10 Tips You Should Include In Your Life To Lose Weight and Be In Shape Faster.

1) Design your resistant training program on a multi-station basis

Instead of taking a rest between series of the same exercise, you can alternate different muscles training in fashion that lets certain muscles rest while training another group of muscles. You wlll be working more at the same time and will burn fat much faster than if you rest between series of the same exercise. keep the rest intervals as short as possible.

2) Each meal you have must be composed on a protein base.

Proteins have a thermic effect about double over fats and carbs, what does this mean? the digestion process itself burns calories and when you consume proteins in each meal you will be burning more calories to just digest them even when you are resting, you´ll be mantaining your lean muscless mass as well because when cosume proteins you are giving your body a stedy amount of amino acids, this way you will be increasing lean muscle and burning fat
at the same time.

If you want a detailed program of foods and exercise routines to get in shape fast go to this link:

http://danielcajiga.com/entrusts/CompletFatLoss

3) You have to drink enough water.

There is a very important fact about our lean muscles, they are made up by about 70% water and 20% more or less of protein so, in order to maintain the optimal work of our muscles while training we need to be optimally hydrous. We need to consume a minimum of 1/2 ounce of water per each pound of weight a day.

4) Instead of Isolation exercises, perform Compounded Ones.

Compounded exercises make work different muscles at the same time, this way you are working more in less time as well as burning more fat and optimizing your time utilization. In addition compound exercise has shown to encourage the production of anabolic hormones that helps to mantain lean muscle. with isolated exercise that attempt to train only one muscle at a time we can´t see this effect.

5) Prefer the High Intensity Cardio Workout to the Low Intensity one.

There is a difference between both cardiovascular workouts: When you perform Low Intensity one you enter to the so called "fat burning zone" where 90% of the energy demanded comes from fat cells, on the other hand High Intensity cardiovascular workout energy comes about 70% from fat cells so there is a math fact here, when you perform a determined amount of time of both kinds you will burn let´s say 800 calories when working on High intensity and 300 when working on Low intensity, thus you are burning 560 and 270 fat cells respectively. From this point of view if you want to burn more fat cells you must perform High Intensity one.

6) Work with Free Weights instead of Machines.

Every time you can, use free weights instead of machines. Machines most of the time support you and keep a lot of your muscles in a resting mode, on the other hand when you use free weights you are working a lot of muscles to stabilize your body, so in the fat burning phase it`s much better to use free weights instead of machines.

If you like to learn exactly what exercises to perform with illustrations go to this link:

http://danielcajiga.com/entrusts/CompletFatLoss

7) Have Your Breakfast Everyday

After 8 hours or so of fasting our body requires imperiously to consume certain nutrients or it will take them from our body´s proteins basically. That´s something that we don´t want certainly neither if we want to lose fat nor if we want to build our muscles, so it`s highly recommendable to have a protein based meal in your breakfast everyday.

8) Eat 5 to 6 times per day.

If you eat each 2 1/2 or 3 hours you are stimulating muscle development as well as fat burning and you will never be hungry. Obviously the helpings must be smaller than if you have 3 meals a day.

9) Compense the Low Fat Diets

It is not good to private your body of carbs for a long time, if you are in a very low carb diet you must "carb up" occasionally, this way you will mantain your metabolism active an be on the right way to lose weight.

If you want a complete explanation about how to design an optimal diet for you go to this link:

http://danielcajiga.com/entrusts/CompletFatLoss

10) Sleep Well

The inner knowledge shows that it´s very important to sleep from 7 to 9 hours to be in optimal shape. Certain studies have found that not sleeping well may rise the cortisol levels and this affects our proteins in 2 ways, breaking them down and inhibiting their synthesis, this is very bad for lean muscle building and their maintainance, so make sure you sleep well.

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Daniel Cajiga

Complete Fat Loss Program Review

If I had heard this from other source I would´t believe what they said. This awesome system was developed by a master of the art of body building and fat lose, he has studied and lived himself every possible way of fat lose and lean muscles building until he integrated an optimal system to stay in great shape and burn fat even when you sleep!! You can read the whole story here:

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The Most Effective Fat Burning System Ever Developed

1) Learn how to stop busting your body with more cardio, Less Food and Long Boring Workouts. Work 3 times a week with these one of a kind workout routines and eating you´ll be taking advantage of a superior program that will give you much more in less time.

2) How to quickly transform your body into a fat-burning Machine -- Starting Today Accelerating your metabolism you´ll be able to burn fat the whole day instead of just during your training sessions.

3) You´ll never be hungry.- You´ll be eating a lot of food but in an optimal way, so you´ll be in optimal shape and health.

4) You won´t have food cravings, because you´ll be eating more than 3 times a day, so you´ll be satisfied and you´ll be looking better all the time without worrying about what are you eating.

5) You´ll be at the Gym Less -- Not more. In just 5 minutes you´ll be burning more fat than in an hour of bike or treadmill sessions with this perfect combination of diet and exercises.

6) You´ll fell energized instead of exhausted, because you won´t private your body of the energy you need, instead you´ll be full of energy all the time and burning fat even when you sleep!

If you like to know all the full details about this awesome system, go to this link:

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7) You’ll Start To See It Happen In Just 3 Days. With this unique holistic system you´ll be seeing results in no time, not like in many other programs that make you feel you are not achieving results at all after have been working for long and exahausting time.

8) You Can Get The Body You’ve Always Wanted, with this one of a kind super system you´ll be activating your muscles in a brand new fashion and stimulating your metabolism to be a perfect performance machine like you have never dreamed that could be true.

9) You´ll be able to STOP Worrying About WEIGHT LOSS And… START Focusing On FAT LOSS, eating your favorite pizza, cheese burger or many other foods like them at the right time can make your body work better!! so you can get in great shape and have a Life at the same time!

10) Learn How To Burn MORE Calories -- ALL DAY LONG! How a 10-15 minutes of a specific type of cardio can make your body burn an awesome amount of Fat by just doing it 3 times a week!!!

You´ll be able to see a lot of testimonials of people who have tried everything to get in shape without significant results. This new system is the result of many different tests of diets and exercise routines, becoming the best system available nowadays.

In a nutshell, you need to eat a healthy breakfast every day for a good loss fat life. Each meal must be rich in protein, and it is imprescindible to drink about 2.5 lts. of water. Eating 5 or 6 times a day which is very important in order to avoid unbalanced conditions in our body. Against the common thinking it´s not better to eat less times but more times instead , please eat!

Learn everything you need to get the body you always have dreamed about, be a permanent full of energy person, burn fat even when you sleep!

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I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Daniel Cajiga

How To Lose Fat Fast And Keep It Off

By John Alvino

Rapid and permanent fat loss is almost entirely dependent on your metabolic rate. Your metabolic rate is what determines how many calories you burn in a given day. The biggest factor that influences your metabolism is the amount of lean muscle you have on your body.

Based on this fact, it is imperative to build, or at the very least maintain, your lean muscle during a fat loss phase. Every pound of muscle you build requires between 35 to 50 calories per day to maintain itself. These additional calories are burned over the course of the entire day, even when you are at complete rest.

So just by building one pound of lean muscle, you will burn an additional 12,775 to 18,250 calories per year, while at rest! So if you can add 4 pounds of lean muscle, it will encourage your body to burn an additional 51,100 to 73,000 calories per year, which equates to a loss of 15-21 pounds of body fat. Once you factor in the additional calories being burned during your training sessions, you can see that your fat loss results can be quite dramatic.

So it is clear that we should perform activities that encourage muscle building/maintenance while we avoid doing anything that leads to muscle loss.

The best way to build and maintain muscle is to perform resistance training. With a well designed resistance training program, you can burn calories during your workout; but even more importantly, you will ignite your metabolism to burn calories 24 hours per day, even during sleep!

Here is how to perform your resistance training to cause a positive metabolic effect:

You will be performing 3 full body workouts per week. These workouts should be performed on non consecutive days, such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Alternately, you could opt for a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule. Spacing the workouts out in this manner allow for optimal recovery between training sessions.

In addition to that, spacing out your workouts every 48 hours ensures that your metabolism will stay elevated all of the time. I have witnessed this for years and finally, scientific studies are actually confirming my findings.

Recent research has shown that after performing a properly designed full body workout, people’s metabolism stays elevated for approximately 40 hours. So just when your metabolism starts to come back down to normal, you are ready to rev it up again with another training session.

In my experience, full body training in a multiple station design is the best way to “put a match to” your metabolic rate.

I have many ways of designing full body workouts. Let me show you one that is very simple and particularly effective. Pick 2 exercises for the upper body, 2 exercises for the lower body and 2 direct abdominal exercises.

Without resting in between sets, perform a circuit of all 6 exercises in this order: Upper, lower, ab, upper, lower, ab. At this point take a 90 second rest and repeat this entire sequence twice more.

Here is an example circuit:

1a) Inverted Rows x 1

Train hard and watch that fat melt right off your body. Good luck!

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com

Best Post Workout Meal For Rapid Fat Loss

By John Alvino

Post workout nutrition has been a particularly well researched topic in the fitness industry. Most of the studies have shown that ingesting simple carbohydrates with whey protein (in the form of a shake) assist in muscle building, recovery and in body transformation in general.

In fact, these studies have been so convincing that you’ll be hard pressed to find a fitness expert who doesn’t strongly advocate that all trainees drink this type of post workout shake instantaneously after every workout. Let’s step away from the trend for a second and investigate whether or not this is the best protocol for everyone to follow.

I agree that post workout nutrition is very important for the purposes mentioned above. If your goal is primarily muscle building or weight gain, these shakes are a great way to easily consume an abundant amount of calories at a time when your body is least likely to store those calories as body fat.

You see, following an intense workout, your muscles are depleted and are thirsty for replenishment. Therefore most of the calories ingested at this time will be soaked up by the muscles, making less calories available to be stored as fat.

But let’s revisit exactly what our primary goal is: Fat loss! Do you really think that it is a good idea to chug a sugary shake every time you train if your goal is to lose body fat? How can a high-sugar shake really help to enhance your fat burning efforts? The truth is that it doesn’t. In fact, I believe that this practice is counter productive for trainees with a fat loss goal.

I’ve read all of the research and unfortunately, the research has not been performed on subjects whose primary goal is fat loss. Initially, I experimented with these post workout shakes on myself and my fat loss clients. Undoubtedly, fat loss results slowed significantly when we used these shakes. I’ve got tons of real world results to prove my assertion that in order to maximize fat burning; you need to lose those high-carb post workout shakes!

So you’re probably asking, “What should my post workout meal consist of?” The answer is simple. Just eat a solid meal! This meal will be structured just like any of your 5-6 daily meals. Be sure to consume this meal within one hour following your workout.

Remember, you will always get leaner with natural, solid food. So if losing body fat is your goal, save your money on those expensive commercial post workout shakes. Eat a good meal and watch that unwanted fat melt right off your body.

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com

How To Get Flat Lower Abs

By John Alvino

I’d be a very rich man if I had a dollar for ever time that someone told me, “My upper abs are getting lean but I still have this pouch of fat on my lower abs.”

Unfortunately, this “upper then lower” fat loss progression is typical for the majority of people. This “lower ab bulge” happens for three totally different reasons. If you are going to achieve flat lower abs, all three reasons must be addressed.

The first reason the lower abs are not flat is simply due to excess body fat. Most people will lose fat on the upper portion of their abs first. Only when these individuals get very lean will they lose the abdominal fat around their belly button area. This excess belly fat problem is only lost by following a well-designed fat loss plan, such as the Complete Fat Loss program. This plan will include: high intensity cardio, metabolism-boosting resistance training, and proper nutrition.

The second reason the lower abs bulge out can be related to the position of the pelvis. If the pelvis is tilted too far anteriorly (forward) it will cause your lower back to “over arch” and push the lower part of your belly out. If you suffer from this pelvic position, your abs will bulge out, regardless of your body fat levels.

To fix this problem, you must perform corrective abdominal exercises and stretch your hip flexors. By incorporating this combination of exercises and stretches into your routine, you can rapidly re-set your pelvis and flatten your abs.

Below, I’ll describe an effective hip flexor stretch and several corrective ab exercises based on your current level of abdominal strength.

Hip Flexor Stretch- Get into the bottom position of a lunge with the back knee resting on the floor. Push your hips forward while maintaining an upright posture. Adjust the distance between your legs so that the shin on your front leg is in a vertical position. Hold for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side. Repeat the entire process 3-4 times. Note: If you are not stretching on a soft surface (grass, mat, etc.), I suggest that you put a small mat underneath your knee.

Beginner Ab Exercise- Lie on your back. Bend your knees to 90 degrees and place your feet flat on the floor. With your palms down, place them under your lower back. Lift both legs off the floor until your knees are pointing directly to the ceiling. Roll your pelvis backward, thus creating slight pressure on your fingers. This is the starting position. Now lower both legs to the floor without arching your back and releasing any pressure off your hands. To progress, simply straighten your legs several degrees each workout until you are performing this exercise with straight legs.

Intermediate Ab Exercise- Lie on your back. Flex both knees and hips to 90 degree angles. Bring knees toward chest by flexing your abdominal muscles, and raising your butt from the floor while maintaining a constant knee angle. Return until hips and knees are again extended to 90 degree angles. Repeat for the prescribed number of reps.

Advanced Ab Exercise- Lie on a decline bench. Flex both knees and hips to 90 degree angles. Bring knees directly toward your chest by flexing the abdominal muscles. Your butt will raise up from the bench. Be sure to maintain a constant knee angle. Return until hips and knees are again extended to 90 degree angles. To increase difficulty, increase the angle of the decline bench.

The third reason for lower belly distension is abdominal bloating, which can be caused by two different problems. The first is constipation. If you are constipated, be sure to increase your water intake and check you diet to see if you are getting enough dietary fiber (25-40 grams daily). If those things are already in check, consult with your physician to achieve optimal bowel functioning.

The second cause of the distention is eating foods to which you are reactive. When you eat foods that your body is sensitive to, your immune system will respond, which causes bloating in the abdominal area. If you suspect this to be your culprit, pay close attention to how you feel after eating each meal. Eliminate any foods that may cause you bloating, cramping, diarrhea or stomach discomfort.

If you are tired of failing to achieve that flat sexy stomach you desire, try this simple yet multi-faceted approach, and flatten your abs forever!

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com

How To Lose Man Boobs

By John Alvino

I never thought that my fitness career would ever lead me down a road that made me feel obligated to write about “How to lose man boobs”. But being in the fat loss industry for over 16 years has made me painfully aware of the magnitude of this problem. Believe it or not, man boobs are a humiliating reality for many men today. In fact, I receive emails every week asking me “how to lose fat on my chest” from countless guys who are desperate to find a solution to this problem. These emails are heartfelt and I try to help every one of these guys resolve their problem.

But the man boob problem really hit home for me last week while on vacation with my buddy, Chad. Every summer, Chad is well-known for possessing the most remarkable farmers tan in the North Jersey area. Although his arms usually have a golden Caribbean color, his torso is about as white as the inside of an apple. His excuse has always been, “I don’t want to take off my shirt, because I’ll get sun burned.”

For years now, I bought this excuse hook, line and sinker. But on our recent vacation, I was determined to get him to balance out his zebra striped, two toned body once and for all! After pressuring him to take off his shirt, the truth came out. He told me that he never was worried about getting sunburn. Then he admitted to me his man boob problem. For years he was suffering from embarrassment and unnecessary stress. I felt really bad for him and instantly devised a plan for him.

There are two components that cause breast swelling in men: imbalances in estrogen levels and excess body fat. Estrogen can fuel the growth of breast tissue. Left untreated, this particular type of breast tissue can become very solid and painful to the touch.

Excess body fat, on the other hand, will not be rock solid or painful. Instead, it will just be a cosmetic nightmare. How can you tell if your man boobs are due to tissue growth or excess body fat? Very simply. Just squeeze the area around your nipple. If the area feels as though there is a hard ball under your nipple, then you likely have tissue growth. If it is soft and pliable, then you have excess fat on your chest. In many cases, you will have a combination of the two.

The goods news is that there is a way out.

Let’s first address the estrogen levels. Aromatase is an enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen in the body. Needless to say, we want this conversion to take place as little as possible. What can we do about this?

Eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables daily. Why? Because cruciferous vegetables such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage contain a substance named indole-3-carbinol (I3C). This substance has been shown to positively affect estrogen metabolism. In other words, they block the estrogen receptors in your body. This reduces the negative effects of the testosterone to estrogen conversion that occurs naturally in our bodies.

In addition to the natural estrogen in our bodies, there are many environmental estrogens that should be avoided as much as possible. Here are seven ways to avoid common substances that can increase estrogen levels:

1. Avoid all pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Wash all produce well to get rid of the pesticides.
   
   
2. Have a good water filter for your source of water.
   
   
3. Use organic, whole foods and purchase hormone free meats and dairy products where possible.
   
   
4. Do not microwave food in plastic containers, and especially avoid the use of plastic wrap to cover food for microwaving. (The estrogens found in plastics have been shown to leech into foods and liquids when heated to high temperatures.)
   
   
5. Use glass or ceramics whenever possible to store food.
   
   
6. Do not leave plastic containers, especially your drinking water, in the sun.
   
   
7. If a plastic water container has heated up significantly, throw it away - do not drink the water either.

Now that we have our estrogen levels under control, let’s address the excess chest fat. No matter what some people say, you can’t target the fat on your chest specifically. Instead you must follow a program that emphasizes total body fat loss. You need to follow a sound nutritional program, perform a well-designed resistance training program and engage in high-intensity cardio activities.

The Complete Fat Loss system is the most-effective program you can do to lose that excess body fat. Complete Fat Loss does not include long boring cardio workouts, and lame circuits that don’t work. Instead it emphasizes precise intervals, with unique chest exercises that help shape and chisel your pecs.

You don’t have to endure a life sentence of man boobs. You can: Be confident in the bedroom. Feel comfortable in the gym locker room. Take off your shirt with pride on the beach.

And let’s face it, women love a chiseled chest. Start this plan today and lose your man boobs forever.

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com

How To Lose Cellulite

By John Alvino

“Cellulite” is one of the most feared words for any woman to hear. Cellulite is a specific type of fat that has found its home on the buttocks and upper thighs of millions of females. Unfortunately for the women who have it, cellulite is considered to be the most unsightly forms of body fat. Its appearance can best be described as resembling lumpy, cottage cheese.

But the worst thing about cellulite is that once it finds its way to your body, it is extremely difficult to get rid of. Even though it is essentially just body fat, it does not get burned with normal fat burning methods. Instead, staring in the face of a sound diet and exercise routine, it defiantly hangs on for dear life, refusing to give your butt and thighs the tight, smooth appearance you are working so hard to achieve.

There are many different theories about what causes cellulite. Some experts believe that estrogen may play a role in its formation. This would explain why women get cellulite much more commonly than men do. Others believe that toxins in the body affect the fat cells and cause cellulite to develop. Still others just attribute it to the simple fact that you are carrying too much body fat in the affected area.

In an attempt to get a definitive answer on the “real” cause of this problem, I recently interviewed a prominent plastic surgeon about his take on the topic. I respect his opinion since he has performed hundreds of liposuction procedures on women who suffer from this very problem.

He strongly believes that the appearance of cellulite is caused by a problem with the flexibility of the connective tissue. In other words, he believes that if your connective tissue flexibility is compromised, your fat cells can bulge upwards to the surface of the skin, giving the area the unattractive cottage cheese look.

Since there is such a wide variety of opinion on this topic, it is clear that the true cause of cellulite is not fully understood by the scientific community. Maybe one of the above theories is accurate. Perhaps it’s a combination of all of them.

The good news is that whatever the precise cause may be, I have developed a multi-faceted approach that will literally blowtorch the cellulite right off your butt and thighs! My system addresses all of the potential causes of this cosmetic hardship. Here it is in a simple, step-by-step format.

1. Improve the integrity of your connective tissue. This is best accomplished by eating foods that are rich in bioflavonoids and vitamin C. Some foods that are particularly loaded with these nutrients are: citrus fruits, cherries, peppers, all types of berries, oranges, grapefruits and green leafy vegetables.
   
   
2. Flush toxins out of your body. The easiest way to begin this process is to drink plenty of pure water. Be sure to drink at least half of your bodyweight in ounces everyday.
   
   
3. Minimize your bodies exposure to toxins. Being exposed to some level of environmental toxins are unavoidable. But there are many toxins that can be avoided without any trouble. This would include cigarette smoke (first or second hand), excessive alcohol consumption, unnecessary medications, etc.
   
   
4. Keep estrogen levels in check. This can be accomplished by eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables daily. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage contain a substance named indole-3-carbinol (I3C). This substance has been shown to have a positive effect on estrogen metabolism. In addition, these vegetables also assist in detoxifying the body.
   
   
5. Lose excess body fat. Although cellulite has some unique characteristics, it is still body fat. So if you were to lose body fat correctly, you would minimize or totally lose that cottage cheese appearance.

Let’s start by addressing your diet. You should use a diet that doesn't allow your insulin levels to get chronically high. Chronically high insulin levels prevent cellulite from being burned, thus making your fat loss efforts futile. To keep insulin levels in the optimal range, you should eliminate sugar, red meat and processed foods from your diet. Now let’s address the exercise protocol.

To any woman who has tried, it’s no secret that traditional exercise does nothing to reduce cellulite. In a desperate attempt to lose cellulite, most people perform daily aerobic workouts. I’ve actually known aerobic instructors who teach 6-8 hours of aerobic classes each day and still have stubborn cellulite. This is obviously not an effective approach.

Instead, you should perform high-intensity sprint training. Sprinting works the hamstrings (back of the legs) and glutes effectively while elevating your metabolism significantly.

Combine this with resistance exercises that target the affected area while simultaneously stimulating lean muscle, and you have a potent exercise program that will enable you to lose cellulite quickly. Some of my favorite resistance exercises for losing cellulite are: Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts, KB Swings, and Band Good Mornings.

Cellulite doesn’t have to be a permanent part of your body. Start this plan today and lose your cellulite for life!

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com

The Best Ab Exercise Or Back Breaker?

By John Alvino

For years now, sit ups have gotten a bad rap by many fitness “experts” who tout that the sit up is damaging to your spine. Where did this persuasive opinion come from? The way the sit up has been ostracized by the fitness community; you would suspect that thousands of six pack abs seekers have permanently damaged their backs while performing this “dangerous” exercise! Luckily, that’s not the case…not even close.

The “never do sit ups during an ab workout” mantra that is chanted throughout gyms from coast to coast actually started in the lab. EMG studies have shown that sit ups do stress the spine more so than crunches do. So what? Lying on a bed of cotton balls stresses the spine less than crunches! Does this mean that lying on cotton balls is a better exercise than crunches is? Where do we draw the line? Remember, every exercise is a form of stress to the body. It is that very stress that causes our body to get stronger and adapt, thus eliciting a positive training effect.

Let’s take a second to investigate the sit up a little further. The reason why the critics say sit-ups stress the spine more than crunches is because of the involvement of the hip flexors during a sit up motion. They state that this hip flexor activation leads to compressive forces in the spine, and therefore, should be avoided. Is this a gross overreaction, or do they have a valid point?

Well considering that athletes and fitness enthusiasts have been performing sit ups safely for decades, it should be glaringly obvious that this “fear” is unsubstantiated in the real world. In fact, after being in the fitness industry for over 16 years, I can say with confidence that I have NEVER seen a single back injury result from performing a set of sit ups.

I know that some trainers are saying, “Alright, you convinced me that sit ups are not as dangerous as the “experts” claim, but since crunches work the abs just as well as sit ups do, why should I bother doing sit ups, anyway?” Let me explain why this is not the correct way of thinking.

It is true that during a sit-up, your abs are only directly responsible for the bottom portion of the movement. Once the spine is flexed (when you have finished the “crunch” part of the sit up), the hip flexors predominately take over to finish the movement. What is often overlooked is that even though the hip flexors provide most of the movement during top range of a sit up, the abs are still working hard isometrically (contracting without producing movement). This contraction absolutely does contribute to a positive abdominal training effect.

Another great “side effect” of the sit up is the caloric deficit that it creates. The sit up requires you to move through a large range of motion and incorporates the hip flexors as well as the abdominal musculature. Thus, a sit up burns a significantly greater number of calories than a crunch does. If you want six pack abs, burning calories and losing body fat are of the utmost importance.

I personally recommend sit ups to any individual who fits the “sit up” criteria. The criteria are simple: no pre-existing back problems, and a solid base of abdominal strength. Couple that with proper form, and you will not have any problems!

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com

Six Pack Abs In Half The Time

By John Alvino

Fitness experts commonly teach that since your abdominals help to support and stabilize your spine, they should never be fatigued prior to performing any non ab exercises such as squats, pulling, pressing or rowing exercises. Based on the abs role as a stabilizer, the whole fitness world vehemently insists that you must ALWAYS perform your abdominal training at the end of your workout.

The problem is that the “do abs at the end of your workout” philosophy goes against one of the most fundamental workout truths: the Priority Principle. This principle simply states that what gets trained first will get the best training result. Why would this principle work for every other body part in the human body except your abs?

What if your abs are your weakest body part? What if getting six pack abs happens to be your number one priority? In these cases, they should be trained at the beginning of your workout when you are in your freshest state.

So at the risk of being controversial, I’m going to recommend this modification to your workout: if abs are your priority, train them first! This uncomplicated adjustment in training sequence will make a huge difference in your results.

You will have much greater focus when working your abs, and be able to put forth a significantly better effort while training them, since you will be totally fresh. If you are used to just throwing in a couple of abdominal sets at the end of your workout, you will literally double your rate of progress towards developing your six-pack.

In addition to the benefits mentioned above, training your abs in this sequence will also provide you with a great warm up for the rest of your workout. The only exception to this priority rule is when you are really training with maximal weights. Doing anything that could result in any residual fatigue prior to a maximal weight workout would be undesirable.

Try this exercise sequencing technique and get a great six-pack in half the time! As Stephen Covey says, “Put First Things First”.

About the Author

John Alvino is a world renowned fitness expert who is known for his ability to help people lose body fat as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 16 years as a Strength & Conditioning Specialist, including professional athletes, fitness models and regular men and women.

He is an advisor and regular contributor to Men's Fitness magazine. His trademarked Complete Fat Loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and has helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, and get lean in record time. For more information on the Complete Fat Loss workouts, please visit www.CompleteFatLoss.com