Vegan and Vegetarian Overload!
If you subscribe to other fitness and muscle building groups, you are no doubt being inundated with talk about vegan and vegetarian diets.
I’m getting several emails every day from colleagues I otherwise respect highly for their fitness advice. And they are all asking me to promote their latest vegetarian diet plan!
Let me say two things:
a) I think it’s a bit of a farce b) I am not going to try to sell you a vegan diet plan in this post! I mention the second point because it’s very tempting – (more…)
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We all want nice abs.
But let me tell you, if your belly sticks out farther than your chest, then you are wasting your time with abs exercises.
As a guy, if you are 15% bodyfat or more, you aren’t going to see your abs even if you spend 1 hour a day on crunches, planks, leg raises, swiss-ball what’s-it-called, or blow-torch-ab-belly-scissor sprints. (Ok, I made that last one up, but you’ve probably seen some over-hyped exercises by some fitness model promising that you’ll have a beautiful stomach if you just do 8 minutes a day of this special exercise – it’s a lie!)
Seriously, and honestly, stand up next to a mirror. Without sucking in your gut, does your bellow stick out farther than your chest? No cheating now!
(Of course, this test only applies to guys. For women, well, I guess your belly shouldn’t be sticking out farther than your chest unless you are pregnant, but you can still read on…)
Does Your Stomach Stick Out More Than Your Pecs?
If not (meaning, your stomach is not too flabby now), then adding abdominal exercises could be worthwhile. Because you are likely lean enough that you can start to see your abs.
But if you’ve got a big belly, all that time doing abs work is a waste because your fat is covering it up!
And no, doing abs exercises (no matter which ones) isn’t going to help you lose fat.
For fat loss, you need a good diet, a good muscle-building program so you burn more fat even while resting, and a decent cardio program.
I’d like to think that continuing to read WorldFitnessNetwork.com will help you make consistent progress. But let’s face it – this is a free blog and people aren’t as motivated by things they get for free (unless you are part of the LeanLifters premier membership). You might benefit more, and faster, from something like Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.
I mentioned yesterday that he’s having a special deal that includes lots of additional free reports but that expires today – July 17 – so if you learn best from a 300+ page ebook by a true expert that I am humbled to be associated with, do it quickly. You can learn more here: http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/burn-the-fat-feed-the-muscle/
But this post isn’t about Tom.
This is about you.
And your time.
Just like I tell guys “Don’t Do Biceps Curls Until You Can Do 15 Consecutive Chin-Ups“, I’m saying to you now…
“Don’t Do Abs Exercises If Your Belly Sticks Out Farther Than Your Chest!”
Said differently, if you have belly fat, your time is better spent on learning how to eat right to lose fat, lifting weights to build muscle in the rest of your body (especially legs), and increasing the intensity of your cardio.
Ok, you probably understand that you can’t see your abs underneath fat.
But I bet you are clinging onto some hope that doing 100 (more…)
Continue reading about Belly Protrude Farther Than Chest? Don’t Do Abs Exercises!
Everyone seems to really like Tom’s posts so today I’m going to send you a link to a new article he wrote on his site.
Ever wonder what a champion bodybuilder – with an amazing physique – eats to promote both muscle growth and fat loss?
I bet a few of these things will surprise you.
http://budurl.com/burnthefatfoods
Even if you don’t think of yourself as a “bodybuilder”, you should check out his lists of top 10 foods.
What do you think? How closely do your eating habits match his? Come back and make a comment after you check it out.
Oh – and anyone who orders Tom’s book in the next 3 days will get a free copy of my new ebook Train Better To Gain More & Lose More ! Just email me your receipt and I’ll get you my ebook!
If you’ve been into fitness for any length of time, you no doubt know how important nutrition is. “You can’t out-train a bad diet” the saying goes. Eating the right foods, in the right amounts (and at the right times) goes farther than your workout. And a bad diet will ruin whatever great training you’ve been doing.
I’d venture to say that for the vast majority of people not achieving their goals, it’s not their workout that’s the problem — it’s their diet!
A Brief – and I Mean BRIEF – Overview of a Bodybuilder’s Diet
This article isn’t about “diet” in the larger sense. I mean, entire books are written on that. But before I get to my main point, here are some of the basics of a good weight trainer’s diet. Scratch that. These are good concepts for ANYBODY, but these are critical for bodybuilders. (Please note: there are a bazillion different diets out there, including some that violate these rules, so we don’t need a ton of comments on all the (more…)
Continue reading about Don’t Call It A Cheat Meal If It’s Part Of Your Plan
I gave up caffeine. Cold turkey. Twice. Yeah, caffeine has been shown to enhance performance in everything from sprinting, to 1 rep maximum weight lifting, to endurance running. So why give it up? I’ve had migraines for the past 15 yrs. (more…)
Continue reading about Kick Caffeine Addiction With Intense Weight Training
Editor’s note – There is so much monthly science news when it comes to muscle fitness, that it’s probably hard for you to keep up. In these occasional posts, I’ll summarize various items of research in the past 90 days or so. I’ll cite the official reports so that the hard-core of you can read the science for yourself. But for the rest of you, these summaries should save you some time…
I Love This One – Cardio Plus Weight Training = Healthy Blood Vessels
To start us off, I’m actually pulling two studies from 2006 and 2007 that I just found. Many studies have shown that weight training/resistance training increases the stiffness of blood vessels (the theory is that they stiffen in response to the high pressure involved in weight training). But in Journal of Hypertension, Volume 24 – Issue 9 – p 1753-1759 researchers found that resistance training, compared to sedentary or combination resistance and cardio training, had about 20% more stiffening of arteries over a 4 month period. Conclusion: cardio training will offset the stiffness induced by weight training. And we’re talking about steady state cardio (the kind that a lot of modern day fitness gurus are pooh-poohing).
So I dug deeper and found that in J Appl Physiol 103: 1655-1661 Japanese researchers took 33 young healthy people (men and women) and broke them into groups. Some ran BEFORE weight training and some ran AFTER. And the only ones who saw the benefit of offsetting the resistance-training-induced-blood-vessel-stiffening were the ones who ran AFTER. I’ve said many times that
- Cardio is good! especially when combined with weight training; and
- Do your weight training first!
Now I have some science to back that up! You know I recommend both The Truth About Six Pack Abs and Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Well, in this regard, Tom’s Burn the Fat (more…)
Continue reading about Science News For Building Lean Muscle – April 18 2009
A recent study by the National Center on Educational Statistics found that 1 in 5 four-year olds in America are obese.
I’ll say that again: 1 in 5 four-year olds are fat.
As a parent, I have two very strong emotions when I hear this.
Meet Sympathetic Darrin and Harsh Darrin
The first is sincere sadness and empathy for what those children are headed for – a series of “fat kid” jokes and likely health challenges for the rest of their lives. Let’s call this voice the “Sympathetic Darrin”.
The second is utter disgust that these parents have allowed this to happen. Let’s call this voice the “Harsh Darrin”.
Sympathic Darrin wants to offer all those parents free advice, clinics, counseling, etc. Given America’s overall obesity problem, it’s probably a likely conclusion that the parents (more…)
Some of you may have already purchased Mike Geary’s outstanding book, The Truth About Six Pack Abs. Others of you might be on the fence. A few of you sent personal messages asking me for an “unbiased” review of his book. I think that’s a great idea, and I’ll occasionally offer reviews here of products, even those I don’t recommend. [If you have products you'd like to see me review, fill out a request at http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/contact/ .]
I’ve recently reread it, and while I do have a few small negatives (see below), I can say without hesitation that it is worth every penny. Read below for highlights and an objective critique.
This is so much more than an “abs book”. In fact, an argument could be made that I should NOT recommend you buy this book, because honestly, once you buy it, you may not have much need for visiting WorldFitnessNetwork much! He really does such an outstanding job covering everything you need to (more…)
Continue reading about The Truth About 6-Pack Abs – review and critique
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