By Chad Waterbury
Author
of "Body of F.I.R.E."
|
I’ll bet your quest to
get a super lean, athletic body has failed you in the past.
You’ve been told that cardio, high rep weight training,
and simply “eating less” will make your body burn
fat.
So I’m not surprised it
didn’t work, and I can definitely understand your frustrations
because I was once just like you. There’s no better feeling
than seeing a hard, defined midsection in the mirror, and
you’ve been robbed of that feeling.
So why did those other approaches
fail? There are five reasons.
|
|
Fat Loss Myth #1: Low intensity cardio is great for burning fat
and boosting endurance.
Jogging for an hour is a complete
waste of time. So is any form of cardio that forces you to do the
same repetitive movement over and over. When your muscles have to
continuously contract for 30, 45, or 60 minutes, that energy has
to come from somewhere. The body is stubborn and doesn’t want
to burn fat for energy so it eats up your muscle instead. This immediately
kills your metabolism and it robs your body of strength and athleticism.
The key to quickly getting ripped
is by doing exercises that stimulate your metabolism all day long.
Research by Tremblay shows that high intensity cardio is significantly
more effective than low intensity cardio because it forces your
body to keep burning fat and calories after you stop training. And
research by Tabata proves that just a few minutes of intense cardio
will boost your anaerobic and aerobic conditioning.
Solution: Do short, quick circuits
of body weight exercises such as split jacks, jumping jacks, and
burpees.
Fat Loss Myth #2: You should lift for high reps to
failure to burn fat.
It’s easy to think that lifting
weights for a ton of reps is making your body burn fat, but it’s
not, and research tells us why. You see, the key to really cranking
up your metabolism hinges on recruiting as many muscle fibers as
possible with each set by following the law of Henneman’s size
principle. When you do high rep training you’re only working
the smallest, weakest muscle fibers that have little to no impact
on boosting your metabolism. You must target all your muscle fibers
when you lift weights or you’ll never get results.
Solution: Do full body circuits
that consist of an upper body pull, an upper body push, and a squat
or lunge because they’ll stimulate all your muscle fibers.
Also, keep the rest periods short and accelerate all lifts.
Fat Loss
Myth #3: You don’t need to get stronger to get
leaner.
The stronger you are, the more muscle
fibers you can recruit. Stimulating all your muscle fibers with
each set catapults the metabolic cost of your workouts. Metabolic
cost is a measure exercise scientists use to determine how many
calories you’re burning through exercise. The higher the metabolic
cost, the better.
Furthermore, recent research by McBride
et al proves that getting stronger makes you run faster. And the
faster you can move, the more fat you’ll burn through exercise.
That’s because research by Mazetti et al shows that people
who lift fastest burn the most calories.
Solution: Lift weights that
don’t allow more than 12 reps per set. For body weight exercise
circuits, move as quickly as possible to stimulate your metabolism.
Fat Loss
Myth #4: Just eat less and you’ll lose weight.
Your metabolism is primarily stimulated
by nutrients, not just calories. When you drastically cut calories
it brings your metabolism to a screeching halt because your body
is not getting the essential nutrients it needs: amino acids, vitamins,
minerals, omega-3s, etc. If you just eat less, the only thing you’ll
lose is muscle, and this destroys your metabolism so you end up
fatter than you were before. Sound familiar?
Solution: Replace low-quality
foods such as bread, pasta, and rice with nutrient-dense foods such
as berries, green vegetables, and fish. Be sure the berries and
vegetables are organic (preferably from a farmer’s market)
and only eat wild fish, not farm-raised, since they all contain
the most nutrients.
Fat Loss
Myth #5: You must workout every day to see results.
Training every day doesn’t allow
your body the time it needs to recover, so you get overtrained very
quickly. You know what happens when you’re overtrained? Fat-storing
hormones flood your system! Now you know why the people you see
in the gym every day aren’t getting results. Plus, being overtrained
zaps your motivation and makes you more susceptible to illness and
injury.
Solution: Train no more than four days per week. If four
workouts per week doesn’t change your body fast, your program
stinks!
CLICK HERE to learn more about Chad's book
"Body of F.I.R.E." and grab your copy now!
Click
here to read our full
review of the book...
|
