#1 - The best interval training work-to-rest ratio for losing belly fat might be 1-to-1.5 (e.g. 30 seconds fast running to 45 seconds slow running).
But in a recent Australian study, researchers found that doing intervals for 8 seconds followed by 12 seconds of rest resulted in significantly more belly fat burning than long slow cardio.
Now I know that 8 seconds on and 12 seconds off sounds a little annoying (just try doing that on a machine), but the good news is that these researchers found that going for 24 seconds followed by a 36 second rest works just as well for boosting fat burning hormones. Give it a try.
#2 - "Get almost all of your carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables."
I really liked that tip because I've been telling people this for ages, and it's part of my Fat Loss nutrition plan. Oh, and while I am on nutrition, try this Super-charged Strawberry-Banana smoothy:
1 ripe banana, frozen strawberries, spinach, flax oil (trust me, you can't taste the spinach OR the flax seed oil), cashew butter, chocolate protein powder, and almond milk.
It was one of the best smoothies I've made in a while.
#3 - You need to be able to do a Plank exercise for 2 minutes.
Dr. Stuart McGill, the world's leading expert on low back health, says in his book that a person with fit abs should be able to do a plank exercise for 2 minutes straight.
If you can't do the plank for 2 minutes, then you need to lose belly fat and you need to get a program that works your abs properly. I can help you with that!
#4 - New research shows that superset training burns more calories than traditional straight set resistance training, so start super-setting!!
#5 - To see your abs, a man will need to be close to 10% bodyfat and a woman will need to be at about 16% fat.
Of course, the more muscle you have, the easier it will be too see your abs, so you'll still be able to see a 4-pack on muscular guys when they have 12-13% fat. But the bottom line is that you need to fix your Nutrition to burn belly fat to see your sexy abs.
BONUS Tip - A great way to work your abs harder than normal planks is the Stability Ball Plank. Research reported in Men's Health magazine reported this exercise to be 30% harder on your abs than a regular plank.
If you are a member at DW Bromborough, then come and try my Fitball class at 6.30pm on Monday evenings, or 9.30am Tuesday morning.
Dedicated to your success
Chris
19 May 2010
Goal setting
Goal setting
All good plans start with a clear, concise picture of the desired objective. The main problem starts when the objective is not clearly defined. When was the last time you tried to buy a new car and you just hoped the money would show up in your account?
Hopefully never! So why do so many people go the gym and hope that they will lose fat or build muscle? You must have clearly defined goals that work like magnets. They pull you in their direction. The better YOU DEFINE them, the better YOU DESCRIBE them, the harder YOU WORK to achieve them, the stronger THEY PULL.
And I’m sure you will agree that there are a lorry load of excuses to block your road to really shaping up, so you’ll need a very strong magnet to pull you forward. My Dad always said, “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
I want you to be truly honest with yourself. Do you think that you can casually or unintentionally lose over a stone of weight or tone your hips, thighs, stomach or whatever? No way!
Do you think deep down that if you believe your genetics make a slim physique something that is out of your limits, that you will ever achieve any significant results? Of course not!
And when was the last time you hoped for something and it actually happened? Probably never! Right now, ask yourself if there is any circumstance that could prevent you from achieving your goal and begin planning how you will respond if and when that circumstance arises.
I want you to actually record on a piece of paper the habits in your life that will be required to change so that you can lose more fat, improve you tone, increase your muscle mass or whatever you want.
Better yet, ask yourself, “How committed am I to my goals on a scale of one-to-ten?” If you are only a seven or an eight, ask yourself, “What would make me a ten?” What is holding you back from being committed to your goals 100%?
If you are only committed to your goal seven or eight out of ten, that’s fine, but be prepared to get an equal return on your investment. Like the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”
You must be prepared to break old habits and build new habits.
Habits are basically like automatic behaviors. I will be the first to admit that breaking bad habits and forming new habits is not easy at all. If it were, you would have no financial problems, perfect relationships, a healthy body and you would be on top of the world!
The ‘sick-cycle’ is a term used to describe the continuous cycle of poor choices. When we continue to make choices that lead to the same dead end, we are in the midst of a sick cycle.
It’s interesting how you have probably tried to break an old habit by doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. It’s foolish. Why can’t we see that trying to write a different ending to a story by mentally writing a different story in our minds just does not work and it will never work!
Creating new habits to truly transform your body is not easy and will require you to assess which habits in your life need to be destroyed.
But you probably already know what habits are destroying your progress. The biscuits with your tea, the take-away on a Friday, the wine / beers on a Saturday etc. But knowing what to do is not enough. In my opinion, YOU DO NOT TRULY KNOW ANYTHING (you might have talked about it) UNTIL YOU actually EXPERIENCE AND LIVE IT!
“A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo-it-yourself project.”
-Abigail Van Buren-
Here are some tips to help you create new habits:
In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” (Simon & Schuster, 1990), Stephen Covey compares the making and breaking of habits to the launching of a spacecraft. “To get to the moon those astronauts literally had to break out of the tremendous gravity pull of the Earth.”
I also have an analogy that has helped me break some of my own bad habits:
Visualize your hands clasped together, finger-over-finger, and tied together with tight string. This picture represents adherence to a bad habit. Every time you resist a bad habit, one of these strings will come undone. This represents resisting your bad habit once. Since you have only removed one string the bad habit is still present. However, as you continue to resist and resist, another string, and another, and another will fall off your hands and eventually your hands will be free to move and come apart freely.
This analogy works in reverse as well. Every time you reinforce a bad habit, a new string binds tighter around your hands and it will become harder and will require more time to remove all the strings tying your hands together.
Rarely are genetics the problem in achieving significant results, whether weight loss or muscle building. Most of the time the problem is YOU!
However, if you truly are genetically cursed, you will always have to work a little harder to keep up to par but I believe you will be quite surprised with the results you attain using my nutrition and training programmes.
The question is always about how much you want to reach your goal!
Don’t be lazy, be lean! And feel free to forward this to your friends or relatives who may need a push in the right direction.
Have a great week
All good plans start with a clear, concise picture of the desired objective. The main problem starts when the objective is not clearly defined. When was the last time you tried to buy a new car and you just hoped the money would show up in your account?
Hopefully never! So why do so many people go the gym and hope that they will lose fat or build muscle? You must have clearly defined goals that work like magnets. They pull you in their direction. The better YOU DEFINE them, the better YOU DESCRIBE them, the harder YOU WORK to achieve them, the stronger THEY PULL.
And I’m sure you will agree that there are a lorry load of excuses to block your road to really shaping up, so you’ll need a very strong magnet to pull you forward. My Dad always said, “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
I want you to be truly honest with yourself. Do you think that you can casually or unintentionally lose over a stone of weight or tone your hips, thighs, stomach or whatever? No way!
Do you think deep down that if you believe your genetics make a slim physique something that is out of your limits, that you will ever achieve any significant results? Of course not!
And when was the last time you hoped for something and it actually happened? Probably never! Right now, ask yourself if there is any circumstance that could prevent you from achieving your goal and begin planning how you will respond if and when that circumstance arises.
I want you to actually record on a piece of paper the habits in your life that will be required to change so that you can lose more fat, improve you tone, increase your muscle mass or whatever you want.
Better yet, ask yourself, “How committed am I to my goals on a scale of one-to-ten?” If you are only a seven or an eight, ask yourself, “What would make me a ten?” What is holding you back from being committed to your goals 100%?
If you are only committed to your goal seven or eight out of ten, that’s fine, but be prepared to get an equal return on your investment. Like the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”
You must be prepared to break old habits and build new habits.
Habits are basically like automatic behaviors. I will be the first to admit that breaking bad habits and forming new habits is not easy at all. If it were, you would have no financial problems, perfect relationships, a healthy body and you would be on top of the world!
The ‘sick-cycle’ is a term used to describe the continuous cycle of poor choices. When we continue to make choices that lead to the same dead end, we are in the midst of a sick cycle.
It’s interesting how you have probably tried to break an old habit by doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. It’s foolish. Why can’t we see that trying to write a different ending to a story by mentally writing a different story in our minds just does not work and it will never work!
Creating new habits to truly transform your body is not easy and will require you to assess which habits in your life need to be destroyed.
But you probably already know what habits are destroying your progress. The biscuits with your tea, the take-away on a Friday, the wine / beers on a Saturday etc. But knowing what to do is not enough. In my opinion, YOU DO NOT TRULY KNOW ANYTHING (you might have talked about it) UNTIL YOU actually EXPERIENCE AND LIVE IT!
“A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it’s an undo-it-yourself project.”
-Abigail Van Buren-
Here are some tips to help you create new habits:
In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” (Simon & Schuster, 1990), Stephen Covey compares the making and breaking of habits to the launching of a spacecraft. “To get to the moon those astronauts literally had to break out of the tremendous gravity pull of the Earth.”
I also have an analogy that has helped me break some of my own bad habits:
Visualize your hands clasped together, finger-over-finger, and tied together with tight string. This picture represents adherence to a bad habit. Every time you resist a bad habit, one of these strings will come undone. This represents resisting your bad habit once. Since you have only removed one string the bad habit is still present. However, as you continue to resist and resist, another string, and another, and another will fall off your hands and eventually your hands will be free to move and come apart freely.
This analogy works in reverse as well. Every time you reinforce a bad habit, a new string binds tighter around your hands and it will become harder and will require more time to remove all the strings tying your hands together.
Rarely are genetics the problem in achieving significant results, whether weight loss or muscle building. Most of the time the problem is YOU!
However, if you truly are genetically cursed, you will always have to work a little harder to keep up to par but I believe you will be quite surprised with the results you attain using my nutrition and training programmes.
The question is always about how much you want to reach your goal!
Don’t be lazy, be lean! And feel free to forward this to your friends or relatives who may need a push in the right direction.
Have a great week
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