training really well and sticking to a great diet, then supplements can be of use. They can help you get some nutrients you might not always get from your diet and there are a few products that are great time savers.

The problem arises when people see them as a magic pill. They flick through the latest muscle mag and see an ad for “Get ripped just by sitting on your ass!” and because it’s in a publication, it must be true… right? Well, no. Supplements aren’t a magic pill. There isn’t a magical cure for getting ripped except for hard work and dedication.

So stop looking to supplements to solve your problems. If you’re fat, just accept it as the truth for now and decide that you’re going to fix it with good diet and training. Yes, it will take time, but that’s life.

Once you accept that, supplements can be of use. There are a couple that I use regularly. The first being protein powders. Now, they have no magical properties, it’s just food. I remember getting an email from an angry mother who wanted to know why I told her son to use steroids.

Knowing that I’d never tell someone that, I asked her if she could tell me exactly what I told her son. Apparently in one of my emails I recommended a protein powder to use, which she thought was a steroid. They’re not. It’s just like eating a chicken breast, only it’s something that’s derived from milk.

I like protein powder mostly because I’m lazy. I don’t really like cooking all the time. I’d rather just pour myself a protein shake than spend 15 minutes cooking some chicken. Another supplement worth checking out is fish oil. It’s a great source of fat and it contains some stuff that is hard to find in other foods (at least in decent concentrations). It’s also really cheap, so it won’t cost you a fortune, unlike a lot of the magic pill type supplements.

7. What are your thoughts on calorie counting when it comes to fat loss? Necessary or can you lose fat without it?

You can definitely lose fat without it, once you know how much you’re eating just by looking at your meal sizes. A few years ago I helped a mate out who wanted to get in shape. I gave him a few guidelines, told him which foods to eat and so on. A few weeks later he gave me a call and he wasn’t too happy.

He told me that he was training hard and eating well, yet he hadn’t lost a single kilo. My first thought was that his diet was off, so I asked him to write down everything he ate for the next week. After that, I had a look at his diet and immediately spotted a mistake. One of the things I told him to eat for a snack was nuts (which are great, when eaten in moderation…).

But because nuts are full of fat (good fat), they’re very dense in calories. So you don’t need to eat many in order to get a decent amount of energy from them. Which was where my friend was going wrong. Because he had no idea how many calories he was eating, he was eating half his daily requirements just in nuts.

Once he realised this, he cut down his nut intake and the fat dropped off him. So the moral of the story is to count calories until you know what your daily requirements look like. A lot of guys will need to eat around 2000 calories per day, so if you don’t know what that looks like, write your daily food intake down for a few days and input it into a site like www.fitday.com.

See how close you go and adjust accordingly. Once you know how much you’re eating just by looking at it, you can stop “counting” the calories and just go on eating, because you’ll be doing it right. It is a little bit of work at first, but it’s well worth it and it can save you making a similar mistake to my friend.

8. Do you believe in that old “don’t eat after 6 pm” rule?

Yes and no. While I don’t recommend eating a huge meal of pasta before you go to bed, there’s nothing wrong with eating a small, healthy meal after dinner. The main reason I say this has to do with insulin. Whenever you eat something, your body releases insulin and glucagon. These two hormones are responsible for regulating your blood sugar levels.

When your blood sugar levels get too high, insulin swoops in and removes the sugar and shuttles it off to your muscles and liver to store as energy. And this is what we want. However, if those stores are already full, then insulin will take the sugar and turn it into fat. Now, at the end of the day, because you probably haven’t been that active, chances are your glycogen stores are already full or fullish.

So eating a massive bowl of pasta (carbs release lots of insulin) will cause your body to end up storing a lot of those calories as fat. Whereas if you were to eat that bowl of pasta first thing in the morning, those calories would be stored as energy instead. But this doesn’t mean you have to stop eating at 6pm or anything.

If you have your dinner at 6pm and you go to bed at say 11pm, there’s nothing stopping you from eating a small, protein based, meal at 8:30pm. What I recommend is a protein shake because it’s easy to make and it is almost pure protein. Protein releases more glucagon (has the opposite job of insulin) than insulin, so you won’t store a huge amount of your calories as fat.

9. What are some of your favorite fat loss foods and why?

I have a whole bunch of foods that I like to eat. The better fat loss foods are generally more natural. The less human interference the better. When it comes to protein, I eat a lot of whey powder, chicken breast, turkey breast and lean beef. I’m a bit of a carnivore, so eating lots of meat isn’t a problem for me.

When it comes to carbs, I generally break them up into two categories: starch and fibrous. Starchy carbs are foods like oats, brown rice, wholemeal bread etc. Stay away from anything that has been highly processed like white bread and obviously stuff like biscuits (also known as cookies) and junk food.

Fibrous carbs are those green leafy vegetables that we hated eating as children (and often as adults:)). You can’t really eat too much of this type of carb since they are pretty low in calories. They are full of fibre and contain lots of good nutrients, so you do need to eat them. They also help lower insulin spikes, which means that less of the food you eat is going to be stored as fat when you eat lots of veggies like spinach, broccoli and beans.

As for fats, you’ll find that you get some fat from the meat you eat, even when it’s lean. But you’ll also want to get lots of other good fats in your diet as well. Natural peanut butter is a great example and some vegetables like avocados are also a great source of fat. I also recommend eating some cheese as it’s a decent source of fat as well as protein, although it’s something I cut out of the diet as I get really lean.

The thing about fat loss foods is that they don’t have to be boring. While eating chicken breast 6 times a day will get you ripped, no one wants to eat like that for the rest of your life. What I recommend is eating as clean as you can until you get to the point where you are happy about how lean you are.

At that point, just concentrate on maintaining your physique. You don’t have to eat lettuce leaves in order to get (and stay) in good shape. So choose foods that are not only good for you, but also taste pretty good too. It is possible to find a balance.

10. Where does cardio fit in to your fat loss program?

Cardio is hugely important. I think of weight training and diet as ways to make sure your metabolism is high, but cardio is there to burn off all the extra calories. I’m not a big fan of long cardio anymore mostly because it takes up too much time. You can get lean with long, slow cardio, but I prefer high intensity cardio because it’s quicker and helps you preserve more muscle.

Interval training is my favourite way to do intense cardio. It’s the only way you can actually perform intense cardio for a long enough period so that you can actually burn enough calories. And there are loads of ways of doing this. One method I’ve been using lately involves a hill…

There’s a small hill just down the road from where I live that has around 100 steps. I go for a jog to warm up, then I sprint up the hill as fast as I can. Then I walk down and do it again. I do this cycle about 4-5 times and I’m stuffed. Yet I’ve burned a lot of calories doing it, because of the effort involved in sprinting up a hill.

I also play squash every Monday night with a mate who is at a very similar skill level to me. As a result, we have a lot of rallys that are very taxing on our bodies. But because after each point, we stop for a few seconds to grab the ball and serve again, we can play for about an hour without passing out with exhaustion

Last year I lived in Thailand for a while and took up Thai boxing. Although it involves a lot of long running, they also spend a lot of time inside the ring doing interval style training. Every morning we’d jump in the ring with a trainer and do 5 x 3 minute rounds on the pads. It was pretty intense, but because you get a small break after each round, you can do this for 15-20 minutes.

So my advice is try and think up some ways that you can perform intense cardio that you actually enjoy. If you like riding a bike, jump on it and do some time trials. If you like squash, find a partner at a similar level and play at least once a week. Just about any martial art is great for this, but after my experience in Thailand, I definitely recommend Thai boxing.

Three sessions like this is enough to get you ripped up in no time. If you combine this style of cardio training with a good diet and a solid workout regime, you’ll get ripped, that’s certain.

Hope your readers got something out of that Nick!

Shane Dwyer

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“The Lazy Man’s Guide to Abs”

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, an exercise routine should include three parts: Strength training, aerobic exercise, and flexibility training. When considering the right fitness equipment in your home, you should purchase at least a machine that accommodates one of these exercises.

Homeowners do not have to invest a lot of money in expensive fitness equipment in order to get into shape. A few pieces of exercise equipment will do, and one way to save both cash and space is to purchase exercise products that can be used to work several different muscle groups.

For example exer-tubes, those stretchy cords with handles on them will not only add to your strength, but with the variety of exercises, you can isolate various muscle groups.

One of the least expensive ways to get into strength training is with hand weights. They are a popular and inexpensive way to strengthen and tone the upper body. Gardner says that most people should begin with 3, 5, or 10-pound hand weights, though choosing which specific weight is the best for your current level of strength can be tricky.

Another inexpensive and popular piece of equipment that commonly appears in Yoga and Pilates classes is the stability ball. They are ideal for building the abs and your back.

Strength training is just as important as a good cardiovascular workout. Strength training sessions should be challenging, and you should feel your body working hard, but not straining. Free weights and a bench press are inexpensive and can provide a range of strength training exercises. For low budget cardio workouts, consider one of numerous workout DVDs. There are all levels of exercise, and most require simple equipment like a floor mat or step-up board.

To get started your may want to hire the service of a professional fitness trainer. They can assist you in figuring out which exercises and routines will help you to attain your fitness goals. Whether it is to lose weight or get shapely.

For those who can afford it treadmills, elliptical trainers or exercise bicycles are ideal for getting a rigorous cardiovascular workout. The appeal of a treadmill is it accommodates two of the most popular forms of exercise, walking and running. Elliptical trainers are growing in popularity due to the low-impact workout that combines upper and lower body exercising. For less money, a stationary bicycle is also a good choice. They take up less space than a treadmill or elliptical.

If you want to get back into shape, having home fitness equipment is the answer. It is all about convenience. When you have the tools in your home and they are available whenever you need them, you are more likely take advantage of them.

At TopHealthSpot.com, we are committed to keeping you well informed on all the most trusted nutritional health products and services on the market today. We offer money saving health coupons for world class products and organizations that’ll allow you to save money on things and make a real impact on your health and on your life.

Dori Schwaiger,

Business Owner,

TopHealthSpot.com

It’s never fun, but it happens to every person who regularly hits the gym at some point or another. You look back at how much progress you have made over the course of the last several weeks, and it all seems to add up to a big goose egg. No noticeable muscle gains, no increase in the amount of weight you can lift, and not even a significant decrease in your body fat.

But this is never a reason to despair, this is just a time reevaluate things. If you continue following your exact same training schedule and diet, chances are you will stay at the plateau for a long time. If you make one more of these changes, however, you will probably enjoy seeing progress again very soon.

1. Try Negative Training

“Negative training” is where you take on more weight that you can perform in a single rep, and then only perform the negative portion of the exercise. The advantage of this is that by focusing the negative portion of the exercise, you activate certain muscles fibers more than what might be activated through regular training. To do this, you should use about five to ten percent more weight than you lift in a single rep, and take three or four seconds to lower the weight.

Do this for three sets of eight repititons. With some exercises, you can perform negative training without anyone’s assistance. With concentration curls, for example, you can simply lower the weight, and then use your free hand to bring the dumbbell back to the “top” position. With other exercises, such as the bench press, you are going to need a training partner to make sure you stay safe and help you bring the weight back to the top position.

2. Get More Rest

Many instances of hitting a plateau are simply a case of overtraining. If you feel you have hit a wall in your fitness progress, try staying away from the gym for a few days, and see how you feel once you come back. In addition, you should make certain you get at least eight hours of solid sleep every single night. Your muscles heal the most when you are sleeping, and if you are too busy to get sufficient shut-eye every night, this is most likely your problem.

3. Increase Protein Intake

Protein provides the building blocks for muscle development. If you aren’t getting enough, you muscle and strength gains will hit a standstill. Most trainers recommended that you get about one gram of protein per day per pound of bodyweight. But if this isn’t working for you, you might try to increase that amount up to 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight.

4. Change Up Your Workout

The human body is designed to be a very adaptive machine, and it can quickly become accustomed to any kind of routine weight training that you throw at it. So it might do your fitness plan a lot of good to introduce your muscles to exercises that they might not have experienced on a regular basis.

5. Increase Sets

One of the simplest ways to increase intensity, and therefore give you a better chance of leaving that plateau behind, is to increase the number of sets you do for each exercise. You should do what you can, however, to prevent this form increasing your exercise time too much. Ideally, weight training should last anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour. If it takes any longer than this, you risk overtraining, and perhaps even causing your body to eat away at your muscle.

6. Decrease Rest Time In Between Sets

If you spend a couple minutes recovering in between sets, you might really benefit from cutting that down to about a minute. The lactic acid in your muscles that causes muscle failure can be removed from your system remarkably quickly during rest, and decreasing the time in between sets can put more stress on your muscles, which will encourage muscle growth.

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Christopher William McCombs runs Positively Fit Personal Training in Orange County, California. One day while he walked out of an OC fish taco restaurant Chris stumbled onto a radically different approach to losing fat which he helps people all over Orange County do today. Chris is also a Fitness Marketing Expert and helps fitness professionals all over to triple their income and cut their work hours in half.

Both nutrition and physical activity is needed for a healthy and fit body. Exercise is going to give us fitness along with four major things, flexibility, strength, muscle endurance, and cardiovascular health. Diet on its own is not going to give you this; you need to have the physical part as well. One thing to remember is a bad diet can affect your fitness training, even if you are following the best type of exercise plan available. You need a healthy diet and a lot of exercise; this is what makes you healthy and fit.

The answer to the question, how long one should exercise, has been answered by a lot of scientific observers. The average is at least 40 minutes of exercise thrice a week. This will help to strengthen the cardiovascular health. This 40 minutes came up when scientist found that the body drew energy from the muscles for the first 20 minutes, only when it was sure that the supply of energy was needed for a long period of time it switched to burning fat.

Another idea is that 3500 calories must be used in a week by doing any sort of physical activity. This will benefit you and your heart as well. It is a good idea to speak to your doctor first to find out what exercise plan is going to be best for you and your body. The energy nutrients that are stored like glucose and fatty acids with a few amino acids are let out into the blood during exercise in order to provide energy for what you are doing. This means that the body will respond to exercise by adjusting its fuel consumption.

There is a way to use diet to control high blood pressure and now they are finding out that exercise has a role in keeping blood pressure from increasing. With the reduction of sodium into your body, weight loss and limited alcohol use, along with increased amount of physical activity and a low fat diet, you can control hypertension. Foods that are used for the purpose of lowering blood pressure without using medication can include sweets and many beverages that have sugar, red meat and fats in them.

To build muscle in the body, proteins are used. The body burns fat and proteins while we are physically active, when we rest after physical activity, proteins are used in muscle building. There is research that has shown that athletes will retain more protein and use more of it as fuel for the body. The American Dietetic Association has said that one gram per kilogram of bodyweight is recommended for people that do not exercise at all. For the athletes, the protein amounts are going to be higher. It should be considered that athletes also need more carbohydrates as well. If they do not take enough crabs, the protein will be used up for fuel and there will be nothing left for muscle building after exercise is done.

There is increasing evidence that weight bearing exercises like walking, dancing, running, and sports are very good for developing healthy bones. Swimming has been of great use for bone health. Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia have been said to damage bone strength. Exercise alone cannot make your body healthy. You need to have the proper calcium and other vitamins and minerals required for bone growth with adequate amount of exercise to provide the best bone health. Along with diet and exercise you can keep your body in peak condition and enjoy good health through out your life.

At TopHealthSpot.com, we have a list of some of the best weight loss diet and exercise programs available. Find a healthy diet fitness program with TopHealthSpot.com online.

Dori Schwaiger,

Business Owner,

TopHealthSpot.com

People want to reduce weight and want to look smart. But in this fast and hectic schedule they are struggling to fight and keep themselves high in the fast growing world of pagers, cell phones, and laptops along with short time left to pay attention towards their fitness.

Since many years people want to lose their weight and they spend hours on treadmills, and riding bikes. But new discoveries like in cardiovascular training have helped a lot in reducing weights. The best way to lose weight is to maintain a diet chart and eat according to that. You can reduce fat by doing one or the other work that burns calories and gives shape to your body. Fat loss can be easily done by avoid eating high calorie food like junk food, butter, oily and fried food that increases fat in your body and leaves your body in a bad shape.

You can also reduce weight by doing several fat loss exercises as directed by the professionals. Yoga and aerobics are also helpful in the fat loss programs. People should plan their diet which should be fully nutritious and fat free. They should schedule their time for gym also, so that by going and working out in gym they can balance their weight and reduce also. You should avoid eating all the time. Make a goal for yourself and work according to your goal. You should be totally determined and hard working with lots of patience inside you.

Just think about your goal and start working towards it. Learn about proper diet. Fat loss is not an overnight process, you need to have your calm and wait for the time. You should work hard to reach your target without any hurry. Time may come sometimes when you feel down then just contact those people who know you and get motivated from them.

TopHealthSpot.com offers a list of high performance sports fitness products to perform at your best. Buy physical health care & nutritional products online.

Dori Schwaiger,

Business Owner,

TopHealthSpot.com

For the most part, fats get a bad rap. It’s really unfortunate that fat got stuck with the exact same name as the condition that fitness minded people are trying to avoid, because the fact of the matter is that you need fats in your diet, just like you need carbohydrates and protein. But there is a wide spectrum of fats to be found in the ingredients of the items at your supermarket, and they are not all created equally.

Here are the basic kinds of fats you might see on an ingredients list, and what they all mean to your nutritional needs.

Trans Fats

If you have ever read a news story on the obesity epidemic in the US or fast food restaurants, you have probably heard trans fats mentioned once or twice. Trans fat is a kind of unsaturated fat that is created by hydrogenating (adding hydrogen atoms) to soybean or some other vegetable oil. This is done typically to increase the shelf life of the fat and the food that is made with it. Unlike virtually every other kind of fat that is available for people to eat, trans fat can hardly be called “natural.” In fact, the process designed to make them wasn’t invented until the very early twentieth century, and they didn’t appear on the food market until 1911. Trans fats are really bad stuff, and have shown to throw your cholesterol out of whack and possibly cause other complications. It is so bad, there has been a movement to ban the substance entirely from store shelves.

Saturated Fat

Saturated fat isn’t made in a lab like trans fat is, but it still isn’t very good for you. This kind of fat is typically found in animal products and certain kinds of nuts, most notably coconuts. It really isn’t practical to completely eliminate saturated fat from your diet, but you would be doing your health good to cut down as much as you can.

Monounsaturated Fat

Monounsaturated fat is one of the “good fats.” It has been shown to raise you levels of “good” cholesterol, while lowering your levels of “bad” cholesterol. Regular intake has also shown to decrease your odds of contracting cardiovascular disease. They typically come from oils such as olive oils, sesame oil, and corn oil. You can also get them from avocados and nuts.

Polyunsaturated Fat

Polyunsaturated fats are very good for you, and it seems like every year scientists are discovering new benefits to regular consumption. So far, there have been studies that show that polyunsaturated fat can boost your metabolism, help improve brain function, reduce exercise recovery time, improve heart health and increase blood flow. You can get this fat by eating fish and certain kinds of seeds, most popularly flax seeds.

So how much dietary fat should you consume each day? For most, it should be around twenty percent of your daily caloric intake. You can calculate how much you personally need by remembering that each gram of fat contains eight calories.

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Christopher William McCombs is a personal trainer in Huntington Beach, California. Chris teaches a unique approach to losing fat to Orange County locals. Chris is also a fitness marketing expert and helps fitness trainers all over the country to triple their income while cutting their work hours in half.