3 Best Exercises
May 22, 2008
3 Best Exercises
The 3 best exercises you can do at home with dumbells and bodyweight
to burn fat and sculpt your body…
Find out more about exercise at Turbulence Training.com
Fat Burning
May 22, 2008
Watch as Craig reveals the #1 waste of time in a workout, and give you the simple, yet fast and effective plan to burn belly fat in only 45 minutes…
Why Cardio Doesn’t Work for Fat Loss
May 21, 2008
Why Cardio Doesn’t Work for Fat Loss
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com
Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work
so perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has
tried it knows, the practicality of it just doesn’t add up.
After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.
British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren’t previously exercising.
(Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).
Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That’s a lot of
exercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great – I was positively surprised by the results.
So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!
Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out…
The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds.
The scientists think they know where things went sour. They
classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the “Compensators”
and the “Non-compensators”.
The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts.
Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge “compensatory” increase in appetite experienced by this group.
Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does,
research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.
So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your
appetite and calorie intake to see if you are “compensating” for
your efforts. If you are, you might be better off using a program
of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.
As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research,
interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. And
increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-
burning benefits.
In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of
cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.
So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity
exercise a go for your next workout program.
Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training
About the Author
Learn about the “Dark Side of Cardio” in the free report from Craig Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com Craig 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 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 www.TurbulenceTraining.com
How Many Pushups Can You Do?
May 21, 2008
How Many Pushups Can You Do?
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training for Fat Loss
The push-up is the all-American exercise. Too bad most Americans would have
a hard time cranking out a single repetition, let alone the number they
should be able to do for their age.
It’s time to start re-gaining your upper-body strength. And in a challenge I
put together for Men’s Health Magazine last summer, I set the bar very high.
Here, for example, are the numbers I gave for men under the age of 45 to
determine their level of fitness:
Able to do less than 20 push-ups = out of shape
Able to do 20-34 push-ups = average
Able to do 35-49 push-ups = fit
Able to do more than 50 push-ups = “Men’s Health” fit
(For a woman, cut the number of repetitions by 60 percent. So, to get
an “average” fitness score, a woman under the age of 45 would need to be
able to do at least 12 pushups.)
If you are a beginner, start with kneeling push-ups to build strength. Do
one set of 5-10 reps today, and add one set every other day until you are
able to do three sets of 10 kneeling push-ups.
Once you are able to do that, you’ll be ready for the next level: lowering
yourself to the ground for a 3-count, then relaxing onto your knees and
getting back up to the start position. Work your way up to 8 repetitions…
and then you’ll be ready to do full push-ups.
If you’re already doing full push-ups, here’s how to improve your fitness
score: Start by doing half the number of repetitions you can do, rest 30
seconds, repeat that same number of push-ups, rest 30 seconds again, and
then repeat the push-ups. Do this two or three times per week, decreasing
the rest period by 10 seconds each week. Retest your max after three weeks.
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
