Female Fitness & Disrespectful Personal Trainers

One of my biggest pet peeves is getting female personal training clients who have never done a pushup or bodyweight row.

Now I'm not talking about beginners...but about women who have been training with other personal trainers and who have decided to train with me instead.

Time after time I would ask my new clients to do pushups or even eccentric chinups, and they would say...

"Oh, my old trainer never had me do those exercises."

That always pissed me off.

Why?

Because it means their "old trainers" didn't respect their strength, fitness, and ability.

Instead, like most of the fitness industry, they were just out to get their client's money.

And that's how it remains today. Most personal trainers just like to talk to their female clients and give them a few fluff exercises, rather than respecting their client's time.

So that's why I'm excited to see one of the first "respectful" fitness books written for women is now available.

It's from Rachel Cosgrove, an amazing trainer, who has worked with triathletes, fitness competitors, obese women, beginners, and even female powerlifters.

She is a true female fitness expert, and her new book includes:

1) The ultimate guide to strength training for sustainable fat-loss, increased energy, and healthy body image for women who want to be in great shape, look amazing, and feel sexy and empowered

2) A 16-week program

3) A 2-week Bodyweight-Only Jumpstart Phase that will help women adjust to strength training while seeing results in just days

4) Over 100 fully illustrated warm-up moves and innovative strength-training exercises using everything from dumbbells and barbells to bands and straps

5) A comprehensive nutrition plan including nutrient-timing strategies that work with workouts, satisfying foods that promote optimum health and energy, and even an indulgent snack every day 

Grab your copy of her book here:

=> Click here for your copy of Rachel's book - Female Body Breakthrough

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Vegan Muscle Building

Making some decent progress with the current vegan muscle building diet and workout.

1) Jumps

2A) BB Row - 3x12
2B) DB Press - 2x8-10

3A) BB Lunge - 2x12
3B) Pullups with Kneeups - 3x8

4A) Ball Rollout - 3x12
4B) DB Triceps Extensions
4C) DB Curls

(Also included some of Vince Del Monte's "crash sets".)

Hope you had a great workout today. And if you are thinking about "slacking off" or worse, "quitting", then read this...a classic quote from a classic movie:

"Quit? You know, once I was thinking about quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer, all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and I won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit." - Lance Armstrong, from the movie, "Dodgeball"

Now to finish off the work day with a giant meal of wild rice, black beans, avocado, tomato, and salsa.

Craig

PS - Just posted an entertaining "sexy body" blog post over at TT Fat Loss...

...from John Romaniello.

"5 muscle building, fat burning tips for guys" - (also includes pictures of hot girls and a killer squirrel!)

Visit the blog here:

=> Muscle Building Beach Body Tips

John is a funny guy!

Tony Horton P90X Interview

After an early dog walk, I did this 25 minute workout:

Kettlebell swings and pushup circuit, then outside for sprints+mountain climber circuit. All with my trainer, Ballythedog. Perfect fall weather.

Some of this was inspired by my interview with Tony Horton yesterday. And I've put the Tony Horton interview up on my blog...(pass it on)...you'll discover his favorite workouts, his thoughts on intervals, cardio, and yoga, even 3 powerful business lesson for personal trainers

=> Tony Horton P90X Interview

Download that to your Ipod for your workouts or drive to work. Very inspiring.

And as I mentioned earlier, I love this time of year (the weather is great for training outside), but I hate to see how many people get stressed out by holiday eating and the fear of gaining fat.

But I have good news...

For the next 3 days Body Transformation Grand Champion Joel Marion is giving away his brand new "Holiday Fat Loss Black Book" report to help you keep off the pounds.

In fact, when you check out this free holiday nutrition guide it will help you lose 10-15 pounds over the next 6 weeks - BEFORE New Year's Eve.

So get your copy here today:

=> http://www.HolidayFatLossDiet.com

And if you want to see what I ate on my travel weekend while doing the vegan diet experiment, check it out here (I made one mistake)

=> Vegan Diet

Say goodbye to holiday belly fat,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS - Always surround yourself with people who want to see you succeed - Gurbaksh Chahal

Back to the Gym

Back in the gym after a nice trip to Atlanta...here's today's workout:

1A) Vertical Jumps
1B) Shrugs

2A) Squats
2B) DB Incline Presses

3A) Rope Seated Rows
3B) Planks

4) Chinups

I was pretty crushed by the end.

In the morning I went to my chiropractor for ART on a bunch of bodyparts and an upper back adjustment. My chiro, Dr. Michael Sommers of Evolve Chiropractic, is one smart dude. He puts me back together after I beat myself up in the gym, or after sports, or after any of my other random accidents.

This weekend he went to a shoulder therapy seminar and came back with a bunch of recommendations for my training...one of which was the incorporation of the rope rows into my program - using a rope allows for a greater and better range of motion in a seated row than using a fixed V-grip handle. Definitely something worth adding to your program.

That exercise made my upper back work really hard even though I used 50% of my regular seated row weight.

I'll be trying out more of his recommendations and passing them on to you soon.

I also had a really great workout because I had a lot of rest on the weekend...I didn't train, and only did a few 30 minute walks around Atlanta. In fact, on Saturday I did something very uncharacteristic of me.

I was getting sick of being in the seminar I was attending, so I went back to my hotel room and watched 7 straight hours of TV, including:

- College Football
- The Breeders Cup (caught a once in a lifetime race - I bet they make a ton of movies about the winning horse)
- Then I rented Inglourious Basterds (slow start, awesome ending)
- Then I watch Strikeforce (the Fedor-Rogers fight - probably the most exciting MMA fight I've ever watched)

On Sunday, I got lucky and caught an early flight home.

And now I'm back on track with workouts.

Stay strong,

Craig Ballantyne

Booty for Life program review

Back in 2005, I created one of my most infamous programs...

 

...one that wasn't available to the general public.

Until now...

 

Here's your chance to get the first 4-weeks of the TT Booty for Life Workout program that will put curves in all the right spots.

 

Click here for the 3-day Booty workout

 

You'll also discover...

 

- The Truth About Junk Food
- The Best Creatine to Use

- The Facts About Lifting While Sitting on a Stability Ball
- Who Sticks to Their Nutrition Better - Men vs Women?
- #1 Most Irresistible Food on a Diet
- The 90% Solution To Sticking to Your Workouts
- 3 Reasons You Need to Eat This Meal

 

All that, and more in this week's program review.

 

To your booty for life,

 

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Booty for Life

 

Personal Best Workout at Gold's Gym

Today's instruction for you:

"Always hit a personal best in each workout. This guarantees progress. And focus on quality workouts, not quantity. Focus on planning ahead to overcome obstacles, rather than trying to "out-cardio" your bad diet. That never works."

After I posted that on the TT Facebook Page I went and trained at Gold's Gym on Peachtree St. in Atlanta - solid.

1A) Pullups
1B) BB Lunges

2A) Hammer Chest Press (for the fun of it)
2B) RDL's

3A) UH bodyweight rows
3B) DB Triceps Extensions
3C) DB Biceps Curls

Good times.

Now for the ladies - and guys too, to be honest - I've just posted the Booty for Life program - check out the 3-day workout (weeks 1-4) here:
=> Booty for Life Workout

Enjoy,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS - Still looking for a new program?

GM and LF with TT for BD and HC

=> Click here to decipher the code and watch the workout

Circuits, Cardio, and Success

Success tip of the day comes from Kekich Credo #4:

"Real regrets only come from not doing your best. All else is out of your control. You're measured by results only. Trade excuses and "trying" for results, and expect half-hearted results from half-hearted efforts. Do MORE than is expected of you. Life's easy when you live it the hard way…and hard if you try to live it the easy way."

So do your best with everything you have control over. Most people fail to control themselves, and end up only with regrets. They trade minutes of pleasure (i.e. fast food) for days, weeks, months, and years of regret. Don't be like that!

Now for some training info...yesterday I was interviewed by Men's Health about how guys could
replace cardio in their workouts and I thought you'd like the sample workouts I provided so that
you could use in your bootcamps.

Check them out here:

=> Circuit Workouts to replace cardio exercise

Let me know your favorite circuits as well,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TT Bootcamp Workouts

PS - Check out this feedback on the TT Bootcamps program...

"hey, this is Travis Stoetzel, i'm a bootcamp instructor and fitness pro from omaha, ne. i just wanted to let you know that your TT bootcamps program is the bomb! Thanks a ton for being such a giving person and sharing your ideas and knowledge!"
Travis Stoetzel

Fat Loss Interview with Alwyn Cosgrove

One of the few trainers I "listen to" in the fitness industry is Alwyn Cosgrove.

Most other trainers just repeat what he says anyways, so when I go looking for the latest fat loss info, I interview Alwyn.

And here are the latest innovations in fat loss that he's seen work at his facility in California.

1) The New Way to Do Interval Training

For someone who wants to lose a lot of fat quickly interval training is the key.

But you run into a problem.

Running a mile burns about 100 calories, however did you know that running a mile is equal to doing 1000-1500 reps with impact forces of double to triple bodyweight?

So a 180lb person will do 1500 x 360lbs to burn 100 calories.

It's just a massive amount of load and volume and stress on the body.

Switching to the bike makes it less joint load - but the volume of exercise has to go up.

So what's the solution?

At our gym in California, we switched to doing non-traditional interval training using bodyweight, kettlebells etc.  

A 5 exercise circuit performed at 30s on; 30s off for 3 rounds will take 15 minutes, but it will burn way more calories during and after the workout, with way less reps and load - plus that load can be spread over the entire body.

We experimented and hoped it would be a good substitute for traditional intervals and we found it's actually a SUPERIOR choice.

=>Click here for more of Alwyn's Workouts

 

2) Social support is absolutely key to success.

It's the reason why weight watchers meetings and their entire program of just "Eat less" continues to work (and beat the results of a lot of gyms).

It's not the program - it's the social support factor in their group meetings.

I think it's one of the reasons why semi-private training appears to generate better results than one-on -one and one-on-one training outperforms training on your own. Social support rules.

If you have to train alone, make sure your friends and significant others support you in your efforts outside of the gym.

If they won't - its' going to be tough so consider hiring a trainer, getting a training partner or joining an accountability forum such as the Turbulence Training Member's area.

3) Nutrition: Multiple Meals Work Best

Every time I stray away from multiple meals with our clients, results go down.

I think 3 meals and 3 snacks always works. I've seen results with carb cycling, intermittent fasting and other methods - but as the complexity goes up, the results never go up with it.

I think simple principle based nutrition of:

- eating multiple meals
- eating some protein at each meal
- eating a serving of fruit or vegetables with each meal
- and just keeping refined carbs low always ALWAYS works for fat loss

If you're dieting for a show then maybe you need to count calories - but for most people that's a level TEN approach.

And we're starting at level one: nutritional free-styling.

Just following some simple principles is a massive forward step.

Stop looking for a perfect system and just follow ONE.
********************************************************************

Thanks Alwyn.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Alwyn doesn't sugar-coat anything and is pretty blunt - just like me...

...but that's why our clients get results.

Alwyn is also the author of the workout program in this book:

=> Fast Speed Fat Loss

With that program, you can lose fat over the holiday season.

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

Metabolism Myths and Muscle Building

Lame articles about "boosting your metabolism" are all over the internet...so I want to talk about two of the bigger myths today.

1) "Eating breakfast boosts metabolism" = myth.

Just another one of those things that trainers repeat all day long without data. Show me the research. (I know research shows that folks who eat breakfast keep the weight off, but where's the "breakfast boosts metabolism" study?)

And what does that mean anyways - eating breakfast boosts your metabolism by 10 calories, 100 calories or 1000 calories? Does anyone stop and think before they repeat this stuff all day long? 

2) Another "metabolism" myth - One pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day.

Sounds good when you're talking about one pound, but would i really burn an extra 1000 calories per day if I gained 20 pounds? No, of course not.

Bodybuilders that have over 100 pounds of muscle on their bodies would have metabolic rates of over 5000 calories per day if this was true. Again, another myth spreads because we don't take time to stop and think...

Fitness "journalists" need to show a little critical thinking when they write their articles.

*************

Alright, now on to my workout for the day. Since I'm traveling to Atlanta today and not sure if I'd get to a "real gym" with barbells, I moved up some of my barbell exercises to today that otherwise would be done on Friday.

1) Jumps - doing well with these...need to test out on a basketball court, but pretty sure I can touch the rim again.

2A) Deadlift - 3x6, 2x10
2B) Military Press - 3x6 (little weak on these today)

3A) BB Row - 2x12
3B) DB Press - 2x10
3C) BB Curl - 2x10

I'll save lunges, pullups, and some other DB and ab exercises for the hotel gym workout on Friday.

Train safe, train hard, stick to the basics, and forget about boosting your metabolism with "tricks". All that matters is that you eat enough for your goals, and you workout with intensity.

Craig

PS - Consistency is key...

According to the October issue of Men's Health magazine, "People who workout in the morning are 90% more likely to stick to their workout than folks who try to workout later."

12-minute tri-set workout