The Mind Over Body Matter Letter

If you haven’t noticed already, I am a huge fan about this new phenomenon that’s starting to come around. Of course, if you’ve been following for the past few months, you’ll know that I am talking about “energy flux”.

So what IS this topic about…

Let’s just say that it’s the anti-diet.

Seriously, the whole basis behind it is pushing as many total calories through your body as possible and not gaining weight. Seems impossible right.

Well not only is it possible, but if your whole idea of fitness is getting absolutely RIPPED (and it should be), this should be the only protocol you should follow.

So, the mantra for right now is “Eat More, Move More, Lose More”

There are a few studies that have to do with energy flux and I’ll share one with you tomorrow.

All I ask is that you hold your feelings about this controversial subject until a few days from now. I am about to show you how to get in better shape and in less time per day than you have ever thought possible.

Oh, and I’m not talking about the whole “make sure to take the stairs instead of the elevator deal”

You know what, before I get started on energy flux tomorrow, I’ll tell you why everyone tells you to “find ways to exercise” (like the stairs thing). I truly feel that the find ways to exercise through “everyday” activities is hurting most people.

You see, because of the state of obesity in the United States especially, many leaders and “gurus” just want people to do SOMETHING. Therefore, they tell people that you can get in shape and improve your health by increasing your activity level while doing mundane tasks.

But let’s be serious, do we really think that walking up the stairs everyday instead of taking the elevator will improve our fitness level THAT much. Really, you might take the stairs two times per day for a grand total of 5 minutes walking the stairs.

And, most people will be laboring up the stairs anyway all the while, telling themselves that they are taking the stairs instead of the elevator and their fitness levels are improving because of it… and they’ll think that that’s ALL they need to do

Do you really think that?

From what the research tells us, most people need to raise their metabolism in order to lose fat without crash dieting.

Two ways to increase your metabolism: weight training… interval training

Everything in life that is worthwhile takes a little W-O-R-K… including health and fitness. Don’t shortchange yourself by thinking otherwise.

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Here’s a pretty cool article by Craig Ballantyne, author of Turbulence Training…

Read on for another version of a workout to test your boundaries.

The Men’s Health 300 workout did an incredible job of creating actors with ripped abs for the 300 movie.

But for most people, this workout was difficult to do because it includes a lot of equipment typically not found in home gyms or commercial gyms. So you couldn’t do the kettle bell clean and press or box jumps.

That’s why I came up with the Turbulence Training Bodyweight 500 workout. This is a 500 repetition workout performed using only bodyweight exercises. No weights are needed. It’s still challenging, it will still burn fat, and it will still help you achieve the body of a Greek Warrior. The great thing is that you can do it in any gym.

Now earlier this year I tried the 300 movie workout. It is a challenging 300 repetition workout put together by a trainer for the lead actor in the 300 movie. This isn’t how they did their workouts…it was just a test of his strength-endurance.

Here’s the workout…Do not rest between exercises. Just go, go, go.

Pullups - 25 reps

Pullups - 25 reps

That was one tough workout. But like I said, I think I’ve put together something that is just as tough, and more available for people to do. Obviously both are advanced workouts…and you shouldn’t do either unless you are as fit as a college athlete.

So here is my TT Bodyweight 500 Workout:

50 Prisoner Squats

25 Chin-ups (NO substitutions)

Whew! Where you are really going to slow down is with the pulling exercises. That is a lot of chinups and pullups and rows to do in one workout. But you will have such an arm and shoulder pump after the workout it will blow you away.

You can watch the workouts on the Internet. Just search Youtube for Bodyweight 500 or Turbulence Training.

WARNING! WARNING. This is a very advanced workout. So don’t do it unless you are already fit.

If you aren’t super-fit, but want to work up in a challenge, I have an alternative for you. Start with the following workout, called the Bodyweight 100. Please note: This is still not a beginner workout.

Here is the bodyweight 100. Do the 100 workout on a Saturday. After 7 days, try it again, doing it two times. One week after that, try doing it 3 times. Then you could be ready for the Bodyweight 500 in the fourth week.

20 Prisoner Squats

5 Chin-ups or Inverted Rows

Those are the 300 and Bodyweight 500 workouts. These will put turbulence on your muscles and help you burn fat and boost your metabolism without slow boring cardio.

Here’s the YouTube video…

Men’s Health expert Craig Ballantyne has designed the trademarked Turbulence Training home fat burning workouts to help thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Craig’s workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig’s beginner bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

I hear a lot of people asking about “toning” and how much weight they should use…

(start excerpt)

The key to burning the most calories through weight training AND triggering the highest “afterburn” potential revolves around the amount of WORK (the scientific definition) you do. In the bodybuilding realm, they like to call it volume.

So you want proof, huh? No problem:

The First Law of Thermodynamics

This law states that the change in the total energy of a system is equal to the change in the amount of work done by the system minus the amount of heat generated by the system:

dE=dW-dQ

dE = change in total energy of a system
dW = change in work done by the system
dQ = change in heat generated by the system

(Now, for you physics or engineering types, I realize that this equation is generally a partial differential equation. We are simplifying the analysis greatly… )

Now, this is a little calculus and I am making it extremely basic.

Okay, if we say that the change in the energy in a person is going to be zero (we aren’t eating any food at the moment and heat lost due to radiation, convection, and conduction is zero).

By making these assumptions, we can say:

0=dW-dQ or dW~dQ (~ means “is proportional to”)

So, we can say that the change in work done (lifting) is proportional to the change in heat generation. Since heat generation is directly proportional to the amount of calories burned, we can say that the change in the amount of calories burned is proportional to the change in the amount of work done by a person.

Of course, if we say that we aren’t doing any work or burning any calories due to working out at the very instant we start to exercise, we can say that the amount of calories burned at the end of our weight training is proportional to the total amount of work done during the workout.

If you remember from 9th grade science:

Work = Force x Distance (US units)

So, our key is to maximize the amount of work done during weight training. If you use a weight of 20 lbs and can do a maximum of 20 repetitions (let’s say the weight moves 2 ft up and down during a repetition). In this example our work done equals 800 lb-ft of work done (20lbs X 40ft)

What if we go heavier, say 40 lbs and we can do that 12 reps (40lbs x 24ft = 960lb-ft)?

What if we go even heavier, say 65 lbs and we can do 8 reps (65lbs X 16ft = 1040lb-ft)?

Even heavier, 80 lbs, 4 reps (80lbs X 8ft = 640 lb-ft).

In this example, we can see that the 65 lb weight actually allows us to perform the most work; and, for calorie burning purposes, should be the weight we work with (after warming up correctly, of course).

A note on “toning”

It’s probably the biggest crock ever. Most people only try to “tone” when they exercise for fear of their muscles growing uncontrollably. It’s not easy getting big, trust me. If it was, every person you see in a health club would be large. Gaining a significant amount of muscle mass takes time, commitment, and a SURPLUS of calories (did I mention we are going to be working with a caloric deficit?).

(end excerpt)

I hope this helps you understand more on how to effectively select a weight for maximum fat loss…

For more great info, check out the Fat Loss Black Book

Here’s another “extreme” video for your viewing pleasure from “Rocky IV”

(Today’s article is from Craig Ballantyne, author of the vaunted Turbulence Training program. Also, nothing really to report workout wise for yesterday… I took a recovery day)

Find out the secret interval training workouts used by Men’s Health magazine experts to help their clients burn fat and lose their love handles.

Interval recommendations have ranged from 15 seconds to 5 minutes (these are known as aerobic intervals). So let’s take a look at each interval recommendation and all those in between.

1) 15 Second Intervals

The great thing about 15 second intervals is that you’ll be able to work at a very high rate (almost near your maximum power output), as long as you get adequate recovery between work intervals. The downside is that it is very difficult to do 15 second intervals on machines, because it takes a long time to “build up” and “bring down” the machine settings to the correct speed.

Intervals are for advanced fitness levels. Your rest interval should be at least 15 seconds long, and can be as long as 60 seconds. The longer you rest, the harder you will be able to exercise in each interval.

2) 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off

This method is known as the Tabata protocol, after the Japanese scientist that published a study on this routine. This is hardcore. Not for the faint of heart. If you are a beginner, try easy interval training.

Here’s more info on the Tabata protocal:

In Tabata’s study, the researchers found that guys who used the routine five days a week for six weeks improved their maximum aerobic capacity (a measure of your body’s ability to consume oxygen–the more oxygen you can take in, the longer and harder you’ll be able to run) by 14%. What’s more, it also improved anaerobic capacity (which measures your speed endurance, or the duration you’re able to sprint at full effort) by 28%. So the Tabata Protocol is the rare workout that benefits both endurance athletes and sprinters–hard to accomplish. Consider: A study of traditional aerobic training–running at 70% of aerobic capacity for 60 minutes–for the same number of weeks showed an improvement in aerobic capacity of 9.5% and no effect on anaerobic capacity.

Source: Men’s Fitness

Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Ballantyne use interval training because it works. Again, it would be very difficult to perform this type of interval training on a machine, due to the time lag as you increase or decrease the settings. And finally, these too should only be performed by above average fitness levels.

3) 30 Second Intervals

The Turbulence Training workouts tend to use a lot of 30 second intervals. Beginners will rest up to 90 seconds between intervals, while advanced fitness levels will rest 30-60 seconds. The longer (relative) rest allows you to work harder in each successive interval (i.e. you’ll almost be able to match your performance in the first interval with each following interval). Short rest intervals (as in the Tabata protocol) will lead to a dramatic drop-off in performance with each interval. You can easily do the 30-second intervals on any machine.

4) 45 Second Intervals

These intervals are proven for fat loss, in addition to being effective for many team sports (such as hockey, soccer, basketball, and rugby). I have used 45 second intervals extensively in both areas of training. Short workouts, but tough workouts. Your rest intervals will feel like they go by so fast. Use 45-90 seconds of recovery between intervals. Do 3-6 intervals per workout. Get ready to be fitter and leaner than ever.

5) 60 second intervals

Similar to the 45 second intervals in benefits and toughness. Rest 1-2 minutes before starting your next interval.

6) 120 second intervals

These are now officially aerobic intervals, and can be used for both fat loss and improving aerobic capacity for sports and running. A great way to achieve two fitness goals at once. Exercise for 2 minutes and then recover for 2 minutes. Repeat 6 times. These workouts take longer (obviously), but can have a role in changing your body and improving your performance.

7) 5 minute intervals

Same strategy as with the two minute intervals. This really increases your workout time, so these are only used with serious endurance athletes.

Beginner vs. Advanced

If you are thinking that these intervals all sound “too intense” for you, please don’t worry. Interval training is all relative. You don’t have to sprint for your life in each type of interval. Instead, just work at a slightly harder than normal pace. By the end of the interval, you should be getting tired, but you shouldn’t be gasping for air. Start conservatively and you will get the hang of it.

For example, if you regularly use level 5 on the stationary bike for 30 minutes continuously, you might try doing a 1 minute interval at level 7. Try that for an interval workout and let me know how it goes.

I really like to use short bursts of exercise lasting no longer than a minute. These have been the staple intervals in my Turbulence Training workouts since the first workout was designed back in 2001. But again, I think you will get your best fat loss results if you vary your interval training workouts - just like you must vary your strength training workouts.

Without fat burning intervals, you might never burn belly fat.

Learn the fat burning workout routines that give you ripped abs from Men’s Health expert Craig Ballantyne and his trademarked Turbulence Training workout secrets

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Hey swing back in tomorrow and we’ll determine if you’re on a Sumo Diet or not… good stuff, because most people eat like Sumo wrestlers do.

No big deal.

I got the workout in… which what what I was really looking to do today but the diet aspect sucked pretty bad.

I’ve got to hit the grocery store… period.

So the workout was pretty short - a little over 30 minutes but I walked out sweaty and tired.

Here’s how it went:

Set one: Warm up set of overhand bent over rows with just the bar.

Compound set one: 8 reps at 135 bent over row followed with 8 reps lat pull at 140.

Compound set two: 8 reps at 155 bent over row followed with 8 reps lat pull at 160

Compound set three: 6 reps at 185 bent over row followed with 6 reps lat pull at 180

Two sets of 8 reps of pull ups (or you can just go to burn out either way)

Compound set four: machine row 8 reps at 120 followed with 8 reps standing curls (bar only)

Compound set five: machine row 8 reps at 140 followed with 6 reps standing bar curls (95)

Two sets of 10 leg raises.

10 minutes of interval training on the bike: 1 minute warm up (low level), 30 second “sprint” at a mid level, 30 second cool period at a low level, 15 sec “sprint” at a high level, 45 sec recovery at low level, repeat.

Went home and drank a Cyto gainer shake to get some calories in me.

For this workout, low level means low resistance and low effort. High level means high resistance and almost max effort.

Also, I probably could have went a little heavier in the workout but I’ve been so sporatic lately that I didn’t want to over tax my joints and connective tissue… yet

I haven’t done the measurements yet… although I’ll try to get a bodyfat one tonight.

More tomorrow, until then, grab the book so you’ll know why I’m doing what I’m doing and then check out this video and see if you can do this…