• Multiply Exercise and Nutrition to Look Even Better in 2008

    by Alexander Becker

    It's not rocket science. You know what to do. You know what you should be doing.

    Health and fitness is a great foundation for any lifestyle and you can start right now. If you think there is nothing you can improve, your nutrition and your exercise regimen, you can always refine.

    It is not about whether or not you exercise and watch your nutrition, of course you do, right?

    Executive Summary: Exercise × Nutrition

    Pay attention to exercise and nutrition and you will look good and be healthy. There isn't much more to get started and eventually end up leaner and healthier.

    Consider -- and follow -- these two very simple recommendations --

    1. Eat as much unprocessed food as possible and cut everything processed or refined. Food is fuel.
    2. Move your body and your mind as much as you can in as many directions possible. Stagnation and inertia mean death.

    Fat Loss

    With spring coming soon and after just another year and just another month of feasting, the fat loss issue comes up.

    Let's start with four rules from Christopher Mohr from T-Nation's 2008 Fat Loss Roundtable, Part I --

    1. Eat a fruit and/or at least one vegetable with every single meal.
    2. Plan ahead. Don't go to work without any food at all, then wonder why you opted for fast food at noon, hit the vending machine at 3 PM, and are famished on the way home so you decided to order a pizza to pick up for dinner.
    3. Define your goals and write them daily. If you don't know what you're working toward, you're going to continue to struggle.
    4. Move more! I'm all about complexes, interval training, large body movements like deadlifts, etc. but what about the other 160-plus hours during the week when you're not at the gym? Walk more. Get on a bike and use that as your transportation. Use the stairs instead of the elevator.

    ... and continue with Mike Roussell's 6 Pillars of Naked Nutrition from The 2008 Fat Loss Roundtable, Part II --

    1. Eat five to six times a day.
    2. Limit your consumption of sugars and processed foods.
    3. Eat fruits and vegetables throughout the day.
    4. Drink more water and cut out calorie-containing beverages (beer, soda, etc.).
    5. Focus on consuming lean proteins throughout the day.
    6. Save starch containing foods until after a workout or for breakfast.

    Skinny Fat

    Misguided diets or radical diet attempts often lead to a skinny-fat look. Try to eat more and get lean --

    Don't you think it's about time to eat in order to get healthy and lean?

    Complacency

    Do you think it's enough? How do you know? There are at least 5 reasons to get even leaner --

    Something that gets infinitely harder, the closer you come to reaching the absolute goal, is the ideal feat to fight for. If it was easy, anybody would do it and succeed. Competition is the ultimate comparison. There is only one first place.

    Time

    You say you're short on time? Try something like the 4 minute-workout --

    The X-minute workout, a running gag among fitness professionals, can still be employed effectively, especially as an addition to a well balanced schedule involving resistance training, intervals, and aerobic work.

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  • The 4 Minute-Workout: From Running Gag to Ego Buster

    by Alexander Becker

    The X-minute workout, a running gag among fitness professionals, can still be employed effectively, especially as an addition to a well balanced schedule involving resistance training, intervals, and aerobic work.

    The Tabata Method is a variation of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Dan John has build a short, yet effective Fat Loss in Four Minutes out of it --

    Tabata is the name of a Japanese researcher who discovered an interesting way to increase both anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time. It's one of those strange training programs that seems to fit across disciplines: it's excellent for bicyclists, speed skaters, Olympic lifters, or the person looking to lose fat quickly.

    This training method is so simple, yet so incredibly difficult, that athletes tend to try it once, acknowledge its greatness, and then vow to never speak its name again. What is it? It's simple: take one exercise and perform it in the following manner:

    1. For twenty seconds, do as many repetitions as possible.
    2. Rest for ten seconds
    3. Repeat seven more times!

    Ok. So much for the method. I really like sprint intervals but in Northern Europe, rain is sometimes used as an excuse not to go out and run. Enter the remedy; Tabata thrusters --

    The thruster is one of the greatest lifts no one has ever heard of in the gym. Take two dumbbells and hold them at shoulder height. Squat down, keeping the dumbbells on the shoulders. As you rise up, press the bells to the overhead lockout position. You can either press as you rise or use the momentum to help "kick" the bells overhead. I find that I do a little bit of both in the four minutes.

    Thrusters do things to your heart rate and breathing that I honestly can't describe. Go light! A 35 pound dumbbell in each hand is a very difficult thruster workout! Check your ego at the door for the first two minutes.

    It did rain and I did try it... The soreness lasted for three days.

    For those of you who'd ask, here is the dialogue that founded all the fun, from Something About Mary in 1998 --

    Hitchhiker
    You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
    Ted
    Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the excercise video.
    Hitchhiker
    Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.
    Ted
    Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you're going.
    Hitchhiker
    Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
    Ted
    I would go for the 7.
    Hitchhiker
    Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.
    Ted
    You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?
    Hitchhiker
    If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".
    Ted
    That's right. That's - that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?
    [Hitchhiker convulses]
    Hitchhiker
    No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.
    Ted
    That - good point.
    Hitchhiker
    7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 doors. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office.
    Ted
    Why?
    Hitchhiker
    'Cause you're f--kin' fired!

    The above described four minutes will indeed train your aerobic and your anaerobic pathways, at the same time, the mind will be working just as hard to stay with you and harden together with your body. Try it. It's only four short minutes. Plus three days, that is.

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