Entries from October 2007 ↓

The #1 reason for not working out is a lack of time.

If you get up at 5:30am to drive an hour to work, only to get home at 6pm and then have to launch right into carting the kids around, who can blame you for not working out? Not when it takes 45 minutes to do cardio, and another 30-45 minutes for isolation bodybuilding workouts.

If that’s the way you have to exercise to lose fat, then practically no normal person is going to be able to pull that off.

But when you look at the science, you’ll see that you can get more results in less time. You just have to increase the intensity of the workout, but at the same time, you can cut your workout time in half (or more!).

I am convinced that an effective fat loss workout can be done in 45 minutes or less, and that long, slow, excruciatingly boring cardio is not necessary for you to get the body you want. Please, read on…

In last week’s newsletter, I spoke about the 3 biggest training mistakes as well as my top 3 training tips to help you get more results in less time. Here I go into detail on the superiority of interval training when compared to traditional aerobic exercise:

Q: What is the role of interval training vs. steady state aerobics in a fat loss program?

Answer:
Interval training is more important than cardio. First of all, it gets more results in less time. And with “lack of time” being the number one reason most people do not participate in a training program at all, clearly intervals are the winner here.

Now let’s just assume that lack of time is not a problem. Well, interval training is still more effective because it applies more “turbulence” to the muscle. Or in scientific terms, interval training results in a greater metabolic stress on the muscle.

And that causes more calories to be burned in the important 23.5 hours per day when you are not exercising.

From there, the muscle must work to recover, repair, and replenish the energy that was used in the training. It is much more metabolic work for the muscle to recover from interval training (and strength training) than it is to recover from aerobic training.

Therefore, in the post-exercise period, interval training results in more calories burned.

In fact, I just read a new study from Australia that shows interval training is superior to slow cardio for fat loss.

The researchers, Trapp & Boutcher put WOMEN through a 15 week study where one group was a control, one group did intervals (20 minutes of alternating sprints and recovery), and one group did 40 minutes of slow cardio.

The interval group lost 2.5kg of fat in 15 weeks on average (with one subject losing 7.7kg of fat), while the slow cardio group lost only 0.4kg of fat over 15 weeks on average.

The results speak for themselves.

So don’t get hung up on how many calories are burned during a training session with aerobic training. That is not nearly as important as how many total calories your body burns over the course of the day - and you will burn more with interval training.

And for those that subscribe to the fat burning zone as being important, again, you aren’t looking at the big picture (the 24-hour calorie burning period). Instead, those that believe in the importance of the fat-burning zone have a myopic view of how the body works.

The same message applies to those people that live and die by the cardio on an empty stomach method. You’re “nickel and dime-ing” the fat loss process, when really it’s a much bigger budget to balance.

Look at the big picture. Get your nutrition in order, then focus your workouts on brief, intense strength and interval training workouts that increase your metabolism for the next 24 hours.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines and all over the Internet, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training website

Share This

Are you frustrated by a lack of results?

Are you spending too much time in the gym?

It drives me crazy to hear about people working really hard but getting no results.

But I see people in the gym everyday that are doing the same workout and getting nowhere.

You can see the look of frustration and the dread of even doing the workout in their eyes.

I hope this doesn’t describe you and your fat loss situation. If it does, let’s take a look at some of the best fat loss tips and workout solutions to get you back on the fat loss track.

1. CB’s Top 3 Training Tips for Fat Loss

i) Train with intensity. Yes it takes a lot of effort to do 45 minutes of cardio, but that is low-intensity exercise (since you can do it for 45 minutes straight). Instead, you have to increase the intensity of your efforts.

That means the following…

ii) Don’t rely on slow, steady, long workouts of cardio. Use intervals instead.

iii) Don’t use high reps for fat loss. Use low reps instead.

You want to increase the intensity of your training to put “metabolic turbulence” on your muscles.

So you need to use moderately heavy weights or advanced bodyweight exercises and interval training to apply this metabolic disturbance and elicit a significant increase in post-exercise energy expenditure.

However, no matter how well you adhere to these training tips, you will not succeed without getting serious about your nutrition. Of course, that’s why I had Dr. Chris Mohr design the Turbulence Training Fat Loss Nutrition Guide to go along with my workout.

With the right training intensity and nutrition, you will “get your hormones in order”. Eating poorly can decrease testosterone (in males) and increase insulin in both men and women. This will cause fat storage. At the same time, too much cardio and stress can increase cortisol.

If you have high cortisol levels, increased insulin, and lower than normal testosterone, you are in big trouble when it comes to having a good body.

You need to improve your hormone levels to stimulate fat loss. In fact, I think that even Pilates & Yoga can help you lose fat when combined with good nutrition - because these exercise techniques may be able to reduce stress and could bring those hormone levels back to normal.

But for the fastest, guaranteed methods of fat loss, my weapon of choice is the more intense interval training and resistance training in the Turbulence Training program.

Bottom line: While cardio is focused on breaking down the body, strength training, yoga, and Pilates all focus on building the body. Stick with body-builders.

2. The 3 Biggest Fat Loss Workout Mistakes

i) Using only long slow cardio.
There is definitely mixed research support for long, slow cardio. Most studies will show you two things:

a) Doing only aerobic training (without proper nutrition) will get you only a small amount of weight loss - even over very long periods of time.

b) Proper nutrition plus cardio will help you lose weight, but you will also lose lean body mass - and you won’t end up with the body you want (or deserve).

Plus, long, slow cardio just takes too much time up from your schedule. Stick to interval training instead. You will get better results in half the time.

ii) The second mistake is sticking with the same program too long.

In most gyms, everyday is Groundhog Day (just like the movie).

You’ll see the same men and women doing the exact workout that they did 2 days. I see men and women using the exact same weight circuit as they did literally the day before, using the same weight, the same crappy form, and showing the same lack of interest.

These people are much better off doing fewer workouts following a structured plan of increased intensity. Don’t trade quality for quantity.

iii) The 3rd mistake…Doing high rep-low weight isolation exercises.

Exercises such as triceps kickbacks, concentration curls, side raises, and ab crunches are almost a complete waste of time.

The men and women that use isolation exercises will not make any improvements. Unfortunately, this is the approach taken by a lot of people in the gym.

Next time, we’ll review the superiority of interval training and the best ways to weight train for fat loss.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training website

Share This

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

You know who is your worst enemy in the fight against fat?

Well-meaning fitness professionals that don’t want to make you feel bad for being lazy and eating crap. That’s who.

They write articles about how “diets are bad”, how you can lift soup cans and get fitness model arms, and how you should exercise in the nice and easy “fat burning zone” to get results. Basically, they give you what want to hear - plenty of excuses for avoiding hard exercise and strict nutrition (the real keys to fat loss).

But I don’t. You’ll get no such excuses from me.

Here’s the real deal on fat loss. You have to work hard in your workouts and even harder on your nutrition if you want results. Or you can take the politically-correct easy way out and have the same body in 3, 6, and even 12 months from now.

Love me or hate me, I promise you results. Let’s take a look at why the PC-solutions don’t work…

Q: I’ve been told to exercise in my “fat burning zone“. What’s the best cardio method for weight loss?

Answer:
Cardio is not the only solution.

Clearly it adds to the energy deficit and overall calorie balance that favors fat loss.

BUT it’s not the “be all & end all” of fat loss success - and that is anecdotally supported by the number of overweight distance runners.

I almost never recommend long, slow cardio…simply because no one I train or consult with has the time for this, and it doesn’t work any better than shorter, less frequent, more intense interval training sessions.

Five or six days of 45-minute cardio sessions in my fat-burning zone? Yeah right, like anyone has time for that.

If I told you that you could get the same results (or better, as recent research suggests) in three 20-minute interval sessions each week as you could from three or five 45-minute slower cardio sessions each week, which would you choose?

Yes, intervals feel about 10x’s harder than regular, slow, boring cardio. And yes, you won’t be able to read your people magazine when doing intervals. And you might breath a little heavy. So if you’re worried about sweating, than maybe fat loss isn’t for you.

But if you don’t mind going against the crowd, intervals are worth every second for the superior results.

Q: Should men and women train differently for fat loss?

Answer:
Nope. Next question.

Seriously, the answer is no, but just to add to that, men and women don’t have that many differences when it comes to fat loss, so they both do well with the Turbulence Training style workouts.

Now here’s one reason why TT may actually work better for women than men…

More women tend to start Turbulence Training after having spent months or years using slow cardio and light (if any) weights. And selfishly, I could not be any happier - because when these dedicated women start using the shorter, more intense strength and interval sessions they make rapid progress and make me look like a genius.

The accolades come pouring in…I have dozens of testimonials from women thanking me for saving them TIME while helping them finally breakthrough stubborn fat loss plateaus (and eliminating the pain from their overuse injuries that occurred due to high volumes of cardio). Their words make me feel like a million bucks because the TT workouts are making these women feel like a million bucks.

That being said, I sometimes make small changes in TT workouts to adapt to a woman’s pre-conceived notions about strength training. Some women are very hesitant to lift weights. But you and I know that is necessary for bodysculpting, fat loss, and health benefits such as building bones.

So what I do is sub a few (not all!) of the weight exercises out and replace them with equal intensity bodyweight exercises. Some bodyweight exercises can be classified as traditional strength exercises (i.e. for a woman that can only do 5 full pushups, the pushup exercise is almost a max strength exercise). But women “mentally” deal with this type of strength training better than putting a dumbbell in their hands.

On the other hand, some bodyweight exercises provide more of an interval training effect (i.e. bodyweight squats). Either way, bodyweight exercises can put turbulence (i.e. “stress”) on the muscle and boost metabolism and help female clients get the results they want and deserve.

Q: What differentiates Turbulence Training from other programs?

Answer:
That’s a tough question to answer, as there are other systems out there that give impressive results in an acceptable time frame.

I will say this however, I am extremely dedicated to Turbulence Training and the entire “fat loss” cause.

One of the factors behind my dedication is that I find the general concept of fat loss to be so simple, and yet millions and millions of people around the world have an incredibly difficult time achieving their goals.

I want to give them every possible resource available to them to elp them succeed.

So I am constantly tinkering with new workouts, exercises, and interval methods, and interviewing other trainers and nutritional experts for every single little fat burning advantage I can find. And that comes through in what I offer to the readers of my newsletters and clients that use my programs.

I said in a past newsletter that “Fat loss is easy, once you realize how hard it is.” You have to respect that it’s not something you put on “auto-pilot”. Taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator, parking 100 extra feet away from the door, and subbing 1% milk for 2% milk is not going to help you lose 13 pounds of fat in a year like the politically correct articles suggest.

You need a politically-incorrect plan to eat right 90% of the time (i.e. saying “no” when an office-mate brings in doughnuts) and you have to have the best workout plan available to you if you want to get the most results in the least amount of time.

And then you still have to have a plan to help you stick to those plans - and that should involve a social support group. There are many tricks and tips to success, so you always have to keep learning and trying to improve. And that’s what I help with in my programs and newsletters.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training website.

Share This

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

While the mainstream fitness media still insists that aerobic exercise is a great way to lose weight, Turbulence Training users know that interval training is the better way to burn body fat.

Still not convinced?

A recent study published by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, subjects aged 40 to 75 were instructed to do 60 minutes of aerobic exercise per day for 6 days per week for an entire year.

Given the amount of exercise, you’d expect weight losses of 20, 30 pounds, or more, right?

Well, the surprise findings showed the average fat loss for female subjects was only 4 pounds for the entire year, while men lost 6.6 pounds of fat over the year. That’s over 300 hours of aerobic exercise just to lose a measly 6 pounds of blubber. Not time well spent, in my opinion.

So what’s the better way? Stick with Turbulence Training, using interval training and strength training to get better bodysculpting results. With intervals, you’ll achieve more fat burning results in less workout time.

The next time you are out exercising, perform a session of interval training. If you are walking or running outside, find an incline that can challenge you for 60 seconds, then walk down for 60-120 seconds, and repeat up to 6 times.

If you walk or run on a treadmill, adjust the incline or speed to safely increase the challenge for 60 seconds, then return to the normal pace for 60-120 seconds, and repeat up to 6 times.

You can also use a rowing machine, bicycle or stationary bike, or even an elliptical machine to do intervals.

But whatever you do, stay away from boring, ineffective cardio exercise workouts and stick with Turbulence Training for your fat burning program.

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

Share This

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

Anytime the topic of discussion in my blogs, articles or newsletters has turned to my own personal grocery shopping list, there has always been a spike in interest. It seems that many people are not only curious about what foods a natural bodybuilder eats to maintain single digit body fat, but they also want to be taken by the hand and told exactly what foods to eat themselves while on fat-burning or muscle building programs. That’s why I decided to put together four separate “top 10” lists of healthy foods that burn fat and build muscle.

Exact quantities and menus are not listed, just the individual foods, and of course my food intake does vary. I aim to get as many different varieties of fruits and vegetables as possible over the course of every week and there are a lot of substitutions made, so you are not seeing the full list of everything I eat, only what foods I eat most of the time.

I also want to point out that while I don’t believe that extreme low carbs are necessary or most effective when you look at the long term, research has shown that there are some definite advantages to a low to moderate carb and higher protein diet for fat loss purposes. These include reduced appetite, higher thermic effect of food and “automatic” calorie control.

Personally, I reduce my carb intake moderately and temporarily prior to bodybuilding competitions. Specifically, it’s the foods that are on the starchy carbs and grains list that go down during the brief pre-competition period when I’m working on that really “ripped” look. I keep the green and fibrous veggie intake very high however, along with large amounts of lean protein, small amounts of fruit, and adequate amounts of essential fats.

This list reflects my personal preferences, so this is not a prescription to all readers to eat as I do. It’s very important for compliance to choose foods you enjoy and to have the option for a wide variety of choices. In the past several years, nutrition and obesity research - in studying ALL types of diets - has continued to conclude that almost any hypocaloric diet that is not completely “moronic” can work, at least in the short term.

It’s not so much about the high carb - low carb argument or any other debate as much as it is about calorie control and compliance. The trouble is, restricted diets and staying in a calorie deficit is difficult, so most people can’t stick with any program and they fall off the wagon, whichever wagon that may be.

I believe that a lot of our attention needs to shift away from pointless debates (for example, low carb vs. high carb is getting really old… so like… get over it everyone, its a calorie deficit that makes you lose weight, not the amount of carbs).

Instead, our focus should shift towards these questions:

* How can we build an eating program that we can enjoy while still getting us leaner and healthier?

* How can we build an eating program that helps us control calories?

* How can we build an eating program that improves compliance?

Here’s one good answer: Eat a wide variety of high nutrient density, low calorie density foods that you enjoy which still fit within healthy, fat-burning, muscle-building guidelines!

Here are the lists of foods I choose to achieve these three outcomes. This eating plan is not difficult to stick with at all, by the way. I enjoy eating like this and it feels almost weird not to eat like this after doing it for so long.

Remember, habits work in both directions, and as motivational speaker Jim Rohn has said, “Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with and good habits are hard to form but easy to live with.”

These are listed in the order I frequently consume them. So for example, if oatmeal is on the top of the list, it means that is the food I am most likely to eat every single day.

My 10 top natural starchy carb and whole grains

1. Oatmeal (old fashioned)
2. Yams
3. Brown rice (a favorite is basmati, a long grain aromatic rice)
4. Sweet potatoes (almost same as yams)
5. Multi grain hot cereal (mix or barley, oats, rye. titricale and a few others)
6. White potatoes
7. 100% whole wheat bread
8. 100% whole wheat pasta
9. Beans (great for healthy chili recipes)
10. Cream of rice hot cereal

My Top 10 top vegetables

1. Broccoli
2. Asparagus
3. Spinach
4. Salad greens
5. Tomatoes
6. Peppers (green, red or yellow)
7. Onions
8. Mushrooms
9. Cucumbers
10. Zucchini

My top 10 lean proteins

1. Egg whites (whole eggs in limited quantities)
2. Whey or Casein protein (protein powder supplements)
3. Chicken Breast
4. Salmon (wild Alaskan)
5. Turkey Breast
6. Top round steak (grass fed beef)
7. Flank Steak (grass fed beef)
8. Lean Ground Turkey
9. Bison/Buffalo
10. Trout

My top 10 fruits

1. Grapefruit
2. Apples
3. Blueberries
4. Canteloupe
5. Oranges
6. Bananas
7. Peaches
8. Grapes
9. Strawberries
10. Pineapple

Note: I DO include healthy fats as well, such as walnuts, almonds, extra virgin olive oil, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil (supplement - not to cook with), avocado and a few others.

Also, I do eat dairy products and have nothing against them, nor am I lactose intolerant. I simply don’t eat as much dairy as the rest of the stuff on my lists. When I eat dairy, its usually skim milk, low or non fat cottage cheese, low or non fat yogurt and low or non fat cheese (great for omelettes).

Last but not least, I usually follow a compliance rate of about 95%, which means I take two or three meals per week of whatever I want (stuff that is NOT on these lists - like pizza, sushi, big fatty restaurant steaks, etc)

I hope you found this helpful and interesting. Keep in mind, this is MY food list, and although you probably couldn’t go wrong to emulate it, you need to choose natural foods you enjoy in order to develop habits you can stick with long term. In the fruits and vegetables categories alone, there are hundreds of other choices out there, so enjoy them all!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting his website.

Share This