How To Get That Six Pack Abs Look

Stop Wasting Your Time with Worthless Treadmill and Elliptical Machine Workouts!

Have you ever considered if treadmill or elliptical workouts are actually that effective… or are there more fun and more effective exercise methods?

by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

Now that I pissed off all of the treadmill and elliptical machine worshipers… let me say that if you truly enjoy mindlessly pumping away on a treadmill or elliptical (or exercise bike for that matter too), then by all means, keep doing what you enjoy, because enjoying your exercise is one of the most important aspects to sticking with any exercise program…

However, don’t say that I didn’t warn you that you were wasting your time with all that mindless cardio machine boredom.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I don’t believe in cardio machines, and to be quite honest, I don’t think I’ve personally used a treadmill, elliptical, or exercise bike for at least the last 7-8 years or so.

As a matter of fact, I don’t even use cardio machines anymore for warmups before a workout (did before occasionally)… Nowadays, I prefer to do dumbbell or kettlebell snatches and swings mixed with bodyweight exercises as the perfect full body warmup at the beginning of my workouts.

So why do I have such hatred for cardio machines?  Well, here goes:

1) Treadmills, ellipticals, and exercise bikes are mind-blowingly BOOOORING!

2) Mindless steady state cardio exercise while watching tv or reading creates a mind / body disconnect resulting in poor results from your exercise routine

3) I’ve seen studies that indicated that treadmill running may be less effective than outdoor running for various reasons such as stride abnormalities on treadmills vs natural running, slightly less caloric burn compared to outdoor running, etc.

(although I never recommend just “jogging” anyway… variable intensity walks / runs or sprints are so much more effective, training your heart rate in a much wider range instead of just the same pace during the entire workout).

4) Treadmills and ellipticals are ridiculously expensive and a waste of money for people that workout at home… there’s so many better options for home workouts you could have spent your money on rather than wasting it on a treadmill, bike, or elliptical.

The perfect home gym setup is MUCH cheaper… there’s no reason you need anything other than a jump rope, bodyweight exercises, a few dumbbells, stability ball, maybe a few kettlebells (if you want to get fancy), and perhaps high tension bands for some more variety.  And of course… the great outdoors has some of the best workout options of all… hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, skiing, sports, and more!

5) Treadmills and elliptical machines are just a very ineffective way to workout compared to other options.  Why should you do treadmill or elliptical workouts when you can get better results by doing more interesting forms of training that actually stimulate a fat-burning hormonal response and stimulate your metabolism to a greater extent.

So what are the alternatives to treadmills and elliptical trainers? Here are some of my favorite types of alternative exercises:

• jumping rope – great mind / body connection (try speed jumping, crosses, double jumps once you get skilled at it)
• bodyweight training – bodyweight squats, pushups, lunges, jumps, bear crawls, mountain climbers and jumpers, planks, and the list goes on and on
• kettlebell training - nothing will get your heart pounding like high repetition KB swings and snatches or clean & presses (can be done with dumbbells too, but I prefer KBs)
• outdoor wind sprinting (the ultimate for a rock hard ripped body… just look at the chiseled powerful bodies of world class sprinters, and compare that to the weakling withered physique of a typical marathoner… nuff said!)
• hill sprinting (yet another classic for a rock hard powerful body)
• rowing machine (ok, I don’t really lump this in as a “cardio” machine like treadmills and ellipticals… I think the rowing machine is actually a great full body workout that actually uses resistance)
• sprint style swimming workouts (a more muscular workout than steady state distance swimming… I actually love the upper body pump I get from sprint style swimming) – this is the same concept as sprinting vs jogging but in a pool instead
• heavy bag punching / kicking workout, speed bag, rebound bag… all great forms of training and much more interesting than boring cardio machines (requires an intense mind / body connection)
• shadow boxing… awesome workout, but if you’re shy, this is best done at home since you’ll get some crazy stares doing this at a typical gym from people who think they’re “too cool” for stuff like that.

Well, I hope that helps give you ideas on how you can get away from all of these mindless and ineffective treadmill and elliptical trainer machines (and exercise bike) workouts that are just wasting your time and energy that could be better spent on more effective workouts.

Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plans

Hi,  just wanted to give you a quick reminder about the Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plan. The price will be going up so if you think it will work for you get in before the increase.

Here is some info I took of Vince’s site.

Nutrition Reality #1 You Can’t Out Train A Bad Diet

You could run two marathons a day and still get fat.

Even if you resorted to a bodybuilders diet of chicken, broccoli and brown rice six-times a day, you can still get fat.

How?

Eat too much of it.  The excess has to get stored somewhere and unfortunately that is known as your belly-bulge.

It doesn’t matter how many hours a day you workout, what kind of supplements you take or how “healthy” you eat if you consumed too much of it.

You probably learned that back in high school science class.

It’s amazing how marketing geniuses can get us to underestimate this simple nutrition fact.

Nutrition Reality #2 Diet Is 90% of the Equation

Think about it.

It takes about 3-minutes to consume a delicious muffin or donut and wash it down with a glass of juice or your favorite mocha drink.  3-minutes later you’ve consumed almost 1000 calories, 50 grams of fat and 120 grams of sugar.

Bam!  So much for that flat stomach…

You just cancelled out 2 days worth of working out! That’s called one step forward, two steps back.  I don’t’ have to tell you how hard you have to work your butt off to burn those 1000 calories, right?

You got to bust your ass sprinting up some stairs for an hour just to cancel out the damage you inflicted on your belly.

So it takes 3-minutes of mouth-watering delight to lose your six pack and it takes 60-minutes of heart-pounding, muscle-screaming workouts to get your six-pack.

Now you see why all the cover-models and bodybuilders say, “It’s all diet, diet, diet…”

Nutrition Reality #3 “Eating healthy” Without a Plan Is Guaranteed Failure

My clients protested, “But I eat healthy…” or “I don’t eat bad though…” while I confronted them with this truth.

 “Eating healthy” is a relative phrase.  You may be in fact eating “the top super foods” every day or a “variety” of proteins and fats or avoiding the “bad carbs” but still crippling your success.

Why?

How do you know if you’ve eaten too much or too little?

What do you modify at the end of the week when you jump on the scale and nothing has changed? What do you do?

Eat “healthier?”

Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plans

I bet you can relate to the three C’s…

Confusing, Challenging and Consuming

#1 Diets are CONFUSING 

Just like you, I agree that nutrition advice has become overwhelmingly confusing.  One best-selling book says no carbs, another book says no fat.  This expert says to skip the protein and the other expert says to ignore that advice.

Maybe I should eat according to my ancestors or my blood type?  Maybe I should go with the instinct diet?  That one sounds interesting…

It’s at the point now that every single food is on some guru’s “bad list.” 

If I followed all of their advice, my plate would be empty every meal!

Bottom line, it’s impossible to escape the confusion, especially since every diet promises to be better than the last.

Aren’t you dreaming of the day you can stroll into a grocery store and not be terrified or torture yourself with guilt, no matter what you eat?
#2 Diets are CHALLENGING

Just like you, I can’t possibly keep up with all the “breakthrough” diets that rain in from the sky each-and-every-day.

It doesn’t help when at least 10 of these diets get national publicity and make the best-sellers list.  What if the next one is actually the real thing? 

You would be making a horrible mistake passing up this new diet opportunity even though the diet will force you to shell-out more money, make you feel miserable, overanalyze, is outrageously unpractical, and impossible to follow long term.

Bottom line, the diet mafia is seducing you, again, to abandon your better judgment and eat like you’ve never eaten before.

#3 Diets are CONSUMING

Did you ever realize that the countries (a.k.a. United States and Canada) that are most obsessed about nutrition, dieting and diet foods are the fattest and most out of shape?

Go figure.

Being consumed with food is affecting your mood and self-worth!

It’s one thing to be a little upset because you over ate in a meal, it’s another thing to be downright depressed because you ate some garlic toast for lunch!

Our society has never been so consumed with diet and nutrition as it has in the past 50 years and yet our physiques and health are going right down the tubes.

If food is consuming your life and leaving you emotionally drained, guilt-stricken, literally afraid of eating and straining your personal relationships, then keep reading to discover a simple-fix that defies common sense!

It’s the exact simple-fix that will help you lose the last 10 pounds or the first 100 pounds like a bad habit and obliterate even the most stubborn fat from any body part.

Fact: More than ANYTHING else, you’re diet is holding you back and here is what you can do to fix it, once and for all…

Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plans

Get lean, or stay fat.  It’s your decision.

Why do I say that?  Because this is your absolute LAST chance to get the program that is going to put your results over the edge, while being
maintainable and livable, and DOABLE, before the price DOUBLES Friday night.

You want to talk about why people fail?  It’s because 99% of the diet programs out there aren’t realistic.  They aren’t practical, and believe me, I feel your pain.

But that’s NOT this program, This one is special.  This one is going to be a GAME CHANGER for you–and I guarantee it–because it’s just so incredibly livable.

Not only that, but you get to EAT NORMALLY to get you the head-turning physique you’ve always wanted–FASTER.

Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plan

Your Fat Loss Meal Plans Done For You

Yesterday we discussed that you need a nutritional template if you’re truly committed to having the healthiest and most attractive body possible.

A nutritional template just means, a meal plan.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they need a SPECIAL PLAN designed to meet their individual needs and that is a MISTAKE, at first.

Eventually you can incorporate some more advanced nutrition techniques but if you’re not flaunting a ripped six-pack, right now, or exuberating all-day energy, you are probably swimming in water too deep.

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You’ve Been Lied To
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We’ve both been conditioned to believe that you need a nutrition plan different than everyone else. You’re right, partly!

You’ve been told to worry about calories, macronutrient rations and other advanced details in the beginning, which in my opinion is wasted energy.

Focusing on these details is like working on your finishing sprint in the marathon when you’re not even in shape to run 1 mile yet.

The best meal plan is based on BALANCE and VARIETY which is exactly catered to your physiological make up. You can’t get more personalized than that!

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The TRUTH:
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At the start, EVERYONE’S nutritional quest should begin at the SAME starting line.

Plainly put: You Need A SIMPLE Nutritional Plan You
Can Implement IMMEDIATELY, COMPLETE With The CORRECT,
Foundational Nutritional Principles.

That’s why I want you to download Vince DelMonte’s “Done-For-You” Fat Loss Meal Plans available at

–> Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plans<- click here

It’s critical that you put your meal plan into action TODAY – not tomorrow, not next week or next month.

I love these plans because they are SO EASY to implement your very next meal and continue until you have developed the habits necessary to see results so that you stay motivated and finally perfect your body and health.

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The Best Part Of Your Own Meal Plan
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There are no rules to follow, complex formulas, expensive supplements, ridiculous macronutrient ratios that you need to concern yourself with.

Everything is already DONE-FOR-YOU. 

I prefer to say “DESIGNED-For-You!”

Don’t get me wrong, once you get to being a few percent away from “camera-ready” and “contest-ready” shape, you’re going to have to incorporate some more advanced tricks but for now, it’s best you accept the 3-phase meal plans as the best place to start.

Get your complete set of 30 unique 84-day fat loss meal plans TODAY
–> Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plans<- click here

To your success,

Joe

P.S. Hurry! The half-price launch sale ends Friday July 3rd at Midnight PST.
Click here to join the thousands of other users who have already PROVEN these plans work –> Done For You Fat Loss Meal Plans

Six Pack Abs – Forget The Gimmicks – Total Body Conditioning

Ab belts, ab-rockers, ab-loungers, and other infomercial ab-gimmicks… they’re all a complete waste of your time and money and won’t get you six pack abs. Despite the misleading infomercials, the perfectly chiseled fitness models in the commercials did NOT get their perfect body by using that “ab contraption”… they got their perfect body through REAL workouts and REAL nutrition strategies.

You should know by now that spot reduction is a myth. No amount of ab exercises or using the ab gadjets will show your abs. Only by total body conditioning and healthy eating will you burn off that unwanted body fat that will then allow your abs to show.

Here’s a couple of questions I asked Mike Geary of The Truth About Abs program.

Mike … What is one thing I might be doing, unknowningly, steering my quest for  six pack abs in the wrong direction?

MG:  I’ll give 2 things that may be steering you in the wrong direction…

a. Too much cardio

Some people, in their efforts to try to get lean, focus way too much on hours and hours of cardio exercise. The problem is that this can backfire on you by making you lose lean muscle mass over time, which decreases your resting metabolic rate.

 Once this happens, it becomes easier to pack on body fat than ever before.  I’ve even seen many people that do too much cardio and end up getting that “skinny fat” appearance, where they have very little muscle tone, yet they have excess stomach fat (even a “gut” possibly).

Instead of excess cardio, focus more on high intensity weight training (yes, even during a “cutting” cycle). This will help maintain your lean muscle mass throughout your body, so that you don’t experience the metabolic rate decrease.

Maintaining as much lean muscle mass on your body at all times is one of the most important things for staying super-lean for life.

b. Not eating enough healthy fats

This is another area where I see people go in the wrong direction. They are trying to lose body fat and they end up going WAY too low on their fat intake.

 When you decrease your fat intake too much, you are basically messing up your fat burning and muscle building hormones. It’s not uncommon to see people decrease their fat intake too low and end up reducing their testosterone levels significantly.

Try to get some sources of healthy fats with every meal to make sure you don’t go too low… This could be avocados, any and all nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc), seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds), nut butters (almond butter, natural peanut butter, etc), virgin coconut oil (good source of medium chain triglycerides), extra virgin olive oil, grass fed beef (good source of conjugated linoleic acid and omega-3s), whole eggs (yes, whole eggs…not egg whites), etc.

What is one unique way of boosting your metabolism, to finally burn fat, that I might be overlooking?

MG:  Incorporate any form of clean & presses into your routines twice per week. This could be barbell clean & presses or using kettlebells or dumbbells. 

 If I had to choose one exercise that burns the most calories and has the biggest impact on increasing your metabolic rate, I’d have to choose high intensity clean & presses (with squats and deadlifts being at the top of the pack also).  I like alternating the use of barbells for C&P’s one workout and kettlebells for another.

Thanks Mike for your time and expert advice.

I wanted to let you in on a special offer for the Truth About Abs.

Instead of the normal $39.95 price of the Truth About Six Pack Abs Program, Mike is willing to let you download and test out the entire system for only $4.95 for a 21-day Trial period.   That’s less than you’d pay for some greasy lunch at your corner store.  Why not do something that will improve your body instead!

You can then see for yourself exactly why this WILL work for you and if you decide that it isn’t working for you, you can simply cancel the Trial.

You won’t just get a portion of the system like some other companies will fool you into for a “trial” offer.  With this trial offer, you get access to the entire fat-burning, ab-sculpting nutrition and training system.

That means, you have absolutely nothing to risk, and in just a few minutes, you’ll gain access to this unique system and see why it is WAY different than any other ab training or fat loss gimmicky products that are “out there” these days.

Go Now to The Truth About Abs and start on what will be the beginning of a new you.

Target Heart Rate is Useless for Losing Body Fat

Target Heart Rate is Useless for Losing Body Fat
By Mike Geary and Craig Ballantyne 

I co-wrote this target heart rate article with Craig Ballantyne because we want to get the message out to everyone who keeps struggling with this outdated mentality that they must be in some sort of “fat burning zone” if they want to stand any chance of losing body fat with their workouts. We’ll show you why targeting a specific heart rate to be in this so-called fat burning zone is actually the opposite of what you should be focusing on in your workouts if you truly want to get lasting fat loss results.

One of the worst myths in the fitness industry is that you need to maintain a specific heart rate range in the fat burning zone in order to lose fat. But this is simply not true. Unfortunately, this false belief leads people to choose low intensity steady state cardio routines that are ineffective and cause most people a major lack of results from their workouts.

The quicker you get rid of the “target fat burning heart rate = the best workout” mentality, the faster you will actually start to get real results with fat loss and changing the shape of your body for good.

In the Turbulence Training workouts, you actually burn more fat and more total calories when you are OUT of the gym due to the high-intensity and variable intensity nature of the training methods in these programs. This phenomenon is not due to the elevated heart rate you experience during the workout (even though your heart rate will be increased from the supersets and intervals), but rather from the metabolic and hormonal response you achieve from the more effective workout compared to your ineffective “fat burning zone” workout.

Over the last 10 years, scientific research has indicated a couple of very important things to us about exercising for body fat loss. First of all, lifting heavier weights while exercising leads to a higher caloric consumption by the body in the period for about 1-2 days following the workout when compared to lifting light weights with high repetitions. So that’s why 6-8 repetitions per set is better than 12-15 reps per set when it comes to stimulating the metabolism for losing fat permanently. That’s one of the cornerstones of the types of training routines in programs that actually get results, like Turbulence Training.

Another important aspect we have learned from scientific research in recent years is that highly variable interval-type training is far superior to slow, steady-pace cardio exercise for fat loss and post-exercise induced calorie burning. In the long run, if you focus on the internal metabolic response your body is getting from your workout routines, instead of how many calories you burn during some sort of magical “target fat burning heart rate zone”, you will achieve MUCH better fat loss results. So not only is it more result-producing, but it is also more time-efficient to use short high-intensity interval training workouts instead of slow, long, steady-pace cardio sessions.

The only time you might need to know your specific heart rate is during the recovery period of the interval training. It is important to take enough time during your recovery intervals in order for your heart rate to drop back down significantly (allow it drop to approximately less than 60% of your max heart rate).

That way you are able to get more quality work done when it counts. You do not want to start your next high-intensity interval too soon, nor do you want to exercise too hard during your recovery intervals.

All of these details are provided in the interval training guidelines within the Turbulence Training program. And we’ll show you how to properly structure your intervals so that you allow enough recovery time between each. With these guidelines, you do not have to worry about monitoring your target heart rate or anything fancy like that. It’s just not necessary. Just follow the TT instructions, and you will do great.

So here’s the bottom line:

If you want to start actually getting the fat loss results you’ve been wanting for so long, do not worry so much about your target fat buring heart rate zone during exercise. Instead, make sure that you are working at a high-intensity and a variable intensity (according to your individual capabilities of course) during each weight lifting and interval training session.

The TT workout guidelines will give you all of the details you need on the specific rest periods to use between supersets and intervals. With these guidelines, you will start to see vastly improved results from your workouts within weeks of implementing the changes.

See Also

Interval Fat Loss Training free workouts and all the lowdown on interval training.

Ab Truth not your typical workouts for 6 pack abs