7 Key Factors for a Perfect Workout

July 25th, 2010

Here’s another great article from Craig over at Turbulence Training.

7 Key Factors for a Perfect Workout

By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Here are, in order, the 7 key phases you need to go through in order
to have the perfect “fat burning, lean body sculpting” workout.

1 – Self-Massage

I’ve been doing this half-heartedly for years, but recently started taking this more seriously, using a foam roller, tennis ball, and Acuball to “tenderize” my muscles prior to training. I’ll do some videos and articles on this soon, I promise.

2 – Mobility Warm-up

Just like you see in all of the TT workouts, I use bodyweight exercises, dynamic stretches, and even static stretches prior to training – depending on my needs or my client’s needs.

3 – Explosive Exercise

Before I hit my main strength exercise, I’ll do a jump exercise (if I am focusing on a lower body workout) or a medicine ball throw (if I’m focusing on bench presses or military presses).

You’ve already used TT programs with jumps, but expect more medicine
ball throws soon.

4 – Main Exercise

Now I move to the main exercise, such as squats, deadlifts or bench presses (and military presses or handstand pushups).

In your TT workouts, you’ll start with a superset of the most important exercises as your main lifts.

5 – Assistance Exercises

We’re about 15-20 minutes into a workout by now, and this is where I’ll add assistance exercises for my strength work or metabolic circuits for a fat loss program.

6 – Ab Endurance Exercises

Personally, I’ve been doing a lot of the basics – planks, side planks,Stability Ball planks, and rollouts. In TT programs, you get a little more variety, including TRX or Ball Pikes, plus Jackknives, cross-body mountain climbers, etc.

Just remember, you do NOT need (or want) to do crunches or sit-ups.

7 – Interval Training

If you are new to interval training, just listen to what Turbulence Training Transformation Contest Winner Charles Hiller has to say about it:

“Interval training, has opened my mind up to a better way of
getting in shape and loosing weight. I am spending much less time
in the gym, and obtaining results that I never thought possible -
over 30 pounds in 6 weeks with TT. I have more energy, feel better,
and no longer suffer bouts of depression. TT and intervals gave me
back my life.”

And from Turbulence Training fan, Annette Hall:

“As an aerobics teacher since the age of 16, it has been extremely
hard for me to accept that Intervals are the most effective fat
burning method of training. However, I realised after reading on
the TT site that if aerobics were effective I should have been as
thin as a stick and I wasn’t! Since switching to intervals and TT
workouts I have not only lost over 28 pounds, I am fitter than I
have ever been and am wondering why people bother with aerobics for
fat loss!”

Interval training is powerful and proven, and is an essential part
of the perfect workout. If you aren’t using interval training in
your workouts, make sure you get the Turbulence Training for Fat
Loss System to discover how to boost your fat burning with
intervals today!

The 3 most popular workouts at Turbulence Training so far are:

1)  TT Hard-core 2K10

2)  TT Adrenaline 

3)  TT Bodyweight Cardio

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Fat-and-Happy – Is It True? Study Tells All

July 9th, 2010

Rather than giving you my opinion on the matter, I take a look at three national studies on this page.

The presentation is only 5 minutes long and reveals the number one case for alarm in the United States and Canada.

Read that again:  The Number 1 Cause For Alarm. 

And I’m NOT an alarmist, I’m a rationalist. But stats like these do not lie.

They cannot lie.

And this deals with our children.

Please go see:      Fat-n-Happy Study

P.S.  I can tell you from my own first-hand experience, that my personal 10-year-journey through the muck of obesity was ANYTHING but happy.

I was depressed, to the point of suicide at times (thankfully I never went that far.) I was socially hidden. I wore fat-clothes all the time. The few times I HAD to wear jeans or dress pants I rushed home to change into sweats because they were just too damn uncomfortable to tolerate.

Bottom line:  I was Fat-n-Miserable

I think most people who are overweight or obese feel more despair, sadness, or perhaps just really frustrated than happy. Of course you can be happy and be any size, color, shape, etc. But I’ll tell you from my experience that I am MUCH happier now that I’m fit and trim.

Part of that is just because I feel better. The other part is how the brain functions. When you’re more active, you release more feel-good hormones and these are powerful anti-blues hormones that really make you feel like a champ. At least thats been my experience.

But go watch the 5-min video and see what you think…

click here—>  Fat -N-Happy Study

Everyone knows that obesity, especially childhood obesity, is on the rise.

But few people know what this means to the “Second Gen Boomers” this is affecting the most.

These are the folks over the age of 35 years old and younger than 55 years old.

Not only are we the fattest generation yet (ugh) but our KIDS are the fattest generation as well. In fact there are several studies that predict that this generation of children will be the first in HISTORY to die before their parents from preventable diseases.

Folks, this just cannot be ignored.

Here’s three things I recommend to anyone over the age of 35 that you can start doing TODAY to help reverse this pandemic.

1. Eat Less Starch

I keep saying it and I will keep ON saying it until everyone gets it!

– Starch is practically USELESS, and potentially DANGEROUS to consume in quantity. Period. I don’t care what the USRDA believes (they’re subsidized by the grain industry, btw… what a surprise) — grains are NOT natural to our diets.

Now, you can eat grains and be healthy… but there’s a right way and a wrong way. The right way is sparingly… as a SIDE item, not as the main course. Your main course should be lean protein foods mixed with plenty of fresh veggies.

Also, no starch after 6:00… veggies and protein foods only. Low-sugar fruits like berries and apples are good if you don’t over-do it.

Bottom line:  We’re on a sugar-rich diet plan in our modern world and killing the starch (which is just another form of sugar) and the fruit overdose (fruit is good, but too much means too much sugar) will go a long way to preventing obesity.

2. Drink More Water

Can the sodas… go for the H20. It’s hard to over-do water, although it is possible. Stick to 12 moderate glasses a day. That’s a small glass every hour or so until 4 hours prior to bed. How hard is that?

You’ll burn more body fat, too… yep. Water helps keep the liver doing what it does best… processing fat. When you drink too little water, your liver has to dive in and help the kidneys out and presto: Fat burning is slowed to a crawl.

3. Walk!

Just walking briskly for 40 minutes 5 days per week will cut many disease risks in HALF as well a trim down that waistline. Sure, I’d love to see you in the gym right next to me, but if you are not ready for that, put on the sneaks and hit the trails. Outdoors or on a treadmill, walking is healthy and hard to beat for sheer fat-burning cardio.

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