Get Back Your Six Pack Abs After The Holidays
The conclusion of 2009 came with some gifts, and possibly one that you would rather forget : fat
. Holidays are really nice : the gifts, the friends and family at home, the great foods and drinks... I myself have been rewarded with many chocolates. This period of the year also means that you might have stored a bit more fat than habitual, and you for sure want to eliminate it. It's not hard if you really know how. I do it every time and I'm going to show you how.
First, it's wise to state that we want to lose fat, and not simply lose weight which could mean losing muscle tissue. Muscles naturally burn fat, so you want to keep your muscle mass. You'll also look more ripped in the mirror.. If building more muscle mass means burning more fat, we actually for now want to simply burn that fat and maintain the muscles, so we're going to raise our metabolism. One of the cool thing about fat, is that it's an fuel.
Yes !
Calories are not just "something that makes you fat". It's the energy contained in foods, it's fuel, it's only stored as fat if it's not used. And I suppose you stored some during the holidays, like me. Ready to use it ? Great!
Okay, I mix cardio training and weight training to stay lean. My cardio training is an interval training style, and I focus weight training on compound exercises - that use various muscles - targetting the biggest muscle groups : chest, back, legs. If you stop reading here you already have more info than most, you just need more research on the exercising and start implemeting. But let's go on.
Cardio and Interval Training
As I mentioned cardio is done in an interval training style, this was proven to burn more fat and for a longer time than steady pace cardio. Basically if you go running or cycling on the same pace for 30 to 60 minutes, you will burn fat during this period of jogging only. With interval training, you are on a more intense program that is more demanding for your body. Your metabolism increases more than with low intensity training because it needs more energy to deal with the efforts, and therefore your body requires more time to recover, meaning you will still burn fuel later. Up to two days after your training is over.
Interval training is performed like this : effort, rest, effort, rest, etc. So as an example, you can do 10 sprints at your maximum speed, each sprint lasts 30 seconds, and then walk to rest for 90 seconds. This is very hard, and this is also called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT. You can adapt this to your fitness level and to start with 10 seconds sprint and 45 sec walk. Then increase effort time, shorten rest time, you get the point. You may want to try some stairs, I find this really powerful, you'll get results. Accelerate in the mounting phase and then go back slowly to the starting point.
Weight Training
Now let's see weight training. There are many methods, and we're not going to talk about body building, we want to burn fat in priority. We can still see a paralell : the more intense the stimulus (effort) the biggest the response from your body, either it is for fat burning or muscle building. Since we want our metabolism to elevate, we need to make our workouts intense. Indeed this means dealing with heavy weights, and targeting the biggest muscle groups.
Why the largest muscle groups ? Because these muscle groups will give you a full body workout, triggering a bigger response since you will move heavier weights. Training smaller muscles such as your abs (yes your abs!) will NOT burn fat. Abs are tiny muscle groups thus you can make thousands of crunches and situps and not see fat leaving your belly. You will tone up your abs, develop them but they will still be lying under fat. On the other hand, exercises like deadlift, bench press and squat, three fundamental moves, will require several muscles to work simultaneously, not just the main muscle they're aimed for. With heavy weights, you're creating a greater need in energy, and indeed you will burn more fat.
You now know much more than enough to start burning fat. Many methods out there can teach you how but exercising yourself produces results. It's proven, and actually it's easy to see why it works. You challenge your body with intense workouts and cardio (HIIT), your body needs energy, energy (calories) were stored as fat, so your body start burning fat. Many experts will have many other opinions or method, but these basics burn fat. What is the amount of weight you need to lose ? What time and effort can you devote to your transformation ?.
If exercising will already skyrocket your metabolism and burn more fat than no exercising, nutrition is equally important. Eating less fatty foods and beverages and more greens, all vegetables that you want, raw and fresh foods and proteins (chicken, turkey, fish, eggs...). Eating more frequently but small meals. Drink plenty of water. Combine everything and you will burn fat, almost all of it ! Do this gradually, it's harder to get into an all changing habit than an comfortable one. Start to integrate these different things in your lifestyle and you'll see results. The more results the more progress you will want to make.
Get into the mindset of doing, and keep taking action, little by little. Most people know what they should already do but delay their action and finally never do. Don't act like this. Be healthier, look better, enjoy life even more. You don't have to make it complicated, do simple things, one by one and never give up.
by: Tom Leroy
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