Switch Up Your Fat Loss Workout
Little bit of spring in the air, only 3 weeks till its official. I’m off to Cleveland this weekend, but get home on Saturday night, so I’m happy for that.
Again, I’ll be sticking to my nutrition as much as possible. These days I’m making even more effort than ever before to get more greens…and I probably get more greens in a day than the average American gets vegetables all week. Check out how you can add vegetables to lunch:
Lunch: 4 whole organic eggs, scrambled, cooked in organic butter, cooked with spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, & red onion. Topped with Mrs. Renfro’s salsa. Check out my complete daily diet here.
When I was in Panama, my greens intake went down a lot, no matter how hard I tried…and I believe I almost got a cold from that, and from the 2-3 glasses of wine a few nights, plus the reduction in sleep (staying up till midnight while getting up at 5am).
But…getting back to Toronto and overloading on greens may have saved me. Or maybe I’m full of it. Ha!
Click here to listen to the call…
Let’s get started with…
Monday – March 7th
Transformation Tip of the Week
“Don’t think of ‘making it’ in terms of achievement. Instead, know that you are in the constant state of making it if you are doing all you can do in every area of your life until the day you die. It’s not about getting there; it’s about the trip” – Larry Winget
Double shot:
Kekich Credo #68 – “There are an infinite number of new opportunities. Actively seek them out, and position yourself to recognize and take advantage of them.”
Make “fitness networking” part of your daily activities. Go to fitness/healthy lifestyle events. Build social support groups. Build positive relationships as the foundation of your fat loss.
Workout of the Week: The TT 300 Workout Challenge
I created this a couple of years ago, back when the original 300 workout was all the rage.
– 3 rounds
– 10 exercises…10 reps each
– Rests as needed (I took 30 seconds rest between rounds)
– BW Bulgarian Split Squats 3×10
– Close Grip Push Ups 3 x10
– Alternating Long Forward Lunges 3×10/side (alternating)
– Inverted Rows 3×10
– Decline Push ups 3×10
– Chin ups 3×10
– Mountain Climbers 3×10
– Prisoner Squats 3×10
– KB Swings 3×10 (35 lb KB)
Times per round: 4’46”, 4’40” and 4’30”
Tuesday
• Get 30 minutes of fun activity – now grab a Green Tea and do this week’s research review.
Reference:
Nutrition Research. Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 33-41. Diets high in conjugated linoleic acid from pasture-fed cattle did not alter markers of health in young women
Mainstream media reports claim you can lose fat by supplementing with CLA pills…well, I don’t buy it. In this study, researchers from Iowa State University tried it…giving naturally incorporated CLA from pasture-fed beef and dairy products to subjects and normal, low CLA diets to other subjects.
18 healthy women 20 to 39 years of age consumed one of these 2 diets for 56 days. They consumed a balanced nutritionally complete diets comprised of 31% energy from lipid, 13% from protein, and 54% from carbohydrate were administered, with the primary difference being CLA content (CLA diet: 1.17 g/d; control diet: 0.35 g/d).
Results:
The CLA diet did not result in any differences in insulin sensitivity, body composition, circulating blood lipids, or other measured disease risk factors as compared with the control diet.
Conclusions:
CLA from real food in a regular diet is not powerful enough to cause changes.
Wednesday Workout Tip
I’m going to give you a “Switch It Up” training tip every day in March, or at least I’m going to try. It will be something simple that will still have a dramatic impact on your results. Let’s start a day early.
Today’s SWITCH Training Tip: Save Your Shoulders
When doing horizontal pressing, keep elbows in instead of out. When doing rowing, keep elbows out instead of in. So goodbye to Bodybuilder style bench…switch to tucking the elbows in (even with dumbbell presses)…and try wide-grip seated row and band pulls in place of narrow rows. NOTE: The change in pressing is more important.
My Workout:
1A) Bench with chains (elbows tucked in, of course)
1B) DB chest supported row (elbows move out on rowing motion)
2A) Close-grip lockouts (elbows tucked in)
2B) DB row (elbows were in for this one)
3A) Decline pushups (elbows kept close to body)
3B) Farmer’s walks with DB’s.
3C) Iron Cross with Cables (stolen from Jason Ferruggia’s tip in the latest Men’s Fitness magazine)
Trainer Thursday
• Do 30 minutes of fun activity…
Trainers…try increasing the amount of bodyweight exercises in your client’s warmup.
I’m currently using “giant bodyweight circuits” before every workout and its really helping me personally with injury and improving abdominal stability, etc. Martin Rooney was a big influence on this change…he has long used big bodyweight circuits with his athletes.
My Warm-up
Jumping Jacks
Run in Place
Prisoner Lunge
Duck Under
Bird Dog
Plank
Glute Squeeze
Mountain Climber
Calf Jump
Bodyweight Squat
Cossack
Pushup
Leg Swing
Psoas Stretch
Chest Stretch
Facebook Friday
I’m doing a lot of QnA sessions over on Facebook at www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com
Q from Josh Fairbairn: Iv got two weeks before I go cancun want to get ripped as fast as, I know it’s late but I was thinking high protein total body exercise high weights, anything u can add or something I should do? Thanks
Answer:
Josh – Stick to the plan that you have been or should have been following for the last 8-12 weeks. The right diet plus intervals plus resistance training.
Q from Joan Diaz: I’m 165 lbs right now and at 5’8 I’m eating 2000 calories a day, wanna keep the weight and loose some fat around waist, am I on the right track? I do TT 3X a week and bodyweight cardio twice a week, If i eat anything less than 2000 calories I dont feel good at all
Answer:
Joan – You are eating too many calories to accomplish your goal. Sorry. When Brad Pilon was losing fat for a bodybuilding show, he was at 1800. And he’s a guy with a lot of muscle and weighed over 180 pounds. So again, you are far exceeding your calorie needs.
Great questions…please ask yours at: www.TurbulenceTrainingFanpage.com
Social Support Saturday!
• 30 minutes of fun activity…
You can’t change your genetics, but you can change your attitude, your persistence, your environment, the people you listen to, and the things you do…please make sure to be putting yourself in the right environment.
Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
• 30 minutes activity and plan, shop, & prepare
Q: Do I have to drink green tea for fat loss?
Answer:
There’s nothing magic about the green tea, so you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to…the bottom line is to make sure you aren’t drinking any calories…or at least not drinking any unimportant” calories. So avoid juice, soda, red-bull type drinks, etc. 1-2 cups of coffee per day is fine. Try and drink more water if you don’t drink a lot right now.
Q: How much of an impact does 1-2 glass of wine a day have on fat burning goals?
Answer:
It depends on total calories consumed each day. Each glass of wine is 100-150 calories. If your total calorie needs for each day are 2000, and you drink 2 large glasses of wine, that means you can only eat 1700 calories of food (sticking to whole, natural foods). If you can be disciplined and stick to the 1700 calories, then the wine shouldn’t have much – if any – negative impact on your fat burning. But again, it all comes down to total calories consumed each day.
Next week!
• Training Tips – More Workout Switch-Ups
• Research Review – The Truth About Boosting Metabolism with exercise
• Nutrition – How much protein?