Howdy,

This morning I went for a walk and brought along one of my favorite training tools that easily tripled the effectiveness of my workout

Later in the day, I used the very same training tool during my weight training workout, and, once again, it boosted the effectiveness of my workout:

-It helped me burn more calories in less time
-Increased the load on my muscles

Check out this favorite training tool of mine by Clicking Here 

I interviewed the creator of this training tool and he shared some great insider information about it.  I invite you to come give it a listen by clicking here.

I hope that you enjoy this training tool! 

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.SecretsOfBurningFat.com
http://www.BurnTheFat-InnerCircle.com  

Howdy,

As I mentioned in my last video I was recently down at the Ryan Lee Bootcamp (an awesome seminar for fitness professionals) and I spent some time hanging out with my buddy Josh Henkin, creator of the Ultimate Sandbag. 

Sandbags are one of my favorite Odd Objects to train with so it was really cool to grab Josh and pick his brain about Sandbag training. 

While I was hanging out with Josh I grabbed him in the hallways and forced him to share some awesome fat burning Sandbag Training tips for you! 

Just click on the Play Button below to see Josh’s Fat Burning Sandbag tips…

 I have two of Josh Henkin’s Ultimate Sandbags in my basement and I use them often in my home gym and outdoor training. 

Training with sandbags is challenging on the abs, core, grip, and EVERYTHING for that matter and doing these Sandbag Complexes that Josh mentioned in the video are great for fat loss!

Performing a series of multi-joint, sandbag exercises like cleans, snatches, squats, lunges, presses, zercher goodmornings, etc will activate muscles all over your body and burn a lot of calories in a short period of time. 

That’s why I love short, intense Sandbag Complexes for for fat loss.   

No one needs a Sandbag to do these complexes, you can certainly do these complexes with Dumbbells and even a barbell but a great way to keep your muscles guessing is to work Sanbags into the your training arsenal! 

I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU:  Have you ever trained with Sandbags?  Ever trained with any other Odd Objects?  Drop me a line and let me know if you like this training tool!

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.SecretsOfBurningFat.com
http://www.BurnTheFat-InnerCircle.com

Hey there,

I am sitting in the conference right now at “Ryan Lee’s Bootcamp” for fitness professionals.

I just saw one of the preseneters Andrew Lock share this HILLARIOUS video about the Nintendo WII Fit.

I have been asked a few times if the Nintendo “Wii” is good for weight loss and/or fat loss.

Well…

This video basically says my opinion on the subject:

Now don’t get me wrong…

The WII is fun - a couple of my buddies have them and it is fun but don’t dissillusion yourself thinking that it is enough to lose fat and create the physique that you really are aiming for…

Have a great day and get outside - make the world your gym…

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.SecretsOfBurningFat.com
http://www.BurnTheFat-InnerCircle.com

If I only had one dumbbell and needed to lose weight, the dumbbell swing would be one of my exercises of choice. This exercise is very simple and yet powerfully effective at eliciting a positive training effect. I like this exercise mostly because it is easy to learn, requires minimal equipment, and works great for burning fat, building lean muscle tissue, and generating strength and power.

While the dumbbell swing may look like an arm exercise, the motion is actually generated in the legs with the extension of the knees and hips pressing into the ground. The core muscles will then channel that energy into the arm which is locked down in order to prevent it from “lifting” the dumbbell. Don’t let the way this exercise looks fool you, this is a full-body exercise that is challenging both to local musculature and to the cardiovascular system.

Programmed correctly into a fat loss program, this exercise can create a large metabolic disturbance, resulting in more total calories burned.

Single-arm Dumbbell Swing

There are a few technique tips to keep in mind when performing this exercise.

1) Maintain good posture - this includes a flat back and a relaxed neck and spine, but also a locked down core. Your abdominal muscles should be actively contracted during the explosive, swinging phase of the movement.
2) Maintain shoulder pack position - actively packing your shoulder directly downwards onto your ribcage. This creates a structure that allows the dumbbell to travel smoothly with no excess movement.
3) Maintain elbow lock - bending your elbow will allow energy to “leak out” at that joint. Keeping your elbow locked will ensure that you get the most benefit from the exercise.
4) Use an intelligent grip - using the popular “death grip” with high intensity dumbbell swings isn’t a smart idea because you’re grip muscles will fatigue quickly. Since we want a full body training effect, we must use the intelligent grip protocol. This entails gripping just enough to maintain control of the dumbbell, and even lessening your grip while the DB is in freefall at the top of the motion (the moment when it stops ascending upwards, and begins to descend downwards). This gives your grip muscles a break and allows you to train more.
5) Allow your leg drive to do the swing work - pressing your feet into the ground while you explosively extend your hips forward and straighten your legs is the driving force of this exercise.
6) Exhale forcefully on effort - this is when the dumbbell is in back position (between your legs) and the body is literally coiled down to extend the hips and legs. When you release that elastic energy, effectively swinging the dumbbell upwards, that is when to forcefully exhale through your mouth.

Plugging this into a strength training program is really simple, but there are a lot of different ways to do it. You could do DB swings for time - doing rounds of one minute/arm. You could try doing heavier swings for reps, doing sets of 10, 20, 50, etc. This could also just be a supplementary exercise that you do at the beginning or end of your sessions. It all depends on your goals. If you have a question about how to include the DB swing into your training program, leave a comment with some basic information about your goals and training background, and I would be happy to help.

To your health and success,

John Sifferman, NSCA-CPT

One of the most important factors for fat loss success is making training enjoyable. Losing fat is hard work and can seem daunting at first, but having a little bit of fun will encourage you to stick with it. Using new training tools is always a great way to have fun, and I have recently fallen in love with my 15lb clubbells. Here is a video of me doing some exercises for a warmup…

Outdoor Clubbell Training - swipe and mill warmup

The exercises are: rock-its, swings, cleans to order, arm casts, swipes, inside/outside pendulums, shield casts, and one-arm mills.

To your health and success,

John Sifferman, NSCA-CPT

For more information about clubbell training, visit www.rmaxinternational.com

As you may know, today is Earth Day.

In honor of Mother Nature I took my workout outdoors today.

I brought a Clubbell and a couple kettlebells and had an awesome workout in the sun.

I did the following workout:

Read the rest of this entry »

Howdy,

Road Warrior ‘Battis’ writing to you from sunny San Diego again.

I am on break from the seminar I am attending and wanted to share a couple traveling workout tips for staying on your fat loss program.

Fat Loss Tip #1: “Morning Front Loading”

This one is simple but very powerful.

Wake up 20-60 minutes early, well before you start your day of vacationing or business, and do your workout first thing.

Simple but effective.

Let’s be honest.

When you are traveling, things come up, fun distractions emerge, and even if you have the best of intentions of working out later in the day in my experience that very rarely ever happens.

That’s why fitting in a workout first thing in the morning is so powerful.

Get it in, get it done, and get on with your day. Doing so will keep you on track with your fat loss plans.

Fat Loss Tip #2: “Pack a follow along workout DVD”

I often do this when traveling for extended periods and want to keep on track with things.

Just simply throw in your favorite DVD and combine it with the “Morning Front Loading” tip I shared above.

I really like packing my 4-Minute workouts because they are easy to fit in.

What I did for this morning’s workout was a little different.

My buddy John Sifferman lent me a really cool Yoga program called Ageless Mobility made by Scott Sonnon. It was an awesome way to start my day.

I just threw the DVD into my laptop computer in my hotel room and followed along.

45 minutes later I had a great little session in and I felt great because I started my day with some physical activity.

The cool thing about Yoga is that you don’t need any special equipment and you need hardly any space.

There are a lot of benefits to doing Yoga. It is very calming, it is great at building muscular endurance for the postural muscles while improving overall static flexibility.

I highly recommend Scott’s follow-along Ageless Mobility DVD because he incorporates a nice mix of dynamic joint mobility along with the static poses that improve muscular endurance.

That was my traveling workout for this morning my friend.

If you have some cool traveling fitness ideas I would love to hear them.

Just share em below…

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
http://www.SecretsOfBurningFat.com
www.FatBurningInnerCircle.com

For more information about Scott Sonnon’s amazing Ageless Mobility program, check it out here: http://www.rmaxi.com/products/dvdagelessmobility.html

Question: “If I have to leave town for an extended period, I need portable, light-weight equipment I can take with me. For example, resistance exercise bands, jump ropes (on the heavy side, nothing that I can get tangled in), etc. What should I look for: a brand name, specs, etc. Cost does not always match quality. It should be easy to assemble and disassemble, portable and lightweight (do not want to go over a weight limit at the airport).”

Answer: Great question. As I type this message I am actually sitting in a hotel out of town on business.

On to your question…

I recommend using a lot of bodyweight exercises and workout routines but I do have an equipment recommendation for you that fits all of your criteria for staying fit and keeping up with your fat loss plan while travelling.

If you want a great piece of light weight and versatile equipment to travel with I recommend getting a set of Iron Woody Mini bands. These bands are very affordable and I use them with my training programs at home and on the road all the time.

They come in a couple different Resistance Levels and I recommend starting with the easier versions of the Mini-Bands at first.

The bands can be handy for all kinds of different exercises, they don’t weigh anything so you won’t get nailed with a luggage overweight fee, and in combination with some bodyweight exercises you can get a great fat loss workout anytime anyplace.

You should be able to find them here: http://www.ironwoodyfitness.com/fitness-bands.php

Also, you might want to check out www.TravelersTraining.com/now.html for some more travelling fitness ideas.

Hope that helps!

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
http://www.SecretsOfBurningFat.com
www.FatBurningInnerCircle.com

Some time ago I bought this nifty little gadget made by ‘Nike’ that plugs into the bottom of my IPOD Nano. The device recieves information sent to it from a little sensor that I stick into my running shoes.

It tells me how fast I am running, how far I run, it compares my workout to previous workouts, and much more all while listening to my workout mix or an inspirational audio.

One of the things I love about the Nike IPOD attachment is that it tells me when I have beat a personal record.

Lance Armstrong’s voice pops in over whatever I am listening to and says:

“Congratualtions! You have just set a new personal record in the 1 mile run!”

How cool is that?

I get a little rush everytime I improve on one of my personal records.

I have always believed that if you approach your workouts with a mindset of trying to improve on previous performances (do more reps, lift more weight, run a specific distance faster) that you will achievebetter fitness results as a nice little side effect.

I find this little piece of technology to help me keep improving from workout to workout and to keep the results coming.

If you have an IPOD NANO (Sorry, it does not work with other IPOD models yet) and this sounds cool to you go check it out. It cost me about $29.95 I think and I bought mine at a local athletic shoe store at the Mall.

Here is a link to lear more about the Nike IPOD attachment: http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

Check out this video that I just found on You Tube that explains it well:

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
http://www.SecretsOfBurningFat.com
www.FatBurningInnerCircle.com

In this article Kyle Battis and Craig Ballantyne discuss how to build your home gym from scratch and what you ‘really’ need to get great fat loss results at home. Craig reveals the three essential pieces of training equipment needed to get great fat loss results at home. You may be pleasantly surprised at what fitness equipment is actually needed to forge a dream physique in your very own home gym.

Kyle Battis: This is Kyle Battis with “Fat Loss Lunch Break” and today I’m joined by my fitness buddy and fat loss expert, Craig Ballantyne. Today, we’re talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart and that is home gym training and really, what is the minimal amount of equipment you need in your home gym to actually burn fat? Craig, thanks for being here again and take it away, my friend.

Craig Ballantyne: Literally, the minimal equipment you need is simply nothing. You can burn body fat and even gain some muscle by doing nothing but body weight exercises only in your – well, it doesn’t even have to be a home gym, it can be the corner or your living room. Literally, you don’t need anything to get started especially a lot of beginning exercises that I do, people spend a lot of time on the floor doing beginner exercises without any equipment.

From there, you’d probably be best if you graduated to getting an exercise ball. I think they’re very, very cheap, $20.00 at Wal-Mart is probably a good idea of what you might spend, and then that’s where a beginner will move into some more advanced exercises especially for the back of the legs, which are hard to train without any equipment.

For people that are a little more advanced, like even an intermediate, a simple adjustable dumbbell set that you can get from a second-hand sports store along with a bench, it can allow you to do dozens more exercises and literally you could stop there. If you are a little more advanced in your strength training, the next thing I would add is a pull-up bar or chin-up bar that you can place somewhere in your house and maybe even outside. That would be the piece de resistance to the home gym set-up would be having the pull-up bar, but again that would only be for certain people that are strong enough to do those exercises.

At a minimum, I like to see people having the bench, the ball, and the dumbbells because that allows you to do 95% of the exercises in my program. If you have a chin-up bar, then you can do the pull-ups, chin-ups, and even some inverted rows in addition, but if you don’t have the bar you can always sub in plenty of dumbbell exercises in place. That’s what I like to see people have. Again, it doesn’t cost a lot of money because you can get a lot of this stuff at a second-hand sports store, it doesn’t take up a lot of room because you can just store a very small amount especially if you get adjustable dumbbells and that’s it. You can literally have a cover model body with that minimal equipment.

Kyle Battis: And I totally agree and that is the whole premise of what I have been telling people for years when it comes to deciding what home gym equipment to get, stay minimalist. I definitely have minimalist approach too. Stay minimalist and focused on body weight exercises and those big compound core movements that you don’t need fancy equipment for. That minimalist-approach will give you that cover model body if you work the program. Follow a good program like Craig’s www.TurbulentFatLoss.com, get your nutrition dialed in, and you just stick with it while constantly monitoring your results. This is a fabulous approach and actually your body will work better than if you try to go to a traditional fitness center and use a lot of fancy isolation machines.

The free weights and the body weight movements will actually work out better for you and just train you in so many better ways than that fancy equipment will and you’ll save a heck of a lot of money too. Awesome stuff, Craig and thanks for sharing your insights on what is truly required for successful fat loss training at home.

If you want to check out Craig’s training program, Turbulence Training, fabulous training program especially if you’re looking to lose fat and gain – get into great shape at home without all kinds of fancy equipment then visit www.TurbulentFatLoss.com. Craig’s Turbulence Training fat loss program is one of the best programs I have ever found and it is perfect for home gym training. You can learn more about Craig and his program by visiting www.TurbulentFatLoss.com and that will give you all the details you need.

Want more fat loss tips from Craig Ballantyne and other fat loss experts? Click Here