Workout Routines | Building Muscle | Burning Fat | Weight Lifting Exercises

I’ve received a few emails about a “new groundbreaking fat loss study” and how it is supposed to burn fat faster than regular cardio (even though we know regular cardio sucks).

Researchers compared…

a) Doing a 60 minute bike (at 60% max effort) then recovering for 60 minutes

vs

b) doing a 30 minute bike, resting 20 minutes, and then doing another 30 minute bike and then resting for 60 minutes. (both rides at 60% max effort).

The results showed…

i) The total calories burned between the workouts did not differ.

ii) more fat was burned during the recovery for the split workout (77% vs 56%).

What does this mean?

Jack squat.

Nothing.

First, why would i even consider doing either of the above when a 20-minute interval workout gets more results?

Second, who is going to do this?

Third, look at the actual numbers of fat calories burned…at most, it could be 50 extra calories. Again, useless in all practical terms.

But…

Look for health clubs to be full of people sitting around for 20 minutes between cardio bouts…maybe clubs will start offering “recovery rooms” where people can sit for 20 minutes and read dry People magazines, instead of the sweat covered People magazines they are used to reading while doing their relatively worthless cardio workouts in the past.

Why am I so hard on cardio?

Because its a waste of time…

and now these researchers and the authors of these “news reports” want to waste even MORE of your life…

As I wrote recently…

A recent study published by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, subjects aged 40 to 75 were instructed to do 60 minutes of aerobic exercise per day for 6 days per week for an entire year.

(Reference…
Obesity 15:1496-1512 (2007). Exercise Effect on Weight and Body Fat in Men and Women. Anne McTiernan*, et al.)

Given the amount of exercise, you’d expect weight losses of 20, 30 pounds, or more, right?

Well, the surprise findings showed the average fat loss for female subjects was was only 4 pounds for the entire year, while men lost 6.6 pounds of fat over the year. That’s over 300 hours of aerobic exercise just to lose a measly 6 pounds of blubber. Not time well spent, in my opinion.

***
Listen, you give 300 hours a year, and you’ll lose a lot more than 6.6 pounds of fat…trust me on that. Heck, give me 300 hours a year and I could probably turn you into a Ninja, commercial airline pilot, and accomplished mime, and still help you burn more fat than you would with 300 hours of cardio.

Here’s the best advice I can give you…

Ignore mass media news reports about fitness.

If anything worthy of note comes up, you’ll hear it from me,

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked fast fat burning workouts have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Expert fat loss workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig’s bodyweight workouts for fat burning help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Ballantyne

Workout routines for weight loss are designed to primarily kick-start your metabolism and keep it elevated for an extended period of time. If you want to seriously burn fat as quickly as possible, the primary emphasis should be placed on boosting your metabolic rate…

Most people focus on the amount of calories burned during the actual workout. Although it helps to directly burn calories, the main focus of a workout program should be to effectively elevate your metabolism, so you can burn calories throughout the day and even while you sleep. True success lies in this strategy.

So how do you effectively boost your metabolism?

Well, the best way is to train with weights, period. Cardio is good for burning calories and enhancing cardiovascular health, but it doesn’t compare to weight training in charging up your metabolic rate for a sustained timeframe.

It is well-known fact that each additional pound of muscle you gain burns an extra 20-30 calories per day, even while you rest. This is because muscle is active tissue that requires constant maintenance. By adding just 2-3 pounds of muscle, you’ll be burning an extra 80-100 calories per day.

In addition, each weight training session sends your body into…

Read the rest of this article on Weight Loss Workout Routines…

The amount of repetitions you do per set can make a big difference on how much muscle you gain…

There are so many opinions out there…some say high reps, while others say low reps. Some believe in feeling the “muscle pump”, while others claim that the “pump” doesn’t help at all.

Just incase you don’t know what a repetition is, its simply completing a lifting motion followed by a lowering motion, one time. So if you do 1 pushup, you’ve completed 1 repetition. Or, if you lift a pair of dumbbells over your head and then lower it, you’ve competed 1 repetition. A set refers to the amount of consecutive repetitions you perform for a given exercise.

The best way to discover the perfect repetition range for building muscle is to look at the science on how each repetition range affects the muscle, and more importantly, how it affects the processes that induce muscular hypertrophy (growth).

Don’t let all these complicated terms confuse you…its really quite simple. In general, there are 3 basic repetition ranges:

1) 4-6 repetitions of heavy weight
2) 8-12 repetitions of medium weight
3) 15+ repetitions of light weight

The 4-6 heavy weight repetition range works different muscle fibers than the 15+ light weight repetiton range. Heavy weight (4-6 reps) typically works the fast-twitch muscle fibers that are responsible for strong, explosive movements. It is understood that these muscle fibers have a very dynamic growth potential…

On the other hand, light weight (15+ reps) works…

Read the rest of this article on the Perfect Repetition Range for Building Muscle…

If you’re looking for a free ab workout routine, then you’ve come to the right place…

When it comes to working out your abdominal muscles, the important thing to remember is that your abs are just like any other muscle group. Many people treat the abs differently, as if they are made up of a different material. The abs group is made up of muscle fibers and functions the same way as any other group.

No matter how many crunches or situps you do, it won’t help you lose fat off the area. The only way to burn off tummy fat is to burn more calories than you consume from food. In general, here’s the best nutrition guidelines for developing six-pack abs:

1) Slightly reduce your overall carbohydrate intake. Consume natural carbs like whole wheat, fruits, and vegetables, and avoid processed carb sources such as white bread and sugars.

2) Reduce you overall caloric intake by 500 calories below your maintenance level.

3) Increase meal frequency, consuming 5-6 small meals throughout the course of the day. Double clean water intake.

Basically, if you follow the above nutritional guidelines, you’ll have a big boost in burning off excess fat. Then, you’re ready to focus on the workout routine.

A good ab workout routine should focus on splitting the different regions…

See the rest of this article on Free Ab Workout Routine…