Archive for the ‘Fitness’ Category
Why Some People Quit And Some NEVER Give Up
Thursday, March 4th, 2010By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Throughout my 18 years in the fitness industry as a trainer, nutrition consultant and motivational coach, I have noticed that some people who start a nutrition and exercise program give up very easily after hitting the first obstacle they encounter. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement or frustration, they will abandon even their biggest goals and dreams.
On the other hand, I noticed that some people simply NEVER give up. They have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. These people are like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a bone. The harder you try to pull the bone out of his mouth, the harder the dog chomps down with a vice-like grip.
What’s the difference between these two types of people? Psychologists say there is an answer.
An extremely important guideline for achieving fitness success is the concept that,
“There is no failure; only feedback. You don’t “fail”, you only get results.”
This is a foundational principle from the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the first time I ever heard it was from peak performance expert Anthony Robbins back in the late 1980’s. It’s a principle that stuck with me ever since, because it’s a very, very powerful shift in mindset.
A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they’ll bail out and quit, just because what they try at first doesn’t work. They consider it a permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset change, or what we call a “reframe.”
Instead of saying, “This is failure” they can say to themselves, “I produced a result” and “This is only temporary.” This change in perspective is going to change the way that they feel and how they mentally process and explain the experience. It turns into a learning opportunity and valuable feedback for a course correction instead of a failure, and that drives continued action and forward movement.
It’s all about your results and your interpretation of those results.
Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and wrote about it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he referred to as “explanatory style.” He said that explanatory style is the way we explain or interpret bad events or failures.
People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. For example, they hit a plateau in their progress and explain it by saying, “diets never work” or “I have bad genetics so I’ll always be fat.” These explanations imply permanence.
Other people hit the same plateaus and encounter the same challenges, but explain them differently. They say things such as, “I ate too many cheat meals this week,” or “I haven’t found the right diet for my body type yet.” These explanations of the results imply being temporary.
People who see negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give up easily and often generalize their “failure” into other areas of their lives and even into their own sense of self. It’s one thing to say, “I ate poorly this past week because I was traveling,” (a belief about temporary behavior and environment), and to say, “I am a fat person because of my genetics” (a belief about identity with a sense of permanence). Remember, body fat is a temporary condition, not a person!
People who see challenges and obstacles as temporary and as valuable learning experiences are the ones who never quit. If you learn from your experiences, not repeating what didn’t work in the past, and if you choose to never quit, your success is inevitable.
About the Author: Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to burn fat without drugs or supplements using the little-known secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and turbo-charge your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com.
[Editor’s Comments: I was talking with Tom the other day, and I asked him what was the #1 question he gets asked most often. He immediately said:
"How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?"
The problem is you get all kinds of conflicting answers to this question- even from experts who are supposed to know these things. So Tom spent a lot of time doing scientific research and matching it with his own real world case studies, and he came to the following conclusion:
YES - you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time!
In fact, he just published a new ebook on the subject that explains it in detail, called: "The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program: How to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time" AND you can get it FREE at the following link:
Click here =>> Burn the Fat
Here's the deal...
From now until Midnight (PST), March 5th, 2010, you can get a copy of the Holy Grail Body Transformation program ebook absolutely FREE when you purchase the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle e-book from this web page:
Click here =>> Burn the Fat
I just read Tom's "holy grail" book earlier today...that's one reason I'm publishing this article so late in the day...and he definitely hit a home run again with this one!]
Required Legal Disclaimer: some of the links mentioned within this post or posts they lead to are my affiliate links and I get compensated for recommending those products. However I NEVER recommend something I don’t believe in and welcome your questions and feedback.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Are Cardio Workouts Effective For Losing Fat?
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010By Mike Geary, CNS, CPT
Are cardio workouts or weight training more effective for losing fat…
In this article, I have an intriguing discussion about cardio workouts, which will hopefully get you thinking differently, and trying new things.
You may know I’ve been called the anti-cardio guy before, but this week I’m back posing the question to you… Do you really need cardio training to get lean and in great shape? By the way, you’ll see in a minute that I’m not really “anti-cardio”, just “anti traditional cardio”.
Most fitness buffs, weekend warriors, or anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a fact that they need “cardio” exercise to accomplish these goals. They would never even question it.
However, I’m not only questioning it, I’m going to refute it! In fact, you may be surprised to know that some of the leanest and meanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. And I’ve spent over 15 years working out in various gyms, and hanging out with athletes of all sorts, so I’ve seen it all.
I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can be more effective methods.
But what exactly is “cardio”?
Most people would consider cardio to be pumping away mindlessly on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or coasting on an elliptical machine, while watching the TV screen at their state of the art gym.
This is what I call “traditional cardio”. Hmmm, no wonder the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results.
But if you look closer, “cardio” exercise can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. I’m not going to get into anything technical like increasing your VO2 max or anything like that. To keep it simple, if it gets your heart pumpin, and gets you huffin and puffin, it’s cardio. I don’t care if you’re holding dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training exercise…it’s still conditioning your heart.
Let’s take a look at a couple examples. Take a barbell (or dumbbell, or kettlebell) clean & press for example, which involves lifting a barbell from the floor up to shoulders, then push pressing overhead. And listen up ladies, because even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, it doesn’t matter if you’re not lifting 250 lbs; if 45 lbs is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much.
At first glance, most people think of the barbell C&P only as a weight training exercise or strength exercise. However, I challenge you to do a hard set of around 10-15 reps on the C&P. If you used a challenging enough weight, what you’ll find is that your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max, and you are huffing and puffing like you just ran a 100-meter sprint (which by the way, sprinting kicks the crap out of jogging any day if you want the easiest way to lose the flab).
Try the same thing for a set of 20 reps of one-arm snatches or swings with each arm with a kettlebell or dumbbell, and tell me your legs aren’t burning, heart racing, and you’re gasping for breath. How about trying 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats, lunges, and pushups with very little rest. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breaths!
Try and tell me you’re not conditioning your heart with this style of training! Conventional thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are fullfilling your cardio workout needs as well (saving you time!).
Not only do you save time, but you strengthen and condition almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body exercises if you do them with enough intensity…something that can’t be said for that boring stationary bike ride or treadmill jaunt while reading or watching TV.
Reading or watching TV while you workout is a joke!
Seriously, if you can read or watch TV while doing any exercise, you’re not concentrating enough on what you’re doing, plus you’re probably not working out hard enough to see any real results.
About the Author: Certified Nutrition Specialist and Personal Trainer Mike Geary, author of the internationally best-selling e-book The Truth about Six Pack Abs, is a contributing author to Muscle & Fitness & Oxygen magazines and is regularly featured on fitness websites around the world. Mike specializes in body fat reduction strategies and functional strength and power training. To learn more about his innovative training strategies and the latest nutrition tips, check out his website at TruthAboutAbs.com.
[Editor’s Comments: From personal experience, I can tell you that agree with Mike 100%! I challenge you to give the "traditional cardio" a rest for a month or two, and start training the way he mentions in the article.
If you really want the specifics, right now is the best time to check out Mike's internationally-selling Truth about Six pack Abs Program. Mike just turned 34 and he is celebrating with a gift for you...a 50% sale on his Fat Burning Kitchen and Truth About Abs programs. Just click the link below to find out more:
Click here =>> Truth About Abs
This offer is only good until midnight on Wednesday, February 25th, 2010...so don't miss it!]
Required Legal Disclaimer: some of the links mentioned within this post or posts they lead to are my affiliate links and I get compensated for recommending those products. However I NEVER recommend something I don’t believe in and welcome your questions and feedback.
Popularity: 9% [?]
New Way to Fight Belly Fat
Thursday, February 18th, 2010By John Romaniello
Like many people, you probably suffer from regional fat storage issues. That is, while you store fat over your entire body, it’s probably most noticeable in certain areas, and it’s from these areas in which we struggle most to lose fat. You know–the problem areas.
These problem areas are influenced heavily by your hormonal environment, and where you store that last bit of fat is determined by which of your hormones are most out of whack (and yes, sometimes it’s quite a few of them).
Today I’m going to talk to you about belly fat specifically.
One of the things that has been talked about quite a bit in fitness media lately is the relationship between belly fat and a hormone called “cortisol.”
To put it simply, the higher your cortisol levels, the more belly fat you’re likely to have.
By the same token, if you have a good deal of belly fat, it’s reasonable to assume that you have high cortisol.
Having high cortisol is detrimental for other reasons, but for our purposes, let’s focus on the fact that cortisol is keeping you not-so-little in the middle.
Rather than just suffer through this, the obvious solution is to try to lower cortisol levels and resultantly lower belly fat. And I’ll tell you, lowering cortisol is a LOT trickier than you might think.
I’m sure you’ve seen the late night TV ads trying to sell you anti-cortisol pills. Even if they worked (they don’t), it’s a hormone like cortisol can’t be fooled by a little pill.
Besides, wouldn’t it be much more effective to find a solution without taking expensive pills? Something that is also going to help you burn fat overall?
Well, that’s actually possible.
You see, I’m big on using certain hormones to tame other hormones. Essentially, you CAN actually fight hormones WITH hormones. Clever, I know. It’s just a matter of finding which hormones work well against one another.
When it comes to cortisol (and belly fat), you need look no further than Growth Hormone.
Also known as Human Growth Hormone or simply GH, growth hormones is produced in the pituitary gland and is responsible for growth (obviously) among other things. More specific to this writing, growth hormones is actually one of the most effective things in the world to offset cortisol.
Put simply, if you want less cortisol, just make more growth hormone.
Just tell you body to do it. Make a few calls. Okay okay, it’s not that simple…but I have some really good news.
Did you know that there are certain types of training that are actually exceedingly effective at producing growth hormone?
It’s true–indirectly.
You see, growth hormone is normally produced and released in response to something, and in the case of training, GH is released as a response to the production of something called lactic acid. Lactic acid is a waste byproduct of some of the chemical and metabolic processes that happen during exercise.
So, if you do exercise in a specific way, you can produce MORE lactic acid, which will then produce tremendous amounts of growth hormone as a result. That growth hormone surge will also help to work against your high cortisol levels. And as we’ve established, that will absolutely assist you in getting rid of your stubborn belly fat.
Of course, you’re wondering: how to I do it!? It’s easy. While lactic acid is produced in most forms of intense exercise, there is an unusual style of exercise that can actually produce even MORE lactic acid than is generally possible with other types of exericse. Appropriately (and not-so-cleverly) called “lactic acid training,” this type of training uses slow lifting speeds and fast lowering speeds.
The reason for the structure is that lactic acid is primarily produced during the “concentric” or positive/lifting phase of an exercise, and not so much during the “eccentric” or negative/lowering phase. To take advantage of this and produce more lactic acid, we simply–with apologies to Bing Crosby–accentuate the positive and (almost but not quite) eliminate the negative of each rep on all of our exercises.
To quantify it a bit, for each rep, you’d lift it over a period of about 4 seconds, and lower the weight extremely quickly, but safely.
If you were squatting, you’d drop down to the bottom position relatively quickly, and push slowly back to the top. In an overhead press, you’d lower the dumbbells quickly but safely, and press them back over your head over a period of 4-6 seconds.
Performing exercises with these extended concentric movements is going to create a tremendous amount of lactic acid, which in turn is going to prompt your body to produce fantastic amounts of growth hormone. And that growth hormone is going to help you manage cortisol and fight belly fat.
And if all THAT wasn’t enough, lactic acid training is also just a great fat loss training method, so you’ll lose fat overall.
If you want to fight your cortisol issues, you need growth hormone. And for that you need lactic acid training. Utilizing this method, you’re one step closer to fighting off your belly fat for good.
About the Author: John Romaniello is a NYC personal trainer, coach, author and model. He has helped thousands of people achieve and surpass their fitness goals using both traditional and unconventional methods, including many New York-based actors, musicians and models. If you have been struggling to lose that last 5, 10, or even 20 pounds of stubborn body fat and you are ready to get the body you’ve always wanted, click the link to check out John’s unique training system: Final Phase Fat Loss.
[Editor’s Comments: Pretty cool, huh? John's article is a little longer than I typically like to publish on The Healthy Minute...but I just couldn't bring myself to edit any of the content.
John really knows his stuff and he is a MASTER at pinning "good" hormones and specific exercise up against the "bad" hormones that cause regional fat storage. I just picked-up a copy of John's program...YES, I actually paid for it...and after reading it from "cover to cover," I'm convinced it's going to help me lose that last 5 - 10 pounds of flab I'm still carrying around my midsection.
His new program (which is available at a full 52% OFF until Midnight tonight), Final Phase Fat Loss, provides you with specific types of exercises and workouts to combat:
1. Estrogen, "man boobs" and lower-body fat (combatted with "Density" training and Testosterone)
2. Insulin, and your "love handles (combatted with "Dynamic" training and IGF-1)
3. And of course, Cortisol and belly fat (combatted with specific "Lactic Acid" training and Growth Hormone)
If you struggle with "problem area" fat storage...like I do...then I believe this is THE program to use. Click the link below and check it out while it's still 52% OFF:
Click here =>> Final Phase Fat Loss
I hope you enjoyed today's article, and be sure to check out John's system before the Grand Opening Special closes tonight.]
Required Legal Disclaimer: some of the links mentioned within this post or posts they lead to are my affiliate links and I get compensated for recommending those products. However I NEVER recommend something I don’t believe in and welcome your questions and feedback.
Popularity: 8% [?]
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