Yesterday I talked about rule number one in the pursuit of getting a lean body or a muscle bound body.

That rule was consistency.

So here’s rule number two if you are looking to burn fat or gain muscle….

…Just watch the video below.

It certainly made me laugh.

I think this has to be one of the funniest clips I’ve seen. I even believed it was serious to begin with, but I am a bit gullible.

Seriously though there is a message in here and one that highlights rule 2 in your physical transformation quest.

The power of the FORCE.

No, no I’m joking, it’s the power of accountability.

I mean you must have asked yourself why people would use personal trainers and be a member of a gym.

Once you’ve learnt most of the information you need is it not easy to do it yourself?

I have clients that have trained with me for 10 years. I swear I could employ them and they would do a better job and know more than most gym trainers.

Why do they keep coming back?

Well it’s not my good looks certainly, possibly for my knowledge and expertise, but the one overriding reason is motivation and accountability.

They know that if they don’t have someone there to meet and be accountable to then it’s really easy for them to break the appointment with themselves.

There are a few individuals with the discipline to go to the gym regularly on their own, but in most cases you will find that regular gym goers have a training buddy that they are at least partly accountable to.

To go along with my ** weight training technique videos** (or see my recent post) I am launching a weight training coaching group to help make you more accountable and more likely to hit your goals.

I only have room for 10 people in this programme which will run for 12 weeks.

It will involve a 1 to 1 phone coaching call as well as one group call per month.
Plus you’ll get access to all my weight training products which are valued at over £49 (about $97). The investment in your accountability is only £249 (about $490)

The first 10 to pay me via pay pal will be eligible. If you are 11 or more I shall refund you the monies. Please pay alex@kineticfitness.co.uk

Tweet This Post

If your goal is fat loss or muscle building there is one real key to success.

Most fitness coaches will tell you that the weight training programme is the most important and others will tell you that the correct diet and supportive eating programme is the most important element.

I have to agree these two elements are essential if you want to make the changes in your life, but they pale into insignificance to my first rule of fitness.

Now this may not apply if you’ve been working out a while and in this case you are far it is very important that you are doing the right things at the right time in the right way and should really be following a programme like Turbulence Training Manual.

So what is the first rule….

…consistency.

Yes simple but very true.

One of my friends recently told me how he has ‘dusted off his rowing machine and is doing it three times per week as well as cycling twice a week and running once.

His question was “That’s good right?”

Well I could have answered him with all my knowledge about the advantage of resistance training and the application of a correct nutritional programme, but I didn’t.

He didn’t need to here that yet, I wanted him to stay focused on being consistent first and then we could introduce changes so that he could make better gains in his fitness goals.

I’m sat in my office at my gym (as I write this) and have just been asked by the Pro snow boarder I look after (Jenny Jones) if she can change her programme because she’s ‘bored’!

She’s only just got back from a long competitive season and the answer was “No”. I have just gone on to explain to her that: “ If you are consistent this week every day then we can look at changing your programme next week, you need to build your foundation first.”

She’s lucky she has us here at the centre to help her and motivate her.

This is then leads on to my second rule….

..but I’ll share that another day.

To give you a clue it’s something to do with social support and the reason why I have joined forces with 9 other fitness leaders from the UK in order to help people like you reach your goals and fitness dreams.

**Click Here** to check out what’s going on.

Tweet This Post

If you want to get in shape increase your fat loss so that you look great on the beach and have that ‘celebrity body’ for summer, then keep reading.

I know it may sound like there is a catch but I promise you there is not, as long as you’re one of the first 500!

I have joined forces with 9 other top fitness leaders from all over the UK.

We plan to give you the information you need to make a real difference in your life.

There will be help and advice on all types of training:
Fat loss,
Interval training,
Muscle building,
Nutrition and healthy eating
…and many other top tips.

How are we going to do this?

You will get access to 10 recordings (one per week for the next 10 weeks) that will give you immediately useful information on how to get the body of your dreams for the summer.

You will also get access to a forum and social networking site so that you can ask questions, update us on your progress and have some level of accountability plus plenty of support.

All you need to do is get over to ** Lead Britain to Wellness ** and sign up for it.

This is a fantastic opportunity and one that I would recommend you take us up on, what have you got to lose!

I hope to see many of you on the fitness forum and fitness social networking page.

Here’s the site again just **Click Here**

Tweet This Post

I hope you found the diet section interesting (I’ll be making some guidelines available very soon), today it’s time to talk about the fitness exercises element of the workout.

What you are going to utilize is the power of body weight interval programmes.

The basis behind this fantastic fat loss programme is that you are going to rev the body up so that it continues to burn fat for hours (up to 24) after you have finished.

A growing body of evidence from the past decade has increasingly reported that the intensity of the exercise is a bigger factor in burning up calories than doing longer steady pace exercise such as one pace jogging/cycling.

When you use short but intense workouts you are able to force the body to continue burning calories for longer and at a high rate. More calories infact than you can burn if you use the more traditional approach to fat loss of long (boring) slow cardio training normally seen in parks and gyms across the world.

This effect is technically know as EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) but basically means that the demand placed on your body is such that the cumulative fat burning potential is massively increased.

The following is a great example of a short 18 minute programme that could be done at home, in the park, in a hotel room or anywhere you can find a small amount of space.

A1: Forward Lunges – 20 seconds work – 10 seconds rest (move on to A2)
A2: Press Ups – 20 seconds work – 10 seconds rest (move back to A1)

Continue the pattern above until you have completed 4 minutes.
i.e. A1 + A2 x 4, then move on to B below.

B1: Body Weight Squat
B2: Alternate Squat Thrust

Complete as A above, then move to C below.

C1: Static Lateral Lunge
C2: Side Plank (1 side a t a time, therefore just twice per side in 4 minutes)

Take 2 minutes rest between the exercises so that after you have done 4 minutes and completed A, move on to B after 2 minutes rest, then C and finish with a cool down.

Below you’ll find some descriptions and animations of the exercises.

Good luck.

A1: Bodyweight Forward Lunge

Instructions:
1. Start by standing with your feet shoulder width apart.
2. Step foward with one foot and bend your knees into a lunged position. Your back knee should come close to touching the ground and your front leg should be bent to about 90 degrees at the knee.
3. Maintain your upright posture throughout the movement.
4. Return to the starting position and repeat. Once repetitions are completed then repeat with the other leg.

A2: Press Up

Instructions:
1. Lie face down on the floor with hands palm down, fingers pointing straight ahead, and aligned at the nipple line.
2. Place hands slightly wider than shoulder width, and feet should be at hip width with toes on floor.
3. Start position: Extend the elbows and raise the body off the floor.
4. Lower your entire body (legs, hips, trunk, and head) 4-8 inches from the floor.
5. Return to the start position by extending at the elbows and pushing the body up.
6. Remember to keep the head and trunk stabilized in a neutral position by isometrically contracting the abdominal and back muscles. Never fully lock out the elbows at the start position and avoid hyperextension of the low back.

B1: Bodyweight Squats

Instructions:
1. Start by placing feet shoulder width apart and holding your arms out in front of you.
2. Proceed to squat down like you are going to sit in a chair. Your upper body will lean forward slightly and your hips will shift backwards while going down.
3. Remember to keep your knees from going out in front of your toes while squatting.
4. Repeat according to your required repetitions. If you want to make the exercise more challenging hold your arms at your sides or behind your head.

B2: Alternate Squat Thrust

Instructions:

1. Start by getting on your hands and feet in a prone position.
2. Keeping your body parallel to ground drive your knees up towards your chest alternating back and forth.
3. Repeat this movement for the required number of seconds.

C1: Static Lateral Lunge

Instructions:
1. Start by placing your hands behind your head and your feet placed with a wide stance.
2. Shift your weight and hips to one side and squat down so that your hips drop down behind that foot.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat the same movement to the other side.
4. Alternate this movement back and forth until the desired repetitions are met.

C2: Side Plank

Instructions:
1. Lay on the ground on one side. Raise your body using one forearm and support it in this raised position for the required time.
2. Lower your body and repeat on the other side.
3. Remember to keep your head, neck and body in a straight line.

Tweet This Post

I know it’s a cheesy title but hopefully it got your attention, and if you’re male just replace the bikini for swimming trunks.

At this time of year many people come to me asking to get them in shape, ready for the beach and ask me for a beach workout.

It’s a truth that most people want to look better naked and you are probably seen by more people, in a state of near nakedness, when you are on holiday.

Now here’s the horrible bit.

If you want to have a fantastic looking body by the time summer starts then you only have 8 weeks until the start of June.

Don’t expect yourself to tone up, look buff and make the rest of the beach jealous in such short a time.

Does this mean there’s no hope for you?

Far from it.

In the next 8 weeks you could easily to shed about a stone in body fat.

That will take a lot of hard work on your part. The favourite saying among fitness professionals is this at the moment ‘Losing fat is simple, not easy’.

What do you need to do then?

In a nutshell you need to stoke up your metabolism, get as much muscle working as possible and really hone in on a strict eating regime.

I got told off by a client of mine recently for saying the word ‘diet’. Something about Paul McKenna saying the word dooms you to failure because of the first three letters. I use the word diet to mean the food you put in your mouth not being on a diet.

So what constitutes a good diet (the food you put in your mouth, not being on one)?

Well everyone is different but we generally start by putting people on a clean natural high protein and low starchy carb diet.

This has a two pronged effect.

Firstly it reduces the amount of calories most people are consuming and secondly gets them to eat clean healthy, natural foods and secondly it takes out the foods which may not be ideal for that person.

You see we are all individuals and as individuals we will respond differently to different foods. Some people can’t take dairy, others wheat etc.

If you haven’t been tested for intolerance then you may not be aware that some foods make you tired or bloated.

My basic rule is to try and only eat things you can pick, harvest or slaughter.

Which means no man made foods!

Next time, fat busting workouts you can do at home.

As a bonus I’ve uploaded a tele-seminar I did called “The Top 7 Diet & Nutrition Myths Revealed”, listen to it below.

Tweet This Post

Below you’ll find one of the videos for my Weight Training Technique site.

It’s quite an aggressive stretch, but great for those individuals who are tight behind the knee from having a tight calf (gastrocnemius) and/or a tight hamstring.

This is not the only stretch for ankle flexibility or knee flexibility but one I recommend people put in to their programs.

If you like this stretch I have 54 other videos of weight training technique exercises that you can get here: ** Click for Weight Training Technique Pre Launch**

You’ll find a full list of the 55 correct weight training exercises on this post:

** Click Here **

Enjoy the stretch!

Tweet This Post

The final question for the turbulence training manual questions was this:

3) Craig Ballantyne insists on a 1 minute rest between the supersets. As performance increases, and to increase the intensity of the workout, can these rest times be reduced to, say, 45 or 30 seconds?

It’s important that you follow the program as designed by the fitness expert. Whether that is a fat loss manual or a body building and muscle gaining program.

There is usually a reason he has given you that rest period and you would do best to stick to that.

Don’t mess with what we know already delivers results.

The only time I would recommend changing what is written originally is if you had completed the 8 weeks training and did not have any other equipment to use or access to a new program.

So dropping the rest down to 45 seconds for 8 weeks and then 30 seconds would make it a 24 week fitness program.

As I said if that’s all you can do then so be it, the best case would be to change your program completely, you’ll get more gains with the constant changing every 4 weeks (known in weight training as periodization) than you will with staying in the same program and just changing the rest.

For more information on the Turbulence Training Manual ** click here **

Tweet This Post

Following on from yesterdays post…

I am working out with the TT DB-BW 8 week fat loss manual and I am unclear on a couple of points and could really do with your advice:

2) I have a real struggle with the ‘DB Rear Delt Raise’ weight training exercise, I find it extremely hard to push my arms up and out to the side, in the manner that Craig Ballantyne describes, with any weight in my hands – what can you suggest I do and will it improve?

The way Craig Ballantyne has described the exercise you need to make sure that you have a light enough weight. You really should not experience any pain when you do this exercise.

If you do not have access to light enough weights or find it painful or hard with the light weights then you should change the exercise slightly.

Try bending the elbows so that the load is reduced as there is less of a long lever pulling on the shoulder. It is quite easy to injure your shoulder with an exercise like that so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I’ll try and do a quick video to show the alternatives and post it up next week.

Tomorrow I’ll finish James’s questions by answering this one:

3) Craig insists on a 1 minute rest between the supersets. As performance increases, and to increase the intensity of the workout, can these rest times be reduced to, say, 45 or 30 seconds?

For more information on the Turbulence Training Manual ** click here **

Tweet This Post

I need to ask you something about the Turbulence Training workouts you recommended to me to improve my conditioning for competitive Tae Kwon-Do fitness following a knee arthroscopy.

I am working out with the TT DB-BW 8 week fat loss manual and I am unclear on a couple of points and could really do with your advice:

1) Craig Ballantyne talks about ‘2-0-1′ or ‘2-1-1′ etc when completing the technique for individual weight training exercises, can you explain this further please?

The 2-0-1 relates to the tempo or speed of movement. The industry standard is to use the first number to explain the speed for the negative portion of the movement. The negative portion of the movement is different for different exercises.

As an example when squatting the negative portion (easiest part) is going down) where as with a lat pulldown it is opposite (going up).

Regardless of the exercise the first number always represents this, the easiest movement to perform.

The next relates to holding the movement in a contracted position, so for the squats it would be at the bottom and the lat pulldown at the bottom.

Finally the last number dictates the speed at which you move in the positive section of the lift (the hardest part of the movement) – up in the squat, down in the lat pulldown.

Therefore, 10 reps at 2-0-1 should take 30 seconds to complete and 10 reps at 2-1-1 should take you 40 seconds.

Tomorrow I’ll answer this question.

2) I have a real struggle with the ‘DB Rear Delt Raise’ exercise, I find it extremely hard to push my arms up and out to the side, in the manner that Craig describes, with any weight in my hands – what can you suggest I do and will it improve?

For more information on the Turbulence Training Manual ** click here **

Tweet This Post