Squats – These are without a doubt the best fat burning exercises imaginable. Heavy leg work causes a surge in the release of your growth hormones like no other exercise can.

Dead lifts – The dead lift is an incredible tool because it is a compound exercise that works a lot of muscle groups at the same time making it perfect for both fat loss and muscle building programs.

Lunges (with dumbbells) – Lunge forward with one leg and then stand at that new spot. Lunge forward with the opposite leg and stand at that spot. Go 30-50 yards; stop for 30 seconds and continue for 30-50 yards.
Upright Rows – This is a great exercise for the deltoids. If you are looking for that perfect body then do 5 sets of 12.

Pushups – Try slow steady repetitions instead of the pumping version that you’re used to. Each rep should take about 30 seconds to complete. Use proper form for each rep.

Chin up – This is the best way to achieve a strong looking back, shapely deltoids, and even works your chest. The proof that this exercise is awesome is the fact that most people cannot do it well.

Bicycle floor ab crunch – The top compound exercise for abs takes a variety of muscles to accomplish the task of working the entire length of the abdominals along with the surrounding and competing muscles.

Overhead Press – You’ll have to start by evaluating your ability to handle weights. You figure out your one rep max (let’s say you could do one rep at 50 lbs) then you do one set to failure at 80% of that max (so it would be 40 lbs. in this example) The workout doesn’t take long at all, but is very intense. You’re resting for 30 – 45  seconds between sets for five to eight sets.

HIIT Training – The next step is high intensity interval training. This is the ultimate fat burning routine in which you work the hardest you’ve ever done for 30 seconds. After you rest for about 30 to 90 seconds, start again to even more intensity. Get ready for more.

Cycling – Warm up for five minutes and start pedaling fast for 30 seconds. Rest or coast for 30 – 90 seconds then take it up again; go for 30 seconds. Repeat the process again. You should be able get about eight or more sets out of this one.

Jump Rope – Try this one for the same reasons that boxers do; you’ll be building endurance and stamina. Go ahead and use the same strategy as before.

Sprints – If you like running for pleasure, keep doing it. If you want to get the fat burning benefits of running without the time investment.

Eliptical – This is the way to get cross country skiing and stair climbing benefits in one. Use the above routine; going from 0 – 80 rpms or more.

You can use these exercises to craft a well toned body. The most efficient way to burn body fat is to build muscle through resistance training. The more muscle you have, the more fat your body will burn at rest. This kind of training allows you to have a life while staying fit. Give it a try and share the exercises for weight loss results.

The emphasis is placed on physical activity not necessarily calorie restriction. It may take you an hour to burn 600 calories but you can replace those calories in 15 minutes with two slices of pizza and a supersized soda. The goal of fat burning physical activity is to increase your muscle density which increases your ability to burn fat throughout the day and even while you’re sleeping.

The reason why some Olympic athletes can easily consume and use 6000 calories a day is because their bodies require an enormous amount of fuel to function at optimal capacity. Their muscles demand and use up its energy stores on a daily basis. The activity level of the average person doesn’t require that much fuel.

If you follow the fitness blogs or participate in training symposiums, you’ll hear a lot of commotion over the difference between low intensity fat burning routines and high intensity training systems. There are raging debates that actually keep people awake at night arguing over which is better. Before I get into the controversy, let me give you a brief overview of how fat burning routines work.

The body runs on fuel. It likes sugar, fat and protein; in that order. Our marvelous bio system turns everything into the type of fuel that makes our body go. The truth is; our bodies don’t really switch on and off from one energy source to another; but instead use a combination of fuels; the goal of fat burning workouts is to help your body focus on reducing your fat cells more efficiently.

For those who are obese, burning fat through high intensity exercises may not be a viable option in the beginning. The enormous stress on the heart, muscles and joints may cause some people to give up before they get started. Steady, slow fat burning workouts such as walking or swimming laps might actually be more beneficial. Not only can a very overweight person get the regular exercise that their body needs, they can begin to see significant levels of fat reduction in as little as a month’s time.

For people who are athletically inclined or impatient, high intensity routines such as circuit training or boot camp workouts as well as the Express Fat Loss System are a great way to force the body into fat burning mode while building or maintaining muscle mass.

Resistance training keeps your body working in overdrive for hours. This is because intense physical training challenges your muscles which in turn cause your body to increase hormone levels to repair damage to your muscle cells. Being a smart contractor, your body doesn’t simply rebuild cells at the same level of quality; it builds them better in order to withstand another assault.

Whether you’re new to fat burning workouts or not, it is important to avoid overtraining as much as it is to be consistent in your training program. Stress, injuries or illness can be caused by overtraining, so be aware of your limitations and track your progress.

If you prefer high intensity or low and slow exercises, make it your lifestyle choice. Either way you’ll be able to reach your goal to be fit, healthy and lean. It is important to do what works for your body and your lifestyle.

These fresh fruit kebabs are simple to prepare and make a stunning display. It’s perfect to bring to a barbeque or to enjoy as a healthy dessert. The fruit selections below aren’t set in stone – use any fruit that is fresh and colorful.

Yield: 10 servings

Here’s what you need…

• 10 wooden skewers
• 10 strawberries
• 10 bite-sized watermelon pieces
• 10 bite-sized cantaloupe pieces
• 10 bite-sized mango pieces
• 10 bite-sized pineapple pieces
• 10 bite-sized kiwi pieces
• 10 blueberries
• 10 blackberries

1. Put the chunks of fruit on each skewer in a rainbow pattern – red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
2. Place skewers on a platter and serve.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 60 calories, 0g fat, 15g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, and 1g protein.

Mediterranean Lettuce Wrap

This wrap is savory and refreshing, and is the perfect meal to get you beach ready. I recommend roasting your own bell pepper, since most store bought roasted bell peppers are packaged in oil. To do so simply throw it on the grill until soft and then peel the skin after it cools.

Servings: 1

Here’s what you need…

• 1 large leaf of lettuce
• 2 slices lean turkey
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into 4 segments
• 2 tablespoons garlic hummus
• 1 tablespoon olive tapenade

1. Lay the lettuce leaf flat and spread with 1 tablespoon of hummus. Place the turkey slices on the lettuce and spread with remaining hummus. Sprinkle the olive tapenade over the turkey and top with the roasted bell pepper.
2. Wrap the lettuce, use a tooth pick to hold it together.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 170 calories, 6g fat, 15g carbohydrate, 5g fiber, and 15g protein.

For more details on the Express Fat Loss Program, visit: ExpressFatLoss.com

There are a few essential things that you need to be aware of before you embark on a program to lose belly fat. When you’re considering weight loss, the first thing that comes to mind is calorie reduction. The problem is calories, though important is just one part of the story.

The battle of the bulge is different for everyone but the common denominator is the equation; calories invested must be less than calories spent at the end of the day. There are a few caveats to this equation, the human body is a very complex organism; one that constantly adjusts to its environment.

If you attempt to deprive it of calories for too long you begin to slow down essential services to conserve power. This process is counterproductive to your weight loss plan because the kind of low calorie that will shed pounds very quickly will allow those pounds come back just as fast.

There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. If you are able to use 3,500 calories throughout your daily activity, you will lose an entire pound. Where it becomes speculative is in the nature of the pound you’ve just lost. That pound is more likely to be composed of water, protein, and fat.

Another thing to keep in mind when looking at bodyweight versus body fat is the varying levels of water that you may retain. Water retention is responsible for the day to day fluctuation in weight on your scale. Ask anyone who has eaten several slices of pepperoni pizza and a bag of potato chips to get on the scale the next day.

Excess salt in your diet will cause you to retain fluids. Many of the astonishing accounts of rapid weight loss through Atkins and other diets in the first week can be attributed to the diuretic effect of some of these programs.

It is recommended by most medical experts that you try to keep your weight loss at or around two pounds a week. The best way to get results is through a combination of aerobic, resistance training along with high and low level fat intensity workouts.

Here are a few ideas that will help you to shed one to two pounds of fat a week like clockwork.

1. Establish a base number of calories that you will need when you’re active and subtract 500 calories from that number. That’s your new baseline.
2. Remove highly processed foods, sugar and any product that comes in a box from your diet for at least 3 to 4 weeks.
3. Establish a workout schedule with the following items:

• Day one. Strength training – depending on your level of fitness, this can be mild basic exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, leg raises, squats and lunges.
• Day two. This is a fat burning day. Choose from high intensity workouts like boxing, jump rope, sprinting, or circuit training.
• Day three. Back to strength and fitness training.
• Day four. Repeat day two.
• Day five. More strength training.
• Day six.  Fat burning walk.
• Day seven. Rest.

By reducing your calorie intake and increasing your activity level, you’ll be burning fat at about two pounds a week. Stay focused, you’ll lose belly fat in no time!

Let’s have a quick look at the main factors that will determine whether or not your fat loss exercises are successful.

How Many Muscles Are Utilized

The very first factor to consider is how many muscles you’re going to be working at once while doing the exercise.

For example, with the bench press exercise you are going to be working the chest, the triceps, the shoulders, and even the biceps to a small extent since they will act as dynamic stabilization muscles.

Now compare this to a bicep curl instead.

Which do you think is going to burn more calories and be a better fat loss exercise? If you said the bench press, you’d be entirely correct.

Generally speaking, compound exercises, that is, any form of exercise that has you lifting and using as many muscles at once will have a much faster fat burning effect than an isolated exercise where you’re only targeting a single muscle group at a time.

If you use only isolated exercises in your workout program, you’re going to be in there performing exercises for a very long period of time.

Instead, turn to compound exercises only.  These will really give you more bang for your buck.

How Heavy Of A Weight Are You Lifting

Second, the next thing to think about when assessing whether you’re doing the right fat loss exercises is how heavy of a weight you are able to lift.

When placing two exercises side by side, the exercise that allows you to lift the most weight is almost always going to be the more effective exercise for producing fat loss than the one that doesn’t.

Why?

Greater muscle activation.  Again, the more weight you can lift, the more muscle fibers that will be called into play to hoist that weight and the faster progress you’re going to make.

Only in specific cases where you’re really focusing on high rep lifting and including multiple supersets or other advanced protocols in your program will lighter weight exercises be necessary.

How High Is Your Heart Rate

Finally, the third thing to look for when assessing the effectiveness of your fat loss exercises is what they are going to do to your heart rate. An exercise that does create a much higher heart rate while performing it will also burn off more calories minute per minute therefore allowing you to see much better results.

What’s more is that the faster you can move from exercise to exercise in your workout session while still ensuring that you are recovering so that you can maintain that heavy weight, the better off that overall fat burning program will be.

So keep all these three points in mind when assessing your fat loss exercises.  If you have a number of exercises that don’t include these factors in your program, it may be time to make some changes.

For more information about the Express Fat Loss System Click Here

Most of us set goals and work hard only to find our motivation fizzle out after a couple of weeks. But there are little tricks that will help you harness the power of your mind and propel you toward achieving your goal.

The Two Motivators
When you boil it down, you’re motivated by two simple things:

1. To avoid pain (fear of failure)
2. To gain pleasure (promise of reward)

You are naturally geared toward one of these motivators. To figure out which, think of the last time you accomplished a task and then ask yourself the following: While doing the task were you thinking about what would happen if you failed to finish, or were you thinking about what you would gain when you finished?

Take note as to which motivator works for you – fear of failure, or promise of reward.

Set Your Goal: The first step towards unstoppable motivation is to determine your goal. You know you’re unhappy with your body, but what exactly do you want to change? Why is it important to you?

Perhaps you can relate to one of the following goals:

• You need to lose weight for your health. Your doctor scared you straight or maybe you’ve had a recent health problem that landed you in the hospital. Your goal is to move away from the pain of sickness.
• You want to look and feel incredible. You’ve always wanted to feel vibrant and attractive. The idea of having more energy really excites you. Your goal is to move toward the pleasure and reward of a fit body.
• You’re worried about your kids. They don’t eat enough vegetables, they drink more soda pop than water and they play video games constantly. You have decided to model a healthier lifestyle and to encourage your kids to participate. Your goal is to move away from the risks of a sedentary lifestyle and to propel your kids toward a healthy future.

Train Your Mind for Weight Loss:
With your clear and important goal in mind, let’s take a few minutes to train your mind to achieve it. You know that weight loss comes as a result of eating right and regular challenging exercise, so let’s use your mind to conquer both.

Eating Right: Use this exercise to distance yourself from the self-sabotaging foods you really wish you didn’t eat, and to naturally begin selecting healthy foods.

Take a moment to review your current eating habits. Identify the foods that you should stop eating (hint: sweets, anything fried, refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks). Identify the worst food that you eat regularly but know you shouldn’t.

Now imagine the healthy foods that you should eat (hint: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein). Identify the healthiest food that you know you should eat regularly.

Now with the image of these two foods in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise (seriously this stuff works):

• Draw up the image of your unhealthy food item. This image will likely be quite vivid, with smell, taste and bright color. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy and remote.
• Draw up the image of your healthy food item. This image will likely be fuzzy and faded. In your mind, bring this picture to life with smell, taste, sound and bright color.

Regular Exercise: This technique can be applied in a way that encourages you to crave exercise rather than avoid it.

Take a moment to imagine how you feel after a great workout (notice the emphasis on the word after). Remember the physical satisfaction as well as the sweet feeling of accomplishment.

Now bring to your mind the aspects of exercise that you dislike. What is your biggest reason for avoiding exercise? Are you too tired? Do you not have enough time? Is physical exertion too much of a hassle? Pinpoint your greatest complaint about exercise.

Now with the image of these two aspects of exercise in mind, find a quiet place and do the following exercise:

• Draw up the image of your exercise complaint. The image is likely to be clear and accompanied by the sounds, smells and sensations. In your mind, fade this picture to black and white and distance the image until it is dull, fuzzy and remote.
• Draw up the image of the wonderful feeling you have after accomplishing a great workout. Magnify this image in your mind. Fixate on how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally. View the experience in bright colors and add a sound track of inspirational music.

Why It Works

No, we want to lose weight fast and effectively so we can reach our ideal weight and start living the life we desire.

But, before you jump on the latest quick weight loss quick-fix, it is important that you take some time to understand a few things about quick weight loss strategies.  While there definitely are ways that you can see quick weight loss that stays off for good, more often than not, this isn’t quite how it plays out.

Let’s take a quick look at the main factors to consider.

Quick Weight Loss and Water Weight

So the very first thing that you must take into account is the fact that on many of those quick weight loss diets, much of the weight you are going to lose is going to be pure water weight.  When you instantly see the scale drop by a good 5-10 pounds over the course of 3-5 days, you know something is up here.

Since it takes 3500 calories to burn off a single pound, you can clearly see how impossible it would be to burn off 35,000 calories in just a week.  Even if you ate absolutely no food at all and exercised for three or four hours a day, you still would never accomplish this feat.

So if you’re losing weight this quickly, it’s important that you come to realize that it isn’t pure fat loss that you’re experiencing.  Failing to realize this could lead to disappointment down the road.

Quick Weight Loss and Muscle Mass Loss

Second, the next important thing that you need to remember when it comes to quick weight loss is that you’re not setting yourself up for muscle mass loss.   When you go on an extreme diet that contains very few calories and if this is coupled with lots of exercise, the chances of losing lean muscle mass are incredibly high and this will only come back to hurt you in the long run.

The problem with losing lean muscle mass is the fact that it’s going to mean a significantly slowed metabolic rate which then only makes it that much harder to continue to lose body fat.

Remember that your lean muscle mass is the calorie burning ‘engine’ of the body so if you’re not maintaining it while you diet, you’re going to really struggle in the long run.

Quick Weight Loss and Adherence

Now, the third bit thing that you must also take into considering is the impact of quick weight loss on your adherence rates.  Any time you go making dramatic changes to your eating habits it’s going to be hard to stick with and quick weight loss diets really amplify this factor.

Of you’re cutting out entire food groups on these quick weight loss diets or you’re eating such little food that hunger is always present in extreme amounts.

As you can imagine this becomes incredibly difficult to stick with and before you know it you’ve abandoned the program altogether.

This doesn’t bode well for long term fat loss so another reason why you really have to assess the quick weight loss method you’re using carefully. If it doesn’t seem like something you could follow for even a modest amount of time, you’re better off looking for a different approach instead.

Your Best Bet For Maintaining Quick Weight Loss

So what’s your best bet when it comes to maintaining a quick weight loss? Your best bet is finding a diet that does provide sufficient calories that you do feel like you could stick with over the course of time.

Try and find a diet plan that offers quite a bit of protein content in the day since this is the one macronutrient that is going to help save your lean muscle mass the most as well.

If you’re getting enough protein, the chances of you seeing that decreased metabolic rate will be much lower so this will have a huge influence on the results you get.

Finally, try and find a quick weight loss diet that also includes plenty of vegetables with modest amounts of fruit.  These are also very important for the nutrients and antioxidants they provide so are something that you absolutely do not want to exclude from your day.

If you can focus on all of these factors, then you can have successful quick weight loss that will stay off over the long term.  Focusing on wholesome foods as much as possible will always be the best quick weight loss strategy for not only good health but the best success as well.

This is a copy of Frank email (with his permission).

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Hi Martin,

First of all I would like to say thank you for all the good information you provide with your tips and your newsletter. I loved your tips and try to make all of them my new way of life.

I don’t know if you can answer to my question. When I train my chest, it’s very hard for me to be able to push heavy for my workout.  I’m pretty good with the rest of the body parts.

My split routine is like this:

Monday: Back/Core

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Shoulders/Core

Thursday: Biceps

Friday: Triceps/Core

Saturday: Chest

Sunday: OFF

Do you think this is a good split for my routine?

I usually do 5 set of 3 exercises for each body part?

Each set is around 12-15 reps and I keep the same program for 12 weeks.

Thank you

Frank

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I can see right away that a few things are not right with Frank’s routine.

First, let’s talk about how Frank split his workouts to work different body parts. It depends on what you want to accomplish, but for nearly everyone, heavy strength workouts out 6 days a week is too much. I might do this when I’m training for a bodybuilding tournament, but otherwise I do my strength training 4 days a week and I stay in amazing shape all year round.

Second, the idea of training different muscle groups on different days makes sense – it really hits those areas hard and then gives them plenty of time to repair and recover, which is when new muscle mass gets laid down.  That’s the point of strength training after all.  But Frank has taken this a little too far.  Instead of breaking down the muscle groups into, for example, biceps one day and triceps another, plan instead for a ‘legs’ day, an ‘arms’ day, an ‘abs’ day and so on.  This lets you have a little more variety in your sets, and will let you train a little harder for a little longer.

Remember that when you train your shoulders as a ‘primary’ muscle, your triceps will be working as well as ‘secondary’ muscles. If on another day, you target your triceps on its own, then the next day you train your chest  and your shoulders and triceps are again involved as a secondary muscles. That means your triceps are actually working hard three days on the week – by the last day, they’re dead!  You don’t have any power to push heavy. This is the mistake in Frank’s program design.

Third, doing 5 sets of 3 exercises for your any single small muscle area (like triceps) is way too much. That will give you a total of 15 sets and if each set is for 12 to15 reps, that’s 180 to 225 efforts for a single muscle area!

15 Sets for a big muscle group like chest, back or quads is fine, because of all the ‘secondary’ muscles that share the load. For smaller muscles like biceps, triceps, or calves, stick to just 8 to 12 sets.

Fourth, make sure you rest enough to be able to recover from your last workout. That’s when your muscles repair and build new muscle mass. If you don’t let them rest, your progress will slow and you could even get injured. Trying to keep going when your muscles feel fatigued is a sure way to get injured, and it’s a sign you haven’t given your muscles enough time to recover.  ‘Mixing up’ your program can help too; doing a pattern of shoulders – legs – chest and arms – abs, for example, means that you are not stressing secondary muscles too workouts in a row. Keep consecutive days of strength training focused on body parts that are ‘far apart’ or isolated from each other.

Fifth, Frank has been sticking with the same program for too long. Keeping a program going for more than 6 weeks isn’t going to work. Your muscles adjust to your workout and you won’t progress. Your body gets on “cruise control” and doesn’t need to work as hard to achieve the workout – and that means fewer results.

I like to change my programs every 4 to 6 weeks. It depends what phase I’m in (e.g. breaking plateau, active recovery, balance and nervous system, cutting phase, bulking phase etc.).  You don’t need to worry too much about this level of detail, but as soon as you start to feel like you aren’t making the gains you want, it’s time to change your program and challenge your muscles in a new way.

Here’s a sample program that I use:

Monday: Chest/Triceps/Core (plus 15 minutes of cardio intervals)

Tuesday: Quads/Calf/Core

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: Back/Biceps (plus 15 minutes of cardio intervals)

Friday: Hamstring/Shoulders/Core

Saturday: OFF

Sunday: OFF or Cardio

I like to work my Chest and Triceps on the same day as well as my Back and Biceps; this means I don’t forget about those ‘secondary’ muscles!

So let’s thank Frank for writing in, because like many of you he’s working hard and trying to get results, and asked for help when he felt that he wasn’t getting the best results.  Chances are some of you have experienced the same thing. That’s why I’m here. Thanks to Frank, we’ve been able to talk about what he – and you – can do to get your strength training back on track and get the best results possible!

In my Ultimate Guide to Express Fat Loss I design a full program for you for 4 months. Everything is done with pictures and description of each exercises. This is based on years of practice on me, and on my clients. I bring you the best exercises planned in the most effective way to give you the best results!

You can read more about the system right here