The 3 Best Ab Exercises That Are Not Direct Ab Exercises

   

 

Instead of the typical ab exercise routines that we see so often with crunches, situps, leg lifts, etc... I like to give my readers better options for metabolism-boosting high intensity workouts that work their entire body while also working their abs.

I'm going to show you an example today of one of my favorite ab workouts that doesn't include any direct ab exercises at all. It's in a tri-set format (similar to a super-set but alternating between 3 exercises).
Here goes:
1a. Renegade Dumbbell Rows
1b. Front Squats with Barbell
1c. Mountain Climbers on Floor
A good rep scheme to use with this could be 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, or more sets for less reps, such as 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise. Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of "reps".
Renegade dumbbell rows are done starting in a pushup position with the hands on 2 dumbbells. You then row one dumbbell up while stabilizing your body with the other arm. Bring the dumbbell back to the ground and alternate the rowing arm while stabilizing with the opposite arm. This stabilizing effect during the rows creates incredible work for your entire midsection core area. Trust me... you'll feel it in the abs!
Front squats are done similar to back squats, however with the barbell in front of your body on the front of your shoulders instead of resting on the upper back as in back squats. You stabilize the barbell on your shoulders by crossing your arms and pushing your fists into the bar against your shoulders while keeping your elbows out in front of the body. This takes a little practice at first, so you will want to seek a professional trainer at your gym to help you with the form. Front squats require extreme stabilization strength from the abs due to the barbell weight being shifted to the front of the body instead of the back. Even though this is mostly a leg exercise, you'll feel this one in the abs big time!
Mountain climbers are done by starting in a pushup position and then shuffling your feet in and out so that your knees are moving in under your chest and then back out to starting position. It sort of resembles climbing a mountain but flat on the floor. If you want an advanced version, you can also shuffle your hands 8-10 inches forward and backward in addition to the leg movements. This really makes it a full body exercise and MUCH more difficult than standard mountain climbers.
After finishing each exercise, rest about 30 seconds before starting the next exercise. Rest about 1-2 minutes after completing each "tri-set" before repeating.
This will give you one of the best ab workouts you've ever had without even doing any direct ab exercises. You'll see what I mean after you try it!

If you are tired of failing to get visible six pack abs, consider losing the traditional ab exercises and bogus ab gadget machines, and find out the real fat loss for abs truth at Best Ab Exercises & Workouts for Abdominals

Your Diet Plan for Weight Loss: How to Keep Hunger At Bay

Let’s make sure we get one thing straight from the outset. When you’re dieting, you shouldn’t ever feel hungry. In fact, if you are hungry, you should consider eating more.The perfect diet plan for weight loss isn’t about starving yourself, or depriving yourself of the essential foods you need to function at your prime.

In fact, it’s not even about counting calories—and if you follow my blog, you know how I feel about calorie counting. Instead, the right way to eat healthy means switching out the foods that are bad for you, and replacing them with foods that are good for you.
But even if you don’t reduce your food intake by that much, you may have an adjustment period as you begin to shed belly fat. It’s really more of a mind over matter thing than real starvation. If you’ve been used to eating large quantities of the wrong kind of food, you might go through a kind of withdrawal period once you begin eating healthfully.
So are there any ways to combat these hunger pains, without giving in to the urge to binge? Absolutely! Let’s look at a few techniques you should incorporate into your diet plan to lose weight:

Drink Your Water

First and foremost, you should be drinking plenty of water once you start your eating plan. In fact, you should be drinking at least half your body weight in ounces of water per day. So, for example, if you weigh 160 pounds, you should drink 80 ounces at a minimum per day.
Not only will water help flush toxins from your body, it can help combat edema and water retention. Need an even more compelling reason to drink water? Your body can often misinterpret thirst for hunger, actually causing your stomach to growl.
So before you reach for something more to eat check to see how much water you’ve had to drink. If you haven’t had enough for the day, drink plenty of H20 before you have anything else to eat.

Eat Healthy Fats

Yes, you can eat fat while you are on a diet. Does this mean you have my permission to run out and devour a bucket of fried chicken? Wishful thinking, but the answer is no.
You need to eat plenty of healthy fats, which are MUFAs or PUFAs, while you are dieting. These healthy fats will help contribute to a feeling of satiety between meals, as well as give you the essential fatty acids you need to function at your prime. Healthy fats include olive oil, organic butter, coconut oil, raw nuts, nut butters, and avocadoes.

Eat Lots of Fiber

Everyone knows that including high amounts of fiber in your diet helps while you are trying to reduce your weight, but no one really seems to know why it’s important. Well, there are two reasons.

1. Fiber keeps you from becoming constipated, which can happen when you make a sudden dietary change—even if that change is for the better.
2. Fiber helps you feel full more quickly, and helps you remain that way between meals.

As a rule, you should consider including a serving of fiber with every meal, even snacks. In fact, I usually recommend you include your favorite type of green vegetable with meals, such as a salad or celery sticks.

Stay Active

While exercising doesn’t have much to do with what you put in your mouth, it can have a huge impact on the success of your eating plan and how hungry you feel. I’m not a fan of long hours on the treadmill, as you probably know. In fact, I prefer shorter workouts with more interval training and strength training thrown in because I feel it gives you more bang for your buck.
But no matter how you choose to get and stay active, you should know that it will make your metabolism more efficient, allowing you to continue burning calories several hours after your workout has ended. So while you are working on eating a better diet, find ways to incorporate active movement into your daily routine. You’ll train your body to burn calories more efficiently over time.
The Diet Solution Program was designed with one focus in mind: to help people learn to eat better and thus transform their lives. If you want to learn more about how to lose weight without feeling deprived, consider downloading this program today! You can also get your FREE Diet Solution Jumpatart guide at
http://www.superfitnessforever.com/DietSolutionGuide.html

Diet Plans to Lose Weight Need Not Be Complicated

With all of the conflicting information about nutrition, it’s no wonder people give up on their diet plans to lose weight after only a few days. Dropping weight can feel like an uphill climb, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Don’t let others make the process more complicated than it actually is.

Don’t get me wrong, losing flab certainly has it challenges (trust me, I’ve been there). I’m simply saying if you’re armed with the right information, slimming down is not as hard as it seems. If you boot all the processed foods out of your diet and replace them with nutrient-dense, natural foods, you’ll lose weight and feel healthier before you know it.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Adding a variety of fresh fruits and veggies to your daily diet can help you get the vitamins and minerals you need to support important functions of the body. For instance, calcium helps support bone health. Vitamin C helps the immune system thrive. B vitamins work to ease stress, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. And vitamin A supports healthy vision and skin.
Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of complex carbohydrates and fiber. Carbs are important because they provide fuel for the body. Fiber regulates the bowels and expands in your stomach to help you stay full longer. The longer you stay full, the less you eat, and the more likely you are to drop body fat.

I have always been a supporter of free roaming chicken, grass fed meets, and whole organic eggs. It just makes sense.

Poultry and Beans
When you make beans and poultry a part of your regular diet, you are giving your body the protein it needs to maintain good health. Protein is referred to as the building block of the body for a reason. This nutrient is found almost everywhere in the body. Without it, you’ll face problems like fatigue, skin ulcers, sleeping difficulties, weakness and organ damage.
Skimping on the protein can also cause crankiness, depression, anxiety and other mental issues. Also, when you add this compound to your diet, you are less likely to overeat because it makes meals more satiating and helps control your appetite.

Lean Meats, Fish and Raw Nuts

Adding lean meats to your diet will ensure you get the iron you need to build hemoglobin and transport oxygen to the cells in your body. When you don’t get enough iron in your diet, your chances of suffering with iron deficient anemia increases. Symptoms of anemia can include fatigue, problems regulating the body temperature, headaches, dizziness and weakness.
The importance of fat in the diet is underrated. When you avoid eating healthy fats, you do your body a huge disservice. Healthy fats build the brain, provide the body with energy, help produce hormones, and provide cushion for your internal organs.
Fats also enable the body use vitamins more efficiently. Make fish and raw nuts staples in your diet so you can get some of the fats you need for good health.
If you rid your diet of processed junk and replace them with the foods listed above, you can shed unwanted pounds without frustration. The weight isn’t going to come off overnight, but it will eventually come off. Oh, and remember. No diet plan is complete or 100 percent successful without exercise.
If you don’t have a plan, trying to lose weight can be frustrating. Let The Diet Solution Program provide you with effective diet plans to lose weight.

3 Important Tips to Build Muscle Faster - Get Lean and Ripped

  

 

Let's face it... building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.
So, I'm going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.
1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises. It doesn't matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle... big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.
It's easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):

• upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
• upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
• upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
• upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
• lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
• lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
• lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
• abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements... your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc. However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.
2. Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism. You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.
Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train. My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don't interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.
Don't underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity. The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).
These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program -- caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.
3. Eat clean with quality whole foods... REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.
The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.
Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement "stacks" that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag... Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you've never seen before!

If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.
Enjoy, and good luck!
Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author - The Truth about Six Pack Abs

Does Hypnosis Work For Weight Loss?

Does Hypnosis Work For Weight Loss?
By Tom Venuto

Hypnosis conjures up images of a bearded man with piercing black eyes and a mesmerizing deep voice swinging a pendulum back and forth, chanting, “You are getting very sleeeeepy.” Hypnosis is terribly misunderstood and the only exposure to hypnosis most people will ever have is a Las Vegas stage show. But stage hypnosis for entertainment and hypnotherapy for behavior change are completely different animals. Could “real” hypnotherapy help you get leaner?

I’ve wondered the same thing myself for decades, since I first started bodybuilding.
In the late 1980’s, Dr. Judd Biasiotto published numerous books about the mind in sports including one called, “Hypnotize Me And Make Me Great.”

That 70-page book, which has long since gone out of print (but still holds a hallowed place on my shelf), was one of the books that sparked my interest in mind power and hypnosis.

In case you’re not familiar with strength sports, Dr. Judd is the guy who squatted 605 pounds at a body weight of 132 pounds – a staggering feat, as any powerlifter will tell you. When a world class lifter who also holds a PhD in sports psychology says there’s something to hypnosis, and that his mental training regimen was instrumental in his success, a teenage wannabe bodybuilder, desperate for muscle, listens!

All these years later, my interest in hypnosis and the powers of the mind have never waned. I’ve used self hypnosis as well as hypnosis CD’s, which were directed at improving performance in the gym, generating maximum intensity during workouts and pushing through the pain barrier. While I don’t see hypnosis as anything magical, I do believe it has been helpful. I also believe that a comprehensive mental training program, which may include hypnosis, can make or break your weight loss program success and give athletes a competitive advantage.

Any seasoned coach can tell you that which diet or training program you follow is irrelevant if you can’t follow it consistently. Many of the problems such as non-compliance, self-sabotage, inconsistency and lack of motivation are mind problems, not body problems.

One misconception about hypnosis is the fear that you’ll lose command of your faculties during a session or that it’s some kind of “mind control.” This is not true to any greater degree than your family, friends, peers or culture have “controlled” your mind.
The fact is, the mind is amenable to suggestion, (especially the mind of a very young child), and in that sense everything is hypnosis. Reading the newspaper or watching TV is hypnosis or “mental programming” in one sense. You get “programmed” by societal norms to become one of the masses, unless you make a choice to be different and become what you want to be.

Another source of misconceptions about hypnosis comes from stage hypnosis, which has virtually nothing to do with hypnotherapy for personal change. The stage hypnotist intentionally ferrets out the most susceptible individuals in his audience - who happen to be willing participants - and then induces some hypnotic phenomenon for entertainment value.

Hypnosis, as used in personal change work, is simply a relaxed state of altered consciousness and heightened focus where the conscious mind gets out of the way, allowing a message from the hypnotherapist to reach your subconscious more easily. When your subconscious gets the message, it stimulates positive behaviors, so hypnosis is simply a tool for behavior change.

Self hypnosis (by yourself), is as simple as taking long, deep breaths, getting relaxed (sometimes using progressive muscle relaxation techniques), then doing your visualization or repeating affirmations, or even listening to your own home-made affirmations tape.

Many people report great success with hypnosis, but others do not. The mixed results probably have to do with the practitioner, and some with the subject. What kind of results can you expect from hypnosis? Could hypnosis help you lose weight or change your body in other ways?

I believe that there is a mind-body link and that it’s entirely possible that the brain, central nervous system and subconscious mind can literally “talk” to the various cells of your body and that this may be a factor in healing from illnesses. I believe that the body is a remarkable self-healing machine and its own natural pharmacy.

I think it’s pretty difficult to prove, but being that a legitimate science exists on this subject (it’s called psychoneuroimmunology), the scientific community seems to think enough of the mind-body connection to spend time, money and resources to formally investigate it. There are many exciting and plausible theories. We also have the placebo effect to consider, where a belief can affect biology in truly amazing ways.

That said, when it comes to hypnosis, I think you should view it with an eye of caution as well as interest. First and foremost, and perhaps exclusively, you should see hypnosis as a tool to change behavior. When you look at a claim made for hypnosis, you should ask yourself whether that claim is a result that can be achieved through a change in your behavior.

For example, if someone promotes hypnosis for muscle growth, is it possible that your behavior might change in a way that you gain more muscle? The answer is yes. The hypnosis might help you change your eating habits, and you might just push yourself harder in the gym. Therefore, the muscle growth occurs as a result of behavior change - eating better and training harder - rather than the hypnosis itself.

It’s the same with body fat reduction: Will hypnosis magically increase your metabolism from a mind body connection? While I like to keep an open mind, I seriously doubt it and I’m not too enthused about hypnotherapists who say they will hypnotize you and your metabolism will speed up. If it can happen, I’m not sure it will ever be provable using the scientific method, so it may ultimately come down to your will to believe the claims.

So, could hypnosis help with breast enlargement? Well, maybe. A thought might bubble up from your subconscious mind that it’s a good idea to save up your money, go visit the doctor, and fork over the three grand for implants (sarcasm intended).

Guys, I could give the same warning about hypnosis for enlargement of your…. uh… your amount of hair… yeah, hair growth, that’s it… watch out for those hair growth hypnosis claims. I’m not so sure I believe them (grin).
What about weight loss?
Although the results are not definitive, there’s some clinical psychology research that’s been published in peer reviewed journals which shows successful results from hypnosis for weight loss. In part 2 of this series, you’ll hear more about what those studies found.

Even more eye-opening in my view are some of the documented cases of medical hypnosis, which range from simple pain relief from dental work to surgery without anesthesia (which is pretty freaky if you think about it). The mind does affect the body.

In my opinion, hypnosis sessions or hypnosis CD’s can be a valuable adjunct to a comprehensive fitness, nutrition and lifestyle program for some people, if you get them from a reputable and skilled hypnotherapist.

Even better, I believe the ideal type of session would include conscious coaching and education as well as traditional hypnosis, not just a passive situation where you listen and expect your mind to be positively “programmed.”  Then again, I think this is why weight loss hypnosis CDs sell like gangbusters, because they’re often sold under the pretense that you do absolutely nothing. Just listen and get slim - the perfect “quick fix.”

I don’t think it’s that simple or easy. You have to accept responsibility for change, take an active role in creating change and have a bias for action if you really want to be successful. You have to work on the physical and mental plane simultaneously not just “think positive” or rely on self help CD’s of any kind.

So while I DO believe hypnosis can be a valuable tool, at the end of the day, programming your mind for success all boils down to what you say to yourself (and see/read/listen to), most of the time. You can’t work with a hypnotherapist every day for the rest of your life, but you do talk to yourself non stop every single day, and repetition is a proven way to condition the mind.

The way you talk to yourself, most of the time, IS “hypnosis” if you think about it… it’s self-hypnosis.

If you already have a structured training and nutrition plan, Like Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, but you’re having challenges with the behavior change side of things, I hypnosis or positive mental programming CD’s might be worth trying as an additional tool in your “mental training” took kit.
Just remember that in the long run, you are your own best hypnotherapist and when it comes to the claims, let the buyer beware.

Tom Venuto, author of

Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Founder & CEO of

Burn The Fat Inner Circle 

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: BurnTheFat 

A delicious Fat Burning Food that’s easy to make

A delicious Fat Burning Food that’s easy to make

Coconut milk has become an absolute staple in my diet. I use it in sauces, coffee and tea, and in any recipe that calls for regular cow’s milk…I just love the stuff!
When I first started using it, I purchased the canned variety at my local health food store and would go home and transfer it into a glass container in the fridge. The ingredients list was very short (coconut and water) and it seemed like a delicious, healthy option for me and my family.
But there was 1 thing that continued to bother me a bit. With the frequency that I began to use the stuff, I didn’t like that I was using a “canned” product so often. Unfortunately, any canned foods are going to contain chemicals that leach from the actual can and I just didn’t feel good about using something like that SO often.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll use canned products from time to time, and there’s nothing wrong with using some canned items every week, but when it is a food that has become a daily staple, I felt I needed to take a bit more of a natural approach to this particular food.
Next I found the coconut milk varieties you find in the refrigerator section of your grocery store. That seemed like the next best thing. Unfortunately, once I started going through the ingredients list, I quickly found ingredients like carrageenan, guar gum and evaporated cane juice and decided I wanted to enjoy my coconut milk without these added ingredients.
So I decided to do what any super busy person would do…make my own…hahaha…as if I really have the time to do this!
In all seriousness, the recipe below is so super easy and fast that even a pregnant, working mom (yes, I’m talking about me) can handle it and keep it in the fridge on a regular basis.
Homemade Coconut Milk (I learned this method from Tropical Traditions)
Ingredients
· 7/8 cup of shredded coconut
· 1 cup hot water
· ½ cup hot water
You will also need:
· Blender
· Colander
· Cheesecloth
· Large bowl
Directions:
Add shredded coconut into the blender. Then add 1 cup hot water into the blender. Blend at high speed for 2-3 minutes. Put your cheesecloth over the colander. Pour the pulp (from the blender) into the cheesecloth. Squeeze the coconut milk into the colander. Put the pulp back into the blender. Add ½ cup hot water. Blend on high speed again for about 1-2 minutes. Pour the pulp back into the cheesecloth. Squeeze more coconut milk into the colander (Basically repeating the process to get as much coconut milk out of the shredded coconut as possible).
This may sound like a lot of steps, but I assure you its super easy. It’s just blending water and shredded coconut and squeezing the milk out of it. You will notice right away this homemade version is much tastier and healthier than any store bought canned brand.
Let me know what you think!

The above recipe was provided by Nutritionist Isabel De Los Rios of The Diet Solution. Thank You!