A Cambridge personal training post by boot camp owner Callie Durbrow

Top 11 Fat Blasting Exercises

Are you burning fat as fast as you’d like?

It might be time to examine your training style (and your nutrition, but that’s another blog post for another day). Nutrition is HUGE when it comes to how fast you lose fat and how well you keep it off.

Training is the foundation of a healthy fat loss plan however. I wanted to hook you up with my Top 11 Fat Blasting Exercises. I will warn you, some of these are not really flashy and sexy but they get the job done. It’s all about the exercises that just straight up work. I always tell my clients that if kettlebells were good enough for the Russian Army than they are good enough for us

Here are my top 11 fat burning exercises in order of category….

Lower Body:

Squats (any variation)
Dead Lifts (we typically work with the Sumo Dead Lift, check that out…..

Kettlebell Swings

Walking Lunges

Upper Body:

Chin Ups (most people are working assisted chin ups with a band under their knee)

You can see me working on some almost full chin ups right here…..

Push Ups (any variation- knees, toes, in the TRX, using medicine balls, physio balls, dumbbells)

Core Training:

TRX or Valslide Body Saws…check out some of our members rocking the Valslide Body Saws in this video…

Conditioning:

The Prowler

There are literally thousands of exercises and we do many different variations in our training studio. It’s all about finding the exercises that give you the most bang for your buck and working different variations as you progress. We have members of all levels, some doing body weight work, some doing medium kettlebell work and some even working with our “cherry bomb” kettlebell which is well over 70 pounds.

Make sure your form is perfect and if you pick 5-6 of these exercises and put them in a circuit format you’re going to see a huge boost in your overall fat loss and how great you feel.

If you want to see exactly what we do then come check out a training session (be sure to schedule in advance).

—->Cambridge Personal Training (1 week pass) 

A personal training post by Cambridge expert Callie Durbrow

9 Super Summer Slim Down Tactics

Hey what’s up! Welcome back to Ultimate Athletic Fitness. I’m really psyched to be back and writing more training tips for you. It’s been a few weeks of busy business stuff but I wanted to share with you some cool tactics for slimming down and looking great this summer.

I know that you know you should be doing this stuff year round, but everyone wants to look good in less clothing, right?

I was talking to a client of mine the other day and she was super overwhelmed with stress at work, traveling and all kinds of life stuff. We were talking about how important it is to stick to a schedule when it comes to training and exercise. That’s always the first thing that people “cut out” of their lifestyle when they don’t have time. It’s really the one thing that needs to stay constant because the healthier you are, the more productive you will be, the better your mood will be, you’ll sleep better and you’ll manage stress in a much healthier way.

I just want you to think about that concept as well. When you’re crazy busy how often do you just skip the gym? Probably a lot. But guess what, that work will be there tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day. But if you don’t take care of yourself, you may not be. I don’t want to sound harsh but not taking care of your body is a selfish act. It’s selfish for those around you, your family and even yourself.

But, back to the cool and fun stuff….looking good this summer….

Here are my 9 Super Slim-Down Tactics….

1. Sprint 1-2 times per week. Whether it’s hill sprints, stadium sprints or just from telephone pole to telephone pole in your neighborhood, kick up the intensity.

2. Lift Weights- lifting weights stimulates the nervous system, burns more calories and revs up your metabolism so that you burn MORE calories when you’re not working out. Training with weights in a metabolic circuit style has been shown to burn 9 times more fat than traditional cardio workouts.

3. Drink 1/2 your body weight in water each day- Yep that sounds like a lot and it is. Especially as the weather gets warmer you want to really rev it up. If you weigh 140 pounds you should shoot for 70 ounces each day. Start slow and build yourself up on this one.

4. Integrate Kettlebells into your training- Kettlebells are one of the best tools known to man. My clients may disagree with me here, but in all seriousness they love the results. Kettlebells use every major muscle in the body, they increase your heart rate and force you to burn more calories during that session. They also improve athleticism, balance and coordination in a way that dumbbells and barbells cannot.

Not like this though…..

—->If you want to try out our NEW Spartan Workout class complete with kettlebells and other various torture toys just drop your email address here….Spartan Workout Class

5. Start making smoothies- Smoothies are a great way to kick start your day with a healthy breakfast that takes no time at all. Get yourself a blender or a Magic Bullet (the best, BTW) and throw in some almond milk, greek yogurt, protein powder, frozen fruit and chai seeds and you have a protein packed, fiber rich shake that will carry you through until your mid-morning snack.

6. Don’t be scared of fat. Healthy dietary fats are your friends. Foods like avocado, greek yogurt, nuts and natural oils (coconut, olive, peanut, sesame, sunflower are great examples) provide your body with much needed nutrients and helps with brain and heart functioning.

7. Work that booty- Training the glute muscles not only leads to a great looking butt but also helps you burn tons of calories because they are such large and powerful muscles. Movements like lunges, squats, deadlifts and kettlebell swings are killer for that area.

8. Hit up Harvard Stadium for a killer workout. If you are in the Boston/Cambridge area, you’ve gotta do this….

9. Work your Core- Yeah you know you want that lean, toned and defined core right? So you wanna do thousands of crunches….right? Wrong. Core training is important and the major function of your abdominals is to stabilize your spine and protect it from injury. So repeated flexion (crunch motion) of the spine is actually prepping you for injury. Maybe not right now but down the line you’re probably going to have some lower back issues. The best way to train the core is through stabilizing exercises such as plank variations (you can use weight, bands, Valslides or elevation to make these harder) and also through complex movements like dead lifts, push ups, lunges and kettlebell complexes.

What’s the best way to get your core looking good though? Nutrition. If you have a layer of belly fat over those abs, no one’s gonna see them…..Get your eating cleaned up and train hard and heavy and you’ll see those abs coming through in no time.

Enjoy these first few weeks of summer and leave me a comment with your favorite exercise. I’m compiling a list for a future post so I’d love to hear your thoughts

How to Train Your Core Properly and Why You Should Never Do Crunches

Welcome back to the ultimate Cambridge personal training resource for fat loss. I wanted to talk with you today about core training. I got a ton of comments on Facebook last week when I posed a question about what struggles people face in fitness.

So many people wanted to know about core training. Not only for fat loss but also to help reduce injury. I had a friend mention that she’s in physical therapy now after doing some funky twisting exercises. I also have a friend who coaches high school lacrosse and he wanted to help them with their performance. That’s where core training is crucial because no matter what your goals are, you MUST have a strong core or your results will suffer.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the actual exercises, I want you to understand the anatomy of the core. Think of a tree trunk….all of the roots are grounded at the bottom but it’s very heavy at the top with all the branches and leaves. What holds that up? The middle (or core) of the tree. If that’s not solid, it falls over. So here’s where a lot of folks miss the boat (not you though, because you read my stuff

Don’t think of your core as just your abs. Your core is your abdominals, your transverse abdominals (deep abdominal muscles that attach directly to the spine), your obliques (twisting muscles), lower back, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes (butt muscles) and your hip flexors (front of the hip). All of these muscles must be strong and able to work together. If one link in the chain in weak you are setting yourself up for potential injury. It may not be today or tomorrow at the gym, but over time your body breaks down.

When you perform crunches and sit ups, you are targeting your abdominal muscles only but leaving out the ever important lower back and transverse abdominals. You are also performing a lot of unnecessary flexion of the spine which can put too much pressure on the lower back and neck.

Instead we want to focus on the primary task of the core…stabilizing the spine. Here are some of the movements to add into your program in order to increase your core strength and help you lose fat faster because your workouts will be more efficient.

1. Planks (standard plank, side plank, elevated feet, single arm reach, single arm and leg reach)

2. Turkish Get Ups

3. Kettlebell Swings

4. Push Ups

5. Hip Bridges (on the floor or the ball)

6. Battling Ropes

7. Power Wheel

The last two exercises you’ll see in this awesome video. I did these two movements along with some squats and kettlebell presses and my core was super sore the next day….

Leave me a comment about what your favorite core exercise is!

An abs training post by Cambridge personal trainer Callie Durbrow

Are You Going About Your Ab Training the Wrong Way?

Hey, I hope you are doing awesome and you are feeling great when it comes to your workouts, nutrition and your daily lifestyle. We’re on day #24 on the Cambridge Personal Trainer 30 Day Fat Loss Challenge.

I got a bunch of questions this past week about ab training. It’s a pretty common thing, everyone wants a tight mid-section and we all want to kick that extra flab around the middle, right?

Okay, so Britney was cool once…

Anyway back to the topic at hand. Training your abs…it’s not about crunches and bicycle crunches and more crunches…This type of consistent flexion (moving forward of your spine) can actually do more harm than good. It can create soreness in your back and neck and create serious muscular imbalances. Plus, crunches are boring as all hell. Can you tell I’m opposed?

Well if you are not doing crunches, then what can you do? In my training groups we focus on a lot of full range movements such as kettle bell sit ups, ball roll outs, ball tucks and planks.

There are countless exercises that you can be doing to improve abdominal strength and also avoid injury. I’m not a huge proponent of “isolation” exercises because in order to get your abs looking really great, you must lose body fat (which happens throughout the whole body without spot reduction) and that is done through big movements that engage a lot of muscle groups and burn a ton of calories thus leading to an increase in your overall metabolic rate.

But, with that said, you need to have a certain amount of core strength and so here’s an awesome little video with a killer core circuit that is guaranteed to get you feeling the burn…

A Belly Fat Burning Workout Post by Callie Durbrow

First off, I want to let you know that this post will not be talking about spot-reducing belly fat because that’s some kind of crazy myth that I promise you will never be debunked. It’s not possible to say, okay I’m going to lose that last 5 pounds of fat in my belly.

But, what you can do is enhance your workouts and design them correctly to help you burn MORE fat and reduce those pesky fat stores in the belly.

One important thing to think about before we get into the nuts and bolts of the workout is that when you are trying to lose fat you are essentially fighting one hormone with another hormone. In this case when someone wants to lose fat you are fighting the cortisol hormone with growth hormone. Let me explain….

Cortisol is the “stress hormone” and while diet and exercise are SUPER important for fat loss, higher levels of cortisol has been shown to cause higher stored levels of belly fat.

Growth hormone is the single most effective compound that your body can produce when it comes to combating body fat and creating lean muscle. The more GH you produce, the faster you can burn fat and created a toned, lean body.

So, in order to combat stubborn belly fat (and all fat, actually) you must lower your cortisol levels and produce high levels of growth hormone. Lowing cortisol levels can be tricky but you can combat them with GH. Lowering overall stress in your life, getting more sleep and eating a balanced diet will help.

One simple way to produce growth hormone and combat that nasty belly fat is to perform full body workouts that use larger muscle groups and increase your heart rate. Here is a great example of a growth hormone producing, belly fat melting workout. Notice there are no specific “ab” exercises (that’s another story for another day) but this is exactly the kind of workout that will produce high levels of GH, help you combat cortisol and give you a toned, tight and lean body….

Ultimate Belly Fat Workout

When training your abdominals you want to do tons and tons of crunches and bicycle crunches, right? I mean you should probably do about 1,000 a day (in your office, Will Ferrell Anchorman-style) Okay I digress…

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!

If you need a simple, short and super effective fat burning interval workout then check out my jump rope intervals <—

Summer is here, it’s the time for long beach days, trips to the Cape, weddings and reunions. Everyone wants to look their best but how many times have you dreaded the shopping trip for these events? When your body isn’t exactly as you would like it to be, showing off the typical summer skin can be tough. How many times have you actually said no to a great event just because you might have to get into your bathing suit while on the boat?

Well, the time for this negative mental state is over. With just a few simple tips you can whip your body into shape and feel confident wearing just about anything. Sure, it takes a ton of work but it can be done. Follow these simple lifestyle changes and you’ll be well on your way to the great summer clothes that you KNOW you want to wear.

1. Perform full body strength training workouts. These types of workouts will burn more calories and make your body an efficient fat burning machine. The ultimate goal is to burn fat and calories when you are NOT working out and developing a good amount of lean muscle tissue will do just that. Muscle is a much more active tissue (fat just kind of sits there and takes up space) and will burn calories at rest, usually for up to 36 hours after an intense training session.

2. Choose exercises such as squats, lunges, step ups, dead lifts, push ups, chin up variations, medicine ball work and anything with a kettle bell. These movements are guaranteed to melt the fat right off when performed in a circuit style (either timed or for repetitions). Avoid machines and isolation exercises like curls and shoulder raises. These are major time wasters and won’t burn nearly as many calories.

3. Eat 5-6 small meals and snacks per day. You want to stock your nutrition plan with fruits, veggies, lean proteins, low fat dairy and unsalted natural nuts. Avoid starches and excess bread and pasta sources. Drink plenty of water (1/2 your body weight (lbs) in ounces each day). Eating in this most natural state will help your body burn fat, protein will support lean muscle and recovery and staying away from starches and drinking tons of water will help you to feel much less bloated. This is always a good thing in the summer. Plus, fruits and veggies are plentiful and you can stock up all day without getting super full.

4. Avoid time wasting “ab” exercises such as crunches and bicycle crunches or twists. Instead perform full core movements such as planks, side planks, weighted sit-ups, rotations and throws or any major movement such as a squat, dead lift or kettle bell swing. You can do crunches until you are blue in the face but it won’t do a thing for that toned summer mid-section you are craving. You MUST BURN FAT first. Large movements boost your metabolism. The abdominal and core region was meant to stabilize, not flex repeatedly at the spine (a crunch movement). This can actually lead to more back pain and it won’t do squat for your abs. Instead, just do squats….

5. Avoid excess alcohol this summer. Everyone knows that the summer brings parties and lots of fun things. It’s not realistic to avoid drinks all together but just keep it in moderation. Stick to clear liquor such as vodka and mix it with some soda water. This cuts out a lot of sugar. Keep yourself hydrated by drinking plenty of water for every drink that you have. Give yourself a minimum before the party starts, and stick to it because we all know that drinks end up leading to bad food choices.

6. Give yourself a cheat day. If 80% of your nutrition plan is on point, you’ll be fine. Give yourself a day to go out for dinner or drinks and don’t feel bad about it. Your body responds well to an increase in sugars (it can actually boost metabolism for a short term) but keep it during that one day. This will also help eliminate cravings because you know on Fridays you give yourself a treat. Stick to the nutrition basics and reward yourself.

Start implementing these simple tips and you’ll see a change in your body composition and how you look and feel. Also get a little extra motivation by working out with others in a small group. Stay motivated and accountable, here’s how… small group summer training.

Hi there everyone,

Tristan Lewis here and I’m excited to be back with a quick post for my mate Callie Durbrow.

I’d like to give you all ‘5 tips that you should focus on when training for ‘six pack abs and proven fat loss’:

These are 5 rules I like to ‘cement into’ my clients mindsets before we begin our training programs so they focus on these and over the progressive sessions they become more aware of their body, their bodies response and also how they ‘should feel’ when performing workouts for fat loss and six pack abs.

Now before we begin, we all are clear that six pack abs and fat loss will NOT be obtained by false theories like ‘spot training’ ’100′s of sit ups’ ‘crunches only’ or any of the other fallacies you can get swept up in regarding results for these two sought after fitness goals.  And I include in that the waste of money that are those ab gadgets you see on late night tv.  They don’t work and any smart trainer will never condone such things.

So two things first: Callie and I will preach all day long the need for compound / multi joint exercise that incorporates many muscles to synergistically work in unison and burn more calories and in turn burn that stubborn belly fat.

And second: of course diet is essential, in terms of eating right and burning off more calories than you consume.

But assuming these two points are covered then below are 5 tips to always keep in your mind and mentally focus on when performing any of the workouts that Callie and I show you that will be designed to both burn optimal fat as well as carve out the lean midsection you crave.

1) Focus on your core during all movements or exercises. I’m a big believer in being fully aware of your ‘core’ during almost all exercises.  It’s easy to get sluggish and even though we are working hard we still ‘slouch’ or let our midsection ‘loosen’ as we perform an exercise.  From here on out focus on tightening your tummy and tensing those abs no matter what you do – from a pull up to a single leg deadlift touch etc.  You’ll begin to ‘ignite your core musculature’ to always be alert and muscles will fire that in the past may have felt they could ‘rest’.  You’ll realize then that you have a solid lean core musculature and know it is always working for you – and improving each session.

2) Breathe! – I have seen so many people hold their breath during abdominal workouts or should I say the exercises that focus mostly on you core.  There is a real need to be able to control your breathing and exhale on your exertion then inhale as you return to your start position.  Get in the habit of controlling yourself in this way – vitally important.

3) Don’t Be Afraid To Train Your Abs.  The reality here is that following a workout that Callie or I set you will not over-train your abs but use the exercises that best work your abs, obliques, stabilizers and core as well as other muscles for both muscular development as well as optimal calorie burning.  If you train right you will be exhausted quicker, have done a workout that will challenge your whole body AND importantly really trained your core and abs the right way.  Too many times people actually don’t train their core ENOUGH, particularly if they just throw in a few crunches – heaven forbid!

4)Don’t be afraid of HIIT – I had a discussion with a few people in my class last night as I gave them a new High Intensity Interval Training workout to do – they were new to class and were concerned when they heard ‘high intensity’ – once we explained that a person can work-out for shorter periods, in small intense interval bursts and do this with both a cardio perspective and a resistance circuit program or bodyweight exercises AND importantly burn 5 or more times as many calories – they immediately got excited – because at the same time, you are not only doing something that will burn calories and melt the stubborn belly fat to show your sexy midsection, but also doing something that all people are quite capable of doing regardless of what they may initially think  – and doing what you initially think is too much’ and then doing it well is an absolute thrill for your self confidence and self esteem…

And this leads nicely onto my last point…

5)  KNOW that you can do more than you probably give yourself credit for. – I have people of sixty years old and up in my classes and they are invigorated to try new and exciting workouts – but the best thing is seeing how each session as I coach them to understand their own amazing capabilities, I see just how enthused and excited they are AND how incredibly well they do – their results are outstanding.  It does not matter our age or background – the workouts now being put together for you by Callie, me or any other ‘smart’ trainer are designed to not just give you results BUT also give you satisfaction to know that you can push yourself to levels you never thought possible.  The days of thinking these cool new workouts are just for ‘muscle heads or super fit people’ are over.  Get ready to be blown away with what YOU can do and then expect the results of proven fat loss, six pack abs AND total body transformation.

You see a lot of us are in the training game for the thrill of seeing people achieve more than they ever felt possible.  I know I am and so is Callie.

We thrive off of seeing you all do amazing things.

So until my next one,

Be safe and be fit,

You deserve it and you are absolutely capable of it AND more!

Cheers

Tristan

MaverickFitnessCoach.com