August 27th, 2010
Why Doing Crunches Are A Waste Of TimeNo Comments »
Recently I interviewed Mike Geary, the author of The Truth About Six Pack Abs, and I asked him why crunches aren’t the best thing to do to lose belly fat or get six pack abs. Here’s what Mike had to say…
A lot of times the first thing people think of when they want to get rid of their belly fat is they got to do some crunches, or do some sit-ups or do something that works the abs. But, I mean we all know by now that you can’t really spot reduce.
Basically when you’re just doing an abdominal exercise, you’re working a very small
portion of your full body, of your entire body. So that’s going to be directly rated to how
many calories you burn, and what kind of hormonal response you get from your workout.
So if you’re just working your abs, when you think about your body as a whole–arms,
legs, chest, back, you got a lot of muscle throughout your body that you could be
working. But instead you’re just focusing on this tiny area of your body in the abs. So
maybe you’re strengthening a muscle there, but you’re not getting rid of the fat.
That’s why when I talk about this a lot of times, I try and get people away from focusing
so much on the abs at first. We can get back to abs specific exercises later, and get…
That’s going to be a portion of your workouts too, and you definitely want to tone up
those muscles so they look good when you get rid of the fat.
But the stuff that gets rid of the fat is the bigger exercises, the stuff that really works the
largest muscle groups of the body. I mean when you do a squat or a deadlift, you’re
working just… When you do a deadlift, you’re practically working your entire body.
You’re working the legs, all of the muscles throughout your legs and your back, which
are the largest muscles in your entire body.
If you spend five minutes doing deadlifts, as opposed to spending five minutes doing crunches, you’re probably going to burn 10 times as many calories, plus you’re going to
be stimulating the release of fat burning hormones in your body, which is further going to accelerate your fat loss.
That’s what a lot of our programs are based on, is high-intensity combinations of full body workouts. So all of the squats, deadlifts, lunges, the upper body presses, the upper body pulls, all of the things that work your entire body as a whole. A lot of that stuff also works your abs, because your abs have to stabilize your body doing a lot of these exercises. Then we get into abs specific stuff too, but I just wanted to I guess point out that’s why I think the mentality needs to get away from abs exercises when we’re looking to lose stomach fat.
August 23rd, 2010
Why Do You Want To Lose Belly Fat?18 Comments
You know by now that extra belly fat can lead to a whole range of health problems including heart disease, heart attacks, cancer, diabetes and an early death. Hopefully that information is enough for you to take massive action to lose your excess belly fat, but sometimes it’s not enough. Sometimes you need to relate this information to something you really value in life. That’s when you really have to dig deep and answer the question: Why Do You Want To Lose Belly Fat?
The picture above is of me, my nephew Benjamin and my niece Cassandra. I got to spend about a week with them in Virginia last week and had a blast. I don’t have kids of my own (although I’d like to one day). But one of the reasons that I want to keep extra fat off my belly is so I can live a long healthy life so I can be around for my nephew and niece. I want to be an amazing uncle to them and be a role model. I want to be able to chase them around and play with them and see them grow up and go off to college. I want to be at their weddings. I don’t want to be sick, stuck at home or in a hospital.
So that’s my WHY.
What’s your WHY? Why do you want to lose belly fat? Dig deep within and make sure it tugs at your heart. (So that means it should have more meaning than “I want to look good in a swimsuit”) If you would like to, please share your WHY by leaving a comment below.
Don’t forget that on Tuesday, August 24 at 8:00 pm Eastern, 7:00 pm Central, I will be doing a live tele-class on my top 7 Strategies on How to Get a Flat Belly Over 40. If you have a question for me, go here and ask away —> Flat Belly Over 40
Have a great day.
Scott
August 20th, 2010
The Worst Type Of Belly Fat To Have (Is This You?)No Comments »
First of all I wanted to remind you of my free tele-class next
Tuesday, August 24 at 8:00 pm Eastern, 7:00 pm Central where I
will reveal my top 7 strategies to lose bellyfat.
Please go to this link right now to ask your questions.
You do NOT want to miss this event because on the call, I’ll be
looking for a very select few “beta testers” for my new Flat
Belly Over 40 program.
These select few will get exclusive private coaching from me throughout
the program, so make sure you’re on the call live.
=========================
Now onto today’s article
Do you mind if I’m very honest with you?
If you have excess belly fat, you should be afraid.
In fact you should be downright scared.
Of course, when you look at your belly in the mirror, a feeling of
disgust and shame may be crossing your mind because you can’t stand
how ugly your belly looks.
Guys are worried about how they’ll look when they take their shirts
off at the beach, or in the bedroom and women are worried about looking
hot in their bikini or skinny jeans.
But this is not the kind of scared that I’m referring to.
Unfortunately, having excess belly fat is not all about looks.
It’s actually a serious health issue too.
While we know it’s dangerous to have excess body fat, scientific
research has shown that having excess fat in the abdominal area is
even more dangerous and can lead to serious health problems.
There are two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area.
The first type that covers up your abs from being visible is called
subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and on top of the
abdominal muscles.
The second type of fat that you have in your abdominal area is called
visceral fat, and that lies deeper in the abdomen beneath your muscle
and surrounding your organs.
Both subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in the abdominal area are
serious health risk factors, but science has shown that having excessive
visceral fat is even more dangerous than subcutaneous fat.
Both of them greatly increase the risk your risk of developing heart
disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, various
forms of cancer, and other degenerative diseases.
So losing your bellyfat should be one of your top priorities, not
because you’ll look and feel a lot better (although that’s a nice side
benefit), but because you’ll be at a lower risk for all types of
illnesses and diseases.
The good news is that there are some simple strategies that you
can take to lose your bellyfat and I’ll be revealing these next
Tuesday in my tele-class.
Free Teles-class – The Top 7 Strategies To Get A Flat Belly <— Click Here to ask your question
Have a great weekend.
Your friend,
Scott
August 16th, 2010
A Workout Technique That Burns 10X More Fat50 Comments
This video will give you a workout technique that burns almost 10 times more fat than traditional workouts.
Win A Free Copy Of The Flat Belly Over 40 Program
I’m going to give away another copy of my new Flat Belly Over 40 program. It’s easy to enter the contest. All you have to do is leave a comment below and tell me what action step you’ve taken from these 3 videos and how it’s helped you. And that’s it! Your action steps were to keep a 3 day carb log and write down your feelings from video 1, the relaxation and cravings eliminator techniques from video 2 and the sample workout from this video.
You can also let me know what you thought of the information in the video. Good luck!
August 14th, 2010
Flat Belly Secret #61 Comment
All right this the the 6th and final of our 6 pack of Flat Belly Secrets. Follow all 6 of these secrets and you’ll be on your way to a flat belly and maybe even six pack abs. This is our final secret, but it may very well be the most important one in getting a flat belly.
Ok…it’s time….drum roll please…
Flat Belly Secret #6
Count ingredients, not calories. Eat single ingredient foods and foods with as few ingredients as possible.
No matter how much you work out, it won’t help much if your diet is out of whack. You should be eating whole, natural foods as often as possible and get rid of the sugars, processed and boxed foods as well as foods high in trans fat. Even foods that you might think are healthy, such as cereals and reduced fat crackers, are just as disguised as health foods. Check out the ingredient list of those items. It’s a paragraph long and contains lots of junk.
Examples of foods that you should be eating include: eggs, spinach, apples, oatmeal, chicken, turkey breast, sweet potatoes, salmon, almonds, strawberries, blueberries, and walnuts. My favorite nutrition program that follows this principle is The Diet Solution Program.
So to sum up our Flat Belly Secrets focus on these core principles:
1) Use functional movement patterns similar to daily life with compound exercises, not isolation exercises
2) Train the abs for stability not flexion
3) Include a blend of challenging bodyweight training and interval cardio for maximal fat loss
4) Count ingredients, not calories
Hope you enjoyed the 6 Flat Belly Secrets. If you ever a sec, please click on the “Like” button.
Thanks!
Scott
August 13th, 2010
Flat Belly Secret #52 Comments
OK, we’re coming down to the end of the 6 pack of secrets to get a flat belly. And now, presenting…
…Flat Belly Secret #5
Incorporate weight based interval training into your workouts.
Combining your weight training with cardio workouts – full body weight exercises with heavy weights and sprint based drills inserted continuously into the workout – will help you burn more fat.
A recent study by Davis, et. al., published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, examined 2 groups of exercisers. Group A did 60 minutes of resistance training followed by 30 minutes aerobic training. Group B alternated resistance training with a high intensity treadmill sprint (the weight based interval training group).
Group B showed an almost 10 fold reduction in body fat, than group A, and over 80% increase in muscle strength!
A sample weight based interval training workout would look like this:
Push Ups x 30 seconds
Squat Jumps x 30 seconds
Close Grip Push Ups x 30 seconds
Squat Thrusts x 30 seconds
Feet Elevated Push Ups x 30 seconds
Mountain Climbers x 30 seconds
Rest for 60 seconds and repeat for 3 rounds total
Another powerful type of training are Tabata Intervals. Tabata training are 4 minute intervals where you perform 20 seconds maximum intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. You perform 8 straight rounds for a total of 4 minutes
Dr. Tabata’s original study was performed on a cycle ergometer for 6 weeks where participates exercised 4 minutes a day/3 days per week. The results were a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity and 14% increase in VO2 max in the study participants.
You can try Tabata Intervals with different exercises – keep in mind this may change the focus, e.g. push ups would make it a strength endurance focus
The intense interval work raises the metabolic rate long after the exercise session is completed resulting in more post workout fat loss
Try the protocol with sprinting, jump rope, or bodyweight movements like push ups, squats and squat thrusts.
A simple, but effective sample Tabata protocol would be as follows:
Push Ups x 20 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
Squats x 20 seconds
Rest x 10 seconds
4 rounds of each = 4 minutes
If you’re interested in more Tabata Intervals, check out these 4 Minute Fat Burning Circuits.
See you tomorrow for our last flat belly secret.
Scott
August 12th, 2010
Flat Belly Secret #41 Comment
All right, we are more than half way through the 6-pack of abs secrets to get a flat belly. Enough of the pictures of abs on dudes. Time for some pictures of hot girls.
And time for Flat Belly Secret #4 which is…
Exercises that work your abs the entire time, such as exercises in a standing, push up or plank position, are going to work best at flattening your belly and getting your entire body defined and lean.
Examples of exercises that fit this description are squats, push ups and forearm planks.
These type of movements not only train your abs, but, since they are compound movements, they work more than one muscle group at a time. Many of the movements are strengthening movements, which help to build lean muscle in your body which induces a fat burning effect.
If the exercises are organized in the proper order with little rest between movements, you can stimulate a high intensity cardio effect training in an anaerobic state. This will allow for increased metabolism for several hours after the workout is complete, allowing your body to burn more fat calories, which will in turn get your stomach flatter.
Want more examples of awesome exercises? Just check out Truth About Six Pack Abs.
Have a good one!
Scott
August 12th, 2010
1 Simple Tip To Eliminate Cravings146 Comments
This video will give you 1 simple tip to eliminate cravings and 7 strategies to reduce the stress in your life. When you have a lot of stress, it stimulates the release of cortisol which adds ugly fat to your belly. By the way, if you didn’t watch the video on the 9 Hormones To Help You Lose Belly Fat, please do so first.
Win A FREE Copy of the Flat Belly Over 40 Program
I’m going to give away another copy of my new Flat Belly Over 40 program. It’s easy to enter the contest. All you have to do is leave a comment below and let me know WHY you want to lose your belly fat. And that’s it! You can also let me know what you thought of the information in the video. Good luck!
August 11th, 2010
Flat Belly Secret #3No Comments »
OK, so far in this 6-pack of Flat Belly Secrets, we’ve learned that it doesn’t really take a whole lot of time working out, nor does it even take any equipment. You have no need to go to the gym, and frankly, you have NO excuses. Ready for secret #3?
Flat Belly Secret #3
You don’t need to do any crunches to get a flat stomach.
There are a few problems with crunches. First, crunches isolate one muscle group – the abs. Remember we said that in everyday living, the body works as one unit and it’s better to train it as such.
Second, when you do crunches, you are lying on your back on the ground for part of the time, so your abs are relaxed and not even working during a portion of the crunch.
Third, your abs play a critical role in stabilizing your spine (not flexing it) and should be trained as such. During crunches, your abs are helping to flex the spine, not stabilize it.
And finally, crunches are not an intense enough exercise to where you’ll be burning fat calories. So for these reasons, crunches should be eliminated from your workout program.
If you want to get a flat stomach without ever doing another crunch, you’d love my Abs Uncrunched program. 
Have a good one.
Scott
August 10th, 2010
Flat Belly Secret #22 Comments
OK, in Flat Belly Secret #1, we learned that it only takes about 20 minutes a day of intense workouts to get a flat belly. Today, is Secret #2 which is…
You don’t need any equipment to lose belly fat.
Bodyweight workouts are extremely effective at helping you burn belly fat and get an all around hot body. They are the most convenient form of workouts and can be performed anywhere – in your home, in the back yard, in a hotel room, at a gym, etc., so you’re more likely to stick to your routine.
But there are biomechanical reasons why bodyweight movements are so effective. You see in life, we use our body as one full segment, like sitting down, reaching for something on a shelf, turning around, chasing your kids, or any of hundreds of other movements.
Your body should be trained mimicking these movements to best cope with the demands of daily living and sports. Machines at the gym can make you stronger but they isolate individual muscles too much and that’s not how your body is designed to work. Remember, we said that you use your body as one full segment. If you isolate muscles when you train, this can lead to imbalances and overuse injuries.
If you want to try a bodyweight workout system to get a flat belly and six pack abs, try My First Six Pack.
That’s flat belly secret #1. I’ll be back tomorrow with flat belly secret #2. Make sure you click the “Like” button, Ok? Thanks!
Scott
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