Monday

The toughest workout of my life!

I think I've officially done the toughest workout of my entire life... this coming from a guy who loves to do wind sprints, hill sprints, high intensity full body weight training, mountain biking, and other super-high intensity forms of workouts.

But this workout didn't involve any of those.

I've actually been in the rocky mountains skiing most of this winter. A few days ago, in order to hit some extreme terrain that's not accessible from the ski lifts, we hiked up a portion of the mountain by foot.

Here's what made this the toughest workout of my life...

We were in ski boots, hiking straight up a steep mountain in thigh deep powder, carrying our skis on our shoulders... and all the while, over 13000 feet in elevation (one heck of a difference from exercising at sea level!).

My legs and lungs have never burned so hard in my life. When we got to the summit, it took us at least 5 minutes to catch our breath and have our legs stop burning.

Then, we started the exciting descent down the mountain carving through the deep powder, which quickly brought back some serious leg burning as well as a serious adrenaline rush!
Despite this being probably the toughest workout of my life, it was also so exhilarating, I had a high for probably an hour afterwards.

Now I know this type of workout may not be applicable to you if you don't ski or hike mountains, but I just wanted to bring up the point that you need to enjoy your workouts if you're going to have long term success in getting the body that you want.

Also, I wanted to point out that if you've been bored with your workouts, there's another whole world of options out there available to you if you're sick and tired of treadmills, ellipticals, and weight rooms.

Why not do something fun while getting in great shape at the same time... maybe you could start hiking mountains or take up cross country skiing, snowshoeing, or downhill skiing (I can tell you that I don't think I've seen a single fat person since I've been in ski country this entire winter... so it's more than just fun).

If you don't have mountains near you, perhaps you could at least spruce up your workouts by doing hill sprints or outdoor wind sprints. If it's cold and snowy in your part of the world this time of year, you could even do snow running or pull your kids around on a sled (you'll get a workout and they'll have fun!). Even chopping firewood is a killer workout, and I actually think it's sort of fun.

When the weather warms up, perhaps you could try out kayaking, canoeing, or mountain or road biking.

If you're in the gym, maybe you could even try kickboxing, heavy bag punching, or jump roping to mix up your workouts. Anything to keep you interested and have fun doing your workouts instead of bored to tears on a treadmill or elliptical.

I haven't used a boring cardio machine like a treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike for over 8 years, and I probably will never use one again in my life... there are just so many more interesting and fun forms of exercise compared to "walking or pedaling to nowhere".

Well, that's my rant for today... make your exercise fun, interesting, and intense and you'll be hooked on lifelong fitness for good!

I'm out for today.

One last note... my colleague Rob Poulos is having a special promotion with a bonus package that you should check out. You can check it out here:

http://www.fatburningfurnace.net/

Til next time...
Don't be lazy, be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - Truth About Abs .com & Busy Man Fitness .com

Wednesday

Fitness Deception on TV and in the Gym

I had to tell you about 2 interesting things I noticed today now that everyone is once again attacking their New Years Resolutions for a better body.

One thing I noticed is that there seems to be a new blitz of commercials on TV now all claiming that you can "get your dream body without changing anything else in your life".

I'm not joking... I think those were pretty much the exact words this one commercial used. Sure enough, they were selling a bottle of some useless pills and trying to make you believe that this is the magic answer to your dream body. They said that you don't need exercise and you can eat anything and still get a perfect body.

This should be a crime. They are flat out lying, and yet somehow they get away with this kind of false advertising without being put in jail!

The bottom line truth is that if you're not currently happy with your body, then you DO need to change at least some part of your life. Yes, you DO have to do more than just pop a pill!

The change in your life that may be needed is in one or more of three major aspects (all of which need to be handled if you want the body and health that you wish for)...

1. Your nutrition
2. Your exercise
3. Your mindset

Master all 3 of those and your health and body of your dreams actually does become a reality.
Ok, now what I noticed at the gym today...

I've been skiing a good bit lately, so my legs were already pretty battered, but I went to the gym anyway to get in a good upper body workout.

Of course, with it being the first week in January, the gym was packed with all of the people that don't workout the rest of the year, but instead, just come in for the first few weeks of January until they go back to their bad habits and stop working out.

Interestingly enough, I noticed that the cardio area was jam packed and did not have one single treadmill or elliptical not in use.

On the other hand, the free weight area was practically desolate other than just a couple people. Funny though that the people training in the free weight area were in spectacular shape, while at the same time, I don't think I saw one person on the cardio machines that was in good shape.

It just goes to show that the majority of these well-intentioned people that were pumping away mindlessly on the cardio machines were doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing if they actually want to see results.

There's a reason the free weight trainers were in better shape than the cardio addicts...
High intensity free-weight and bodyweight resistance training is effective at fat loss and long lasting body composition changes, whereas long duration mindless cardio exercise is NOT.

Start focusing on resistance training (in the right style) and move away from the boring cardio training and you'll finally see the results you're looking for.

Keep in mind, if your resistance training is all on machines, you're not getting the best results you could.

Also, if you focus the majority of your training on single-joint exercises such as arm curls, leg extensions, leg curls, tricep presses, etc then you're not getting the best results.

And 3rd, if you're resistance training is an afterthought that comes after your cardio, than once again, you're not getting the results you could get.

Don't know what the best method of resistance training is? No worries... all of the most effective techniques with full descriptions are laid out in my Truth about Six Pack Abs program. You can see for yourself what other users are saying here:

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/testimonials.html

And if you still have questions as to whether this is right for you, go to see the answers here:

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/abdominal-fat-loss-program-questions.html

Don't procrastinate... If you want to make a permanent change, take action on your new body and health today!

Don't be lazy... be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - Truth About Abs .com & Busy Man Fitness .com

PS - if you liked todays article, feel free to fwd this email on to any of your friends, family, or co-workers that would enjoy it.