Ever spent countless hours doing crunches, but never get the results you want? Ever buy the latest and greatest abdominator, absphere, or some other abfreakentacular device, but still didn’t get the results? I’m sure you can feel the six-pack underneath all that skin and fat, but why doesn’t it show. It doesn’t show because:
- you’re not eating right
- you’re not getting enough rest
- you spend too much time working just one part of your body
- you’re not doing the right amount of cardio
- you’re neglecting other body parts
- your cardio exercise choice doesn’t utilize all available muscle groups
- your intensity is too low
- you do the same exercise routine over and over … and over again
All this sums up to one thing. You can’t drop your body fat. The one single thing you can do to have your six-pack show, is to reduce the body fat.
100 Hundred Pushups Program. This post is not a review of the program, but rather to tell you that it works. I used to work at an awesome little company here in Toronto called FreshBooks. The very social and fun culture of the company allowed me to introduce the program to everyone. So, 3 times a week, a few of us would hit the floor at 3:45pm. We kept it regular and followed the program religiously. During my initial test I was able to squeeze out 60 push ups, and it only took me 4 weeks to do 100 push ups. And those who only did about 25-30 push ups during the initial test were easily pushing between 80 to 100 reps by the end of the program. And one participant, who could barely do 6, was doing nearly 80 push ups in 6 weeks. That’s very impressive, good work buddy (you know who you are).
So, if you don’t have time to workout at the gym or home, invest a few minutes 3x/week into 100 push ups. It’s well worth it.
This update is a little late this week, but I do have to let you know that I need to halt the trial of the mass building program. For one reason and only ONE reason, I am stopping it because my performance is suffering on the football field. I play in a Touch Football League in Mississauga. Since sprinting and agility are big components of the game, my performance in that aspect has suffered. I am in a good shape, I just need to improve my explosive power more than anything. Therefore I am putting mass building program on hold. Will give this a shot during the time of the year when there aren’t so many demands on my cardio system. Thinking November, December and January.
Here’s what I learned so far with my three week experiment of the mass building program:
- Don’t do more than 8 exercises. At full intensity, the body begins to give up, and latter exercises and muscle groups suffer as a consequence.
- Work different muscle groups on different days.
- And lastly, you need to maintain a strict diet and eliminate any stress in your life. I was actually on track to gain about 2-3 lbs of muscle a week. I lost 4 lbs in about 4 days due to stress, even though I ate really well and exercised.
With that being said, I am switching to one of my most favorite routines which allows me to build strength and explosiveness. I’ll post my training routine at another date.
I don’t doubt the effectiveness of short, but very intense workouts. But, I still remain a full skeptic about Tim Ferriss’ insane muscle gains until I try this again. Not only is it extremely unhealthy to put on that much mass that fast but it is impossible without the aid of questionable diet and supplementation, and maybe even performance enhancing drugs.
It has been two weeks since I decided to try out Tim Ferriss‘ insane mass building program. As I experiment with the routine and workouts, I am also challenged with making sure that my daily life accomodates 4-hour body philosophy. I thought that it would be fairly easy since you only workout two times per week, I was wrong. Logistics are easy. I can make time and have access to the right gear, but its the nutriton and psychological barriers that are preventing me from focusing 110%.
You need to keep a good, clean and a consistent diet (I hate the word diet) in addition to being able to pack in enough of good calories to encourage muscle repair and growth. To be quite honest. My diet could have been way better. However, during the second week it was much improved over the first.
When not in the gym, a cloud of doubt casts in my mind whether this training program will be effective. I can’t help feel that something is missing.
On a lighter note, the workouts are intense. Which is good. Haven’t pushed this hard in a very long time. But I think I can make it even more intense. First of all, they took about 35 minutes to complete. So there alone I can cut rest times, and secondly I can definitely increase more weight. So what are the results? They are minimal. More intensity and dedicated diet will help me achieve 5lbs a week in mass gains. Last week I only put on 3lbs.
One of the things I love about the fitness industry, is that there are so many things you can do with marketing and advertising ‘health and fitness’ products and services. Today I came across really creative ads that will inspire you to get fit. Some are thought provoking, some are hilarious and one actually makes you do neck exercises.
1. Fitness Network: Weightlifting
2. VIP Gym: Chairs
3. Weight Watchers: Doors
4. Weight Watchers: Elevator
5. Weight Watchers: Bus
6. Companhia Athletica Gym: Switch your routine, Rope
7. Rezults Fitness: Keg
8. R2 Fitness Club: Christmas Girl
9. Powerhouse Gym: Cable Flys
10. Oxygo Gym
11. MyBody Gym: Mother
12. MyBody Gym: Piranha
13. German Olympic Sport Federation: Lincoln
14. Gold’s Gym: Truck
15. Gold’s Gym: Facebook
16. Gold’s Gym Costa Rica: Button
17. Body One Gym: Fat
18. BOLD: Tree
19. Fitvibe: Exercise
20. Active Life Movement: Superhero
What do you think?
Do any of these ads inspire you to join a gym or get fit? Let me know which ones you liked or didn’t. If you know of even better advertisements, post a link in the comments section.
