Deadlifting, Strength and Fat Loss

Just a quick one today.

You need to get stronger.

If you want to get better at any athletic venture, being stronger will help.

By the way, working out should be an athletic venture. I have female clients over 60 that do burpees and sprints. Get busy.

If you think the workouts you are doing are tough and working well right now, just think how effective they would be if you were 10% stronger. What if you were 20% stronger?

Think of all the extra calories your body would be burning both during and after your workout.

Sprint faster, jump higher, more reps, more weight ->more calories burnt and the closer you’ll be to the body you have always wanted.

Surprise yourself. Try adding some more weight to the bar, get someone to spot you and crank it out.

It’s not rocket science, but at the end of your next workout ask yourself this “Did I really give it my best or have I sold myself short?”

Do I practice what I preach? Hopefully by now you know that I do.

Check out the video below and leave comment below to tell me how you are going to push yourself this week.

Fat Melting Intervals

In one of my recent posts I mentioned that if you are short of time and can only do three, half hour, sessions per week that one of these sessions should be an interval sprint session.

Now running doesn’t agree with a lot of people (neither do I for that matter!!) so the sprint session doesn’t just have to be running. What we want to do is get the heart rate and intensity elevated quite high and then have a rest. So you can do this on the track, in the pool, on a bike or if you’re mad : burpees! It doesn’t really matter what the input is as long as the output is high.

These sprint/interval type sessions have been shown in a lot of research that it can be up to NINE TIMES more effective for fat loss over steady state or endurance training.

Put in the extra effort and you will have your body’s metabolism revved up for 24-36 hours after you have left the gym.

Just a quick word of caution though. Don’t go overboard with this type of training. Too much of a good thing can easily make it bad (think red wine). If you overdo these intervals (more than say three times per week) then you run the risk of injury and burning out. Incorporate it with the rest of your training and you’ll be fine.

Here are a few quick samples of how to set up your session. Remember that you need to do a proper warm up prior to going crazy at it.

Session One

2 minute warm up (specific to your task after your general warm up)

30 seconds hard (8-9/10 Perceived Rate of Excursion)  : 90 seconds easy (3-4/10) x 8

3 minute cool down

Session Two

2 minute warm up (specific to your task after your general warm up)

120 seconds hard (7/10)  : 120 seconds easy (4-5/10) x 4

3 minute cool down

Session Three (specific to your task after your general warm up)

2 minute warm up

60 seconds hard (8/10)  : 120 seconds easy (5/10) x 6

3 minute cool down

Try to increase your intensity with each session either by increasing the level or the speed on the hard section of the interval. You will be rewarded with a new level of fitness and a leaner, toned body.

Do you have a favourite sprint or interval session that you do? Let us know about it in the comment section below.

Best Bodyweight Exercise Ever!

What is the best bodyweight exercise you have done?

I hear some of you saying pushups. Sure they can be tough. But it isn’t unheard of to be able to do 50 or more of these.
Chin ups? I’d say these are harder that pushups given that I have never seen anyone do 50 consecutive chin ups.
I know that not one of my clients has ever asked to do more burpees than I have programmed! So I can guarantee that the old fashioned hard working burpee is up there with being one of the best bodyweight exercises.

But here’s a thought. Maybe not a particularly nice one, but a thought nonetheless.

What if I was to say to you lets do all three together?

Watch the video below for an exercise that will blast your whole body and take your fitness and fat loss to new levels.

Let me know how you go with it. First person to 100 wins a prize!

500 Rep Body Weight Challenge

Fat loss workouts don’t need to be fancy to be effective. In fact sometimes the simpler they are the more effective they can be.

If you have to over think what you are doing when you are training, some effort will be lost on the workout and your results will not be as good.

For those of you familiar with any of my circuits, you will know that simple and easy are poles apart. For instance, doing 1000 burpees is a simple concept, but it would be anything but easy to do. (Do not attempt to do 1000 burpees. Ever!!)

One of the most effective ways of pushing yourself to work harder is to race against yourself, the clock or both.

When you have a predetermined number of sets or reps to complete, the only other variable is the time. The shorter it takes you to complete the workout, the more intense it is. Think of it this way. If you were to run 100 metres in 10 seconds it would be more intense than walking 100 metres in 45 seconds. Same workout, different intensity.

In a race against the clock, try the following 500 rep body weight challenge.

50 Push ups
50 Step Ups (each leg)
50 Chin Ups
100 Y Squats
100 Inverted Rows
100 Mountain Climbers

Go as hard as you can, resting as little as possible when needed. This workout will boost both your fat loss and your strength in record time.
You can check out a video of this workout (and my other video’s) here.

Have a go and let me know your times.