6. Single Body Part exercises for fat loss-unless you are strengthening an area post injury or have an inefficiency of function in a body part, there is no reason to train single body parts at a time if you are trying to shed body fat.  Full body movements incorporating several muscle groups simultaneously give you more bang for your buck and produces twice the results in half the time.  Step away from the infomercials.

7. Low Fat or Fat Free Foods- some foods are legitimately better if they are low fat or fat free, but the list is VERY small.  Typically these foods that market low fat or fat free options are made from a base ingredient that is a fat.  So if the fat is taken out, something else must be put into its place.  Often that is sugar,salt,sodium, hydrogenated oils, or high fructose corn syrup, or any combination of these ingredients.  Opt for a full fat version of a food and just watch portions.  Fat is not as bad as you think.

8. Over-supplementation- We tend to get real carried away with supplementation.  When trying to lose fat, there are a few things you want to be taking to ensure an optimal environment, and to take if you want to be healthy.  Protein Powder, multivitamin, Fish Oil are three mandatory supplements you want to ensure you are taking on a regular basis.  Other than that, it’s more on a case by case basis.  Most supplements were designed with body builders in mind and if you aren’t looking to become a body builder, you are wasting your money.

9.  Abdominal Machines- They all should be thrown into a pit and lit on fire.  These have no benefit. I haven’t found an abdominal machine yet that helps with stabilization which is the primary role of abdominal muscles.  Exercises like planks, and body weight utilization through free movement will train the abdominal muscles so much better than any machine could.

10. The five minute warm up on the treadmill- The five minute warm up is a joke if you are trying to prepare your body for exercise.  Start with slow movements and movements to strengthen or lengthen difficult areas, or areas of potential injury.  Then progress to higher intensity warm up exercises.  You don’t need to step foot on a treadmill for a warm up, nor should step on any machine for that matter.  To prepare your body for exercise you must use your body to warm up.  Machines assist the body in exercise and that  is not what you want.

The power of our group is undeniable.  We are here for eachother and we are a family.

Here was tonights workout:

Fight Gone Bad

Burpees

Push ups

Kettlebell Swings

Prisoner Kneel to Stand

Speed Rows

1 minute per movement. 1 minute rest after finishing all five movements.  Complete 3 rounds and get as many reps as you can.

Here’s video action from today:

Well I’m going to attempt to shed a little light on the subject for you by taking ten out of the equation and putting them on the ‘outlawed’ list.  The outlawed list is those items or theories that have no place in fitness and will waste your time rather than giving you results.

Outlaw List

1. Long, slow cardio- I’m sure if you are a frequent reader, that you knew this one was going to be on the list.  Long, slow cardio is number 3 on the priority list in terms of types of training that will get you results, behind Weight training, and interval/metabolic circuits. It can help you get results, but not as the main focus of your training and should be don only after the first two have been utilized.

2. Marathon workouts- there really is no need to train for more than an hour.  In the real world people don’t have the time to train that long anyway, so stating that you must train longer than an hour to get results is ridiculous.  The more and more I read from the experts I’m beginning to believe this for long distance athletes as well.

3. Ellipticals- choppy range of motion, lackluster resistance to make you work.  Its ok if you have no other option, but honestly there is always another option; ie bodyweight, jogging, running interval sprints, jumping jacks, etc.

4. Seated Weight Training Equipment- We sit all day, no need to do it when we are performing weight training too.  Our hip flexors get very tight and short when we sit, so standing exercises and hip dominant exercises are very important for health, reducing injury and results.

5. Altering food to the point its no longer  food to make it healthy- lets stick with the basics here, I mean the things that we all know are not only healthy but will also keep our metabolism running at a very high level, so let’s cut to the chase and eat those items and lose the fat free, sugar free, low carb, bread on the shelf.

Tomorrow I’ll reveal five more things that need to be outlawed by the fitness industry.  In the meantime keep it simple; hard work and eat well.

As for the rest of the details, here they are:

• Teams of 4 only- teams can be comprised of two bootcampers and two non-bootcampers, or one bootcamper and three non-bootcampers.
• Non-bootcampers pay a $25 participation fee which goes toward the prizes for the winners
• Bootcampers do not pay
• Measurements will be done three times during the transformation; beginning, middle and end.  Winners will be determined by the highest percentage of weight lost and total inches lost during the eight weeks.
• Bootcampers are the coaches of their teams.  They help, workout, teach, their teammates how to shed fat using exercise and nutrition during the 8 week contest.

Good luck to everyone!

What I’m getting at is what your mind is telling you.  Your mind is telling you that you can’t lose weight, get lean, and become fit.  The fact that your mind is telling you these things leads your actions toward that belief.  This goes far beyond the realm of losing weight, exercise, and nutrition.  It is present in all aspects of your life whether you believe you can or believe you can’t perform a task, complete a project, or succeed at an accomplishment. 

You hear a lot about nutrition and exercise and what to do in order to make changes to your body.  However what makes you take the first step is the decision to perform those tasks.  That decision is controlled by your brain, as is all the decisions you make on a daily basis.  But we’ll focus more on exercise and nutrition.

The decision to eat supportively and exercise consistently is driven by the gasoline that is your brain.  And it is your mind that propels you to achieve results, step outside your comfort zone, have the mental strength to finish a hard workout, or to choose vegetables and lean proteins over ice cream and pizza.  One of the tools that works very well with getting your mind in the right place is to write your goals down in the form of an affirmation in the present tense.  Write your goals down as if they have already happened.  Tell a positive story with your goals and have them accessible daily.  This works better than reading your goals in list form because it trains your subconscious mind that you are living your goals and will train your brain to tell your body to take steps toward your goals much quicker.

Take a look at your goals and rewrite them in paragraph form.  To make them even more effective, think of painting a picture from your brain to paper.  In other words, you have to use as much detail as much as you possibly can so that everything that is in your brain concerning your goal is written in your affirmation.  This makes it very real and very personal to you.  And the more ‘you’ it is, the more effective it is going to be to training your brain to get what you want.