The Mind Over Body Matter Letter

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Let me be blunt…

I hate abdominal products. I hate them more than you do. For more reasons than I care to admit.

I seriously do. And, if you give me a few of your precious seconds, I’ll tell you why.

But first, let me tell you why I’m writing this…

A few weeks ago… 3 to be exact… I was in the gym working out when a friend of mine came up to me and started ranting and raving about this new product that she found called “The Truth About Abs“.

Now, I trust my friend’s opinion wholeheartedly… which is the only reason I clicked on the link in the first place.

And here I am…

Well, let me explain.

You see, I’ve been in the health and fitness industry for a long while now. In fact, I’ve ran health clubs, started personal training programs, and created corporate wellness policies for Fortune 500 companies.

Let’s just say I know what I’m doing…

(In fact, you might already own my “Health Club Secrets” guide… but that’s another story entirely)

Here’s the deal… the health and fitness industry — more specifically, the abdominal and fat loss industry — is full of one pop shops and scammers just waiting to attack unwary consumers by taking advantage of hopes and dreams…

And overpromising and underdelivering in the process.

I have to confess, most of these guys KNOW that you are going to buy their product, never use it, and then buy something else because it’s TOO HARD or it’s not working like it’s supposed to.

Couple that with the fact that most people never ask for refunds and you’ve got a serious recipe for disaster for the unconditioned newbie that has absolutely NO IDEA what the hell’s going on.

Remember, these weight loss companies are getting sued ALL THE TIME for fraudulent claims and even DEATHS… but, when these companies die off… another one takes it’s place.

So, you can imagine my skeptical nature when my friend told me about the Truth About Abs. But, she’s usually right on in situations like this…

When I reached the site, I was pretty impressed with the content and the testimonials. However, I was a little skeptical because I know that it’s pretty easy to get testimonials
from newbies… after all… just by them doing SOMETHING… they will generally see results.

And I left the site.

Surprisingly, a few days later, my friend asked me if I had bought the package and I replied that I hadn’t. Of course, she chastised me for being such a heartless bastard for not believing her…

Forward that night.

I’m pretty well known around the industry so I did some quick networking and got the “backdoor” email address to Mike Geary. I sent him a quick and dirty email stating that I had over 100,000 loyal subscribers (which is true) and I’ve had a bunch of people ask my opinion of his services.

At 6am the next morning, I had a reply…

Apparently, they had heard of me and was surprised that I hadn’t approached them earlier. He attached a review copy to the email and told me to…

Not a problem for a callous SOB like me, right?

So, I download the Truth About Abs and poured my favorite cup of green tea.

(If you aren’t drinking green tea, you’re missing out)

I figured I’d spend about and hour going through the material and then write a “thumbs down” review for my subscriber base and let that be that.

But an hour wasn’t enough.

But does it work… read on…

* Is the hype surrounding the Truth About Abs justified?

* Can the Truth About Abs help a complete rookie actually get a 6 pack?

* Does the Truth About Abs offer anything at all for the advanced professional?

Keep reading to find the truth…

(more)

Mike Geary might just be on to something here.

We’ve got to see what’s going on here…

I know that all of the elliptical and treadmill worshipers are probably fuming at me now after that article headline, but the fact is, ellipticals and treadmills are one of the least effective methods of working out in existance. With this article, I’ll show you how to get a much more effective fat-burning workout without wasting time mindlessly exercising on a boring elliptical machine or treadmill.

Now first let me state that if you really honestly enjoy your elliptical machine workouts and treadmill exercise routines, then I give you my blessing to keep doing what you love. The reason is that even though ellipticals and treadmills are relatively ineffective compared to other types of exercises, whatever you actually enjoy doing the most is going to benefit you most in the long run because you will be more likely to stick with it more consistently.

However, don’t say that I didn’t warn you that you might be wasting your time with all these boring mindless cardio machine workouts.

I’ve talked about this previously with my ezine subscribers… I actually do not believe in cardio machines as a good form of working out at all. This might surprise you coming from a fitness nut such as myself, but I don’t think I’ve personally used an exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical, or any other cardio machine for at least 8 years or more.

In fact, I don’t even use cardio machines anymore for warm-ups before my workouts. I actually think it’s a much more effective warm-up to do dumbbell and/or kettlebell swings, snatches, clean & presses, etc, mixed with bodyweight exercises as a great full-body warm-up before working out.

Why do I think cardio machines are so awful? Well, here’s 5 reasons:

1) Treadmills and ellipticals 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.

2) Elliptical machines and treadmills are insanely expensive and a waste of money for people that work out at home… there are so many better things for home workouts you could have spent your money on rather than wasting it on an elliptical machine, treadmill, or exercise bike.

You’ll see plenty of ideas below for better home workouts if you don’t like going to a gym to work out.

3) I have seen several studies that indicated results 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, and so on.

(although I never recommend just “jogging” anyway… variable intensity walking/running or sprinting are much more effective, training your heart rate in a much wider range instead of the same heart rate range the whole time).

4) Steady state exercise (that doesn’t require concentration on what you’re doing) while watching tv or reading a newspaper or magazine creates a mind/body disconnect resulting in extremely poor results compared to exercise that requires focused attention.

5) Elliptical and treadmill workouts are just mind-numbingly boring!

So what are some good alternatives to elliptical machine and treadmill workouts? Some of my favorites are:

* Outdoor wind sprint workouts - This is the ultimate workout for a rock hard lean body… just look at the powerful yet super-lean and ripped bodies of world class sprinters, and compare that to the withering weakling physiques of typical marathoners… what would you rather look like?

* Jumping rope - incredible mind/body connection and actually fun (you can try speed jumping, crossover jumps, and double jumps once you get good at it)

* Kettlebell workouts - nothing will get your heart pounding and sweat pouring like high rep kettlebell swings and/or snatches (or clean & presses)! These can be done with dumbbells too, but I prefer kettlebells as they have a better “feel” to them and the unbalanced nature of KBs makes you work harder)

* Bodyweight exercises - mountain climbers, bodyweight squats, push-ups, jumping drills, lunges, bear crawls, plank holds, and so on.

* The good old fashioned rowing machine - I don’t really lump this in as a “cardio” machine per se like elliptical machines and treadmills… Rather, I think the rowing machine is actually a great full body workout that actually uses real resistance)

* Hill sprinting - running as hard up a hill as possible, followed by walking down and repeating as many times as you can for a full workout (yet another classic drill for a rock hard lean body)

* Shadow boxing… a killer workout, but if you are shy, this is best done at home since you will get some crazy looks doing this at a typical gym!

* Swimming sprints - a more muscle toning workout compared with steady pace distance swimming… I actually love the upper body pump I get from sprint swimming (instead of swimming slow and steady, with sprint swimming, you swim as fast as you can exerting as much force as you can for 1 lap. Then rest for 15-20 seconds before doing another swim sprint).

* Heavy bag punching/kicking workouts, speed bag, rebounding bag… all are tremendous workouts and much more fun than boring cardio machines (requires an very intense mind/body connection which increases results).

I hope this article gives you lots of ideas you can use to go out right away and bring some more variety into your workouts instead of relying on the same old dull elliptical machine and treadmill workout routines. Have fun!

Mike Geary’s Truth About 6 Pack Abs is nasty… you should go pick it up.

Well, there’s only one way to get ‘em.