Burn Fat and Gain Solid Muscle with Suspension Training

I guess you can say the idea of suspension trainers came from the gymnastic sport of rings.

I first heard about it while I was in Thailand, training Muay Thai, or Thai boxing. It was at a gym where many professional fighters would train. They had a TRX demonstration one day, and It was like nothing I’ve seen before.

Basically, you have two straps with handles that are anchored to something sturdy. Your workout consists of either pulling, pushing, and stabilizing with the weight of your own body.

It can cater to just about all level of fitness because you can change the intensity of the workout by simple moving closer or away from the anchor point.

It can be a complete workout on its own, or a great addition to weight training.

The Benefits of Suspension Training

There are many benefits of using a suspension trainer over more traditional fitness equipment.

For example:

1.) It is super portable. You can literally take them anywhere…even on an airplane. On average, they weight less than 2 lbs. They’ll fit in any kind of bags, suitcases, and luggage. You can set it up in your house, hotel room, gym or outdoors.

2.) Anyone can use it. Seriously, anyone. From people who aren’t particularly fit, to world class athletes, you can make the workout as hard as you want or easier depending on your level.

3.) Easily adjust the resistance. When you start working out, your body gets stronger and you’ll be able to lift heavier weights. With dumbbells, you have to buy heavier ones (unless you have adjustable dumbbells). With a suspension trainer, you simply move your body to increase the load. You won’t have to buy new equipment later.

4.) It’s a FULL BODY workout. Unlike some fitness equipment that only does one thing, or works one muscle, it does pretty much everything. You can use it to build muscle, gain strength and endurance, and get a great cardio workout all at the same time. There are even workouts that incorporate yoga and pilates.

5.) Faster results through compound movements. It just means you workout multiple body parts at the same time. For example, when you do bicep curls with weights, you are only working the biceps, but with a suspension trainer, you are working the whole arm, shoulders, back, and core. It means you burn more fat and build more muscles faster.

6.) If you want to make the workout even harder, you can accomplish that by wearing a adjustable weight vest to really give your workout a kick in the backside.

Burn Fat and Gain Solid Muscle with Suspension Training

How to Get Six Pack Abs

There’s no getting around the fact that muscles covered by fat can’t be seen but by hitting some aerobics, making a few dietary adjustments, and doing proper ab work, you can develop legendary six- pack abs.

Getting Lean

Cardio is the mainstay for fat burning but you no longer have to run a marathon in order to burn large numbers of calories. It has been found that doing intervals significantly increases fat burning and the big plus is that it cuts down on training time significantly.

 Intervals are periods of harder work thrown into an aerobic exercise; learn how it works and apply them to whatever aerobic training you like. In jogging they can be applied by sprinting according to time. For example, you jog at a normal pace and sprint for 20 seconds every five minutes. On a track, you can jog the straight away and sprint on the corners or on the street you can simply pick several landmarks.

The key is to raise your intensity and return to a sustainable pace and  they can be applied to any cardio exercise to expose your six- pack.

Six-pack ab dieting

There are a lot of differing opinions concerning the best diet for weight loss and most revolve around reduced fat or carbs. Dramatically reducing either is not healthy nor is a long term solution because these are nutrients that your body requires.

The best strategy doesn’t remove these important resources and it doesn’t call for a drastic reduction in them either. Instead, it looks at how your body uses nutrition and provides fuel that can be used for energy, instead of storing it as fat. When you consume foods that are high on the glycemic index scale, your body reacts by a spike in insulin. Insulin rushes in to clean up excess blood sugar and stores it as body fat. The key is to control your insulin through what you eat and how you eat.

Never get hungry because in most cases, even if you eat the right food, after long periods without food you will get an insulin spike. That is why so many nutrition experts today, advocate  eating 4 to 6 smaller meals as opposed to three large ones. You should be eating every 2 ½ to 3 hours.

Foods that are high on the glycemic scale are carbohydrates that digest quickly; even complex carbs in many cases. Choose carb sources that contain at least 3g of fiber or more. Eat fresh or frozen vegetables and fruit but watch for added sugar in canned products. Drink 100% fruit juice or water, fruit “drinks”, soda, and sports drinks are all high in sugar and will spike your insulin levels.

Ab specific training

Doing endless numbers of sets and exercises is unnecessary for getting six-pack abs. Getting rid of the layer of fat that covers them is the key; followed by moderate exercises to build the muscles; just make sure that you have at least one exercise for each function of your abs.

Choose an exercise such as sit-ups or crunches to directly affect your six-pack. Do several sets and when you can do more than thirty; perform them with additional weights. Pick an exercise that works the sides of your abs such as side crunches or side planks. Add weight to the crunches when you can do more than thirty and make the planks harder by either holding weight or doing them on an exercise ball.

By making a few dietary adjustments, adding intensity to your current aerobic training with intervals, and performing moderate amounts of ab specific exercise, you can bring you six-pack abs out in bold relief.

How to Get Six Pack Abs

Lose Weight in just 1 Hour per Week Part 2

The most efficient workout. Ever.

Never take another gym class!

Most everyone in the fitness community will tell you, “more work equals faster results.” Nonsense. More work only means: more time wasted, more damage to joints, and more money spent. You don’t need to buy ab contraptions, expensive DVD sets, or waste money on hour-long fitness classes.

As a trainer, I’m all about efficiency. Other trainers hate this, because they want to charge you for a 1 hour class. They’ll never be able to charge high rates for 15 minutes! But 15 minutes is all you really need. Anyone can lose weight for their wedding with just 2-3 workouts per week, 15 minutes each. Here’s how:

1. Focus on losing fat, not weight. Honestly, do you really care how much you weigh if you look amazing? Well, looking toned and lean is a by-product of having low body fat… not low body weight. Important distinction. The fastest way to get low body fat is to develop and tone muscle. Muscle burns calories 24/7, even while you are sleeping. So, toning and building muscle is much more effective than spending hours doing repetitive cardio work. Muscle weighs more than fat, so you could dramatically improve your body composition, and still weigh the same as before. Focus on losing FAT, not weight.

2. Warm up with jumping jacks or jumping rope, just 2-3 minutes is all you need. Don’t bother stretching, that just lengthens the muscles and can make you more prone to injury. You just want to warm up your body and get your heart pumping blood.

3. Never isolate just one muscle! This is a huge time waster. Why work just one muscle at a time when you can choose exercises that work several muscle groups at once. Gym machines are notorious for isolating biceps, triceps, quads, abs, etc. This is not natural. Your body moves as a unit, not as one isolated muscle. Train it as a unit!

4. The best way to develop muscle tone is to carefully exhaust each muscle group in your body, twice per week. How? By doing slow-movement resistance exercises. Like pushups, for example. Pushups work a large number of muscles (chest, arms, abs, back). Doing them slowly over a 5 second count up and down will leave them quivering and sore the next day. And you only have to do one set! Do you see how efficient this will be? One slow set of pushups can be done in under a minute. Now, exhaust the rest of your muscles by doing body weight squats, leg lifts, weighted rows… all slowly until you reach muscle failure. You can even exhaust forearms, calves and your neck this way. Muscle failure means you can’t do another repetition with good form

5. Slow resistance exercises give you all the cardio work you need. Believe me, your heart and lungs (the cardio-vascular system) will be exhausted as you reach muscle failure. And, you get to avoid all the joint and ligament damage that a lifetime of cardio can produce!

6. Space your workouts 2-3 days apart each. Your body needs this time to recover from muscle fatigue. And, as you are recovering, your metabolism is on overdrive rebuilding tiny tears in your muscles. Read: you’re burning more calories all the time!

7. Try kettlebells. These weights have been used for centuries in Russia, and they look like cannonballs with suitcase handles on top. Because the weight is distributed unevenly, they offer incredible muscle toning and cardio benefits. My favorite moves are the kettlebell swing and halo. In the swing, you simply drop the kettlebell back between your legs, then explode your hips forward and let the kettlebell end about shoulder level (check out the Skinny Sexy Bride page on YouTube). For the halo, you hold the kettlebell upside down and move it around your head, like it was orbiting you. Great core and arm exercise.

8. Summary: each week, do 2 workouts: 1 kettlebell workout with swings and halos, and 1 slow movement workout with pushups, squats, leg lifts, rows. Rest 2-3 days between each workout. When you get 4 weeks away from your wedding, add a third workout. This new workout includes speedskaters, burpees, and point crunches. Again, check out the Skinny Sexy Bride channel on YouTube for examples of each.

You will be lean and ripped in no time… and you won’t risk injuring yourself and limping down the aisle!

Lose Weight in just 1 Hour per Week Part 2

How to Lose Weight in just 1 Hour per Week

Busy with wedding plans? These tips help you lose weight fast!

Almost every woman wants to lose weight before their wedding. But most are crunched for time, because planning a wedding basically becomes a part-time job! Cake tasting, dress selection, bachelorette parties, showers, flowers, catering, music, vows, venue…whew!

It’s hard to squeeze in 4-6 gym sessions per week with all of that going on. Many brides turn to starvation diets, grueling routines and expensive trainers. There is a better way, and it’s possible to achieve amazing fitness results in only 1 hour per week. Let me show you…

CONTENT AT A GLANCE

1. 6 Simple Food Rules


2. The most efficient workout. Ever.


3. Video: Lose Weight For Your Wedding


4. Video: The Kettlebell Swing


5. Things You Need To Get Started


6. Other healthy resources for brides

6 Simple Food Rules

Why you should never count calories!

So many diet plans rely on silly point systems or calorie counting. Who wants to spend their time with food charts and calories? Let me make it easy for you, and you on only have to count to six:

1. Get 3 bowls that are roughly the size of your stomach capacity. I recommend Pyrex, because glass is safer than plastic and they offer convenient storage lids. The human stomach can hold about 4 cups of volume, so that’s enough to make most humans feel very full. For women under 150 pounds, get a few 3 cup bowls as well. 4 cups may be too large for you.

2. Fill your bowls 3 times per day with the most nutritious food you love to eat. The bowls perfectly measure food volume, and automatically handle portion control! All you have to do is fill the bowls with nutritious foods – lean meats, vegetables, fruits. Avoid foods with sugar and flour, and don’t drink beverages with calories (soda, milk, fruit juice). PS, you don’t have to eat “bowl foods” like soup. Just use the bowls to measure volume, then eat off a plate.

3. Eat that food, slowly. Don’t try to eat 6 meals per day, like some diets recommend. You’ll end up eating 6 regular meals and not 6 smaller meals! Digesting 6 meals per day really taxes your organs (liver, kidneys). Not to mention, eating 6 times totally interrupts living. Eat 3 meals slowly to give your digestive system time to work. Ideally, eat during your favorite 30-minute TV show and only take bites during the commercials. Savor.

4. Cheat twice per week to satisfy cravings. There are 21 meals per week. If you eat 19 nutritious ones, 2 non-nutritious ones won’t kill you. Go ahead and order the pizza, and beer, and dessert. Just keep it to 2 meals per week. Save these for dinners out, engagement parties, bridal showers, and any events with booze. Have some fun.

5. Four weeks from the wedding, reduce the size of one of your bowls by one cup. Example, if you are eating three 4-cup meals per day, now you’ll eat two 4-cup meals + one 3-cup meal. This slight change will really make a difference right before the event. Just make sure you’re getting sufficient calories. Fill those bowls up with good stuff!

6. Make these changes slowly! If you make dramatic lifestyle changes quickly, you’ll quit the program. First, eat your normal diet, just measure with the bowls. Next, start switching out your normal diet for healthier alternatives, still using the bowls. Once you are used to that, step it up a notch and try to incorporate organic food, raw food, and local produce.

 

How to Lose Weight in just 1 Hour per Week