Fat Burning Bodyweight Circuit Exercises

Fat Burning Bodyweight Circuit Exercises

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training for Fat Loss
When you travel, you worry about missing your workouts and eating poorly…So you must plan ahead for both (apples and almonds for planes, trains, & automobiles)…and bodyweight circuits for “no-equipment [...] continue reading

8 Benefits of Interval Training

8 Benefits of Interval Training
What are the benefits of interval training? Why would I switch from doing my traditional cardio routine? Does it really work if I am not working hard for at least an hour? These are a couple of questions that I hear all the time with clients and injured athletes that I [...] continue reading

6 Interval Training Sessions Improve Oxygen Utilization

6 Interval Training Sessions Improve Oxygen Utilization
How effective are interval training sessions at increasing aerobic exercise capacity
compared to traditional aerobic training? Researchers at McMaster University in Canada
uncovered some very interesting answers.
The study involved 8 subjects who performed interval training sprints on a stationary cycle.
Subjects participated in 6 sessions over 14 days. Each session consisted of [...] continue reading

Avoid Holiday Weight Gain With These 8 Tricks

Avoid Holiday Weight Gain With These 8 Tricks
by Aaron Ivey ATC, CSCS
Most everyone has concerns about gaining weight during the holiday season. It’s so easy to eat a couple hundred extra calories with all of the guilty pleasures that we enjoy. Gifts of candies, cookies, pies, brownies, egg nog… What do you do to make [...] continue reading

No Time to Exercise? No Excuse

A study, published in The Journal of Physiology, shows that short bursts of very intense exercise — equivalent to only a few minutes per day — can produce the same results as traditional endurance training.
The Study:
Subjects: 16 college-aged students
Protocols:
- Interval training group: 4-6 sets of 30 second “all out” bouts with 4 minutes recovery for [...] continue reading

Interval Training For Cardiac Rehabilitation?

Short bursts of high intensity sprints–known to benefit muscle and improve exercise performance–can improve the function and structure of blood vessels, in particular arteries that deliver blood to our muscles and heart, according to new research from McMaster University.
The study is published online in the journal American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative & Comparative Physiology. [...] continue reading

Cracking the Cardio Comfort Zone

How to Get Results with your cardio routine. Crank Up the Intensity - Reduce the Time This is your formula for maximum fat loss. Trouble is, we start OFF doing this and slowly but surely, our results seem harder to attain. You’ve embraced the idea that Long, Boring, Steady State Cardio is just not going [...] continue reading

High Intensity Interval Training - The Scientific Approach to Weight Loss

High Intensity Interval Training-the Scientific Approach to Weight Loss.
Okay, I am pretty sure you have read most of the material you could get your hands on concerning dieting and weight loss. Chances are, you even attempted dieting and cardiovascular training at some point in order to shed some of those unwanted pounds. The question is, [...] continue reading

Anaerobic Exercise - Fast Fuel!

Anaerobic exercise: fast fuel
Anaerobic exercise is when you are exercising at a rate that requires your body to use energy systems that do not require the use of oxygen to produce energy from within the muscle. That’s not to say that you are going so fast that oxygen is not being used. Some people error [...] continue reading

Lactic Acid - Your Friend?

Lactic Acid Not Athlete’s Poison, But An Energy Source — If You Know How To Use It
ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2006) — In the lore of marathoners and extreme athletes, lactic acid is poison, a waste product that builds up in the muscles and leads to muscle fatigue, reduced performance and pain.
Some 30 years of research [...] continue reading

Great New Resource for Interval Training

See the Interval Training Guide website for great information and articles on interval training.

"Cardio Can Kill"

Cardio Can Kill

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

I'm not a big fan of long cardio, especially extreme bouts of cardio - i.e. running marathons.

Just this past weekend a 41-year old man died running one of the Toronto marathons. Last year, same thing. These are not the first, nor will they be the last men to die running a marathon.

And for what?

To run an irrelevant distance for no reason at all. I don't see any logical reason for most people to run a marathon. Particularly when you are a 40-year old father of a young family. You can be fit and healthy with far less exercise time, as long as you train with far better exercise choices.

Sure, you can say you are pushing the boundaries of your human performance...but I doubt that is any consolation for the family of thes two men.

No matter how "type A" someone is, or how driven they are to perform in a marathon, simply being able to run a marathon proves nothing. And it can have disastrous consequences. Not too mention the many smaller negative consequences of:

a) A waste of hours of your life spent away from your loved ones while you pound the pavement

b) Sore knees, chronic back pain, and blistered feet

c) Money and time wasted in the physiotherapist's office

d) An improperly trained body (i.e. weak back of the body, no upper body strength, overuse injuries)

e) A level of fitness that has limited carryover to real world needs (carrying groceries & other objects, outsprinting an attacker, manual labor, etc.)

So please, if you insist on running marathons, do yourself and your family a favor and:

1) Get a full physical from your doctor. This goes without saying for anyone on an exercise program over the age of 30, but running marathons is another reason not to neglect your physical exams.

2) Pay close attention to your body during the race. Wear a heart rate monitor, and exercise conservatively, drink the right amount of fluids (but not too much as that can be the cause of death in long runs), and just plain be careful. A marathon is hardly a reason to risk your life.

Now, here's more bad news.

Cardio has been killing fat loss programs for decades.

Why?

Because almost all of the exercise science studies performed in the 70's through the early 90's were done on distance running.

From there we got the messages that:

i) To lose fat, you had to do long, slow endurance training. Clearly, we know this is false. Nutrition is the most important aspect of fat loss.

ii) That we should eat a high-carbohydrate diet. This message, while generally true for endurance athletes, was broadly applied to fat loss. So we were subjected to that hideous low-fat, high-carb phase in the 90's where we were urged to eat Snackwell low-fat cookies with no regard to the sugar and calorie content.

iii) Beginners should get out on high-volume, walk-run programs. Now while it is important to get people out and exercising, high-volume activities for underprepared beginner muscles are going to cause injury fast. And that's what happened to most people that tried to take up running.

iv) Too many cardio enthusiasts had the wrong mentality of, "If I go for a 5 mile run, I can have some juice and cookies as a reward". Needless to say, that didn't help anyone lose fat.

The end result?

This high-cardio, high-carb approach to fitness and fat loss left many men and women with thunder thighs, saddle bags, and chronic running injuries.

Fast-forward to this decade, and the mainstream media is finally starting to see the benefits of strength training and interval training for both fat loss and the cardiovascular system.

Not too mention people are finally getting their nutrition right. And it's so simple:

- lots of fruits and vegetables (rarely does anyone get enough)
- lean protein
- healthy fats
- fiber-rich low-glycemic carbohydrates

Dr. Chris Mohr gives dozens of options for each in the TT Fat Loss Nutrition Guidelines.

So eat right, train right, and be safe.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

P.S. Okay, so you don't want to give up running?

At least train your body correctly with Turbulence Training. It trains the muscles that running neglects, and promises to put more power into your hill running.

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 www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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

The Lactic Acid Myth - Busted!

"Feel the burn!" The lactic acid myth revealed!

You hear it all the time in the gym when you feel that burn in the muscle. "Oh that is the lactic acid building up in your muscle. That is why it burns." Is that really what is happening or is there some other chemical or physiological explanation for the burn you feel. You have probably been sore a day or two after a good workout. Again, some attribute this to lactic acid build up. Can there be another explanation for this?

Yes! The idea that lactic acid is the cause of such discomfort is not supported by basic biochemistry, the chemical reactions that take place in your body. It is true that lactic acid exists. However, lactic acid is not the cause of the soreness or the burn.

Maybe a quick summary of basic chemistry will help. Acids are made up of a “free” hydrogen molecule (not chemically combined with another substance) and a salt molecule such as lactate. Under the right conditions, these two molecules chemically combine to form an acid. One of the most common acids is hydrochloric acid. The number of hydrogen molecules that are “free” determines the pH of a solution. The measure of the concentration of free hydrogens in a solution is known as pH. A lower pH value means that the solution or environment has a greater concentration of free hydrogens (more acidic). A higher pH value means that the solution has a lower concentration of free hydrogens. We call this basic or alkaline.

The value of pH is measured on a scale from 0 to 14. Stomach acid has a pH of around 2. Water has a pH of around 7 and liquid drain cleaner has a pH of around 14. When you combine a base and an acid, the solution moves closer to the neutral pH around 7. That is why you add baking soda to your pool if the pH is too low and muriatic acid if the pH is too low. By doing so you are providing a salt for the hydrogen to bond to thereby reducing the concentration of free hydrogens. This increases the pH

At a pH of 3.86 lactate bonds with free hydrogens to form lactic acid. However, when the pH is greater than 3.86 lactic acid becomes sodium lactate and does not contribute to the free hydrogens in the blood, which has a pH of around 7. Even during intense exercise the pH of blood does not drop very far below this. Therefore, lactic acid really does not exist in the body. In fact, the production of lactate in the blood during exercise helps to make the blood more basic and neutralize the pH.

The burn you feel during your workout is not a result of lactic acid. Nor is lactic acid the so-called “toxin” that is released when you get a massage. But that’s another story…

For more detailed information on the biochemistry involved please see the following article by Robert A Robergs:
Exercise-Induced Metabolic Acidosis: Where do the Protons come from?

Interval Training

What is Interval Training?

The term "interval training" has become quiet the buzz word over the past year. So what is it and how does it work? First off, interval training is not a new technique for athletic performance improvement. Athletes have made interval training a part of their training for many years. Fartlek training is a good example of a training technique based on the same principles. Interval training is simply combining periods of high intesity exercise with low intensity exercise. You can apply interval training no matter what your level of fitness.

Many studies indicate that the use of interval training with "untrained" individuals is more effective at decreasing a person body fat than long slow distance training like most people are used to doing. They also got in shape faster. Here is a personal example. Several years ago I was looking to supplement my income a little and decided that I would deliver newspapers in the early morning. Well, instead of driving my car to each individual house, getting out. letting the engine run, and move on, I decided I would park my car, grab as many papers as I could carry and run from one house to the next. I would then get in the car and drive to the next area. This short duration, high intensity exercise with rest in between is what interval training is all about. Within 3 or 4 weeks I noticed that my pants were a little loose and I wasn't quiete as out of breath coming back to the car.

So how does it work? Think of your body as having 3 different types of fuel, or energy systems, to use. I will use the metaphor of starting a fire to help illustrate. The first fuel is easily ignited and burns really quickly (think of a match). The second fuel takes a little more effort to get it going but will burn for a little longer than the first (think of the kindling). The third energy system takes quiete a bit of effort to get started and burns really slow and long (think of the oak log). Each of these systems has fancy scientific names attached to them. Maybe in another blog I will go into further detail.

When you are doing interval training you are burning matches like crazy and some of the kindling, depending on how long your exercise bout is. During your recovery period, which could last up to 3x the length of your exercise bout, your body uses energy from the oak log to rebuild your matches. The oak log uses fat for energy and to replace the energy used during the match phase and the kindling phase.

By using high intensity interval training you are training your body to use fat to replenish your emergency fuel sources.