The #1 reason for not working out is a lack of time.

If you get up at 5:30am to drive an hour to work, only to get home at 6pm and then have to launch right into carting the kids around, who can blame you for not working out? Not when it takes 45 minutes to do cardio, and another 30-45 minutes for isolation bodybuilding workouts.

If that’s the way you have to exercise to lose fat, then practically no normal person is going to be able to pull that off.

But when you look at the science, you’ll see that you can get more results in less time. You just have to increase the intensity of the workout, but at the same time, you can cut your workout time in half (or more!).

I am convinced that an effective fat loss workout can be done in 45 minutes or less, and that long, slow, excruciatingly boring cardio is not necessary for you to get the body you want. Please, read on…

In last week’s newsletter, I spoke about the 3 biggest training mistakes as well as my top 3 training tips to help you get more results in less time. Here I go into detail on the superiority of interval training when compared to traditional aerobic exercise:

Q: What is the role of interval training vs. steady state aerobics in a fat loss program?

Answer:
Interval training is more important than cardio. First of all, it gets more results in less time. And with “lack of time” being the number one reason most people do not participate in a training program at all, clearly intervals are the winner here.

Now let’s just assume that lack of time is not a problem. Well, interval training is still more effective because it applies more “turbulence” to the muscle. Or in scientific terms, interval training results in a greater metabolic stress on the muscle.

And that causes more calories to be burned in the important 23.5 hours per day when you are not exercising.

From there, the muscle must work to recover, repair, and replenish the energy that was used in the training. It is much more metabolic work for the muscle to recover from interval training (and strength training) than it is to recover from aerobic training.

Therefore, in the post-exercise period, interval training results in more calories burned.

In fact, I just read a new study from Australia that shows interval training is superior to slow cardio for fat loss.

The researchers, Trapp & Boutcher put WOMEN through a 15 week study where one group was a control, one group did intervals (20 minutes of alternating sprints and recovery), and one group did 40 minutes of slow cardio.

The interval group lost 2.5kg of fat in 15 weeks on average (with one subject losing 7.7kg of fat), while the slow cardio group lost only 0.4kg of fat over 15 weeks on average.

The results speak for themselves.

So don’t get hung up on how many calories are burned during a training session with aerobic training. That is not nearly as important as how many total calories your body burns over the course of the day – and you will burn more with interval training.

And for those that subscribe to the fat burning zone as being important, again, you aren’t looking at the big picture (the 24-hour calorie burning period). Instead, those that believe in the importance of the fat-burning zone have a myopic view of how the body works.

The same message applies to those people that live and die by the cardio on an empty stomach method. You’re “nickel and dime-ing” the fat loss process, when really it’s a much bigger budget to balance.

Look at the big picture. Get your nutrition in order, then focus your workouts on brief, intense strength and interval training workouts that increase your metabolism for the next 24 hours.

Get your very own copy of Turbulence Training & the Nutrition Guide here: http://www.turbulencetraining.com/

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne 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 been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines and all over the Internet, and 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 Turbulence Training

Are fat loss lies ruining your chances of success?

I sincerely hope that your 2007 workout and nutrition plan is
already wildly successful and that you are well on your way to
achieving your fat loss and fitness goals. But if you aren’t, let
me know why and what I can do to help.

Many people’s programs suffer from misconceptions about fat
loss – i.e. that cardio must be done everyday – and also false
perceptions about how well they are eating.

I’ve reviewed hundreds of client evaluations forms in my career,
and just recently I reviewed 5 more for a transformation program we are working on over at Men’s Health magazine.

And time and time again I see the same problem.

I have one question on my feedback form that asks the client:

“Do you eat lots of fruits and vegetables?”

Almost everytime the client’s answer is “Yes”.

On the next page, I have the client list their food intake.

And guess what rarely shows up?

If you guessed fruits and vegetables, you’d get a prize if I were
giving them away.

There are too many inconsistencies in our thoughts and actions when it comes to weight loss.

And the misguided notions that well-meaning fitness articles heap on us simply adds to the ever-growing confusion.

Here I want to shed some light on some of the most common
misconceptions about training and dieting for fat loss.

The more I discuss weight loss and read the research, the more I realize fat loss results come from your nutrition, and that
training is just a relatively small part of the equation.

But knowing this “truth” allows me to confidently design shorter
fat loss workouts than most people traditionally use or expect are necessary.

Listen, you can spend 60 minutes on a cardio machine if you want. Sure you will burn 500 calories during that session, but your metabolism won’t be significantly elevated after exercise AND you’ll still have to find some time to do the mandatory strength training that a beautiful and healthy body requires.

Or you can do what I suggest…

Scrap the long, slow, excruciatingly boring cardio workouts and
instead stick to a much more manageable approach of…

A bodyweight movement warmup (5 minutes)
Turbulence Training Strength Training Supersets (20 minutes)
Turbulence Training Interval Training (20 minutes)

Done only 3 times per week, these 45 minute workouts still burn plenty of calories during training (300-400 calories), but the workouts also boost your metabolism for hours and hours (some research suggests up to a day and a half!), therefore burning far more NET calories AND fat than slow, mind-numbing cardio.

All you really need are some short intense training sessions to
boost your metabolism and sculpt your body. And then you really just have to trust your nutrition to strip the fat.

Look at it this way…imagine you are carving an ice sculpture out
of a block of ice. Your nutrition would be responsible for lopping
off the big chunks to get down to only the amount of ice you
need…and the Turbulence Training workouts would be responsible for chiseling in the details of your final sculpture.

As no matter how much confusing information there is about
exercise, the debate over the best way to eat for fat loss is
always much more ridiculous.

(That’s why I went to a credible and sensible source – Dr. Chris
Mohr, Ph.D. – for the TT Fat Loss Nutrition Guidelines.)

As far as dieting misconceptions go, I think too many nutritionists are trading political correctness for results. In my opinion, PC diets don’t work.

Take a look at the American Diabetes Association…they still make room for sugar in a diabetic’s diet – because they don’t want to deprive anyone of sugar.

Well that’s not going to work. You have to make sacrifices. You
have to stick to at least a 90% nutrition compliance if you want
big-time results.

You can’t go with the political correct approach of “having a
little bit of your favorite foods everyday so that you don’t
deprive yourself”.

Think about the person that has your dream body – whether it’s a cover model, your neighbor, a TV star, or the fittest person down at your gym. Do you think they haven’t made sacrifices? Of course they have. They’ve done the work to get their reward.

Now its your turn!

You have to get strict and stick to whole, natural foods (fruits,
vegetables, meat, fish, and nuts) if you want to succeed.

You need to accept that every action has consequences…

If you want to live a lifestyle where you don’t deprive yourself of
daily treats, that’s fine. But realize the consequence of this
action will be that you will always remain a few pounds of fat away from your goal.

According to your actions, you value your treats higher than you
value your fat loss success.

But if you place your desire for fat loss success above your desire to eat junk, than the consequences will be that you will reach your body composition goals. It’s that simple. We all get what we deserve and unless someone is holding a fork to your mouth, you are responsible for your own success.

And my last “non-PC” tip on dieting…almost all the people that
tell me they are eating very well are lying to themselves and to
me – as I mentioned before based on my client feedback experiences.

So do what Dr. John Berardi calls a compliance grid. Take a piece of paper and make a 6×7 grid (6 meals over 7 days). Then check off each time you eat according to plan and mark an “X” for each time you miss your goals.

Realize that you only have 4 mistake meals for an entire week if
you want to stick to the 90% compliance.

Most of the time this is a bucket-of-cold-water-to-the-face wake up call to people. They quickly realize their nutrition compliance is much closer to 75% than 90%…and that explains why they aren’t getting anywhere.

So the bottom line for fat loss:

1) Nutrition is where the hard work really is for fat loss.

2) The workouts don’t have to be super-long to get fat loss
results. You just need short, intense, and efficient. And that’s
what my workouts are all about. Nothing fancy, no rocket science, just FUN workouts that are over quickly…and who wouldn’t want that considering today’s busy lifestyles.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne 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 been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and 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 Turbulence Training

When most people think about their fat loss efforts, they tend to focus on the negative. And it’s pretty easy to do that.

You know, they worry that they didn’t lose more than a pound this week. Or they focus on the meals where they slipped up. Or they stress about the holiday dinners that put them off track. All this stress and negative thinking can hurt your fat loss program.

You just can’t focus on the negative if you are going to get positive results out of your Turbulence Training lifestyle.

You need to stay focused on doing things right the best that you can…and don’t stress about the mistakes that you make.

This is very important over the holidays, where you could easily lose yourself in a downward spiral of negativity and situations that are not conducive to fat loss.

Focus on the meals that you can control, and the workouts that you can make.

Think about the progress you can make over the holidays, not the average holiday fat gain suffered by most people living the Western Lifestyle.

So even if you have 3 bad meals in a week, you still have almost 40 meals that you can control this week. Stick to lean proteins, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, appetite-controlling almonds, health promoting fish oils, and healthy beverages like Green Tea and water.

Now I’d like to say that a TT workout will allow you to eat everything you want but I can’t…you have to do your best to avoid junk. And don’t feel guilty for tossing junk food – that’s better than leaving it lying around and stressing about giving in to it.

If you get some holiday chocolates…eat one, if you want, and then give the rest away or trash them.

Don’t turn your body into a trash compactor because of holiday guilt.

And remember, short workouts, when done consistently, can still have an amazing muscle-building, fat-loss power.

With Turbulence Training, I’ll show you how to use only a couple of exercises, done at a high-intensity to train your entire upper body. And the short interval workouts and bodyweight circuits will increase your energy, boost metabolism and keep you fit and healthy during this stressful time of year.

So stay positive…and realize that you don’t have to start from square 1 each time you make a mistake. Stay committed to your long term goals and you’ll have your beach body ready earlier this year.

We’re going to make it your best year ever in the gym.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne 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 been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and 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 Turbulence Training

The Cardio Machine that Sucks

Recently, I was in Tampa, Florida, at a seminar. Between sessions, a physician from Georgia stopped me in the hall and said, “Hey Craig, you were right about those crosstrainer machines. I’ve had your program for a few months now and I’m getting better results with the bodyweight circuits.”

It’s always great to meet clients, and I was curious to find out how he heard of me. Turns out, he found me through Google, landing on an article I wrote about “how elliptical machines (crosstrainers) suck for fat loss”.

That’s right, I think those machines are almost a complete waste of time.

“I was using one of those machines for a long time and was wondering why I wasn’t getting any results,” the physician continued, “I’m so glad I found your program and now I’m using the bodyweight circuits from the Dumbell-Bodyweight Fusion Workout”, he added.

I told him how I wasn’t surprised. In fact, I’ve never personally known anyone to get great results with one of those crosstrainer machines. Now I’ve watched really lean people use them, but they didn’t get lean with those machines.

I know some people will be angry with what I have to say because they like exercising on the crosstrainer, but the truth is that they just don’t work as well as harder forms of interval training.

And hey, any time you are traveling or want a break from regular interval training workouts, you can use one of the 4 bodyweight circuits from the TT DB-BW Fusion Fat Loss program that you get as a bonus when you order the Turbulence Training fat burning workout routine.

Click here to get Turbulence Training

Let me know how it goes for you,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne 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 been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and 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 Turbulence Training