My workout in Niagara Falls

Ok, I didn't workout IN the falls (no going over the falls in a barrel for me!)

I've actually been up here in Niagara Falls for this past weekend for my good buddy Vince Delmonte's wedding to his beautiful bride, Flavia.

By the way, if you're interested in muscle building workouts and nutrition, be sure to check out how Vince transformed himself from "Skinny Vinny" to over 200 lbs of solid muscle (while staying single-digit bodyfat lean) at his site:

http://www.BuildCrazyMuscle.com


As for my Niagara Falls workout...

When I'm traveling, it's obviously a LOT harder to eat my normal clean diet, so I try to make sure I still find time to fit in some intense workouts.

So, before the wedding on saturday, I had about 30 minutes before I had to get ready for the wedding, and figured I'd fit in a good workout.

I went down to the hotel gym, and here was my workout:

1. warmed up for 4 minutes with the treadmill at a 12% incline and 4.5 mph.

2. Did 2 minutes straight of reverse dumbbell lunges (legs were starting to burn pretty good at that point)

3. Then I did an intense upper body circuit with a combo of dumbbell exercises and cables (lat pulls, horizontal rows, chest presses, bent over reverse shoulder raises, etc, etc)... and I mixed in some mountain climbers and other ab exercises in between the upper body circuit.  I did this with almost no rest in between exercises.

4.  After totally frying my upper body and abs, I got out of the stuffy hotel gym and went to the hotel stair case. I did the stairs all the way to the top floor (the 24th floor) and then back down.  While going up, I alternated sprinting one flight of stairs with walking double steps on the next, then sprinting again, etc.

Overall, I fit the entire workout in about 30 minutes and was drenched in sweat at the end...feeling like I at least accomplished something good for myself on a trip that would otherwise be non-stop eating and drinking.

Congrats once again to Vinny D on his marriage to Flavia!

Here's another article I have for you with great ideas for super-fast "multi-workouts" for time-crunched people... no excuses on this one!

I'll be back in a couple days with more Lean-Body Tips.  Keep training hard,

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Author - The Truth about 6-Pack Abs

south bay personal training

5 New Tips for a Flat Belly

I've got a great new article for you today with 5 cool tips to get a lean body and flat stomach.

But first, I thought you might need a good laugh today...check out this hilarious exercise video ... this cracked me up!

Alright, today's article is from one of my favorite fitness and nutrition authors, Jon Benson... he's also become a good friend of mine over the past couple years. Check it out...

5 New Tips for a Flat Belly
by Jon Benson
Best-selling author: The Every Other Day Diet

TIP 1
Flip The Food Pyramid Upside-down

The USDA's Food Pyramid is an utter joke. It's origins stink up the joint, let me tell you.

First, the grain industry was in a pinch when the Food Pyramid was created. And wouldn't you know it... the grain industry increased their "contributions" (read: bribes) to certain politicians to get placement atop the pyramid... or in this case at the very bottom. The "foundation" if you will.

Just think about this for a moment:

The USDA wants you to eat (gasp) MORE starch than vegetables? More bread than fruits, lean meats, and healthy fats?

Are they NUTS??

Yes... they are nuts. (Which, by the way, are no where near the foundation... nuts, that is.)

You'd be better off flipping that sucker upside-down.

That would look like this:

40% of your calories from healthy fats
30% of your calories from protein
30% of your calories from carbs

Roughly, that is.

Sounds... rebellious, right? Well it is.

Too bad I have the science (and the abs) to back it up.


TIP 2
Can The Sodas (yes, even "diet" sodas)

This one is really hard for me. I've been hooked on diet-soda on and off for years. When I go to get into top shape (like I am now) I have to get rid of the diet-sodas... yes, DIET-sodas. Need I say "real" sodas too? They are loaded with sugar.

Why diet-sodas? A recent study revealed that people who drank diet-sodas actually increased body fat when compared to those who drank sugar-sodas. What the... ??

Yep. Your body cannot be fooled by aspartame and chemicals. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Here's a personal story: When I cut out the diet-sodas my body fat drops like a rock in a pond of clear water.

And that's what you need to be drinking: A quart of pure water per 50 lbs of bodyweight a day.

I mix it with lemon and a bit of Stevia (an herbal sweetener) and make lemonade. It's wonderful!


TIP 3
Ditch The Starch

Starches, such as rice, potatoes, cereals, oats, etc. are often considered "health foods."

While they can be healthy in some cases, they can also pack on stomach fat like crazy if you overdo them.

As you may know, my Every Other Day Diet System actually encourages you to eat starches and even sweets several days a week to get rid of excess weight:

Well... how does THAT work?

Simple: Timing is everything.

And we take a "weekly" approach to foods rather than a daily approach. This keeps your metabolism guessing. If your body cannot figure out what you're up to, fat burning is that much more powerful. And you can get by with eating starches... at least a specific times on specific days.

But if you're not going to do EODD, then you'll have to wing it. And the best way to wing it is to simply cut starches out entirely for 4-8 weeks. Then slowly add them back a few days per week.

This is no where near as effective (or as fun) as the EODD method, but it will get you pointed in the right direction.


TIP 4
Stay Hungry

Arnold's first movie was "Stay Hungry" (well, after "Pumping Iron" that is). You cannot rest on your butt and stay hungry. You cannot think you've "arrived" and stay hungry.

It takes a special person to be hungry... and an even greater one to stay that way.

I want you to stay hungry in two ways: In how you workout and literally... stay a bit hungry before you go to bed. Not "starving"... just a tiny bit hungry.

For your workouts, I have a great solution. If you pick up EODD you'll get a limited shot at "7 Minute Body"... my combination of "7 Minute Muscle" and "The 7 Minute In-Home Workout" in one book... and for more than half off... but that's a very limited deal. Gotta have EODD... you'll need them both...

You can get both at this site:  www.FavoriteFoodsDiet.com

You see, progression -- "forced" progression -- is the best way to stay hungry. 7 Minute Body forces you to progress without thinking about it. Progression is built into the System.

As far as staying hungry at night? Check with your doctor and if he/she okays it take 500mg of potassium and 1000mg of magnesium/calcium a few hours prior to bed. This helps with the hunger pangs. Also, keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge for a healthy source of protein and healthy fats. If you get really hungry, eat one at night. It keeps me full for an hour at least.


TIP 5
Get Raw At Night

Raw veggies with your last meal and as a snack will really help your fatburning along. I started with red peppers because they're sweet. Now I eat virtually every veggie raw at night without thinking about it. Give this a shot. The fatloss is well worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks Jon!

I like the tips about the hard boiled eggs and raw veggies at night. That's actually one of my favorite night-time snacks when I'm trying to drop bodyfat fast. Great combination too.

Check out Jon's site below for a very unique method of eating to give you a flat stomach while still enjoying some carbs strategically:

http://www.FavoriteFoodsDiet.com


Hope you enjoyed these 5 tips to help you get a flatter stomach!

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

9 Advanced Fat Loss Tips

You've probably seen all of the buzz lately about Joel Marion's new 25-day rapid fat loss program -- which uses at least 9 fat loss tricks of manipulating nutrition and training methods.

Joel and I did a Q&A for you to help answer some more questions and give more details about the program. Check it out below:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike: There’s been a lot of buzz going around lately regarding your Xtreme Fat Loss Diet program, but can you give my readers a little more insight as to what the program entails?

Joel: Sure thing. The Xtreme Fat Loss Diet is 25-day rapid fat loss program that I truly believe to be the most strategic, fastest fat loss program ever developed. Now, that sounds biased, and clearly is since I am the author, but the results people are experiencing don’t lie.

What we’ve done with the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet is combine all the most effective diet and training strategies—-cutting edge stuff that most people have never heard of—and arranged them into a five day sequence (repeated 5 times) in which each method works hand in hand with the others to create a synergistic fat burning effect.

Mike: You’ve actually talked a lot about synergy with this program and how that’s really the key to why it works so well and so fast. Can you hit on that a bit more?

Joel: Absolutely. And I’ll use a quick analogy to explain. Let’s say you gather the 5 best basketball players in the WORLD and put them all on the same team. That team is going to be pretty darn good, huh?

But what if they were all out of position? The center was playing point guard, the point guard playing center, the shooting card fumbling around at power forward. All of a sudden that team isn’t very good at all.

You see, it’s not only important that you have the best methods, but even more important is that you have them in right position. When you do that, you get synergy—where the whole is greater than the sum of each individual part.

With the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet we’ve taken the absolute best fat loss techniques and arranged them in the most strategic sequence to ensure they all work together to bring out the best result—just like when the 5 best basketball players in the world all take the floor in the proper position—each one makes the others better, and together, with everything in the right place, the “team” becomes unstoppable.

Mike: I really like that analogy. Many people would look at the title of this program and say “this is just another empty, quick-fix fad”, but there’s actually a lot more to it than that.

Joel: Yes, this is the furthest thing from a crash diet that there ever is or ever will be. Those types of gimmicks and diet programs are simply unintelligent ways to lose a lot of water weight fast. Big deal—-losing water doesn’t change the way you look in the mirror. We’re talking about losing fat and keeping it off through SMART strategy.

Mike: Speaking of keeping it off...well first, how much can someone expect to lose over the course of the 25 day program?

Joel: We’ve had some people lose as much as 25 pounds in 25 days. It all depends on your current level of body fat. In fact, our good friend Vince Del Monte’s cousin just did exactly that while getting in shape for her wedding—AND, she didn’t even follow the program to the letter.

Of course, not everyone is going to be a 25 pound in 25 day case, but one thing is for sure, people are consistently getting faster results with this program than with any other program they’ve ever done—-and that’s not surprising, because it’s set up to do exactly that. It’s 25 intense days that positions everything in the right place at the most strategic time to yield the fastest possible fat loss in a very short time frame.

http://www.xtremefatburningdiet.com/

Mike: Very cool. Alright, let’s go back to the subject of keeping the weight off. I’m sure a lot of people are wondering “If I lose a lot of weight on this program, am I just going to gain it back?”

Joel: This is actually the beauty of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet system--it’s the polar opposite of a crash diet in that it protects your metabolism over the course of the entire 25 days to make keeping the weight off EASY.

Why is it that people often gain back the weight they lose? Simple: dieting and long term calorie restriction DESTROY metabolism, so much so that the very moment you try to return to any sort of “normal” eating regimen the weight comes piling back on.

Through the strategic diet and exercise methods we use in the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, you’re actually going to increase your metabolism and finish with a metabolic rate faster than when you first started, making it virtually impossible to put the weight back on (so long as you don’t start eating Double Cheeseburgers every day).

Mike: You also talk about how many people have been able to add lean muscle on this program, even when losing fat very rapidly –- is that right?

Joel: Yeah man, we’re breaking all kinds of new ground with this program. Bottom line, most people lose muscle as they diet and lose fat; it’s just kind of accepted that you’re going to sacrifice a few pounds of lean mass as you diet down, even if you do it at a moderate pace.

But again, think of that all-star basketball team and what’s possible when you have all the right pieces of the puzzle in the right places at the right time. You’re bound to see some things that you’ve never seen before.

With the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, we use very specific strategy to take full advantage of every single day. For example, on Cheat Days we use high volume workouts to usher all those carbs and calories into something useful – maintaining and building new muscle.

Mike: Very interesting. I know I've played with high volume style workouts on cheat days when your muscles are full of muscle glycogen, and it is a lot of fun. So even though this is an “extreme” program, explain a little more about the use of cheat days.

Joel: First off, you know I’ll never create a diet program that doesn’t include Cheat Days, but believe it or not on this one you’re actually cheating every FIFTH day. Why? Because when using some of the other, more extreme methods (like fast days and depletion days) on the other diet days, it’s necessary that we “push the reset button” on our metabolisms a little more frequently to keep the fat melting off.

Fortunately, this also means you’re never more than a couple days away from indulging your cravings and that has increased adherence dramatically on this program. I mean, who can’t stick to a program where you get to eat whatever you want every 5th day while seeing rapid results in the mirror at the same time?

Mike: I can totally understand how a big plate of pasta and meatballs every fifth day could help motivate someone to stick with any diet.

If you're ready and motivated to get in crazy shape this summer, I'd recommend trying out Joel's new 25-day rapid fat loss program. Don't procrastinate...start today, and have a better body in 25 days:

http://www.xtremefatburningdiet.com/

Good luck!


Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - http://www.truthaboutabs.com/ & http://www.busymanfitness.com/

Interesting Bodyweight Exercise Workout to Lose Fat and Build Muscle

I just got this article today from another fitness expert that I always enjoy reading his materials... he always has innovative workout methods that are different than the norm.

If you want to try a cool bodyweight workout that can accelerate fat burning and even build lean muscle, without boring cardio or bodybuilder routines, check out this article below...


Time/Volume Training - A Powerful Training Technique That Will Burn Fat and Build Muscle at the SAME Time...Even With Bodyweight Exercises!

By Nick Nilsson


I was stumped... I wanted to figure out a training technique that I could use for bodyweight training to burn a LOT of fat AND build muscle mass at the same time, using exercises like push-ups or dips where I was able to do 30 to 50+ reps per set.

I was working on this technique to add into the bodyweight version of my Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss program 

Now, as might know, burning fat and building muscle at the same time is not an easy thing to do!

So after experimenting with all kinds rep schemes and set numbers and high-intensity and low-intensity training, it hit me...and it worked like CRAZY.
Enter Time/Volume Training...

This technique allowed me to take bodyweight exercises where I could do normally do a TON of reps and use them to achieve TREMENDOUS fat burning effects as well as making them HIGHLY effective muscle-builders.

This is a killer combination that literally changed the way I thought about bodyweight training (and the cool thing is, this technique works GREAT with free weight training as well!).

So how you do Time/Volume Training?

Time/Volume Training is really simple and it can be used with ANY exercise... any time, any place.

It's a form of what's called "density training" where the idea is to NEVER go to failure on any sets but instead focus on doing as MANY sets as you can within a certain block of time.

For working larger bodyparts like back, chest or thigh, I recommend a 15 minute block of time. When working smaller bodyparts (pretty much everything else), use 7 1/2 minute blocks.
Here's what it will look like:

- First, start by doing a set of 3 reps. Then stop and rest 10 seconds. Now do another set of 3 reps. Stop and rest 10 seconds.

- Keep going using 3 rep sets and 10 seconds rest until you can't get 3 reps anymore. When you hit this point, begin taking 20 SECONDS rest in between your 3 rep sets.

- Keep going using 3 rep sets and 20 seconds rest until you again can't get 3 reps anymore. Then take 30 SECONDS rest in between your 3 rep sets. If you have to increase again, go to 40 seconds, and so on.

- Keep going in this fashion until your 15 minutes are up.

It's just that simple! Basically, the idea here is not to go to failure on any of your reps but to manage your fatigue so that you can maximize your training volume (i.e. more reps and sets).

You'll be able to do a LOT more reps with any given exercise, which will seriously crank up your metabolism!

And because you're only doing 3 rep sets, you're using your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which have a LOT more mass and strength potential and burn more calories when you're working them.

Now, just because it's originally designed for bodyweight training doesn't mean you can't use it with free weights and machines as well - it'll work like a charm for that, too! You can work it with ANY exercise...squats, bench, deadlifts, curls...even ab exercises!

In terms of knowing when to increase resistance (by switching to a more challenging body position or increasing the weight on an exercise), nothing could be simpler...when you can go more than 1/3 of the way through while keeping to 10 seconds rest, then increase. For example, if you can do more than 5 minutes of close-grip chins, switch to wide grip pull-ups. When you can do more than 5 minutes at 185 lbs on the bench press, increase to 195 lbs next time.

And rest assured...even if you can do 50 push-ups, you'll STILL get to a point where you're not able to do 3 reps sets on 10 seconds rest and you'll have to bump up the rest periods. It'll get your metabolism ROARING.

You can insert this style into pretty much any training split and any program. It's truly one of THE best ways I've found to get a fat-burning AND a mass-building effect out of bodyweight training or free weight training.

Use this style of training in conjunction with the right nutrition program (especially one like my Metabolic Surge program that is actually TARGETED to make full use of this training style), and it'll be like throwing a lit match on gasoline. It'll pull the fat right out of you.

Want to learn more about how "Metabolic Surge" can burn fat fast with targeted eating and training? Check out the following page right now:

http://www.Metabolic-Surge.com 


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Nick Nilsson has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been innovating new training techniques for more than 18 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding books including "Muscle Explosion! 28 Days To Maximum Mass", "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of", all designed to maximize the results you get for the hard work you put into your training.

FYI - read this page below and you can see how you can get 4 of Nick's best books for free when you try his Metabolic Surge program


Enjoy!

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Author - The Truth About Six Pack Abs