You might be surprised to know that when I transformed my body and got six-pack abs, I didn’t lift weights or doing any type of crunches or sit ups.

Well that’s only partially true - I did lift my body, but that’s it!

I didn’t lift any dumbbells or use any strength training machines you see at the gym?

And I got some amazing results.

Are you surprised?

You see in daily life, we use our body as one full-body segment.

Like sitting down, or reaching for something on a shelf, or turning around, or chasing our kids, or any number of hundreds of movements we go through in a day.

Likewise, your body should be trained that way to best cope through the demands of daily living and athletic competition.

A lot of the equipment at the gym will make you stronger, yes, but it won’t make you functionally stronger.

Too many of the more modern gym machines isolate your muscles, which I do not believe is the best way to train.

You can really condition your body well with some Old School Bodyweight Training.

The same thing goes for crunches and sit-ups.

These are also examples of exercises that are isolating one muscle group, the abs.

You would be better off doing some different bodyweight exercises that train many muscle groups at one time while using your abs as stabilizers.

My most intense workouts and the workouts that got me a really lean, athletic look were my workouts that I used only bodyweight exercises.

These workouts will give you a great beach body that you’ll be proud to show off. : )

The other thing I like about bodyweight exercises, is the amount of variety there is.

Do you remember the 2 video clips I made of 50 different push up variations?

How many strengthening machines can you use 50 different ways?

And then of course is the convenience factor.

You don’t need a gym membership or you don’t need to go out and buy any equipment.

Bodyweight exercises can be done anywhere, anytime.

If you are looking to spice up your training routine and get superior results, you should sprinkle in some Old School Training in your workout routine.

Don’t forget to let me know how it goes! : )

Have an amazing day.

Scott

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The Bodyweight 500 is a great workout that I first learned from Craig Ballantyne, creator of the Turbulence Training System. You’re basically going to take 10 bodyweight exercises and do 50 reps of each one as fast as you can. This will total 500 reps. Get your stopwatch out and time yourself because it will be fun to see if you can beat your score the next time out.

There are some great things about this workout. You can do it anywhere - so you don’t need to belong to a gym. As you can see from my video, I did it outside. It works your entire upper and lower body and heart rate. You are also working your abs really hard. And this is a quick workout - it doesn’t take forever to do.

Craig Ballantyne has come out with the original Bodyweight 500 as part of his Turbulence Training program. I put a variation of it in the video which I hope you will watch.

Here are the exercises I did (50 reps of each as fast as you can).

Squats
Push Ups
Tuck Jumps
Spiderman Climb (25 each leg)
Modified Pull Ups (or Body Rows)
Step Jumps (or 25 one legged step ups each leg)
T-Stabilization (25 each side)
Walking Lunges (25 each leg)
Close Grip Push Ups
Squat Jumps

Now if you are new to exercise, you might want to modify this to the Bodyweight 250 and do 25 reps of each exercise. Also, 50 modified pull ups are pretty challenging, so you might want to split them up and do 25 in the middle of the circuit as shown and then finish the circuit with 25 more.

One last thing, the final day to enter Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training Transformation contest is Monday, January 21, 2008. The contest is open only to those who have purchased Turbulence Training, and post their before/after photos on the Turbulence Training Member’s site.

Don’t worry, when you buy Turbulence Training and enter the contest, you get a free 3 month membership so you can record your transformation.

There are 3 big prizes for the winners.

Grand Prize - $2000 & a 3-year Platinum TT Membership

Second Place - $1000 & a 2-year Platinum TT Membership

Third Place - $500 & a 1-Year Platinum TT Membership

So go ahead and take a peek at Turbulence Training and enter yourself in the contest.

And try the Bodyweight 500 workout below. Feel free to post your comments on how you did in the workout.

By the way, the pull-up straps in the video are a piece of equipment called The Jungle Gym and they can be purchased online from Lifeline USA.

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