Kettlebell training is taking over as one of the hottest ways to work out and lose fat. The funny thing is that these funny looking suckers have been around long before the local health clubs got their hands on them. This is an old Russian training tool that seriously works wonders.

If you are looking to lose fat and tone up, you HAVE to train with kettlebells. With my personal training clients we implement at least one kettlebell movement in each training session. If you are new to this type of training, that’s okay. You can easily learn 2-3 movements and get an amazing workout.

Check out this kettlebell video that I shot. Here’s what to do:

Perform 3-4 sets of each exercise
15 Swings
10 Front Squats each side
10 Snatches each side
5 Windmills each side

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Hey everyone, check out this kettlebell circuit for beginners. If you are not using a kettlebell, you better get one. It’s super easy and you can even do these workouts right in your home. I would recommend a 15-20 lb bell to begin and then you can always progress once you get stronger.

Here’s what you do for this workout:
Perform 3-5 sets depending on your fitness level
15 Swings
15 Front Squats
10 Push Presses each side
Don’t rest between exercises, and rest no more than 1 minute between sets

Check this out….

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Crunches are a thing of the past when it comes to abdominal training. Years of research by Dr. Stuart McGill (an incredible researcher when it comes to the ins and outs of the spine) tells us that during a traditional crunch the spine is loaded with 340kg of compressive force. Imagine what happens after 3 sets of 50 crunches. Certainly you’re not going to feel the pain now, but what about in 10 years.

The abdominal region’s main job is to stabilize and help produce force and power. You don’t get either of those things while lying on your back performing a weight-less crunch.

So I’m telling you what NOT to do but what exactly should you be DOING?

I know that most of you don’t care about stabilization and force production, you are just thinking, how can I make my abs look good? While to the good news is that the actual core training that you should be engaging in will help those abs look just fine.

You must burn fat in order to actually see the muscles in that area, so you should be performing full body movements as a main-stay of your workout. These exercises engage all muscles of the core (hip flexors, hamstrings, low back, obliques, abdominals) and also kick up the calorie burn in order to shed some extra belly fat.

When it comes to core training you want to focus on planks, bridging and extensions.

Here is a sample workout that will challenge your core and your full body:

Side Planks- 3 sets of 12 each side

1-Arm Reach Planks- 3 sets of 6 each side

Renegade Row Planks (a Durbrow Performance favorite) 3 sets of 8 each side with 8-15 lbs (you can always begin this from your knees similar to a push up)

Here are some other great exercises that you need to be doing as they’ll challenge your core and everything else.

1. Kettle bell Swings
2. Some type of squat or dead lift
3. Push Ups
4. Tube Rotations (low or high)

Here’s a quick video outlining the 3 plank exercises I spoke about in the beginning. Do this at the beginning of your workout to fire up your core and get you ready to burn some serious fat!

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You know it takes much more than that. You know you need:

Written goals

A solid exercise program

Social support

Discipline

Patience

Sacrifice

A burning desire to succeed

Changes in your lifestyle

Education

Proper nutrition

In other words, you know you need to GET REAL about fat loss. You know it makes no sense to fall for the same old miracle promise or “easy” solution. Whether it’s January 1st or Bathing Suit season doesn’t matter. The proven approach to looking great on the beach is good old fashioned effort.

Look, in one way my life would be a LOT easier if I just lied to you and sold you a bunch of empty promises. Sure, it would make earning a living super easy. Most people are happy to spend their hard earned money on the latest miracle pill or potion. But I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in a mirror. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. And that’s why I’ll never be the one to lie to you about what it takes to transform your body.

Do the right thing this Bathing Suit Season. Use it as a catalyst to really change your life. I’d be thrilled to help you. I’d love it if you’d place your trust in me and let me show you the right way to do things.

If you arm yourself with the right knowledge and approach this with a great attitude you’ll NEVER have another Bathing Suit Season nightmare again.

PS – If you want to make the nutrition aspect of fat loss simple then you need to get on board with my friends at Prograde Nutrition. They’re like me; they don’t sell miracles in a bottle. They sell real nutrition that supports your fitness and fat loss goals. You can save a lot of loot with their combo packs. Check out Prograde Nutrition

PPS – I am a Prograde Nutrition Partner

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What’s the best thing about summer? To me it’s the buzz in the city of Boston, the Red Sox games, people running on the Charles River (not me though!), sunshine until 9pm, outside workouts with the Prowler, okay…

What’s the worst thing about summer for you? If it’s having to put on skimpier clothes or a bathing suit and not being totally happy with your body, then read on.

Here are 7 tips for slimmer and tighter hips and thighs…

1. Improve your nutrition. Notice I didn’t say diet, because I hate that word. But, nutrition is the key to a toned and lean body. You must eat 5-6 small meals and snacks per day, eat breakfast and drink ½ of your body weight (in pounds) in ounces of water per day.
2. Incorporate strength training 2-3 times per week. Strength training is the ultimate metabolic booster. If you want to burn calories when you are sitting on your computer at work, you gotta lift some weights!
3. Perform metabolic interval training instead of long duration cardio. Short bursts of energy have been proven time and time again to be more effective at burning fat and boosting your metabolism than jogging 3 miles at the same pace. Rev up your body and your heart rate for 1 minute (sprint, bike, jump rope, stair climbs) and then recover for about 1 minute. These workouts can be completed in less than 20 minutes and are great for outside summer training.
4. Don’t starve yourself. Eating healthy foods provides fuel for your metabolism. Think of a car and its tank of gas. If the car is low on gas, it doesn’t drive as efficiently and eventually stops. If you don’t fuel your body, your metabolism will not have the ability to run as fast as you want it to. Eating every 3-4 hours (healthy stuff!) is the key to burning body fat at rest (the ultimate goal).
5. Give yourself a cheat day. I always tell my personal training clients, the goal should be to eat 80% healthy. You have to live and not be in a complete restriction phase. Once you realize that eating healthy can be pretty tasty, it won’t seem like a chore. Plus when you know that you can have ice cream on Sunday nights while watching Desperate Housewives (yes that’s my cheat day), you will be much more inclined to clean up the nutrition plan during the week. Remember though, a cheat day doesn’t mean eat EVERYTHING unhealthy, just choose a meal or dessert to splurge on.
6. Use your whole body when you work out. Try to incorporate 5-6 exercises that use all the major muscles. Movements such as squats, lunges, chin ups, push ups, jumps, sprints and medicine ball work will require more work, thus burning more calories and will also jump start your metabolism because after the workout, your body has to work so hard to recover. Avoid isolation exercises such as bicep curls and tricep kick backs and definitely stay away from the machines. Do more work in less time, your body will thank you.
7. Get out of your comfort zone. Joining a gym where there are a lot of people may not be your thing, and honestly it may not be your best option. Sign up with some friends to do some personal training and work out together. Group motivation is key and having a personal trainer there to help you out will help you lose more inches and fat in less time than doing it on your own. Just think, would you do your own dental work? Probably not. Get a professional to motivate you, create fat burning workouts for you, and train with your friends because it’s so much more fun that way.

Now you may be asking, how come none of those tips specifically targeted my hips and thighs? Well, there is no magic bullet for this. Your body is a unit, it burns fat as a whole and spot reduction is completely impossible. If you want to really lose fat and trim your hips and thighs, you must eat well, drink a lot of water, strength train and perform interval workouts. Believe me; those workouts will get your legs and hips burning like crazy.

In our training workouts my clients are amazed at how few exercises we do and how the results are so much better than when they used to work out on a few machines and small weights.

Get started on these tactics today and I guarantee you’ll no longer be dreading that bathing suit or cute summer dress.

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If any of you have seen me in the gym, you know that I’m wearing the complete opposite of the Shape-Ups. I’m a huge fan of the Vibram Five Fingers (I’ll review these another time). The goal of a Vibram shoe is to place your body in the correct anatomical position and allow your ankles, feet and entire leg and hip to do actual work to hold you up and help you move. Your sense of balance and proprioception is incredible in these shoes. It’s like walking around bare foot.

Now, back to the problem at hand. The Sketcher Shape-Up is an amazing marketing campaign. “Get in shape without stepping foot into a gym.” Really? Another magic bullet. You’ll put these shoes on and just walk around, and your butt will be tight? Okay…

Their marketing is about the only thing they have done right. If you want my honest opinion, and I know you do…Sketchers Shape-Ups are dangerous. Not only do these shoes elevate your heels, creating a posterior pelvic tilt and a serious reduction in the natural lumbar curvature. Think of someone walking around with a really arched back. How painful is that over a long period of time? The other problem with these shoes is that they are completely unstable. They actually have specific Shape Up classes but the problem is, you cannot do a proper lunge or squat in these shoes without being completely off balance. Your glutes will not fire properly and because of this, you’ll actually see FEWER results.

When I train my personal training clients I always tell them to “push through your heel” when doing squats or lunges. This gives a metal cue to fire the right muscles (glutes) and also keeps them from putting stress on their knees. This is completely impossible if you are wearing Shape-Ups, a shoe that elevates your heel.

These shoes are really another marketing gimmick that is designed to let people know, “you can do very little work and get in shape.” Unfortunately that is not the case. Getting a toned butt and burning calories requires work. So do me a favor, stay away from the Shape-Ups and I’m not saying go out and buy some Vibram Five Fingers, but at least look for a shoe with a flat bottom and without weight loss gimmick slogans.

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I was reading up on her workout and training program for the movie and it sounded pretty awesome. I wanted to share it with you as another one of my celebrity workout reviews. We all know there are a lot of hokey training programs out there where celebrities eat nothing but grapefruit and diet coke and work out with their trainer for 6 hours a day. For those of us in the real world, we can certainly appreciate a real training program that gets someone into rocking shape without extreme dieting.

Here are the highlights of Scarlett Johansson’s Iron Man 2 training program:

1. The workouts were mixed up so every day was totally different. This is cool because your body needs some variety in order to avoid plateau.
2. Scarlett performed a lot of multi-muscle movements such as pull ups and kettle bell swings. This is great because she burned a lot more calories this way and in an interview she mentioned how strong and hard core she felt when she could accomplish these kinds of exercises.
3. She changed her lifestyle. This is a huge factor because no training program is a quick fix. She eliminated a lot of salt and processed foods, giving her a lot more energy for workouts and training sessions
4. Four of the exercises that her personal trainer utilized a lot were: T-Push Ups, Squat Jumps, Kettle Bell Swings and Split Squats. These are all really great exercises because not only do they train all the major upper and lower body muscles, they incorporate the core to a very high degree and increase your heart rate.
5. Most of the movements were done without a lot of equipment. There are hundreds of exercises you can do with just your body weight. Exercises like squats, push ups, chin ups and lunges require a lot of effort and little equipment. Adding some dumbbells, kettle bells and medicine balls will make the exercises that much harder and get you stronger and leaner in no time.

So there is a little overview of Scarlett Johansson’s Iron Man 2 workout. A lot of the exercises and lifestyle changes were basic, but that’s the way it should be done. Diets and training programs should not be overly complicated. You need to burn more calories than you take in, you need to perform strength movements to increase your metabolism and burn more calories when you are not working out, and you must eat a healthy and balanced nutrition plan, one that you can maintain for life.

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2 c. whole wheat flour
1 scoop Prograde Protein
3 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 c. skim milk
3 egg whites
1/4 c. oil
2 tbsp. wheat germ
2 tbsp. cornmeal
4 tbsp. bran

Heat skillet or griddle to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear.  Pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot skillet. Turn pancakes when edges look cooked and bubbles begin break on surface.

Pick up a bottle of Prograde Protein today and lose the guilt you get when you eat pancakes. 

Grab Your Bottle Here:  Prograde Protein

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The bad news is that you cannot spot reduce where you lose fat. Most people know this but still get wrapped up doing crunches and weird things on the physio ball in attempts to trim that belly fat away. Sorry folks, you can do crunches until you are blue in the face. Then you’ll just be blue in the face and probably have awful posture. Okay, anyway…

Your body is a unit, things work together and as much as we all want to “trick” our bodies, it won’t happen. When you exercise and eat right, you mobilize fat and eventually burn it for fuel and energy. Wherever you have the highest concentration of fat cells will take the longest to break down and lose just because there is more of it.

So, that’s the bad news but it’s only bad if you REALLY love doing crunches. If not, then let’s move on to the good news. Just like everything in life, you’ll have to put in a little work to get the results but it will be well worth it. Here are the top three things you MUST do if you want to lose belly fat and create a trim, athletic looking body. These things will ensure that you are in fact losing fat all over, and you are creating a rapid metabolism that burns fat while you are not working out (awesome, huh?)

#1 way to lose extra fat around your belly and mid-section: Eat a healthy diet. A healthy diet consists of 5-6 small meals and snacks per day, always eating breakfast, and having fruits, veggies, lean proteins, low fat dairy, whole grains and nuts as the staples to your nutrition plan. Drink 1/2 of your body weight (in pounds) per day (in ounces) to ensure proper hydration and mobilization of fat. If you starve yourself or gorge yourself, say goodbye to a trim mid-section because either your metabolism is going to slow down to a snail’s pace or you are just constantly storing excess calories.

#2 way to lose belly fat and trim your mid-section: Strength training. This is by far the BEST way to boost your metabolism to create a furnace effect where your body is burning while you are not working out. Get involved in a metabolic strength training program which will combine large movements into complexes so you are moving from one exercise to the next. (ex: squat, push up, stair sprints, kettlebell swings) This type of training will elevate your heart rate, pump up all major muscles to burn more calories, and is much more fun and functional than sitting on a machine or using the treadmill for a jog. You will burn a ton of calories during the workout but you are also going to kick start your metabolism so that you are burning like crazy after the fact. Many studies today are showing up to 36 hours of “afterburn” with a properly designed workout.

#3 way to lose belly fat: Interval training instead of slow, steady cardio. This type of training has a similar effect to the metabolic strength work I just talked about. It’s not nearly as good for building lean muscle but will help you burn a lot more calories, raise your metabolism and also strengthen your heart and lungs. The idea behind this is that you work hard for a set interval (ex: sprint for 1 minute) and then recover for a set interval (ex: walk for 1 minute) to recharge your body and give you energy to complete the next set while still working. This is much more effective than just running for 3 miles.

If you are looking to trim your mid-section and lose that extra few pounds of belly fat, stick to the basics and avoid the crunches and tricks on the ball. Sure you’ll burn a few calories but if you don’t create an efficient metabolism and fuel it with healthy foods, you will be slowing your progress exponentially.

Have fun with the workouts and join a small group training program that can keep you motivated and on track. If you want to find out more about a group like this just check out Durbrow Performance Training.

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Sam’s post hits the nail on the head and shows you how you don’t need fancy equipment to get an amazing workout.

Check it out here…Bootcamp Budget Training

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