I just signed up for a professional organization and they sent me a journal contain some great research that people have done. You know you picked the right career path when you truly get excited for reading research on the subject!

The article was something that I have heard before in school, but never seen the research. It finally hit me reading this research that I have to spread the word on it.

Most people that are overweight or obese cannot walk for 40 minutes consecutive. This is either due to joint problems, lack of cardiovascular fitness or an array of other issues. So they will get discouraged about trying to complete that exercise bout and more than likely won’t do it at all.

A study posted in the American College of Sports Medicine Journal of Health and Fitness says that by breaking that cardio up, you get the same exercise benefits as walking consecutively. So now you have no excuse. If you can’t muster up the energy for 40 minutes, or if your knee starts hurting after 10 minutes, doing four 10 minute bouts of exercise will yield the same exercise effects as walking continuously.

Now this isn’t a reason not to be lazy. If you can sustain cardio for the consecutive 40 minutes,  you will yield better cardiovascular endurance than only going 10. But if you are one of those people who need to start exercise because you need to change your life fast, but just can’t do the 40 minutes, BREAK IT UP!

Hear me out on this one -

How many people do you know are on a diet right now? How many people do you know have dieted in the past? How many of those diets stuck? How many people do you know are on their second, third, forth, fifth diet?

Most people diet before a wedding, reunion, resolution, or a variety of other reasons. This makes the work “diet” have a short term effect behind its meaning. People are under the assumption that if they diet for 3 months, they will lose weight. And if they stick to it they will. But then what? Most people YO YO back up to their starting weight.

Want to know the best way to manage your weight? Stop dieting and establish life long healthy lifestyle habits. A diet is nothing more that WHAT you eat. A bird’s diet is seeds. A horses diet is hay and grains. What is YOUR diet going to be? Create a healthy way of eating for the rest of your life. You will be able to manage your weight more effectively and never have to go on a diet ever again.

Today’s post is by Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS. Craig owns a great fat loss product called Turbulence Training. Regular readers know how much I am against information product because in today’s day and age, everyone is an expert. Well, Craig is an expert. He holds a masters degree, high level certifications and writes for some of the most prestigious magazines on the markets. He stuff is legit and I highly recommend you heading over to Turbulence Training and check out his product. You will not be disappointed.

Why Cardio Doesn’t Work for Fat Loss

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work
so perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has
tried it knows, the practicality of it just doesn’t add up.

After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.

British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren’t previously exercising.

(Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008).

Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That’s a lot of
exercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great – I was positively surprised by the results.

So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!

Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out…

The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds.

The scientists think they know where things went sour. They
classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the “Compensators”
and the “Non-compensators”.

The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts.

Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge “compensatory” increase in appetite experienced by this group.

Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does,
research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.

So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your
appetite and calorie intake to see if you are “compensating” for
your efforts. If you are, you might be better off using a program
of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.

As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research,
interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. And
increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-
burning benefits.

In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of
cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.

So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity
exercise a go for your next workout program.

Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training
About the Author

Learn about the “Dark Side of Cardio” in the free report from Craig Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com. Craig is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

The term “Health and Wellness” is starting come into main stream as of late. Most people just relate it to their health and “wellness”. But do you really know the meaning behind “health and wellness”? It goes deeper than you would think.

I recently posed the question “What is the definition of health and wellness to you” on facebook and twitter. People came up with some great responses:

Here is my definition of health and wellness: Getting the whole pie.

Health and wellness has 5 categories mixed into one.

• Mental health-the ability to learn and develop intellectual capabilites
• Spiritual health-The belief in a unifying force-Godline for some, nature for others, even science.
• Social health-The ability to interact and develop interpersonal relationships.
• Physical health-To supply the body with the nutrients and activity to ward off illness and disease, supply energy and maintain bodily function for maintenance and growth.
• Emotional health.

Health and wellness is making sure you have a full balance of every aspect of your health. Most people get too caught up in their diet. Or their workout. Health is not one thing. If you really want to get healthy, you need to take into account every single aspect of your life. If you are highly stressed at work, that effects your weight. If you are over weight, that more than likely effects your social health. If you are overweight, your hormones are not in check and that effects your emotional health.

It is time that you get serious about your health. Start today. Start looking at every aspect of your life and finding ways to making it better. This can be a very difficult task to do on your own. If you find yourself struggling, or just plain don’t know where to start, drop me a line at Zach (at ) nintemanfitness.com. When you email me, I want you to give me a list of all (when I say all, I mean ALL!, every single one) the things in your life you want to change. Your email is only between you, and me. So don’t hold anything back. Remember, PERSONAL training needs to be personal. So get personal with yourself first, then get personal with me so I can help. Dig deep and really think about everything from family, social, health, business, anything in your life you want to change. We will start with this list and start adjusting the things that we can. I cannot help with every single aspect of your life, but I can get you walking and you can start running with it.

Again, email if you need. zach (at) nintemanfitness.com.

It is your life. You only have one. Make sure it is the best ever. Period.

Have you hit a plateau on you workouts? Here are 5 tips that you can do to get back on track and jump start results again:

1. Move quickly from upper to lower body-By switching from upper to lower body, you crank up your caloric burn exponentially. Try this: Move from biceps curls to squats. It can raise your heart rate by forcing blood to shunt from your arms to your legs. Try to work this into your routine once a week to get great results.
2. Lower your weight-Get every single fiber firing when you lift. When you lift, start with a heavier weight and do 10 reps. Switch to a little lighter of a weight to ensure that you can complete the next 10 reps. Then go even lighter on the third set again to ensure you can complete all the reps. Do this once a month, as you can feel VERY sore after you complete this workout.
3. Work two muscle groups at once-Save time and burn more calories with a series of several muscle groups together. Try adding triceps presses to squats or front shoulder raises to lunges. This technique isn’t highly fatiguing, so try it once a week.
4. Balance on one leg-Using one foot instead of two during strength moves will recruit the muscles in your core, helping you sculpt flat, sexy abs. Stand on one leg from everything from shoulder presses to squats. Because you are using only one leg, you will have to use a lighter weight in order to complete the exercise.
5. Team up on one muscle-zap your most persnickety parts into shape by doing back to back exercise for the same muscle groups. For example, blast your lefts with a squat, followed by a lunge. To attack your abs, do bicycles followed by reverse crunches. This pushes your muscles to total exhaustion, so don’t try it more than twice a month.