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!
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.
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.
For the folks in the south we are coming into winter. For our friends up north they are heading into summer. Which is more important to get the weight off for? Silly question. They both are. Although I do think it is more important to get focused and on track heading into the cooler months because it is so easy to do less activity and tell yourself that it’s OK to put on a winter coat.
But just imagine how happy you would be, coming into spring and you have actually lost weight instead of putting it on. Then you have the power. You can either maintain the status quo and enjoy your summer or you can reset your goal on new heights.
Sure beats the idea of going around in circles, up and down, up and down, with no real losses. Put these 3 secrets for fat loss into action and you will be amazed by the results.
1. Have a specific goal (8 kilos in 4 weeks for example!) and tell at least 5 people about it.
Now when I say 5 people, I mean telling 5 people that take you just a bit out of your comfort zone. Commit yourself by telling 5 people whom will want to see you fail and will remind you every step of the way. This will keep you on track as you will do everything right just to prove them wrong. A couple of people from work, a few from a club or sporting team and someone at the bus stop should do.
2. Keep a food diary.
Your results will be in direct correlation with the effort you put in. If you are weighing and measuring everything you eat you will be able to adjust as necessary and make fantastic improvements to your body. If you take it down a level and concentrate on eating only the foods I talk about then your results will still be good. If you decide to wing it and have no idea really of what you are eating and where to make changes your results will be, at best, average. If you keep a diary, even if it is only for a week, to see exactly what and how much you are eating, your success will be guaranteed.
3. Make sure your ACTIONS match your GOALS.
So you have set a specific goal. Every time you eat, drink and train (or don’t train) you have an opportunity to either work towards your goal or away from it. It kills me to see people talk about wanting to lose weight and then hear that same person talking about how big a weekend they had, or about the all you can eat buffet they are going to. These are the same people who have ‘tried everything but can’t seem to lose weight. Don’t be that person. Actively think each and every time you eat or drink – ‘Do my actions match my goals’.
Put these 3 secrets into action and you will be amazed how powerful they can be. Go against the trend this year and say good bye to the winter coat forever.
Whether you are training at home or in the gym, putting in the time, you want to make sure you are getting the biggest bank for your buck, so to speak. There are some things which are done time and time again for no other reason than ‘that’s the way we do it’. If there are things you are doing for no other reason than this, it might be time to change. Take yourself armed with the following information to your next training session to supercharge your workouts.
1. Time your rest periods.
Sounds simple huh? I know I have already written about it here, but I have to say it again. 60 seconds should be 60 seconds. If you are meant to have 90 second rest then have 90, not 180 or more. You will be surprised how much more you can get done, or how much quicker you can get it done if you are on the clock.
2. Stand Up
If you can do an exercise standing on your own two feet, then lets do exactly that. If you want to be sitting down doing that exercise you’d better have a damn good reason for it. Chances are you sit down enough already. That’s the way life is these days.
3. Multi Joint (Compound) Exercises only
Let me put it this way. If you are training to get fitter, lose some body fat or get stronger then you have no business doing tricep kickbacks and concentration curls. If you want a quick experiment in increasing metabolism, try the following. Do a clean and press for 3 sets of 15 reps with a minute rest between sets. Next do 3 sets of 15 reps with your favourite isolation exercise. Which one really got your body going?
4. Warm Up, Resistance, Intervals
99% of the time you will want to be doing your resistance training after a proper warm up and before any ‘cardio’ (see next point) or interval work. Why? If you want to get boost your metabolism and change your body shape you want to be doing your resistance training at the start of your work out when you are fresh. If you have just spent half your workout and most of your energy on the treadmill then the effort you can give your weights is going to be be compromised.
5. Reconsider your ‘Cardio’ training
Now this one fits into the category ‘Change the world one step at a time’. Remember however; that the world was once thought to be flat. Just as we once thought that ‘Cardio’ training was great for fat loss. If you really want to use some form of electronic cardio equipment (think elliptical trainer, treadmill, stationary cycle, stepper, rower etc) then at least do some High Intensity Intervals. Say goodbye to steady workouts and you will be saying goodbye to some extra stomach fat as well.
