How to get the ripped washboard six pack abs

Are you looking to get those six or eight pack abs in your mid section? I’m sure you are!! Abs are the one thing that both men and women desire and try every trick in the book to get them. People do endless crunches and leg raises or just keep doing the cardio and what not. The first thing to understand is that just doing ab exercises wouldn’t help you see them. You need to have the proper diet and fat burning workouts in place. Basically, everyone has ab muscles, but they are hidden under a layer of fat. If you don’t get rid of that fat…doesn’t matter how many crunches you do. WON’T work. I recommend that you do 2 sessions of ab workouts a week and concentrate on full body workouts and cardio including HIIT.

Anyways, now that I have made my point about losing the fat, here is a routine that can help you really hit the abs from each and every angle. So once you get rid of the fat, you will see a much better definition.

Crunches 15
Leg raises 15
Crunches 15
Leg raises 15
Criss crosses 30 (15 second rest)
Criss crosses 30 (15 second rest)
Criss crosses 30 (15 second rest)
Hanging leg raises 15 (15 second rest)
Hanging leg raises 15 (15 second rest)
Hanging oblique leg raises 15 (15 second rest)
Hanging oblique leg raises 15 (15 second rest)
Plank 15 – 30 seconds (15 second rest)
Plank 15 – 30 seconds (15 second rest)

That’s it. It will take you about 10 minutes. Do an HIIT session right after this for about 15 minutes and you will have had an AMAZING workout in less than half an hour.

Do try and and let me know what you think.

The best home chest workout

Most of the guys who go to the gym say that they want to get big biceps and a muscular chest. We won’t be talking about the biceps today, but as far as the chest goes - here is the single most important question that these guys ask.

Can I build a big and well-defined chest at home?

The answer to this question is ‘Yes’, you can build a huge chest by working out at home. If you manage to exhaust a specific body part and then feed it, you will see an increase in size. If you hit your chest from a number of angles so that the entire chest muscle group gets REALLY tired and then feed it with proper amounts of protein and carbohydrates, you will see an increase in you chest size and muscle mass.

Here is a workout routine that you can do on the days you want to work your chest or upper body. This workout can also be incorporated in a fat loss program – I will show you how.

Pushups burpees 15 - 20 for warm-up: Do the burpee but do a pushup as well when you go down.

10 pushups wide, 10 pushups shoulder width and 10 pushups narrow without any rest.

The following pushup movements should be very slow. 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down.
5 – 8 x 3 pushups wide (rest 30 – 45 seconds)
5 – 8 x 3 pushups shoulder width (rest 30 – 45 seconds)
5 – 8 x 3 pushups narrow or diamond (rest 30 – 45 seconds)

1 minute rest

In the following movements, do the first 3 – 5 reps very slow and without taking any rest continue the exercise as fast as you can for the remaining reps.

15 – 20 x 1 pushups wide (rest 30 – 45 seconds)
15 – 20 x 1 pushups shoulder width (rest 30 – 45 seconds)
10 – 15 x 1 pushups narrow or diamond (rest 30 – 45 seconds)

This is an intermediate workout. For advance level workouts, you can increase the 5 second up and down to 6, 7 or whatever you want. The slower the movement, the more stress you will feel. Also, you can increase the number of reps in you final set (i.e. the slow and fast combination)

For fat loss, you do not have to change the workout. All you need to do is do a lower body compound movement e.g. squats and/or lunges after this workout (I will post a lower body routine as well). This should be followed up by a protein meal. Keep the carbs low and try to take the meal in about 30 minutes to 1 hour of the workout so that you get the most benefit from the important hormones.

Understand the burn fat and build muscle hormones - Part 1

The norm in the fitness world is to look at calories and metabolism for fat loss and muscle building. A vast majority of the experts don’t give much importance to hormones and their effects, mainly due to lack of knowledge. In this three part article, I will try to give an overview of the muscle building and fat burning hormones along with the how to manipulate them based on your fitness goals. Part 1 will talk about the three MAIN anabolic (tissue building) hormones. So here you go:

Testosterone is a male hormone mainly produced in the testicles. A small amount is also produced by the adrenal glands. In women, testosterone is produced in the ovaries and by the adrenal gland, although the amount is quite small as compared to the male production. The normal range in males is 350- 1200ng/dl and the range in females is less than 100ng/dl. Women often inject additional testosterone if they want to build muscles at the pro-level. Apart from being a MALE hormone, it is the number one anabolic hormone in the human body. In order to gain muscle mass, one should concentrate on boosting their testosterone levels which are usually the highest in the morning and if the right kind of workouts are done (anaerobic) then you can REALLY boost your testosterone levels post workout (they drop after a few hours). The higher the intensity, the greater the testosterone production. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone which suppresses testosterone

Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is another anabolic hormone, which is produced by the pituitary gland and stimulates the liver to produce IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor). HGH is also directly proportional to the exercise intensity similar to testosterone. It increases right after an intense workout and also during deep sleep. Insulin and cortisol both suppress the growth hormone. If you need benefits from the HGH and IGF-1 then you should try to keep insulin and cortisol quite low. The good thing about HGH is that you can burn fat and build muscle at the same time as one of the properties of this hormone is to breakdown fat (long story) and IGF help you grow.

Insulin is a storage (anabolic) hormone which is released by the pancreas in response to the food that you eat – mainly carbohydrates. If you get too many carbs in your system, the insulin levels rise to lower them and store them as fat for future use. That is just one part of it. If your body needs the carbs (i.e. post-workout), the insulin pushes the carbs to the muscles and also breaks down protein to help repair the muscles. Insulin spikes with high GI carbs and remains stable with low GI carbs so to avoid fat storage, one should try to stick to low GI throughout the day. Depending on your goal, you can choose what kind of carbs you need post workout.

Hope this was useful. Stay tuned, there is lots more to come.

Top 3 methods to really speed up your fat loss

If you are already taking 5 – 8 small meals, controlling carbohydrate intake at dinner, doing cardio, drinking enough water and getting a sufficient amount of sleep, but still think that the fat loss is very slow – here are 3 ways that can really accelerate your fat loss.

Introduce healthy fats in your diet: There is a lot of ‘fat phobia’ around us. People try and avoid every possible kind of fat to avoid weight gain. Actually, all fats are not bad for you and may have heard this before – It’s true. If you take in unsaturated fats in moderate amounts, they help you lower cholesterol, burn fat, increase energy levels, increase the weight loss hormones and help you avoid going into starvation. Another benefit of these fats is that they slow down absorption which means that you get continuous and prolonged energy rather than one spike. Some examples of healthy fats are avocados, almonds, peanuts and peanut butter, fish oil etc. Make them a regular part of your diet and you will see how they help you shed those inches.

Do some high intensity workouts: I am not saying you need to workout at very high intensities all the time, but you should have at least 2 workouts a week which are not just low intensity cardio. High intensity workouts can be strength training, circuit training, HIIT, body weight training, taebo etc. HIIT is the best one, but if you are not really into HIIT, then concentrate on full body workouts working all major muscle groups. Just push yourself more than you normally do. These high intensity workouts will help accelerate fat loss due to a higher EPOC effect and also tone up your muscles. Other benefits are to do with hormones that help you burn fat.

Introduce Zig-zags in both your diet and workouts: Never and I am mean NEVER continue doing the same thing day in day out. Our brain and body are programmed to adapt to whatever we are doing. If exercise or diet becomes a norm for your body, you will stop seeing any major results or benefits. Introduce zig-zags i.e. doing one thing one day and another thing the next. You can have zig-zags in your diet with respect to calories and carbohydrates which have both proven to be very effective. Another kind of zig-zag used is in the exercises – alternating between high intensity and low intensity. It gives you the benefit of both methods and avoids you getting burnt out. You can also alternate between muscle building and fat loss on a week by week zig-zag to burn fat and build muscle.

Each and everyone one of my clients have seen a increase in their fat loss after practicing the three points above. There is a lot of research available to support these methods. I have only giving you some very basic ideas about each of these methods, just to guide you as to what is possible. Please leave comments if you need more information about any of the above and also leave any feedback. Till next time guys – Lots more to come.

Body fat - What is the easiest way to measure it?

People usually measure their weight loss progress through body weight - which in my personal view is not the best method of tracking your weight loss. If you gain muscle and lose fat at the very same time, you will either gain weight (overall) or you will not see a major change in your weight...whereas you will have made improvements to your body composition.

You should always track your weight loss through body fat measurements, as they are a lot more accurate and give you a clearer picture. There are a number of methods to calculate your body fat percentage including the skinfold method, Bioelectric body fat analyzers and height and circumference method.

There is a lot on the internet talking about what the best method is, what you should buy to get most accurate results and why all other methods are point less. I'm not going to do that. Firstly, I'll just tell you that all methods work. You don't need a 10 decimal place accuracy to track your progress, you need estimates. All the methods will give you an estimate, one way or the other, so if you have a bioelectric calculator, then stick to it. Don't throw it away just because someone said that the skinfold or pinch method is more accurate.

I recommend all my clients to use any method, as long as you are actually tracking their body fat and not weight. If someone does not want to invest any money they, they just use my inch tape. The guys measure their waist once a week to see of there have been any change and the women track their hips and/or thighs. I agree that this is not going to be as accurate as the very well researched methods but it works pretty well. Guys always lose the maximum fat from the belly and girls always lose the maximum amount from the hips and thighs. You need to make it easy for yourself. You do not have to invest in any thing to get fit and even track your progress.

Hope this helps guys. I'll start posting more frequently, so stay tuned :)