My Practical "Lazy Cook" Recipes For Building Muscle! So Easy Even a Caveman Can Make Them...

My Practical "Lazy Cook" Recipes For Building Muscle! So Easy Even a Caveman Can Make Them...
By Nick Nilsson

Find yourself short on time to cook a good meal? I know I do! Learn my "secret"
recipes that are extremely quick and simple to make. I'll give you
my favorite muscle-building meals!

If you're like me, you sometimes find yourself short on time to cook yourself a good meal. And if you're also like me, meaning a lazy cook, sometimes the motivation to really make a grand meal is short, too!

So what do you when this happens but you still want to reach your muscle-building goals?

I've got three great "recipes" (and I use the word "recipes" in the loosest sense possible!) to share with you that will help you stay on track towards massing up.

Keep in mind, even though I'm going to inject a little humor into this list, these are examples of actual things you can prepare for yourself to help make your life easier! I just want to show you that decent nutrition doesn't have be dull as dirt or taste like it either.

**** Also it's important to note, I'm NOT a nutritionist And I don't claim to be! So
PLEASE don't make a gigantic vat of mashed potatoes then complain because
you're diabetic and your blood sugar is so high that you're sweating maple syrup.
These recipes are for "entertainment purposes only," so if you DO follow them,
personal responsibility is the keyword here! :) ****

These recipes are simple to make, don't take long to cook and are geared to my own personal skill level of cooking, which is boiling, microwaving, toasting (in a toaster, not one of them fancy toaster oven things), some basic frypan work and ripping open packages like a starving raccoon...

With these recipes, I'm not going to include salads. You're on your own with those. Personally, I eat them as often as I can (and you should too!), taking advantage of the convenient prepackaged salad bags from the store, throwing in some grape tomatoes, almonds, broccoli, carrots and whatever else is in the fridge that looks like it might go well in a salad and isn't TOO far past the date. Add some healthy dressing (on a side note, salsa is actually surprisingly good on salad) and voila! You're good to go.

Getting plenty of vegetables is also important - rather than force my personal vegetable preferences onto you (which are broccoli, snap peas, carrots, and chocolate covered almonds) just make the effort to eat vegetables as much as you can every day. Fresher and less processed is better, as is organic, but just do the best you can with that. You would have to REALLY go to town to eat TOO many vegetables so don't be shy with them.

I'm also a big fan of taking vitamin and mineral supplements because no matter how "balanced" your diet appears to be, food is so depleted of nutrients right from the start these days that you're probably not getting nearly as many nutrients as you think you are from your food.
Let me put it this way, I'd rather have "expensive urine" (many doctors seem to think this is all you'll get from taking vitamins) than a debilitating illness caused by simple vitamin and mineral deficiencies that I then have to take expensive drugs to basically just mask the symptoms of.

But I digress...

To make best use of these recipes for those short on time, Tupperware will be your best friend. Make a LOT when you DO make something and save the rest for later. It's great to make things fresh but it's also great to just sling something you made yesterday into the microwave and eat it again (and again after that, if you made a WHOLE LOT!). It'll save you from eating cereal three meals a day (not that I've ever done THAT, of course...).

Serving sizes are totally up to you. I usually eat the majority of what I make then save some for the next day, especially if it's a post-workout meal.

So let's get into those muscle building recipes...

1. Spaghetti with Cajun Meat Sauce
This is a great, protein-rich post-workout meal. Tastes great and serves 1 to 4 people, depending completely on how hungry you are and your willingness to share with others.

• 1 pound of whole wheat spaghetti (a healthier way to go)

• 1 jar of sauce that's thick enough to cover up the taste of whole wheat spaghetti (that's my own opinion, at least!)

• 1 pound of lean ground beef (I like ground sirloin for this because it's leaner)

• Some pre-packaged Cajun spices - I get big containers of these at Sam's Club but most grocery stores should have some version. This really spices up the meat sauce nicely.

First, put some water in a big pot and set the stove on high to bring it to a boil. Fill a sauce pan/fry pan about halfway up with water. I like to put the ground beef in the pan BEFORE I add the water so it doesn't splash all over the place when I dump the meat in (found THAT out the hard way, of course - the dog was happy about the meat water all over the floor but the shirt I was wearing will never be the same).

Bring the water in that pan to a boil and throw a bunch of Cajun spice in the pan with the meat. Don't be cheap with it! Stir it in and smash the meat up so it's not all clumped together.
When the spaghetti water is boiling, dump the spaghetti in. Let it boil for 9-10 minutes then drain. The meat will be boiling while the spaghetti is boiling - if the meat gets done first, drain it then cover it up. It'll keep its heat as long as it's covered.

Empty the sauce jar into the spaghetti pot and stir it up. If you're not sharing the pasta with someone who doesn't like meat, feel free to throw the meat in the spaghetti pot, too. If you ARE sharing, serve out some spaghetti into a separate big bowl THEN toss the meat in there. It'll just work out better for all concerned that way.

Serve sitting on the couch with an oven mitt under the bowl because it'll be dang hot on the bottom! And it's better NOT to wear a white shirt while you're eating it. 'Nuff said.

2. Scrambled Eggs and Oatmeal With Yogurt And Fruit
This is a great breakfast meal that will keep you from getting hungry for HOURS. The fat in the egg yolks keeps you satisfied while the thick oatmeal will keep your digestive system busy for a long time. Lots of fiber to work on!

• 6 whole eggs - not egg whites, WHOLE eggs! They're not bad for you like many people seem to think. The yolk is where most of the nutrients are. Tastes a whole lot better with yolks, too. Adjust the number of eggs to your preference.

• 1 gob of Smart Balance margarine to coat the bottom of the pan. Cooking spray will work for this as will olive oil.

• 1 dry cup of Quaker Oats - either the Old Fashioned or 1 Minute oats are fine here. Adjust the quantity of oats to your preference.

• 2 cups of water (basically, double the amount of oats you put in).

• A bunch of fruit - whatever your favorite fruit is. I find berries or grapes work best because you don't need to cut them up. Wash them before eating them.

• 1 Thing of yogurt - this is the technical term for however much yogurt you want to put in the oatmeal. If I have individually packaged yogurts, I'll just dump one of those in. If I have a bigger container, I'll scoop a pile of yogurt in until it looks like enough. You'll figure out how much you want to put in.

First, get the fruit ready. Wash it up and put it in a small bowl. Crack the eggs into a bowl/cup and scramble them. If you're talented, you can crack them with one hand and not slop them down the sides. After cracking about 30,000 eggs in my lifetime, I'm still not talented. I managed to do it once then the next time I ended up with a dripping fistful of egg and shell.

** On a side note, it IS possible to squeeze an egg with one hand and break it. A friend of mine once told me that you can't put an egg in the palm of your hand, squeeze it and break it. He said it wasn't possible (he was a physics major). So I grabbed an egg and squeezed it REALLY tight. Three seconds later, it exploded so hard the yolk popped out and flew 6 feet across the room and actually landed right in his shirt pocket!

So anyway, THAT being said, measure out a cup of oats, dump it in a good-sized bowl, then add double the amount of oats in water, e.g. 1 cup of oats, add 2 cups of water. You can adjust the water later, depending on if you like your oatmeal a little soupy (like I do) or masonry thick (like my wife does).

Nuke it for about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes. While that's going, turn on the stove and get the pan for the eggs heated up. Throw a gob of Smart Balance margarine in the pan (that's a great brand - it's actually a reasonably healthy margarine and tastes good). Olive oil works really well here, too, as does non-stick spray. With the olive oil, it's a good idea to have a spray bottle for it so it doesn't all pool up in the corner that your stove burner leans to (you know what I'm talking about).
Make sure the whole bottom surface of the egg pan gets covered with something slippery or you'll regret it later when you try to keep eggs from getting all crusted up and nasty along the sides.

Pour the beaten eggs into the pan and watch them cook. Stir them around once the bottom starts to get solid. Keep stirring and scraping the sides off to avoid the crust I mentioned above.
Your oatmeal should be done about the same time the eggs are. So put the eggs on a plate and set it aside for now.

Take your bowl of oatmeal out of the microwave then dump the yogurt in, then the fruit. Stir it all up (not the eggs, just the fruit and yogurt) and you're good to go.
This meal will keep you going for hours!

3. Meat and Taters
"Meat and potatoes" might be a cliche but for me, there's not much that works better for supporting muscle growth than a nice piece of meat (or chicken or fish) and a big bucket of potatoes. And if that sounds corny, it should, because sometimes I'll throw some corn in with the potatoes.

Let's talk about potatoes first, then I'll give the inside scoop on how to cook meat (I think I can hear my wife laughing in the background as I write about my cooking skills...).
First, grab 3 or 4 good-sized potatoes. I try to get red potatoes since they can't be stored as long as other potatoes therefore they're fresher when you get them rather than having been sitting in storage for a year.

I prefer to microwave potatoes since it's faster than boiling and they turn out really well. Wash any crud off them then slice off any questionable areas. Stick a fork or knife in them a few times to "aerate" so they don't explode in the microwave (unless you enjoy scraping your dinner off the sides).

For each potato, figure on about 3 to 5 minutes of cooking time, depending on the size of your potato and power of your microwave. You'll know they're done when you can easily stick a fork right through - just don't leave the fork in the microwave or you'll be in for a surprise.
Dump in a big bowl, mix in some margarine (or if you're on a low-fat kick, pour some ketchup in it), add some sea salt and you're set. You can also throw in can of corn (nuke it first - not the can but the corn) to spice things up.

As for the meat, if you're good with a gas or charcoal grill, more power to you. You're a better cook than I am and I don't know why you're even reading this part. If you have one of those George Foreman countertop grills, those work really well for meat (especially the ones that you can pull the grill things off and put them in the dishwasher - the ones that you can't remove are a pain in the butt to clean, so if you're going to get one, get the removeable grill version). Follow the instructions that came with the grill for the meat or chicken or fish you're cooking.

If you've got some chicken breasts that you just want to "fire and forget" rather than tend to on a grill, throw them in pan, pre-heat the oven to about 400 degrees, dump some spices on them (whatever you like), cover with tinfoil to keep the juices in, and cook for about 30 minutes or so (SET THE TIMER!). If you want to get REALLY fancy, slice up a lemon and toss a few slices on top with some black pepper.

There you have it. Meat and potatoes. Perfect for a big post-workout meal that will help you pack the pounds on.

I also like to use potatoes, corn and ground beef (or sirloin) to make "Lazy Cook" Shepherd's Pie. Microwave the potatoes and corn as above. Boil the meat as in recipe #1, then dump it all into a big bowl and stir. You'll be 5 pounds heavier by the end of the meal!

Conclusion:
As you can see, cooking tasy food for building muscle doesn't have to be hard and recipes don't have to be these complex things that take hours to make and require more than very basic cooking skills. With my recipes, if you can do a few simple things without burning yourself, that's about all the skill you need.
And if you're interested in learning some recipes for fat loss, I've got 3 excellent ones that I can share with you as well! Go back up to the top of the article and reread it. It's the same stuff...now just eat less of it...

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at betteru. He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

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Part 2 - 5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown

Part2 - 5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com




So what can be done to stop this metabolic slowdown caused by low calorie dieting and the dreaded fat loss plateau that follows? I recommend the following 5 tips:

1) Lose the pounds slowly.

Slow and steady wins in long term fat loss and maintenance every time. Rapid weight loss correlates strongly with weight relapse and loss of lean body mass. Aim for one to two pounds per week, or no more than 1% of total body weight (ie, 3 lbs per week if you weigh 300 lbs).

2) Use a higher energy flux program.

If you are physically capable of exercise, then use weight training AND cardio to increase your calorie expenditure, so you can still have a calorie deficit, but at a higher food intake (also known as a "high energy flux" program, or as we like to say in Burn The Fat, "eat more, burn more.")

3) Use a conservative calorie deficit.

You must have a calorie deficit to lose fat, but your best bet is to keep the deficit small. This helps you avoid triggering the starvation response, which includes the increased appetite and potential to binge that comes along with starvation diets. I recommend a 20% deficit below your maintenance calories (TDEE), a 30% deficit at most for those with high body fat.

4) Refeed.

Increase your calories (re-feed) for a full day periodically (once a week or so if you are heavy, twice a week if you are already lean), to restimulate metabolism. On the higher calorie day, take your calories to maintenance or even 10, 15, 20% above maintenance and add the extra calories in the form of carbs (carb cycling). The leaner you get, and the longer you've been on reduced calories, the more important the re-feeds will be. (You can learn more about this method in chapter 12 of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at www.BurnTheFat.com)

5) Take periodic diet breaks.

Take 1 week off your calorie restricted diet approximately every 12 weeks or so. During this period, take your calories back up to maintenance, but continue to eat healthy, "clean" foods. Alternately, go into a muscle building phase if increasing lean mass is one of your goals. This will bring metabolism and regulatory hormones back up to normal and keep lean body mass stable.

There is much confusion about how your metabolism, hormones and appetite mechanisms are affected when you're dieting, so this was really one of the most important questions anyone could have asked.

If this didn't REALLY click - then you may want to save this and read it again because misunderstanding this stuff leads more people to remain frustrated and stuck at plateaus than anything else I can think of.

If you'd like to learn exactly how you should be eating to lose 2 lbs of fat per week, then visit http://www.burnthefat.com.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto,
Author of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
http://www.BurnTheFat.com


Part1 - 5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown HERE!

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com


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Part 1 - 5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown

5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown
By Tom Venuto

www.BurnTheFat.com

QUESTION: Tom, Is it possible to not lose body fat because you're eating too little?
-Linda


ANSWER: Yes and no. This gets a little complicated so let me explain both sides.
Part one of my answer: I say NO, because if you are in a calorie deficit you WILL lose weight.

Most people have heard anecdotes of the dieter who claims to be eating 800 calories a day or some starvation diet level of intake that is clearly in a deficit and yet is not losing fat. Like the mythical unicorn, such an animal does not exist.

Every time you take a person like that and put them in a hospital research center or metabolic ward where their food can be counted, weighed, measured and almost literally "spoon fed" to them, a calorie deficit always produces weight loss.

There are no exceptions, except possibly in rare diseases or mutations. Even then metabolic or hormonal defects or diseases merely lead to energy imbalance via increases in appetite, decreases in energy expenditure or changes in energy partitioning. So at the end of the day it's STILL calories in versus calories out.

In other words, NO - it's NOT your thyroid (unless you've got a confirmed diagnosis as such...and then guess what... it's STILL calories in vs calories out, you're just not burning as many as someone should at your height and weight).

One famous study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine years ago proved this point rather dramatically. After studying obese people - selected specifically because they swore they were eating less than 1200 calories but could not lose weight - Steven Lichtman and his colleages at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York came to the following conclusion:

"The failure of some obese subjects to lose weight while eating a diet they report as low in calories is due to an energy intake substantially higher than reported and an overestimation of physical activity, not to an abnormality in thermogenesis."

That's right - the so-called "diet-resistant" subjects were eating more than they thought and moving less than they thought. This was probably the single best study ever published that debunks the "I'm in a calorie deficit but I can't lose weight" myth:

Part two of my answer, YES, because:

1) Energy intake increases.

Eating too little causes major increases in appetite. With hunger raging out of control, you lose your deficit by overeating. This happens in many ways, such as giving in to cravings, binge eating, eating more on weekends or simply being inconsistent, so some days you're on your prescribed 1600 calories a day or whatever is your target amount, but on others you're taking in 2200, 2500, 3000 etc and you don't realize it or remember it. The overeating days wipe out the deficit days.

2) Metabolism decreases due to smaller body mass.

Any time at all when you're losing weight, your metabolism is slowly decreasing due to your reduced body mass. The smaller and lighter you get, especially if there's a large drop in skeletal muscle mass, the fewer calories you need. So your calorie deficit slowly shrinks over time as your diet progresses. As a result, your progress slows down even though you haven't changed how much you eat.

With starvation, you always lose weight, but eventually you lose so much weight/body mass that you can reach energy balance at the same caloric intake you used to lose weight on. You might translate that as "I went into starvation mode" which wouldn't be incorrect, but it would be more accurate to say that your calorie needs decreased.

3) Metabolism decreases due to adaptive thermogenesis.

Eating too little also causes a starvation response (adaptive thermogenesis) where metabolic rate can decrease above and beyond what can be accounted for from the change in body mass (#2 above). This is "starvation response" in the truest sense. It does exist and it is well documented. However, the latest research says that the vast majority of the decrease in metabolism comes from reduced body mass. The adaptive component of the reduced metabolic rate is fairly small, perhaps 10% (ie, 220 calories for an average female with a 2200 TDEE). The result is when you don't eat enough, your actual weight loss is less than predicted on paper, but weight loss doesn't stop completely.

There is a BIG myth about starvation mode (adaptive thermogenesis) that implies that if you don't eat enough, your metabolism will slow down so much that you stop losing weight. That can't happen, it only appears that way because weight loss stops for other reasons. What happens is the math equation changes!

Energy balance is dynamic, so your weight loss slows down and eventually stops over time if you fail to adjust your calories and activity levels in real time each week.

I teach a system for how to adjust calories and activity weekly using a feedback loop method in my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program (more info from www.BurnTheFat.com)

So what can be done to stop this metabolic slowdown caused by low calorie dieting and the dreaded fatoss plateau that follows? I recommend the following 5 tips:
Follow this Blog!

------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com


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Best Cardio Machines for Weight Loss

Best Cardio Machines for Weight Loss
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

You don't have to do cardio to lose fat, but cardio machines can be helpful for boosting your metabolism and burning more fat.

And if you use interval training, you can get more results than if
you did traditional aerobic cardio. But that's another story for
another time. Let's take a look at which machines burn the most
calories and which ones are worth your time.

An okay choice: Elliptical Machines.

The biggest reason to choose elliptical machines...
=> you've got a bum knee.

I have worked with clients with extreme osteoarthritis and we
were able to use these machines for a decent workout without pain - but the results didn't compare to clients that used a stationary bike or treadmill for their interval training.

So in general, I'm not overly impressed by the elliptical machine
for fat loss.

If you go into any gym, compare the bodies on the ellipticals to
the ones on other machines...most of the time, the people on the
ellipticals make no progress from month to month.

And having given the elliptical a "go" once or twice on my own, it
just didn't challenge me as a treadmill does.

But if you have bad knees, or if you are an exception to my
experience, feel free to keep rocking the elliptical!

Up next...The Stationary Bike

The bike can be easy on your knees as well, particularly if you are overweight and can't support your bodyweight on the treadmill.

Personally, I like the stationary bikes a lot. The set up allows
you to do a large amount of mechanical work during your interval training - and that is what puts Turbulence on the muscle and allows you to increase your post-exercise metabolism.

In fact, when I first started designing the interval workouts back in 2001, I used stationary bikes exclusively.

I also think that the bike allows you to work very hard with less
risk of injury. Running sprints outside or on a treadmill requires
a much more extensive warm-up due to the explosive nature of
sprinting.

If you don't know your body, running sprints or hills probably
isn't the best place to start. I've met too many people that have
jumped right into hill training and been hurt within 1 week.
sprints.

So I recommend starting with the bike unless you are an experienced runner that knows your body well.

In addition, here are three more key points about the bike.

a) Stick to the upright version if possible. When using a recumbent bike for intervals, your hips tend to rock too much and your body tries to get into awkward positions in order to push hard against the resistance. That's my experience. The upright bikes are set up better for intervals.

b) For intervals, increase the resistance against your pedalling,
and not the speed of your pedalling. I don't like high RPM
spinning. I think you'll get more results and do more work when you keep the RPM between 80-100 and work against a harder resistance.

Forget that high-RPM spinning stuff...I find it is rough on your
hips and knees.

c) When on the upright bike, sit as upright as possible for the
recovery intervals or even stand for some of the work intervals.
Just avoid the "rounded over" posture as that can be hard on your low back.

So the winner is...The Treadmill.

The treadmill can burn 16-20 calories per minute of exercise
during your workout. That's a big burn, but of course only advanced fitness levels can achieve that - but hopefully you fit that category now or you will someday with consistent training and nutrition.

Some tips: Don't go crazy with the incline (as that can lead to
tight calves), but if you are able to run at more than 10mph, use a 1% incline to help offset the need for speed. The last thing
you want to do is end up in a crazy video on YouTube flying off the end of a treadmill into an elliptical machine.

So as with all types of sprinting, be careful.

Honorable mentions go to...The Rowing Machine and
Stairmaster...these can be used in place of other machines for
variety and are still effective.

Better yet, if you are able, use your body as the best fat burning
machine. I highly recommend bodyweight circuits for interval
training. These are fun, effective, and perhaps even better at
sculpting your body.

I really like bodyweight interval circuits for advanced
fat-burning, plateau-busting workouts. If you're stuck, you'll
benefit from bodyweight circuits.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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Full-Range Pulldowns For Carving Definition Into Every Inch Of Your Back

Full-Range Pulldowns For Carving Definition Into Every Inch Of Your Back
By Nick Nilsson

While chins may be a better mass-builder, this version of the pulldown
works WAY better for bringing out eye-popping detail in your back.
And if you've ever had a hard time feeling your back working, THIS
exercise will fix that in an instant!

For me, it's rare that I do pulldowns - I'd rather do chins or weighted chins to hit the back for targeting growth. But when I DO perform pulldowns, THIS is one my very favorite versions of it.

Believe me, if you have a hard time feeling your back working when you train it, this is the cure...your lats will be BURNING by the end of the set...heck, after just a couple of reps!

This exercise is a combination of a pulldown movement and a rowing movement - the two BASIC planes of movement for the lats. The trick here is that you're going to go from one directly into the other without releasing the tension in your lats. It's VERY tough but VERY effective.

The good thing is, you don't need to be super-strong to perform this exercise - even a total beginner can do it. Just adjust the weight to what you're able to use.

Basically, all you need is a pulldown machine. I prefer a close, underhand grip but you can do wide-grip as well. Use a weight that's lighter than you think you'll need for this one - about 1/2 to 2/3 of what you'd normally use for pulldowns (trust me on this - don't be a hero).

* Start the movement like a normal pulldown.
* Pull the bar down to your upper chest.
* Now the CRITICAL part...holding the bar IN PLACE IN SPACE, lean all the way back (you'll see this best in the video, which I'll give you a link to). You'll now be in a vertical rowing position.
* Now row the bar all the way down as far as you can. You're hitting a peak contraction on the lats TWICE in this exercise. It's quite an experience!
* Now come back up, bringing your body up and the bar up at the same time. The way down is a two-part movement but the way up is all at once.

Now do it again!

Believe me, you will get a REAL burn in your lats by the end of the first set of this one. It's one of my favorites for carving definition into the back.

This exercise can be found in my book "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of" - one of 53 unique and powerful exercises that will kick your butt out of any training plateau! HERE!

To view a video of this exercise in action, click here!


Seeing it done makes it a LOT easier to understand how the mechanics of it work.

------------------

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 17 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Muscle Explosion! 28 Days To Maximum Mass", "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at HERE !
He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.


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Secret Training Tip - Cable Gripping Trunk Twists For a TIGHT, Powerful, Rock-Solid Core

Secret Training Tip:
Cable Gripping Trunk Twists For a TIGHT, Powerful, Rock-Solid Core
By Nick Nilsson

If you want a tight, strong midsection that's "show" AND "go," you'll
definitely want to add this exercise to your list. A simple "twist" to
a simple twisting exercise is all you need!

When most people think ab training, they don't think explosive rotational movements...they think crunches or sit-ups.. But YOU'RE not most people, are you!

Because you know (or at least you will in a second!) that powerful, rotational movements against resistance are the REAL key to developing a tight, strong core that not only looks great but gives you serious improvements in functional strength.

And I'm not talking "functional" like standing on a Bosu ball on one leg catching bean bags "functional." I'm talking throw harder, run faster, jump higher NOW type of "functional." Basically, the kind of functional you actually WANT.

That's where the Cable Gripping Trunk Twist exercise comes in...

This is not your standard twisting exercise where you use little light weights or even no weight at all. You are going working against resistance and eventually working your way up to substantial resistance.

WHY YOU NEED ROTATIONAL TRAINING:

First off, from an aesthetic point of view, if you want a flat stomach or tighter waist, you NEED exercises that work in with a rotational movement (assuming your bodyfat levels are low enough - direct ab training won't burn abdominal fat away).

Think of it this way...if somebody handed you some elastic bandage and told you to wrap yourself so that it made your waist smaller, how would you wrap it?

Would you loop it over your shoulder and between your legs up and down your body?

NO! You'd immediately wrap it AROUND your waist and cinch it up tight.

So now comes the question...why would your "six pack" abs (the rectus abdominus) be the muscle to work if you want a tighter waist and flat stomach? This sheet of muscle runs vertically on your body, just like throwing that elastic bandage over your shoulder and through your legs.

You need to work the muscles that wrap AROUND the waist - the transversus abdominus and the obliques (internal and external). THESE are the muscles that tighten the waist and flatten the stomach area.

It's still a good idea (if your goal is a six-pack) to keep in some specific training for the frontal ab muscles, but to really make the waist smaller and the stomach flat, rotational training is what you need.

Second, rotation is CRITICAL to pretty much ALL sports and related movements.

Look at ANY throw or strike or hit or swing or kick or punch or stride...notice any rotational component there?

The rotational muscles of the abs are the KEY to transferring force through the midsection.

HOW TO DO IT:

Naturally, if this is your first time doing a rotational exercise against resistance, start light and work up slowly. DO NOT start with explosive movements the first time you do this exercise.

That comes later. We're going to progress to it, not jump right into it.

Attach a single handle to a cable. If you've got an adjustable-height pulley, set it to about stomach level. If your cable doesn't adjust, you can use either the low or high pulley, no problem. The angle of the exercise will just be different.

Stand with your left side to the pulley. Reach across your body and grip the handle with your RIGHT hand. Now take a big step to the right to get the weight up off the stack. Your right arm will be stretched across your body. Open up your left hand and get ready to grab the cable. Rotate through your core, using your right hand to pull the cable. As the handle comes across the midline of your body, grab the cable itself with your left hand.

Now comes the cool part of this exercise...the part that makes it FAR more effective than a simple twisting exercise.

Continue to rotate around to the right but now, instead of just pulling with your right hand (the one on the handle), you will start to PUSH forward on the cable with your left hand. Keep pushing all the way through and forward as far as you can with the left hand. This pushing movement with the left hand on the cable is what will really target those rotational muscles of the core and teach them how to transfer power through your lower body to the upper body.

This version is done under control...it's a deliberate movement done with light to moderate weight. Do 5 or 6 reps on one side then switch to the other side.

You will really feel this one hitting the abs in a unique way...if you're never done rotational ab training against resistance or have never done "pushing" ab exercises, you're going to be in for a treat (if you like being pleasantly sore through the core, that is!).

The first time you do this exercise, I recommend you just stick to the moderate weight, controlled movement style of training.

Once you get more familiar with the exercise (after a few sessions), you can start getting into a more "power" based style of training.

THIS style is the one that really builds tremendous core power. If you're into any sort of athletics, this is the one to work towards using regularly...

One nice benefit I didn't mention...you do it standing up. You see, if you're an athlete, you're pretty much almost ALWAYS going to be standing up (unless you stink and fall down a lot, of course). You need to know how to exert force and develop maximum strength and power in a standing position.

Back to the instructions...

To perform the explosive version, you'll be in pretty much the same start position. But this time, instead of planting both feet and then starting to rotate, you will instead start on one foot (the one closest to the cable stack) then forcefully transfer your bodyweight in the other direction.

Think of it like you're "taking a run at it." You're going to use the momentum of your bodyweight to get the heavier weight moving then EXPLOSIVELY begin the rotation and cable grab, exactly as before.

The main difference here is that you're doing as fast and as powerfully as you can rather than with a controlled movement. You're stepping into the weight and using a forceful bodyweight throw to blast it off.

Use heavier weight for this and keep to only about 3 reps per side here. We want POWER, not endurance on this version. Do your reps on one side then switch to the other. It's a good idea to practice with a moderate weight before getting into the heavier stuff.

CONCLUSION:

If you want to develop great core strength AND/OR a flat stomach, this is an exercise that belongs in your program. I'd recommend doing 3 sets of it, at the end of your training sessions (but first in your regular ab exercises).

Even if you're strong enough and ready to do the explosive version, start with at least one set of the controlled version in order to warm-up the target area for rotational work.

To see pictures and video of this exercise in action, click here!





------------------

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 18 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "Muscle Explosion! 28 Days to Maximum Mass," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at HERE. He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

=====================================
Discover Free and Helpful Information
Subscribe to the monthly KieFit Journal NOW!
CLICK HERE: http://www.kiefit.com/
=====================================

Submit your Articles
Do you write articles about health, fitness, sports, nutrition etc? Feel free to send it to us. If your article meets our needs we will be willing to publish it. Email: articles[at]kiefit.com

Enjoy your healthy life!

Heidi

P.S. Tell your friends about http://www.kiefit.com

P.P.S.Please ad me to your twitter, facebook and linkedin.
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Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 2)

Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 2)
By Tom Venuto
www.burnthefat.com

In part one, I described the growing obsession many people have with eating only the purest, healthiest foods, aka “clean eating.” You’d think that nothing but good would come from that, but some experts today dislike the concept of clean foods because it implies a dichotomy where other foods, by default, are “dirty” or forbidden - as in, you can never, ever eat them again (imagine life without chocolate, or pizza… or beer! you guys). Some physicians and psychologists even believe that if taken to an extreme, a fixation on healthy food qualifies as a new eating disorder called orthorexia.

Personally, I have no issues with the phrase “clean eating.” Even if you choose to eat clean nearly 100% of the time, I don’t see how that qualifies as a psychological disorder of any kind (I reckon people who eat at McDonalds every day are the ones who need a shrink).

However, I also think you would agree that any behavior - washing your hands, cleaning your house, or even exercise or eating health food - can become obsessive-compulsive and dysfunctional if it takes over your life or is taken to an extreme. In the case of diet and exercise, it could also lead to or overlap with anorexia. It’s debatable whether orthorexia is a distinct eating disorder, but I’m not against using the word to help classify a specific type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. I think it’s real.

The truth is that many people are quite “enthusiastic” in defending – or preaching about - their dietary beliefs: no meat, no grains, no dairy, only organic, only raw, only what God made, and on and on the rigid all-or-nothing rules go. What people choose to eat is often so sacred to them, it makes for tricky business when you’re a nutrition educator. Sometimes I don’t feel like telling anyone what to eat, but simply setting a personal example and showing people how I do it, like, “Hey guys, here is how natural bodybuilders eat to get so ripped and muscular. It may not suit you, but it works for us. Take it or leave it.

” On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that there’s got to be a way to better help the countless individuals who haven’t yet formulated their own philosophies, and who find nutrition overwhelmingly confusing. For many people, even a simple walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and trying to decipher the food labels and nutrition claims is enough to trigger an anxiety attack.

That’s where I hope this is useful. I can’t draw the line for you, or tell you what to eat, but I can suggest a list of “new rules” for clean eating which simplifies nutrition and clears up confusion, while giving you more freedom, balance, life enjoyment and better results at the same time.

New Rule #1: Define what clean eating means to you

Obviously, clean eating is not a scientific term. Most people define clean eating as avoiding processed foods, chemicals and artificial ingredients and choosing natural foods, the way they came out of the ground or as close to their natural form as possible. If that works for you, then use it. However, the possible definitions are endless. I’ve seen forum arguments about whether protein powder is “clean.” Arguments are a waste of time. Ultimately, what clean eating means is up to you to define. Whether your beliefs and values have you restrict or expand on the general definition, define it you must, keeping in mind that your definition may be different than other’s.

New Rule #2: Always obey the law of energy balance

There’s one widely held belief about food that hurts people and perpetuates the obesity problem because it’s simply not true. It’s the idea that calories don’t matter for weight loss, as long as you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods. Some people think that if you eat only clean foods, you’re guaranteed to lose weight and stay lean. The truth is that eating too much of anything gets stored as fat. Yes, you can become obese eating 100% clean, natural foods. There’s more to good nutrition than calories in versus calories out, but the energy balance equation is always there.

New Rule #3: Remember that “foods” are not fattening, “excess calories” are

There’s a widespread fear today that certain foods will automatically turn into fat. Carbohydrates – particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars - are still high on the hit list of feared foods, and so are fatty foods, owing to their high caloric density (9 calories per gram). Foods that contain fat and sugar (think donuts) are considered the most fattening of all. But what if you ate only one small donut and stayed in a calorie deficit for the day – would you still say that donut was fattening?

If you want to say certain foods are fattening, you certainly can, but what you really mean is that some foods are calorie dense, highly palatable, not very satiating and eating them might even stimulate your appetite for more (betcha can’t eat just one!). Therefore, they’re likely to cause you to eat more calories than you need. Conversely, “non-fattening” foods have no magical properties, they’re simply low in caloric density, highly filling and non-appetite stimulating.

New Rule #4: Understand the health-bodyfat paradox

Two of the biggest reasons people choose to eat clean are health and weight loss. Health and body composition are intertwined, but dietary rules for health and weight loss are not one in the same. Weight gains or losses are dictated primarily by calorie quantity. Health is dictated primarily by calorie quality. That’s the paradox: You can lose weight on a 100% junk food diet, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be healthy. You can get healthier on an all natural clean food diet, but that doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight… and if you gain too much weight, then you start getting unhealthy. To be healthy and lean requires the right combination of calorie quantity and quality, not one or the other.

New Rule #5: Forbidden foods are forbidden.

Think of you on a diet like a pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat, the more the steam builds up inside. If there’s no outlet or release valve, eventually the pressure builds up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later. But if you let off a little steam by occasionally having that slice of pizza or whatever is your favorite food, that relieves the pressure.

Alas, you never even felt the urge to binge… because you already had your pizza and the urge was satisfied. Since the “cheat meal” was planned and you obeyed the law of calorie balance, you stayed in control and it had little or no effect on your fat loss results. Ironically, you overcome your cravings by giving in to them, with two caveats: not too often and not too much.

New Rule #6: Set your own compliance rule

Many health and nutrition professionals suggest a 90% compliance rule because if you choose clean foods 90% of the time, it’s easy to control your calories, you consume enough nutrients for good health, and what you eat the other 10% of the time doesn’t seem to matter much. Suppose you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks every day, a total of 35 feedings per week. 90% compliance would mean following your clean eating plan for about 31 or 32 of those weekly feedings. The other 3 or 4 times per week, you eat whatever you want (as long as you obey rule #2 and keep the calories in check)

You’ll need to decide for yourself where to set your own rule. A 90% compliance rule is a popular, albeit arbitrary number – a best guess at how much “clean eating” will give you optimal health. Some folks stay lean and healthy with 80%. Others say they don’t even desire junk food and they eat 99% clean, indulging perhaps only once or twice a month. One thing is for certain – the majority of your calories should come from natural nutrient-dense foods – not only for good health, but also because what you eat most of the time becomes your habitual pattern. Habit patterns are tough to break and what you do every day over the long term is what really counts the most.

New Rule #7: Have “free” meals, not “cheat” meals

Cheating presupposes that you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. That’s why you feel guilty when you cheat. Guilt can be one of the biggest diet destroyers. Consider referring to these meals that are off your regular plan as “free meals” instead of “cheat meals.” If having free meals is part of your plan right from the start, then you’re not cheating are you? So don’t call it that. What can you eat for your free meals? Anything you want. Otherwise, it wouldn’t truly be a free meal, would it?

People sometimes tell me that my bodybuilding diet and lifestyle are “too strict.” I find that amusing because I love eating clean 95-99% of the time and I consider it easy. I had a butter-drizzled steak, a glass of wine, and chocolate sin cake for dessert to celebrate my last birthday. I had a couple slices of pizza just four weeks before my last competition (and still stepped on stage at 4.5% body fat). Oh, and I’m really looking forward to my mom’s pumpkin pie and Christmas cake too. Why? How? Because as strict as my lifestyle might appear to some people, I’ve learned how to enjoy free meals and I will eat ANYTHING I want - with no guilt. Meanwhile, my critics are often people with rules that NEVER allow those foods to ever cross their lips.

New Rule #8: For successful weight control, focus on compliance to a calorie deficit, not just compliance to a food list

Dietary compliance doesn’t just mean eating the right foods, it means eating the right amount of food. You might be doing a terrific job at eating only the foods “authorized” by your nutrition program, but if you eat too many “clean” foods, you will still get fat. On the fat loss side of health-bodyfat paradox, the quantity of food is the pivotal factor, not the quality of food. If fat loss is your goal and you’re stubbornly determined to be 100% strict about your nutrition, then be 100% strict about maintaining your calorie deficit.

Lesson #9: Avoid all or none attitudes and dichotomous thinking

If you make a mistake, it doesn’t ruin an entire 12 week program, a whole week and not even an entire day. What ruins a program is thinking that you must either be on or off your diet and allowing one meal off your program to completely derail you. All or nothing thinking is the great killer of diet programs. Even if they don’t believe that one meal will set them back physically, many “clean eaters” feel like a single cheat is a moral failure. They are terrified to eat any processed foods because they look at foods as good or bad rather than looking at the degree of processing or the frequency of consuming them. Rest assured, a single meal of ANYTHING, if the calories don’t exceed your energy needs, will have virtually no impact on your condition. It’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do most of the time, day after day, that determines your long term results.

New Rule #10: Focus more on results, less on methods

I’m not sure whether it’s sad or laughable that most people get so married to their methods that they stop paying attention to results. Overweight people often praise their diet program and the guru that created it, even though they’ve plateaud and haven’t lost any weight in months, or the weight they lost has begun to creep back on. Health food fanatics keep eating the same, even when they’re sick and weak and not getting any stronger or healthier. Why would someone continue doing more of the same even when it’s not working? One word: habit! Beliefs and behavior patterns are so ingrained at the unconscious level, you repeat the same behaviors every day virtually on automatic pilot. Defending existing beliefs and doing it the way you’ve always done it is a lot easier than changing. In the final analysis, results are what counts: weight, body composition, lean muscle, performance, strength, blood pressure, blood lipids, and everything else you want to improve. Are they improving or not? If not, perhaps it’s time for a change.

Concluding words of wisdom

We need rules. Trying to eat “intuitively” or just “wing it” from the start is a recipe for failure. Ironically, intuitive eating does not come intuitively. Whether you use my Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle program or a different program that suits your lifestyle better, you must have a plan.

After following your plan for a while, your constructive new behaviors eventually turn over to unconscious control (a process commonly known as developing habits). But you’ll never reach that hallowed place of “unconscious competence” unless you start with planning, structure, discipline and rules. Creating nutritional rules does NOT create more rule breakers. Only unrealistic or unnecessary rules create rule breakers. That’s why these new rules of clean eating are based on a neat combination of structure and flexibility. If you have too much flexibility and not enough structure, you no longer have a plan. If you have too much structure and not enough flexibility, you have a plan you can’t stick with.

To quickly sum it all up: Relax your diet a bit! But not too much!

Tom Venuto, author of:
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Orthorexia and the New Rules of Clean Eating (Part 1) click HERE!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

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