Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: BJ Gaddour


’s Got At Least 4 Minutes To Workout!

In the real world, there will be days when we simply do not have enough time to perform the ideal full-length 20-minute interval cardio workouts (not including a highly recommended 5-minute warm-up and cool-down).

In most instances, the typical approach we take is to just skip the workout altogether. The flawed assumption here is that no significant results can occur in less than 30 minutes anyways. However, this could not be further from the truth! Both our clients and we have discovered just how much can happen in 4 minutes with the right approach to training. So basically, there is no room for excuses as we all have at least 4 minutes on any given day to workout

It’s not about time… IT’S ALL ABOUT INTENSITY!

The key to these cardio interval workouts is INTENSITY. In both scientific research and real world studies, time and time again one thing is clear: Intensity is truly the only thing that makes your body change! Intensity is the key to ripping off ugly, unwanted body fat and gaining lean, sexy muscle.

As much as we’d love to claim we’ve reinvented the wheel here, this intensity principle is nothing new in the fitness world. Even as far back as 1994 in the Metabolism Journal researchers discovered the following: each calorie you expend during high-intensity exercise burns 9 times more fat than the same calorie expended during steady state aerobic exercise! Don’t believe this? Well, trust us when we say that you definitely will become a believer in intensity after performing your first interval workout. It’s really the coolest thing in the world. It’s like you just flip the switch to building the body of your dreams. See below to learn more about why this happens:

The Role of HIGH-Intensity Exercise

- Embraces the Carb-Burning Zone: High-Intensity exercise rapidly reducing muscle glycogen (stored sugar) during training which promotes enhanced total body fat-burning at all other times of day.

- Burns a TON of Calories Both During AND After Exercise: This phenomenon is due to the post-workout “AFTERBURN” know as EPOC which describes the number of calories your body expends in the recovery of your metabolism back to pre-exercise levels from high-intensity training. The best part about EPOC is that you control it, meaning that the harder you work during training the more calories your body will burn BOTH during your workout AND for up to 24-48 hours after completing your workout!

- Creates the Optimal Hormonal Environment for Fat Loss: High-Intensity exercise puts your body in a “fight or flight” mode that forces your body to CHANGE as a means of survival. More specifically, your body releases catecholamines (primarily adrenaline) in response to interval training that directly mobilizes stored body fat so that it can be burnt off as energy during activity.

The 4-Minute Rapid Fat Loss Cardio Program

How to Get 4-Minute Equipment-Free Fat Loss in Your Living Room!

This Workout Muse Cardio EXPRESS features the breakthrough Tabata Protocol that Japanese scientists used to compare the effects of only 4 minutes of high-intensity interval training to a slow, long 60-minute steady-state aerobic alternative. They found GREATER FAT LOSS and GREATER IMPROVEMENTS IN FITNESS with the following 4-minute interval routine versus the full hour of aerobics!

Each workout takes only 4 minutes, not including the highly recommended warm-up. In all, you will be in the shower 10 short minutes after breaking your first bead of sweat

Cardio EXPRESS

Are You Ready For TABATAS?

- 5-minute warm-up (optional, but highly recommended)

- Select the appropriate Tabatas Variation for your current fitness level:

Level I- Beginners- Modified Tabatas: 10 s on, 20 s off

- 10 s on (sprint), 20 s off (recover)- 1:2 work to rest ratio – Repeat this 30 s round 8x for 4 total minutes

Level II- Intermediate- Modified Tabatas: 15 s on, 15 s off

- 15 s on (sprint), 15 s off (recover)- 1:1 work to rest ratio – Repeat this 30 s round 8x for 4 total minutes

Level III- Advanced- Original Tabatas: 20 s on, 10 s off

- 20 s on (sprint), 10 s off (recover)- 2:1 work to rest ratio – Repeat this 30 s round 8x for 4 total minutes

The Top 6 Body Weight Cardio Exercises

Choose either one exercise below and perform it for the full duration of your workout OR feel free to switch to different exercises from round to round to mix things up and get a little more variety:

1.) Stationary Running

2.) Jumping Claps (Modified Jumping Jack)

3.) Cross-Country Skier

4.) Mountain Climber

5.) Burpee Variation

6.) Shadow Boxing or Kickboxing

Perform These Cardio Workouts Only On Days:

- When you truly have NO TIME for the prescribed full-length 20-minute interval workouts (e.g. travel days)

- For an extra metabolic boost during the day to accelerate fat loss (immediately in the morning or 4-6 hours before/after your main workout of the day)

- Before a “free meal” to serve as a bit of damage control so that your body is primed to use the extra carbs and calories from this meal for muscle growth and recovery while minimizing fat-storage (don’t push this too far – this is not an excuse to go hog-wild!)

IMPORTANT NOTE-

Feel free to perform this protocol with any mode of cardio exercise (e.g. outdoor/treadmill running, cycling, etc.). We have simply provided the best equipment-free cardio exercises for the utmost simplicity and convenience.

You can even employ body weight resistance training exercises (squats, push-ups, lunges, etc.) or other resistance training exercises using dumbbells, bands, sandbags, etc. to perform these express workouts. Use your imagination to explore the infinite possibilities for endless variety and to keep your workouts exciting, fun, and fresh!

Guest Author: Chung Leong Yu


In order to lose body fat effectively, you have to do cardio and there is no way around it. Many fitness enthusiasts have over looked the benefits cardio workout. The main reason here is because doing cardio exercise is very boring for some people and also, it is very difficult for unfit people to start a cardio workout program because they feel discourage when the cannot complete a run while others can.

Therefore, the best cardio workout for a particular person must be carefully design to meet his or her needs so that they can stick to the cardio workout program and burn fat. There are many strategies of doing cardio like interval training, high intensity interval training, fartlek training and conventional style method.

Here, we are just going to discuss how to design yourself, the best cardio workout for yourself. In the nutshell, the best cardio workout for a person is when the heart rate is elevated for at least thirty to forty five minutes at an intensity of seventy percent to eighty five percent of their maximum heart rate. This heart rate range is called the targeted heart rate.

At this heart rate, the body burns the optimum amount of fat in the body. This means that, if your do your cardio at this heart rate, the percentage of the total calories burned is the highest compared to other heart rates.

To calculate the targeted heart rate for your best cardio workout, follow this formula.

Take two hundred and twenty, minus your age, and then minus your resting heart rate. Then with the figure, multiply it with seventy five percent and eighty five percent. Add your resting heart rate into the two values and that is your targeted heart rate range.

For optimum fat loss, do your cardio workout four to five times a week and each session should last for no lesser than thirty minutes and no more than one hour. Make sure when your doing your cardio, you are in your target heart rate, use a heart rate monitor to monitor your heart rate!

There is much discussion going on which cardio machine is the best. Well, theoretically, if you are in your fat burning zone, any machines will work the same. But there are a few cardio machines that burn calories faster. The excellent calorie burners are the treadmill and the stair master. These cardio machines work the glutes muscle carder than any other machines. Because the glutes is the largest muscle in the body, it will burn a whole lot of calories!

There is another cardio machine that is making a big hit right now. It is called the Wave by Technogym. This particular machine simulates ice-skating and it really can burn calories as fast as the stair master and it works the inner and outer thighs!

You should not be out of breath during the cardio session. You need oxygen to burn of fat. Combine the your cardio workout with weight training and you definitely can see the fat melt off!

Guest Author: Tom Gifford


Have you ever been able to successful use a weight loss cardio workout to successfully lose body fat?

If you are like most people the answer is yes and no ‘ and usually in the order!

This article is going to go over a few reasons why the average weight loss cardio workout might actually be preventing you from losing weight. Please pay special attention to this article because it can save you lots of time, help you enjoy exercise more, and give you a new outlook on losing with with cardio.

By using “cardio”, I am talking about using cardiovascular exercise on a basic cardio machine such as treadmills, rowing machines, upright or recumbent bikes, ellipticals, or any other common cardio machine you see at the gym or at a department store. This also refers to things such as walking outside or going for a bike ride.

It is very common see someone try to lose weight in the gym by getting on a cardio machine and trying to go for 30-60 minutes at a slow pace. They may try to do this 3, 4, or 5 days per week!

In the beginning 2-3 weeks, you see some results pretty quickly. The weight on the scale goes down and you are feeling great. Soon after however, the weight loss slows down and your progress comes to a crashing halt.

Let’s go over 3 quick reasons why your hit a frustrating plateau with the normal cardio workout, and more importantly, how to avoid it completely.

Reason #1: It Is Boring!

Unless you are training for a triathlon or are a distance runner, you would more than likely have more engaging things to do with your time then being on a cardio machine for 30-60 minutes. A 60 minute cardio workout 3-5 days a week is a sure way to lose all enthusiasm for exercise and be really bored throughout the whole process.

Lots of people do whatever they can to distract themselves during their cardio workouts. The cover the timer with a towel, watch television, read books, or just about anything else to try and distract themselves.

Reason #2: You Burn Fewer Calories Each Time You Workout

Your body will adapt very quickly to doing a very slow and long weight loss cardio workout. Think about it like this. If you went outside and ran a mile right now it would feel pretty difficult if you were not already a conditioned runner. But what if you ran the same mile 5 days per week for the next two months? It would get easier. Your body would adapt to it because that is what it does best.

The same goes for the average weight loss cardio workout that lasts for 30, 45, or even 60 minutes. At first you might burn a lot of calories, but after doing the same type of cardio workout for too long, the body will become more efficient and will adapt.

This means that the workout that burned 300 calories in January might only be burning 150 calories in March! The only thing you can do it so longer or work harder. Neither one sounds like a very appealing option.

Reason #3: The Average Weight Loss Cardio Workout Does Not Stimulate Your Metabolism

Instead of focusing on the number of calories you burned during a single workout, I want you to instead focus on burning calories during the workout and for hours afterwards!

Research has shown that slow same speed cardio does next to nothing to stimulate your resting metabolism. This means that you workout for 45 minutes, burn 300 calories, and then negate the whole workout with a Gatorade afterwards.

How to Fix This Problem

Did you know that you can use a different type of cardio called interval training that can burn a lot of calories during the actual cardio workout and for hours afterwards as well?

When performed correctly, interval training is faster, more fun, and most importantly, has been shown in research to have a dramatic effect on your resting metabolism. What this means is that you might burn 350 calories during your cardio workout, then another 500 throughout the rest of the day!

Interval training is an excellent weight loss cardio workout option for this very reason. Interval training simply consists of using both high and low speeds and intensities at set points in your workout. It can be done on any cardio machine and can even be done walking outside!

If you are truly serious about achieving weight loss with a cardio workout, then learning more about interval training is an absolute must. Your will feel like you got twice the workout in half the time and have a lot more results to show for it!



Look Young Again

Guest Author: Pat Pohzer


After reading this interesting material, I hope you’ll think differently about cardio training and try something new. It’s not that I’m totally against cardio as part of your exercise routine, but is cardio training really what you need to get fit and healthy? If you continue reading, you’ll soon realize that I’m not really against cardio as a form of exercise, I just believe that “traditional cardio” is not the most effective form of exercise you can be doing to achieve your goals.

Most people who are trying to get fit or lose body fat think, without question, that they need “cardio” exercise to achieve success. I beg to differ! This may come as a surprise, but some of the fittest people I know, both men and women, do not swear by traditional cardio. After many years of working out in different gyms and knowing several athletes and personal trainers, I have to agree that low to moderate cardio is more appropriate for the obese or really poorly conditioned person; and even then, it’s still not the most effective method.

So what pray tell IS “cardio”? Most people think it’s running on the treadmill, riding the stationary bike, or gliding on an elliptical machine in front of a TV. That is, what I would consider, “traditional cardio”, which by the way, is why I’m not surprised that people get bored and eventually give up.

To put it simply, “cardio” is any physical movement that gets your heart pumping and helps strengthen the cardiovascular system. If you’re engaging in a physical activity that gets your heart beating faster and you find yourself short of breath or gasping for air, consider it cardio.

For instance, there’s the barbell/dumbell/kettlebell clean and press (C&P), which is hoisting a barbell up from the ground to your shoulders, then push pressing overhead. To some this may seem like a weight training or a strength exercise, but try doing 10-15 reps with a challenging weight and I can guarantee your heart rate will go up you’ll find yourself breathless as if you just ran a sprint which, by the way, is better than jogging for weight loss.

Give the C&P exercise another go, this time with a 20-rep set or one-arm snatches or with swings while each hand holds a kettlebell/dumbell. Or try 5 straight minutes of lunges, pushups and bodyweight squats with minimal rest in between. While 5 minutes may not seem like a lot, try it, and if these suggested exercise routines don’t get you sweating, huffing, and puffing, I’m not sure what will.

While these types of exercises are usually referred to as strength or weight training exercises, they will definitely satisfy your cardio concerns and get your heart beating faster.

These exercise routines are not only time saving, but if done with the right intensity, they will produce results of a full-body work out. Unlike “traditional” cardio where you’re not concentrating or putting in every effort in exercising because you’re watching TV or reading a book, this method of exercising will get you fit, healthy, and looking good! And it doesn’t take much time and/or equipment.



Fountain Of Youth

Guest Author: Craig Ballantyne


I’m not a huge fan of cardio, spinning, or aerobics in terms of people looking to lose body fat obviously in short time periods. I mean if somebody likes doing it; if somebody wants to be the triathlete, you know what, go ahead and do it and love what you do.

But I’m not a big fan of it for those people I see who are running on the sidewalk and look like they despise every single minute they are doing it.

That is probably a greater percentage of the people who do it when they are looking to lose weight. There are a lot of research studies to say that aerobics and cardio aren’t the greatest way to lose weight. And I’m not a fan of having somebody do stuff they don’t like to achieve a goal when there are other ways to do it.

I’m not a big fan of certain machines in the gym for cardio. It may not be the machine itself, but it may be the excuses. Its human nature that some of these machines allow us to slide by and do stuff that we think is helping us, but subconsciously we’re taking the easy way out.

I have what I call the human nature test; because I always make fun of elliptical machines and I really think that they are not again what people make them out to be.

Let’s say you take 100 people. You go to a mega gym – you’ve got 100 treadmills and 100 elliptical machines – you take 100 people into that room and you say, “Okay, you have to work out for 30 minutes at a pretty good pace. You choose your machine.”

You know darn well that 70-80 of those people are going to be on the elliptical machines rather than the treadmill. To me, that says something. I just think that we’re wired to take the easy way out.

You can extend it even further and say, “Okay, you’ve got 100 people; you’ve got 100 treadmills and a track. Go do your training. You can either do the treadmill or the track.” You know 80% of those people are probably going to use the treadmill.

Humans take the easy way out when given hard choices. The other thing that I’m against in terms of cardio is – I refer to it as one of the dark sides of cardio – is that people can get injured doing a high volume of cardio work.

Of course, to be fair, you can get injured doing a high volume of body building work. When I was young and reading the magazines, I was doing too much upper body work and had a little bit of shoulder problems; not anything I haven’t been able to get over.

So injury risk is often proportional to the volume of exercise you do. Too much volume in lifting, too much volume in cardio, or even too much volume in crunches and you’re going to end up in the doctor’s office or the physiotherapy office.

Ironically, many trainers and physiotherapists are the worst offenders of over-use injuries. There is one physio that I worked in a gym where she worked, and she literally could not walk properly because she did so many spinning classes.

Spinning classes are another thing I’m not a huge fan of. On one side, there’s great benefit to your fat loss program because of the group mentality because social support is huge. Working out in that group encourages you to come back. And a lot of people have fun with it. Plus, its interval training in nature. So lots of good things about spinning.

But I figure, why do something for 45 minutes when you can get the same results in 20 minutes? Also, I’m not a big fan of the high RPM spinning because I think that’s where a lot of hip problems have been developed in people that I’ve trained personally and also in some of the classes I’ve watched.

I just don’t think that it’s great for your hips, especially in women who have hip problems already from childbirth, to be going at 140-160 RPM or whatever they are doing and you just watch their bodies flopping around without the right torso strength and endurance and stability there, they are going to end up with problems.

One last thing I’ll say on this is that an aerobic training program is probably one of the worst places to start a 300 pound person out on a fat loss program because their muscles are not prepared for this and neither are their joints. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to run with an extra 120 pounds on my back, or even walk quickly. We need to re-examine where we start people out.

So if you are not getting the results you want but you are doing a lot of cardio, spinning, or aerobics classes, decrease the volume, try some interval training, and focus on quality workouts for fat burning.



Instant Skin Tightener

Guest Author: The_Trainer


1. When you do weight training first, you have more energy and strength for that weight training.

I know cardio junkies won’t want to hear this, but intense, QUALITY weight training is actually MORE effective for fat loss than cardio training. Why the emphasis on quality? Well, if you go to the gym and just flail around with light weights for 30 minutes, it’s not really going to be very effective for fat loss.

However, if you really put some effort into it and train hard, the metabolic boost you get from weight training (in terms of not only calories burned while doing it but the increase in metabolism after AND the increase in muscle mass you get from weight training) is greater than the boost you get from cardio training. And, when compared to slow, long-duration cardio training, that boost is MUCH greater.

So by performing your weight training FIRST, while you’re fresh, you’re going to have more energy to put into it and you’re going to be stronger. This will increase metabolic and muscle mass stimulation and therefore overall fat loss. It’s a win-win situation!

That’s not to say you can’t do a couple of minutes of cardio as a general warm-up before starting into the weights…just don’t do an entire cardio session before weight training. Always keep in mind that the weight training is the REAL engine behind your fat loss efforts.

And if THAT isn’t enough to convince you to do cardio after weights, I’ve got another reason for you…

2. Performing weight training first decreases available blood sugar and puts the body in “fat burning” mode.

When you train with weights, you’re performing short, intense muscle contractions. Glucose (blood sugar) is the preferred fuel for driving these intense contractions. As you go through your workout, your body gradually uses up its readily-available supply of sugars and starts mobilizing fat for energy.

Here’s the key…mobilizing bodyfat for energy is a process that takes time. If you do your cardio first, your body will be initially working on that blood sugar before getting started on the bodyfat. By the time you’re done with cardio and move to weights, THAT is when you’re in the optimal fat-burning mode.

But the problem is, fat is NOT an efficient fuel for weight training. By doing cardio first, you use up all the “good” stuff for weight training and force your body to make do with a less powerful fuel source. Your weight training workouts will decrease in quality and your cardio efforts won’t be as effective for achieving fat-burning, which is your primary goal!

So basically, you’re shooting yourself in the foot TWICE!

Think of your body as a hybrid gas-electric car. This car uses gas to provide more power for acceleration and electricity to provide long-term power for maintaining speed.

Now think of blood sugar as gas and weight training as powerful acceleration. When you press the pedal (performing weight training), you’re going to get much better acceleration when you’re using the proper fuel (i.e. gas).

If you try and power the acceleration with electricity, you’ll go forward but not nearly as quickly as if you were using gas.

The bottom line is this…perform your weight training first so you use up the “fast” energy first. Then, by the time you hit the cardio, you’re ALREADY in fat-burning mode and every single second you’re doing that cardio is going to be burning more fat than if you did it first.

—

These two reasons apply no matter if you’re doing slower, long-duration cardio or high-intensity interval training (which I recommend). The key thing to keep in mind is that WEIGHT TRAINING is what’s going to help you change your body FAST…cardio is a useful tool for improving your results but it’s NOT what drives your fat-loss results.

And that being said, if you absolutely feel you MUST do your cardio first, I’m NOT going to tell you it’s the worst thing in the world…the fact that you’re doing SOMETHING trumps doing nothing ANY day of the week!

But if you’re looking for maximum impact for the time and effort you’re putting your training, DEFINITELY hit the weights first and cardio after.

If you’re interested in more articles and information on fat-loss, interval training and programs, check out the following links:

How To Lose Fat NOW

Gain Muscle & Loss Fat





Look 10 Years Younger

Guest Author: Dane Fletcher


Cardiovascular exercise is a necessity in order to obtain bodybuilding success, as well as general health and mental clarity. For most people, it is the most despised and least successful part of the bodybuilding routine. This is due to the tedious and never ending nature of sitting on a machine for hours and hours without the somewhat immediate results. But most people don’t know that cardio doesn’t have to be as tedious and uneventful as it is, and also that it can be done outdoors. Perhaps these people should get off of the exercise bike and go outside to lose weight while playing basketball!

Basketball is liked amongst all age brackets. It can be played with one player, two players, or even ten players with two separate teams. You can determine both the pace and the intensity of the game. And with a little planning, basketball can be used to supplement and improve your cardiovascular exercise.

Be Healthy

Basketball is an excellent work out for the cardiovascular system. If you are playing by yourself, you can shoot some baskets, try to get rebounds, or just run with the ball up and down the court practicing lay-ups. Any of these activities will definitely keep your heart rate going and cause it to improve. Being exposed to the sun will help your skin develop a tan as well as absorb Vitamin D. Your mind will feel better from the break from the boringness of the exercise bike. The competitive spirit inside you will feel great from the accomplishment that comes when you make a tricky shot or get a tough rebound. And let’s not forget that all of this also increases your metabolism, which means that you’re going to lose body fat, and oxygen will be better carried to your heart, brain, and other systems, which is the ultimate goal of cardio for health.

Be Careful

The time spent on the court having achieved an accelerated heart rate needs to be the same amount of time usually spent on the stationary bike. Basketball can be a great tool for fitness, but a few minutes of arbitrarily shooting hoops isn’t going to benefit your health. While playing, the time needs to be spent running, jumping, shooting, and rebounding for an amount of time between a half an hour and an hour in order to get the cardiovascular benefits involved in bodybuilding. So if you enjoy doing it so much that you’re playing for three hours a day and overdoing it, a noticeable hunk of muscle mass is going to get burned off. So remember that all good things are to be consumed in moderation. Basketball is considered a high impact sport, so also be careful making the change from low impact exercises such as elliptical machines. It can also be tough on the knee joints due to all of the fast changes in direction.

So if you love to be healthy and in shape but are tired of the usual bore of the average gym, replace your cardio with basketball and see what can happen!