With the Sun hanging in the sky a little longer it naturally gives you more energy to do some spring cleaning inside and outside the house.

Just opening up all the windows in your house after the long winter months will awaken your senses with fresh new energy…

So it’s time to spring ahead with your workouts as well and clean up some of the bad habits that you may have picked up during the winter.

1. Watch Your Watch

With summer just around the corner you are probably more concerned with getting light and lean than big and bulky so sitting around for 3-4 minutes chatting with the guys about last nights game in between sets isn’t going to do anything to awaken those abs. Rest no more than 2 minutes in between heavy squats or deadlifts and only 30-60 seconds for other lifts. Supersetting opposite muscles like chest and back or bicep and triceps without any rest is also a great way to build muscle AND burn fat.

2. Movements Not Muscles

Spending 20 minutes working a muscle the size of a baseball isn’t the best use of your time unless you have Mr. Olympia trophies on your mantle. But that’s just what most guys do to get arms like Arnold. Think movements, not muscles when you workout. To work your body and your biceps try combining exercises into one motion like a lunge, curl and press or a chin-up with a leg raise.

3. Complex Cardio

Despite what the name might say burning fat isn’t so complex when you use this form of cardio. Complexes are forms of high intensity cardio that continues to put those magazine reading sessions on the treadmill to shame when it comes to blow torching bodyfat. It only takes 5 minutes to add a complex to the end of your weight workout to convince you that this is the answer to maximum results in minimum time. Use just the empty barbell to perform a series of exercise circuits without rest such as a squat, clean, press, lunge and row. Pick yourself up off the floor and repeat 3-4 times.

4. Muscle Massage

Imagine how hard it must be on your car’s engine starting it over and over during those cold winter mornings. Well that’s just how you have been treating your body all winter. Wether it’s being rushed and skipping your workout warmup or jumping out of bed to shovel out your driveway so you can get to work, your muscles need time to wake up. Dynamic bodyweight movements are great to get the blood flowing but a little muscle massage will go a long way to break up those tight spots that build up over time with improper lifting and bad posture. Use a foam roller and tennis ball to roll out those tight trigger points like your mother rolled out dough. Doing this loosens up the tissue in and around your muscles to keep you strong and pain-free.

5. Goodbye Gym

Save a month’s worth of membership and take advantage of the extra daylight while getting some free vitamin D by bringing your workouts outside. Even if you love the atmosphere of training in a dark and dingy gym, the opportunities are endless for outdoor workouts. Take a set of dumbbells to the park or do a playground workout while the kids have their fun. Sprints, sports and strongman lifts are also better outdoors. There is just something primal about lifting heavy stuff off the ground under the mid day sun.

It’s unfortunate that some guys will spend more time washing their car this spring than taking care of their body!

Use these 5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Workout so you can take care of your body and the people who depend on it…

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FACT:

A lot of gym rats might be able to load up the bar with hundreds of pounds for endless sets of the bench press but can’t even do 10 correct push ups…

I don’t think you have any business bench pressing if you can’t properly perform 20 perfect pushups.

If you can’t handle your own bodyweight, how functional is it to lie down on a bench and press additional weight?

Don’t get me wrong, the basic barbell bench press is a great upper body exercise for building muscle, but it’s depended on WAY too much to build a strong chest and shoulders.

Most people consider Pushups and Bench Presses both chest dominant exercises. But there is a big difference between the two…

The bench press is an open chain exercise and the pushup is a closed chain exercise.

The “chain” just refers to the kinetic chain of your body, which simply means that all of your body’s muscles are inter-connected in a “chain” and therefore the movements you make are also part of a that kinetic chain.

Open chain exercises allow your feet or hands to move freely like in a bench press, dumbbell curl or leg curl.

Closed chain exercises keep your feet or hands in a fixed position like on the ground during pushups or squats and even chinups.

Closed chain exercises are safer and more effective for real world functional strength because they allow your bodyweight to move through space in a full range of motion while distributing muscular stress through many muscles instead of isolating and stressing single muscles.

A big reason why so many bench press addicts develop shoulder problems is because of not the shoulders directly but due to the lack of movement in your upper back when pinned to a bench during bench presses.

The muscles in your upper back surrounding your shoulders blades and scapula play a crucial role in stabilizing and allowing movement of your shoulder girdle during pressing movements.

Pushups eliminates this problem by allowing your upper back to contract in a full range of motion when you lower yourself to the ground.

Plus for busy dads bodyweight exercises are great because they can be done anywhere without any equipment!

(here is my favorite pressing exercise)

So if you want to incorporate a simple but intense pushup workout into your workout routine give the 100 rep pushup workout a try.

Once or twice a week at the end of your regular workout aim for performing 100 pushups and time yourself to see how long it takes you.

Do as many reps as you can and do however many sets it takes you to reach 100.

For example if you can do 20 pushups at one time before failure start with 20 but as you fatigue you will probably drop down to sets of 10. You will obviously need more rest between sets as you get closer to 100.

Take as much rest as you need to get at least 10 reps for each set until you reach the 100 rep mark.

Most guys in pretty good shape will be able to complete 100 reps anywhere between 5-10 minutes.

Don’t worry how long it takes you. Just record your time and push hard to beat it the next time around.

Before you know it you will join the pushup century club and have the perfect pecs to prove it!

Perfect Pushups Tips

*Keep your abs braced tight and your hips in line with your body.

*Tuck your chin in like a “double chin” and look straight down at the floor to form a straight line from your head to your toes.

*Push your elbows and upper arms back in a 45 degree direction opposed to straight out to your sides.

PS. Be sure to check out my training article in the April/May issue of Inside Fitness magazine!

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1. Get Real

Once Christmas Eve hits forget about LOSING weight for the next few weeks and focus on GAINING some quality time with your family and friends. Wether its the numbers on the bar or the numbers on the scale you need a mental break as well as a physical break from all those ball busting efforts with the weights. Get in as many short workouts as you can during the 12 days of Christmas and get back on track come January 5th.

2. Fit Finances

Most of our pockets took a hard hit from the economy this year so make sure to create a holiday shopping budget that you can stick to. Put aside the amount in CASH for each person on your wish list and find a gift based on the budget allowed, not the other way around. Don’t be left lifting heavy credit card bills come 2010.

3. The Man With a Plan

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. Decide what reward meals you are going to have such as Christmas Dinner, New Years Eve or the office party. Stick to a couple special occasions and follow a healthy diet for the days in between to avoid the bad tasting food guilt.

4. Size Does Matter

If you’re hitting the belly busting buffet at your next holiday party, use the smaller appetizer plates so you can fill up your plate and not feel bad about going back for seconds as it will only equal the caloric equivalent of one dinner plate of food.

5. The Gift of Gravity

I know the gym will probably be closed a lot during the holidays. But remember with bodyweight exercises you don’t need to go to the gym to burn up some extra calories. Before you start your busy day of putting up Christmas lights or getting some last minute shopping done, drop down and give me 20! With some basic bodyweight exercises of pushups, prisoner squats and abdominal planks you can get a great workout done in less than 15 minutes with NO equipment. Or you can save your energy for the dance floor!

6. Think Before You Drink.

If you are drinking down some Christmas cheer, beware. One regular beer contains 150 calories and a glass of eggnog 350 calories! Stick to light beers, spirits with diet soda or a glass of dark red wine. Make sure to drink a tall glass of water before bed and upon waking to avoid a “heavy head” the next morning.

7. Mingle Don’t Pringle.

It’s hard to have a decent conversation with a mouthful of potato chips, so focus on the festivities, not the food. Enjoy good conversation and catch up with some old friends that you haven’t seen much all year – you’ll spend less time eating and more time enjoying yourself.

8. Don’t Run on Empty.

Don’t allow yourself to go too long in between meals. If you let yourself get too hungry especially this time of year, you will pay for it dearly when you try to tighten your belt come January. Make sure to eat your 3 regular meals each day plus 2 snacks to keep you shopping without dropping.

9. Winter Workouts

If you are lucky enough to have a white Christmas in your neck of the woods, put it to good use, everything is just plain harder in the snow. Even walking through a couple feet of snow gets you huffing and puffing which means you burn a ton more calories! Get outdoors with your family during the holidays for some sliding, skiing or skating, which are all great winter time workouts.

10. Smart Snacking

When you are entertaining guests or you are attending parties elsewhere you can still enjoy some finger foods, just be smart about your choices. Avoid the artery clogging chips, dips and deep fried foods. Chow down on fiber filling veggies, protein rich cheese, shrimp and nuts and even some dark chocolate and fresh fruit for added antioxidants.

Do you have any time tested tips you like to use to stay fit over the holidays? Post em below!

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Well I survived…

I made it through my first Strongman Contest…barely.

The events started shortly after 6pm on Tuesday , and luckily it was a warm summer’s  evening.

I loosened up at home first with some foam rolling, bodyweight exercises like squats and pushups, and some light stretches.

My wife and 15 month old daughter Matea as well as my sister and her family and my mother in-law and came along for support.

Feeling a little nervous when I arrived, I was glad to see a few guys from around town who I knew as regular gym goers who was to give this a shot.

First event was the Tire Flip. Man, this is the ULTIMATE WORKOUT! I can see why this lift has gotten so popular in the fitness industry. I am not quite sure how heavy this tire was but I am thinking around 300-400 hundred pounds?

I can see why this is such an intense exercise because it’s simulates a deadlift to lift the tire working almost every muscle in your body especially your lower body and your grip then to push the tire over it simulates a standing chest press. Plus it was probably the most INTENSE cardio workout I ever done! Man I don’t remember my heart rate ever being so high. I thought I was going to puke when I finished!

We had to flip the tire as many times as possible in 2 minutes. I got off to a great start and ended up tying for 1st place in this lift at 26 flips.

The 2nd lift was the Block Raise or in this case a car battery tied on to a stick which you had to raise off the ground for as long as you can. Not sure how heavy this was but after holding it up for almost a minute it starts to feel like a ton. I came 2nd place in this event with a time of 45 seconds.

The 3rd event was the Farmer’s Walk which involved holding two 110lb dumbbells and running a certain distance as fast as you can. Again I got off to a pretty good start until about half way I stepped into a big dip in the grass and almost dropped the weights. But I managed to hold on to the end to give me a 3rd or 4 place in this event.

Next up was the Log Press. Everyone was all pretty gassed by now but this lift dragged on a little too long as this was the only event which they didn’t time! Big mistake. Guys could take as long as they want to press the log and continue on.

The log was a sawed off telephone poll with screwed on handles that to everyone’s surprise made this lift  A LOT more awkward than it looks. Unfortunately in the end only 2 guys were able to lift the log at all!

I wasn’t one of them as it wasn’t reallly the weight as it was the handles which normally should be inset into the handles so you can rotate the log and clean it to your shoulders. After 3 attempts I decided it wasn’t worth it to  invite a serious injury.

By the last event we all felt like we were hit by a truck we were so tired and beat up. But for this event we had to PULL a truck!

I was one of the last guys up for this lift and by this time it was getting dark and I was starting to cramp a little and cool down. Not a good thing when you have to push your body to the limit in an event such as this.

My 175lb body was at the laws of physics against this truck as I had to give everything I had to get this truck moving and managed to pull it about half way before I had enough and had to call it quits. The key to this lift was to stay as low to the ground as possible as you drive forward with your legs…but it’s easier said than done when you are pulling a TRUCK!

After all was said and done I tied for 4 or 5th place. Not totally sure as the results will be out in this weeks local paper. But it was the experience I was after not the prize for some camping gear.

I have to say this was probably the hardest workout I have ever done. No matter how good of shape I thought I was in, these strongman events are way more physically demanding that I thought.

Not just strength wise but way more demanding on your cardiovascular system.

A couple years ago I completed our local duathalon which involved a 15km bike ride and a 7km run which I ended up finishing 4th even though endurance events are not my thing.

So I thought it was time to shake things up again and I am glad I gave this strongman contest a try.

Even if you are consistent with your busy dad workouts sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. If you think “I could never do that”. You probably SHOULD.

The biggest benefits to these strongman lifts is they carry over to REAL WORLD everyday activities so you can be the strong dad you need to be to push your wife’s car out of the snow, lift your kids over your head without breaking a sweat or carrying in heavy bags of groceries to feed your growing family.

I am thinking of even getting a big tractor tire for the back yard as I was really impressed by how intense this lift was. Beats staying inside on a boring treadmill!

I wonder would the town miss one of their telephone poles?…

Do YOU have any fitness event you would like to try or you are currently training for? Strongman, Marathon, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding?

If so, tell me all about it by leaving a comment below.

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With these hot and humid days we’ve been having, I got in and out of the gym this morning fast and furious.

Was finished my workout by 10am and here is what I did.

Barbell Squats

DB Lunges

Chinups

Chest Supported Barbell Rows

Barbell Curls

Cable Curls

Standing Calf Raise

2 sets each, 4-8 reps

If you are like a lot of busy dads you are probably wondering why you can’t stick with eating healthy this summer with all those tempting backyard bbq’s, weddings, and vacations.

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Well my friend and fellow fitness expert Tom Venuto send this along just in time for the weekend.

8 Reasons Why You Keep Falling Off The Diet Wagon

Clearly, we have an obesity problem in America and many other countries across our planet. Yet, I propose that we do not have a weight loss problem today. In case you’re confused at this apparent contradiction, consider these statistics:

According to a study from Oxford University published in the International Journal of Obesity, within 3 to 5 years, about 80 percent of all ‘weight losers’ have regained the lost weight, and often gained back a little extra.

According to research by the National Weight Control Registry, that relapse rate may be as high as 95 percent.

For comparison, relapse rates for drug, alcohol and tobacco dependency have been reported in the range of 50-90%.

This means that lots and lots of people have “successfully” lost weight. But not many have kept it off. Therefore, we don’t have a weight loss problem, we have a weight-relapse problem; we have a “not sticking with it” problem. Wouldn’t you agree?

In fact, the fall and subsequent weight-regain usually doesn’t take years. Many people have abandoned their new year’s resolutions within weeks. By the time the Super Bowl party rolls around, their diet is history!

If this is true, then shouldn’t we put more of our attention onto figuring out why you haven’t been sticking with your program, and what you should do about it?

I put together this new list (below) of the top 8 reasons why you fall off the wagon.

Rather than worrying about the minutiae of your diet plan, like whether you should be on low carb or high carb, Mediterranean or Okinawan, vegetarian or meat eater, I propose that if you simply focus on these 8 issues, you’ll start getting more lasting results.

How? By being able to stick with whichever plan you decided was best for you! After all, even if you have the best nutrition program in the world – on paper – it doesn’t do you much good if you can’t stick with it in practice!

THE 8 REASONS

1. No focus: you didn’t set goals, you didn’t put your goals in writing, and/or you didn’t stay focused on your goals daily (by reading them, affirming them, looking at a vision board, etc.)

2. No priorities: you may have set a goal, but you didn’t put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.

3. No support system: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going got tough.

4. No Accountability: you didn’t keep score for your own accountability – with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn’t set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)

5. No patience: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 pounds a week or 5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you lost “only” 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.

6. No planning: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn’t plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn’t have a menu on paper, you didn’t make time (so instead you made excuses, like “I’m too busy”)

7. No balance: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, “I want it now” route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.

8. No personalization: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn’t suit your schedule, personality, lifestyle, disposition or body type.

So there you have it – 8 reasons why most people fall off the wagon! Have you been making these mistakes? If so, the solutions are clear and simple: focus, prioritize, get support, be accountable, be patient, plan, balance and personalize.

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

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