Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Today’s done-for-you rapid weight loss boot camp workout uses the 50-10 Five Exercise Interval Training Music Soundtrack.

You have got to love all of these body weight based ab exercises- no need for expensive equipment to get the the best personal training in Milwaukee.

50-10 Core Workout of the Week

1- Unstable Alternating Glute Bridge March (feet on stability discs)
2- Push-up Walkouts (2-legged or 1-legged)
3- Stability Ball Reverse Hyper Hold/Knee-Ins Superset
4- Drop Squat to Press
5- Overhead Band Hip Walk-Squat Combo

For more interval workout music in this format for your indoor boot camps or group exercise classes, please check out Boot Camp Dynamite powered by Workout Muse @ www.bootcampdynamite.com

Crank it!

BJ

PS- If you want a FREE tryout to become a member of Get Sexy Boot Camps to work with Milwaukee’s best personal trainers, please contact getsexyinfo@gmail.com TODAY!

Well, it’s finally warm up here in Milwaukee, WI, so we’re taken our workouts outdoors a couple times a week to mix things up!

Check out the video below from our 6 am boot camp workout using nothing but a hill and your body weight… they were DEAD at the end:

Here is a great total body core exercise called rotational hill push-ups that will have your abs ripped up the next day, in a good way

Hope this gives you some ideas to get fit using the great outdoors… more to come!

Crank it!

BJ

PS- please feel free to post some of your favorite outdoor workouts as a comment to this blog post- videos are ideal

Though Father’s Day should be a time for celebrating what our father’s have sacrificed to allow us to lead the lives of our dreams, to me it’s more of a rude awakening.

Look, I hate to be Debbie Downer, but someone has to say something already.

Our father’s are now in the worst shape of their lives, many suffering from a very scary condition called Metabolic Syndrome X.
One of the main indicators of someone who has metabolic disorder is abdominal obesity, as clearly demonstrated in the picture above. The scary part is that many of our father’s look just like this!

Please read below for an excellent description of Metabolic Syndrome from www.MedicineNet.com:

What is metabolic syndrome?

An association between certain metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease has been known since the 1940s. In the 1980s this association became more clearly defined and the term metabolic syndrome (also known as syndrome X or the dysmetabolic syndrome) was coined to designate a cluster of metabolic risk factors that come together in a single individual. In more current times, the term metabolic syndrome is found throughout medical literature and in the lay press as well. There are slight differences in the criteria of diagnosis – depending on which authority is quoted. Regardless, the concept of a clustering of risks factors leading to cardiovascular disease is well accepted.

The main features of metabolic syndrome include insulin resistance, hypertension (high blood pressure), cholesterol abnormalities, and an increased risk for clotting. Patients are most often overweight or obese.

Insulin resistance refers to the diminished ability of cells to respond to the action of insulin in promoting the transport of the sugar glucose, from blood into muscles and other tissues. Because of the central role that insulin resistance plays in the metabolic syndrome, a separate article is devoted to insulin resistance.

How is metabolic syndrome defined?

The definition of metabolic syndrome depends on which group of experts is doing the defining. Based on the guidelines from the 2001 National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III), any three of the following traits in the same individual meet the criteria for the metabolic syndrome:

1. Abdominal obesity: a waist circumference over 102 cm (40 in) in men and over 88 cm (35 inches) in women.

2. Serum triglycerides 150 mg/dl or above.

3. HDL cholesterol 40mg/dl or lower in men and 50mg/dl or lower in women.

4. Blood pressure of 130/85 or more.

5. Fasting blood glucose of 110 mg/dl or above. (Some groups say 100mg/dl)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has slightly different criteria for the metabolic syndrome:

1. High insulin levels, an elevated fasting blood glucose or an elevated post meal glucose alone with at least 2 of the following criteria:

2. Abdominal obesity as defined by a waist to hip ratio of greater than 0.9, a body mass index of at least 30 kg/m2 or a waist measurement over 37 inches.

3. Cholesterol panel showing a triglyceride level of at least 150 mg/dl or an HDL cholesterol lower than 35 mg/dl.

4. Blood pressure of 140/90 or above (or on treatment for high blood pressure).

And though Metabolic Syndrome affects more women than men, there is certainly no shortage of men 40 years and older who have that “deadly beer gut” that literally makes them a ticking time bomb for a slew of serious medical conditions.

But there is good news amongst this frightening reality: The most common cause of metabolic disorder is of course a vicious combination of a lack of exercise and poor diet.

See below for the top 7 fitness tips to help save our father’s lives:

1.) Lay off the Brewskis

It’s no wonder why our dads have more of a keg for a gut than a six-pack. See below for the best way I know of explaining how detrimental alcohol can be on your body composition:

How Alcohol Makes You Fat

-Alcohol first passes through the esophagus as it travels to your stomach.

-From there, 20% of the alcohol is absorbed immediately by your bloodstream.

-The remaining alcohol travels to your intestines and is absorbed from there.

-The alcohol in your bloodstream then travels directly to your liver. It is here that
the body breaks the alcohol down, something that is absolutely essential since
alcohol is toxic to the body.

-Alcohol brakes down into acetate and acetaldehyde which IMMEDIATELY
signals to your body to stop burning fat. Even worse, another waste product of
alcohol, acetyl CoA, actually starts to make more body fat.

If you booze, you WON’T lose fat!

What Does this Mean?

-Your body can only effectively process 0.5 to 1 ounce of alcohol per hour

-How much damage? A 12-ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If
you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to
6 hours. This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat
during these 6 hours! The more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from
burning fat in addition to a greater fat build up from excess acetyl CoA. As you
can see, one day of binge drinking can set you back days if not a full week when
it comes to fat loss!

-What’s the worst-case scenario? Mixing alcohol with sugary beverages
promotes even further fat gain due to the resulting insulin surge that triggers fat
storage (e.g. regular beer or cocktails mixed with regular soda and/or fruit juice)

The Bottom Line

If you want to be lean, you must minimize ALCOHOL consumption!

If you must drink:

a.) Choose wine or hard liquor and “light” beer
b.) Limit alcohol consumption to 1-2 days per week with a 1-2 drink per day max

References:

Campbell and Volek, “TNT Diet: Targeted Nutrition Tactics”

2.) Quit being such a pansy and work your lower body

Most dads just want to do the typical meathead workout that emphasizes the upper body only. If you are going for the Johnny Bravo look where you are built up top with chicken legs for wheels, then keep doing what you’re doing.

However, it is important to note that strong, muscular legs are the key to torching your gut. After all, the majority of your body’s muscle mass, and thus metabolism, is contained within your lower body. Not working your legs is like going to a gun fight without a gun, and here’s why:

a.) Training your whole body (legs included) not only helps you burn more calories each workout, it also maximally depletes your body’s glycogen stores (the sugar in your muscles) to allow for more total body fat burning

b.) The more lean muscle mass you have in your lower body the more calories your body will be burning 24-7-365 outside of your workouts

c.) Whenever you work your legs you generate the largest increases in natural anabolic hormone levels which translates into more total body muscle and less ugly, unwanted body fat

So if you want better abs, you better start using those legs! This can be easily accomplished with 3 total body workouts per week that train your upper body, lower body, and core within the same workout.

3.) Do something besides bench presses and curls

Look- I get why guys don’t want to train their legs. Unless you are wearing a speedo, no one is going to see them! So there is simply not as much motivation to put the time and effort into your lower body as there is for your upper body which is always on full display at the beach or poolside.

Nothing beats a little chest and bi’s baby!

However, if you are trying to develop a really nice upper body, you need to start venturing outside the realm of bench presses and curls. Don’t forget, you do have muscles on the backside of your body too!

In fact, your lats (the wings that extend from your arm pit to the bottom of your rib cage) are the biggest muscles in your upper body and when developed they really help promote that V-shaped torso that both makes your waist look smaller and your wife happy

Bruce Lee- The Lat Master Himself

Start doing at least the same amount of pulling as pushing (if not more) unless you want to end up like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Quasimodo did way too many bench presses and curls… not too sexy!

Lastly, only do isolation movements like bicep curls if you have extra time after your main workout. Compound movements like rows and pull-ups work your biceps just as hard and since they allow for the use of heavier loads, they also provide a better growth stimulus to maximize results in minimal time.

4.) Don’t eat like those idiots from NutriSystem

Here’s my take on how NutriSystem was created:

“I’ve got an idea for an incredible product and marketing campaign:

Let’s gather a group of genetically gifted former professional athletes that have put on some pounds since ending their playing days. We’ll have them all get their asses kicked by top personal trainers while following a restricted calorie diet so we lean them out real nicely.

But then we lie to the overweight male coach potato consumer and tell them that they got these results from eating the same food they are currently eating- you know, pizza, lasagna, sweets, etc. Except we’ll make the meals the size of a dime so they can still technically eat what they want and lose weight at the same time.

To make it even better, we’ll pre-package all of their meals for them to buy from us so these lazy bastards don’t have to do anything besides nuke it up and eat it!

We’ll make millions!”

Laces Out Dan!

Well, that’s exactly what has happened- thousands of sports-loving, ESPN-watching dads have been swindled to buy into this gimmick that you can eat whatever you want and still lose weight without exercise- because Dan Marino did it!

Look- if you honestly think you can keep eating the same foods that got you that gut in the first place, then I’m not sure how much more I can help you. And yes, there is portion control within the system, but to me it’s a like a big terd versus a small terd… IT’S STILL A TERD!

5.) Accept the fact that you probably need some professional fitness advice

One of my superstar clients lost 105 lbs of fat. He’s a busy executive and father of 4 in his 50’s and he spent 20+ years doing everything wrong from both a training and nutrition perspective until he met me. I interviewed him one time and asked him what his best advice was for people that are in the same position today as he was before he transformed himself and this is what he said:

“What you don’t know will hurt you, but what you think you know will KILL you!”

Seek out a fitness expert like busy dad Michael did and get life-changing results!

Dads- quit being so stubborn and macho. It doesn’t make you any less of a man to hire a personal trainer or join a boot camp because your wife and her lady friends do it. In reality, your wife (and women in general) are simply smarter than you because they effectively outsource their fitness needs to an expert whereby you try to re-invent the wheel on your own with little to no results.

If you want to lose your gut, follow the lead of the ladies

6.) Make the time for a 5-minute warm-up

You simply can’t afford to NOT warm-up. It’s like pushing the pedal to the medal in the dead of winter in your frozen car- things just don’t work right and you’re not going anywhere.

A cold body, like a cold car, doesn’t run on all cylinders

It only takes about 3-5 minutes to lengthen your muscles and lubricate your joints to best prevent injury and ready your body for a more effective workout, so don’t skip the warm-up!

Below is a great 5-minute body weight warm-up we use in our boot camps:

Alternate between 50 s of work and 10 seconds of rest for each exercise in the following warm-up circuit:

1- Stationary Running
2- Jumping Jacks
3- Lunge, Reach and Twist (left leg)
4- Lunge, Reach and Twist (right leg)
5- Push-up Walkouts

7.) The “no pain-no gain” attitude will leave you a bitter, crippled, and grumpy old man

The “no pain, no gain” methodology is quite possible the most abused practice in fitness. Pain is a good thing as long as it’s the right type of pain as outlined below:

When exercise BURNS YOUR MUSCLES that’s a good pain- this means you are pushing past your comfort zone to inspire change, working with intensity to torch calories and build muscle, and burning sugar so your body can burn fat for hours and hours after your workout.

When exercise HURTS YOUR JOINTS that’s a bad pain- it means you are quickly wearing down the structural integrity of your joints and will soon be unable to do anything without pain or stiffness. This is most often caused by a combination of using too heavy of loads, poor exercise form and technique, strength imbalances, and lack of mobility and/or flexibility- more reason to heed Tip#5 and seek professional help!

I have worked with too many dads who have beaten their bodies down and nothing’s more depressing than a dad who can’t play with his kids or participate in recreational activities with his buddies. Do yourself and your family a favor and stop being such a meathead when it comes to exercise. Exercise doesn’t have to hurt to get results and nobody wants another grumpy AND injured old man

Happy Father’s Day! I love you Dad. You mean everything to me
Crank it!

BJ

PS- If you are a father who is ready to make some changes, please make a comment to this blog post below to let the world know about it

A couple months back I was interviewed about some of the top bridal fitness tips for the coming wedding season.

See below for the article from the JULY/AUGUST issue of Brides Magazine:

For more info about our custom bridal fitness boot camp programs, please contact us at getsexyinfo@gmail.com

Crank it!
BJ

There are all sorts of crummy supplements on the market you don’t need. Some of the stuff is flat out junk. Some of the stuff is good, but the actual product and brand is lousy.

And then, there are some products that are just flat out awesome for you.

Bottom line: The health benefits associated with a quality Krill Oil supplement are just too powerful to ignore. I don’t know if I can be any more blunt about it.

Besides the fact Krill Oil doesn’t cause “fish burps” like fish oil capsules do, its just one of the best sources of Essential Fatty Acids.

Krill Oil can also:

Help protect your heart

Improve your memory

Strengthen your immune system

Minimize the damage caused by free radicals

Reduce joint pain and PMS symptoms

Aid the fat loss process

I’m telling you, it really is one heck of a powerful supplement. And the only brand I recommend is the brand I trust completely – Prograde Nutrition.

Their EFA Icon is the best Krill Oil product on the market, as far as I’m concerned.

Crank it!

BJ

www.getsexysupplements.com
PS – Again, there are all sorts of lousy supplements on the market. But a solid Krill Oil product is NOT one of them. It’s an extremely powerful nutritional product with extraordinary benefits. For the best quality Krill Oil get Prograde Nutrition’s EFA Icon

PPS – Prograde also includes the research studies on Krill Oil. Just click on one of the links above to check those out. You’ll find them at the bottom of the page.

I put together a special memorial day workout taken straight out of my Get Sexy Boot Camps in Milwaukee, WI.

The workout features a Continuous 30’s Circuit Workout using the Continuous 30’s Reggaeton Soundtrack.

It’s a strength-cardio workout, meaning you will alternate between a strength and cardio movement without rest at each station before moving to the next station.

Here it is…

Strength(S)-Cardio(C) Workout

Part I- 10 Minutes

S- Unstable Stationary Lunge Hold (left leg) @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

S- Unstable Stationary Lunge Hold (right leg) @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

Rest for 30 s and repeat

S- Climbing Push-ups @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

S- Climbing Push-ups @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

Part II- 10 Minutes

S- Split Stance DB Row (left arm) @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

S- Split Stance DB Row (right arm) @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

Rest for 30 s and repeat

S- Back Pillar @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

S- Back Pillar @ 30 s work
C- Stationary Run @ 30 s work

View the video below to see a quick highlight reel of the workout in action:

To get the exact track we used in this workout for your bootcamps or your own personal workouts AND get a ton of other cool body weight based core and cardio workouts, please click the link below:

Continuous 30’s Circuit Workouts and Continuous 30’s Reggaeton Soundtrack

Crank it for a long weekend!

BJ

PS- If you are a fitness professional, I hope to see you at Fast Track to Fitness Millions where I will be speaking all about bootcamps.

PPS- There’s also going to be a special Ultimate Saturday Morning Workout sponsored by Workout Muse, Perform Better, Polar, and Prograde Nutrition featuring our new music interval training system for fitness boot camps and group exercise:

BOOT CAMP DYNAMITE!!!

PPPS- If you can’t make Fast Track, don’t worry too much- we’ll be launching Boot Camp Dynamite the following week online… and it will be EXPLOSIVE

The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time!

By BJ Gaddour, CSCS, YFS

In the past, I’ve shared my top exercises for rapid fat loss and muscle gain, featuring a host of multi-joint, compound movements for your upper body (e.g. push-ups, pull-ups, rows, dips, etc.), lower body (squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.), and core (pillar holds and rotational core exercises). These “many muscle” exercises provide the biggest bang for your buck during your workouts to generate maximum results in minimal time. Even better are total body exercises like a curl to squat to press or a squat thrust variation that takes the meaning of a whole body workout to a whole new level.

But, I think we’ll switch it up a bit today and focus on the WORST exercises you can add to your training routine. The following list features movements that I wouldn’t be caught dead doing- movements that deliver shoddy results and flat our hurt people- movements that have far greater risk than reward:

The 7 Worst Exercises of All Time

1.) Abs Machine

Crunches and sit-ups only promote excessive flexion of the lumbar spine and tend to cause neck and back pain. What’s worse than crunches or sit-ups? Doing a similar movement with added weight in a machine that only trains your body in an unnatural front to back motion in a seated position!

Yes, abs machines, like crunches and sit-ups, do make your feel your abdominal muscles, but there are far better ways to accomplish this without the high risk of short and long-term injury to your spine.

Remember, the true function of your core is stabilization, both static and dynamic- to be able to maintain a neutral, straight-line position from your hips to your shoulders in all 3 planes of movement (front to back, side to side, and rotational) no matter what the external stimulus may be.

21st Century Training Upgrade: For rock hard, athletic abs focus on pillar stabilization exercises like front, side, and back pillars and ground based rotational core work like chops variations and upper body twists.

2.) Back Machine

Well, if I HATE the abs machine, how do you think I’m going to feel about the back machine? I mean this is just such a stupid exercise for so many reasons.

First of all, people already use too much “back” on most movements because of tight hips and inactive/weak glutes. Thus, I prefer to focus more on hip extension movements that strengthen your butt rather than continually overloading the spinal erectors. Plus, adding in corrective stretching for the hip flexor complex, the hip rotators, and the hamstring complex that opens up your hips and alleviates excessive spinal flexion and compressions is literally exactly what the doctor ordered.

Second of all, just like the abs machine, this bootleg exercise trains your body in one plane of movement in a fixed path and as a results doesn’t work your key stabilizer muscles.

Lastly, the way that most people perform this movement in such an out of control manner for speed just makes me want to vomit. It literally looks like they are trying to lie down for reps- is this the type of movement that we want to get really good at? Wait, don’t answer that

21st Century Training Upgrade: For a strong, stable back focus on deadlift, good morning, and hip extensions variations while simultaneously focusing on the corrective stretching and self-massage of the Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip (LPH) complex. A prone cobra, or airplane as it is sometimes called, is also a great exercise to improve spinal erector endurance while simultaneously improving scapular strength and stability.

3.) Leg Extension Machine

This exercise is a personal one for me. When I first started lifting weights as a stubborn 8th grader who did whatever it took to keep pushing my training loads up, I abused this exercise like few others.

I remember maxing out the rack at 200 lbs and doing spastic sets of 20+ reps where the whole universal machine that the leg extension apparatus was attached to would shake like an episode of soul train.

Fast forward to my senior year in college as an over-trained football player who had 4 knee surgeries under my belt by the age of 22. Not too much fun, trust me on this. Exercises like this prematurely ended my football career and limited my potential to be a great, healthy player, instead of a good, but injured player.

Here’s the bottom line with this exercise- it will wreak havoc on your knees! The excessive compressions on your patella will without a doubt results in the brake down of articular cartilage which will in turn results in a bunch of arthroscopic knee surgeries to remove loose bodies and eventually full blown crippling arthritis. Avoid this machine like cancer!

21st Century Training Upgrade: For strong, stable knees, focus on both knee-dominant (lunge, step-up, and single-leg squat variations) AND hip-dominant single-leg exercises (single-leg hip extension, deadlift, and good morning variations) to prevent strength imbalances between limbs AND to prevent strength imbalances between your front and back thighs and your inner and outer thighs.

4.) Fly Machine

If your goal is tear your pecs and destroy your rotator cuff, then I highly recommend that you add this exercise to your routine. I think the chest fly machine actually gets even more play then the bench press, which is considered to be the most popular exercise for guys.

Again, the use of a machine versus doing a dumbbell fly alternative eliminates the use of the key stabilizer muscles surrounding your shoulders. Furthermore, the common male desire to use maximum weight to build a chest he can be proud of typically results in overuse injuries like shoulder impingement or biceps tendonitis.

21st Century Training Upgrade: For strong, stable shoulders focus on performing an equal amount of pushing and pulling exercises. In fact, more pulling exercises initially may be a good idea if you find yourself heavily internally rotated and hunchbacked from years of focusing on your beach muscles (chest, abs, and biceps) while neglecting your rear shoulders and upper/mid muscles. The best pushing exercise you can do is any push-up variation as it not only safely trains the entire front side of your body but also engages your upper back musculature in a way that the bench press does not. Furthermore, every year people die from bench pressing, but there has never been a reported death from performing a push-up!

5.) Elliptical Machine

Look- if you are really, really overweight and haven’t exercised in over a decade, then I think an elliptical has some use. But, other than that, I think it’s relatively useless.

Yes, it is a low-impact alternative to running on a treadmill, but there is very little range of motion during the movement and does not burn nearly as many calories as the machine claims it does.

Furthermore, the elliptical is not a good machine to do intervals on because it promotes excessive hyperextension of the knee. This can easily result in injury at high levels of speed and resistance.

Think about it- what’s the first machine people who are new to cardio exercise jump on? The elliptical! Why? Because it’s so friggin’ easy!

Trust me, I have been there and done that. I used to convince myself that the elliptical was a good option for me because I had bum knees. But then I finally woke up one day I realized that my fat ass had to lose some weight, perform a ton of corrective stretching and self-massage on my front/inner/outer hips and thighs to improve my tissue health, and work on hip and ankle mobility to take pressure off of my knees so that I could get back to running pain-free.

At the end of the day, you can read a dam magazine while on an elliptical, so how much benefit do you really think you will get from this overpriced waste of space?

21st Century Training Upgrade: For optimal results during your cardio training, you must focus on intervals. They burn 9 times more body fat than aerobics and also result in greater improvements in overall conditioning than long, slow, boring cardio. If you are overweight/de-conditioned and/or have joint issues, the best place to start an interval training program is on a spin bike, or better yet, an Airdyne Bike which has both upper and lower body attachments to make it more of a total body conditioning experience.

See below for a great interval training program using an Airdyne Bike from Mike Fry of Grappler’s Gym:

Airdyne Bike – 40-20 Intervals: This workout is a favorite of combat athletes all over the world. It is very demanding but for those of you who can make it to the end the reward is great.

Legs-Only- 40 seconds, 20 seconds off
Arms-Only – 40 seconds, 20 seconds off
Legs-Only – 40 seconds, 20 seconds off
Arms-Only – 40 seconds, 20 seconds off
Both Arms and Legs- 40 seconds, 20 seconds off

1-Minute Rest. Perform this 6-minute circuit up to 5x for 30 total minutes.

You can get the exact 40-20 soundtrack that Mike uses to get his clients super lean by clicking the link below:

40-20 Interval Workout

If you need to rock your cardio equipment-free and/or at home or on the road, use body weight based exercises like jumping jacks, stationary running, split jumps, etc.

Click the link below to see a bunch of cool body weight based cardio workouts you can do anywhere using the Continuous 30’s soundtrack:

Body Weight Cardio Workouts

6.) The Sex Machine- Abductor/Adductor Combo

Ah, the sex machine… this one just makes me smile. It certainly takes me back to the days where my meathead buddies and I would shamelessly gawk at this outrageously good looking gal who did 1,000 reps on the adductor/abductor machine to fit into her “skinny jeans.”

But, I can assure you this machine had nothing to do with her nice bod- rather it was a combo of genetics, a clean diet, and being a tri-sport athlete that did the trick.

Women all over the world seem convinced that this “naughty” exercise can some how help them rid themselves of the thunder thigh/cellulite situation.

How many times have I heard: “What exercises can I do to get rid of this flab inside my leg?” Too many times!

Come on now, you know that spot reduction is a myth by now, right? Seriously, no amount of direct inner or other hip-thigh work will burn that ugly fat covering that sexy toned musculature everyone wants to see so let it go baby.

So the first thing you need to do is clean up all of the junk carbs in your diet and starting consuming lean proteins, healthy fats, and fruits and veggies every 2-4 hours while plugging water like a fish.

Then you need to get off this sexy machine and get real with a total body workout!

21st Century Training Upgrade: The best exercises for your inner and outer-hip thigh will come from band-resisted hip walk variations, side pillar variations, and any and all single-leg exercises, especially lateral lunges.  My favorite lateral lunge is the Valslide Lateral Lunge that simultaneously stretches and strengthens your hip musculature.

For more Valslide exercises, check out:

Valslide Exercises

For more great resistance band exercises, check out:

Band Exercises

7.) Leg Press Machine

It never ceases to amaze me how we all look for the easy way out when it comes to working out. It’s clear why people prefer to leg press- they get to lay or sit on their ass depending on the exact type of leg press machine being used.

If you want both nice legs and a flat midsection then you need to squat! And yes, you can’t squat lying down, sorry!

But squats are tough because they require a whole body effort, an effort most people aren’t willing to put in explaining why they get crap results form their workouts.

The leg press could very well be a major contributing cause for the rapidly increasing number of bulging and/or herniated discs among exercise enthusiasts. People always use way too much weight and use poor form resulting in brutally compressive forces on the spine.

Seriously, if you are opting to leg press over squatting, then you don’t know squat, pun intended

21st Century Training Upgrade: The best (and safest) exercises for your lower body are a healthy combination of double-leg and single-leg exercises using free weights and body weight based exercises. Be sure to perform an equal amount of knee-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. squats and lunges) and hip-dominant lower body exercises (e.g. deadlifts and single-leg hip extensions) to make your knees, hips, and back bulletproof. In fact, most people are very knee-dominant and could benefit to start by performing a greater number of hip-dominant movements to balance out their lower body musculature.

You’ll notice once common trend among all of these crap exercises: they all involve MACHINES!

Get off those dam machines and focus on functional movements using free weights, bands, stability balls, etc. Not only will you ramp up your fat-burning and muscle-building pursuits, but more importantly you won’t end up hunchbacked in a wheel chair by the time you turn 50

Crank it!

BJ

PS- What other exercises do you see people doing in the gym that make you cringe? What other exercises do you absolutely hate? What exercises have gotten you (or your clients) hurt in the past? Please share your personal experiences by posting a comment to this blog post, thanks!

The Grapplers Gym MMA Interval Training Circuit

From Mike Fry

Grappler’s Gym MMA 40-20 Soundtrack

See below for a great 40-20 interval total body circuit training workout using kettlebell, band, rope, bodyweight, and sandbag exercises. This works great for your own personal workout as well for small group training or large fitness boot camps! This is one of the many workouts provided in the Grappler’s Gym MMA 40-20 Soundtrack

Circuit 1- Kettlebells

1 – Swings
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

2 – Cleans
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

3 – High Pulls @ 40 s on, 20 s off

4 – Snatches
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

5 – High Pull Open Palm Clean and Press @ 40 s on, 20 s off

1-Minute rest

Circuit 2- Sandbags

1 – Heavy Bag lifts @ 40 s on, 20 s off

2 – Cleans @ 40 s on, 20 s off

3 – Front Squat
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

4 – Shoulder to Shoulder Press @ 40 s on, 20 s off

5 – Shouldering the Bag @ 40 s on, 20 s off

1-Minute rest

Circuit 3- Body Weight

1 – Burpees
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

2 – Jump Squats @ 40 s on, 20 s off

3 – Mountain Climbers @ 40 s on, 20 s off

4 – Rolling Pushups
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

5 – Burpees @ 40 s on, 20 s off

1-Minute rest

Circuit 4- Ropes

1- Waves @ @ 40 s on, 20 s off

2 – Outside circles
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

3 – Grapplers Throws
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

4 – Alt Waves @ 40 s on, 20 s off

5 – Inside Circles @ 40 s on, 20 s off

1-Minute rest

Circuit 5- Combo

1 -Kettlebell Open Palm Cleans
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

2 – Sandbag Shouldering
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

3 – Front Lunges
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

4 – Swing- 2-Handed
 @ 40 s on, 20 s off

5 – Rope Alternating Waves @ 40 s on, 20 s off

1-Minute rest

For more killer circuit training workout to burn fat, lose weight, build muscle, and get into the best shape of your life, PLUS a 40-20 music interval training workout to automate your training with the simple click of a  button, please click the link below:

Grappler’s Gym MMA 40-20 Soundtrack

Crank it!

BJ
PS- You only have until Sunday, May 17th at 11:59 pm CST to receive the special introductory price for the new WM-MMA launch, so be sure to click the link below to not let this opportunity pass you by

Grappler’s Gym MMA 40-20 Soundtrack

My wife, Naomi, and I were recently honored to be interviewed by Dick Gordon of The Story for National Public Radio (NPR).

Please click the link below to hear about:

- our journey together

- the birth of Get Sexy Boot Camps, a fitness boot camp in Milwaukee, WI

- the creation of Workout Muse

Milwaukee Bootcamp on NPR

There is a segment before us, so you will have to fast forward a bit to get right to it

Please be sure to forward this link to anybody you know that may like it, thanks!

Crank it!

BJ

Check out the NBC Special Assignment featuring Get Sexy Boot Camps’ own Amy Gussick!

http://www.todaystmj4.com/features/specialassignment/44834467.html

Bridal Boot Camp

Courtny Gerrish