They can be modified or intensified to suit any fitness level. The great thing about burpees is that they’re more effective for fat burning compared to long slow cardio like ‘jogging’.
If you haven’t checked out my Challenge Burpee program, then it’s time you did. I mean, who doesn’t LOVE burpees right?
Well, it may take you a bit of time to fall madly in love with burpees, but let me tell you, you can’t get more bang for your buck than you can with the good ole burpee 😉
Now, burpees are much like sprinting.
My giant friend, Dennis Heenan, is a sprinting expert, (he’s in the video with me.). His definition of sprinting is anything done at a high intensity for a short burst.
If you love burpees (or are learning to love them), you’re gonna love what Dennis has to offer.
If fat loss is your goal, don’t discount sprinting in your program. Dennis breaks down sprinting, it’s not JUST running around a track at top speed. Seriously, many of us just aren’t up for that. Remember what the definition of sprinting is according to Dennis. In fact you may just do more burpees/mountain climbers/squat jumps etc. that traditional sprints (which is a good thing when there’s 4 feet of snow outdoors like in my winter climate).
One of my favorite clients, mentioned how she struggled with a handstand push up so I thought it’d be a good idea to share this tip on how to do a handstand push up.
The first step is to work on the handstand. You don’t need to be able to do this unassisted, go ahead and start learning this with someone holding your feet, or better yet, up against the wall.
Make sure to weight the finger tips more than the palm and heel of the hand.
Then go to an assisted handstand push up.
Loop two bands over a pull up bar. Loop the bottom band thru your arms and drop your hands to the floor in a hand stand position. Kick up and balance your legs on the band above you. Try to do a push up and you’ll find it much easier since you have the assist from the band.
After you master a handstand, throw that in with a burpee to do a handstand burpee….of course you could then add the handstand push up to the burpee…but that’s a video for another day 🙂
A lot of people who do squats, lunges, or play sports like soccer that involve sprinting or do martial arts have problems with their knees.
Maybe not full-blown injuries, but just irritation that makes these movements painful, but bearable.
And they’ll go about trying to treat the knees to fix the problem…
Well what if I told you it wasn’t your knees that were the problem, but your hips?
You see, the knee is designed for stability. They move like a door except instead of opening and closing, it’s called flexion and extension.
Your hips, on the other hand, are designed for mobility, just like a shower head that can spray water any which way. They’re designed to move in any and all directions: flexion, extension, out to the side and back and rotation.
Unfortunately, modern living keeps us locked in chairs all day and we lose some of this flexibility. Then, when you do something that requires it, if you don’t have it, you compensate either at the knees or the low back.
That’s why if you’ve got bad knees or low back pain, you always have to address your hip flexibility – if you don’t, you’re just treating the SYMPTOM, not the ROOT CAUSE.
If this all makes sense to you, grab my free report where you’ll discover 3 techniques you’ve probably never seen before that will restore the full 360 degree range of motion in your hips:
Another client asked for a complex warm up, so I made this video. This is an excellent full body warm up, make sure to use light dumb bells. If you want to make this into a workout, once you’re warm, go ahead and grab some heavier dumb bells and go to town.
If you’re looking for a full body warm up that warms up every muscle group. Check out this one below.
Grab a LIGHT set of dumb bells.
Start in the standing position with the dumb bells at your sides.
Drop to a high plank.
Do a push up.
Do a renegade row, one per arm.
Do a spider crawl, one per leg.
Squat thrust legs towards hands.
Stand up doing a deadliest.
Bicep curl to front squat.
Do a push press then bring the dumb bells to the sides again.
Repeat this circuit for 2 min.
Include arm circles and leg circles both directions.
If you like this, you’ll love my Challenge Complexes program, check it out here.
Question: How MUCH protein should I be getting on daily basis?
Answer: I’m going to let my Canadian friend and pro fitness model, Vince Delmonte answer this one…if you don’t have time to read all of this now, simply go here now.
Like so many health and fitness topics, the contradictory advice and conflicting studies are everywhere. So let me simplify it for you.
First of all, protein itself is vital to living. In fact, you could go months, even years without eating carbs (NOT recommended – of course), and still survive and keep on living. But if you eliminate protein, it would only take a few weeks before your muscles would atrophy (shrink drastically) and your internal organs would literally start to deteriorate. So basically, you would start to die.
With all this being said, too much of a good thing can still be harmful. But in most cases, I find the majority of active folks don’t get enough high quality protein. Keep in mind, if you’re exercising intensely on a regular basis your protein demands will be MUCH higher than somebody who is sedentary.
Protein works in synergy with weight training and high intensity exercise to stimulate higher protein synthesis, which means higher protein needs for exercisers who want to lose fat and gain muscle.
Some examples…
Intense exercisers wanting to burn fat = 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight daily…
Intense exercisers wanting to gain muscle = 1.5 grams per pound of lean body weight (larger, more advanced individuals could even go higher)
Moderate exercisers looking to maintain or burn fat = .75 grams per pound of lean body weight…
Sedentary person = .5 grams of protein per pound of lean body weight
This is NOT one-side-fits-all or an exact science, but it gives you a great guideline to follow without being confused.
Most studies and research done on protein synthesis (i.e. uptake and absorption) seems to show that sedentary people really don’t need much more than 20 grams per serving…Whereas guys like me will consume up to 50 grams per serving in our post workout window, when absorption rate seems to be the highest.
IMPORTANT HEALTH WARNING ABOUT PROTEIN
Make SURE you “Go Alkaline”.
If you hammer down too much protein on a daily basis for long periods of time, you can stress out your adrenal glands and overwork your kidneys, while you make your body VERY acidic. At least two or three times a year, go on a protein “fast” for 2 or 5 days straight, and replace your protein intake with high quality,proven juicing recipes.
This will filter out your liver and kidneys and give them a much-needed break, which will also help you avoid excessive acidity and high levels of inflammation. When you keep your body alkaline, you’re guaranteed to absorb more of the nutrients your body needs so you continue to lose fat and gain quality muscle.
If you don’t make sure to AVOID an acidic environment, you’ll simply NEVER get results.
Vince has been working on the ULTIMATE guide to STOP your body from going “acidic”. CAUTION: Do NOT let the name of this guide “fool” you. It’s called “GET JUICED”.
And although Vince has just released it to the muscle building world, I believe every man and woman should own a copy of this guide. It’s what’s “missing” from people’s nutrition plans and I truly believe it can help ANY man or woman, of ANY age, burn more fat, gain more muscle, and dramatically improve your health. In fact, Vince teamed up with the world’s TOP expert in this field, Drew Canole, and he has over a million fans and followers using this new method:
STOP your body from being “acidic” (the MISSING link to fat loss and muscle)
I have recently started using this fast, an easy method to RESET our digestive systems and keep our bodies “alkaline” on a daily basis.
Happy Halloween! Sev was very sweet to the princesses that came to the door, but he scared off a werewolf. Seriously, I thought he was going to chase the werewolf down the steps 😉 (good dog!).
Here is a simple, wholesome meal that is ready in 30 minutes – perfect for busy weekday dinners. There’s no reason to hit the take out line when you have this quick and delicious recipe on hand. Eating simple, wholesome meals like this and exercising regularly will get you to your goal weight.
Servings: 4
Here’s what you need:
1 cups cooked quinoa
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 ear of corn, kernels cut from cob
Handful of asparagus stalks, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cups baked chicken breast, cut into small cubes
1 can of organic black beans, drained and rinsed
splash of lemon juice
splash of lime juice
dash of salt and pepper
splash of soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
Cook the quinoa and set aside. Place a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil, onion and garlic. Sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers, corn and asparagus, cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the chicken and beans, cook for another 10 minutes, adding the rest of the ingredients.
Place a serving of quinoa on each plate and top it with the vegetable mix.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 293 calories, 5g fat, 32g carbohydrate, 4.6g fiber, and 29.4g protein.
One of the reason I love complexes is because I loathe doing traditional ‘cardio’. When I do a complex, I get my heart rate up, boost my metabolism and I work on strength all at once. I can lessen the load on all lifts so I can work on technique on each lift. Instead of going faster on a complex, I’ll add more load.
I’m really enjoying these Challenge Complexes I started doing and I know you will too.
This workout can be done in AMRAP style (as many rounds as possible) or you can do it the way I did by doing 8 reps of each exercise for up to six rounds.
Instead of a video today, I’ve got some pictures for you.
Here’s the workout:
8 reps of each exercise, rest as little as possible:
snatch
front squat push press
RDL
one arm pull up (4 per side)
burpee
hanging leg raise
Sev added some fun by attacking my head during the burpee. He’d crouch down nose to nose to me and then all of a sudden he’d pounce unexpectedly, by then I’d be done my burpees and move to the hanging legs raises where he’d try to bite my shoes.
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I have an article for you from my friend and ‘fitness son’ Jason Klein. He’s a really cool cat, much smarter than his years. He’s developed a program from training marines to get fit super fast. You can see it here, or go ahead and read what he has to say and do the workout he provides. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment 😉
The Most Important Exercise
By: Jason Klein, NASM-CPT, PES, CES
Performance Enhancement Specialist
“Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is started, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance.”
– Robert Collier
You know, this quote really matters to me. Coming from the standpoint of a personal trainer, I think it is exactly how we need to view our health and fitness journey.
All to often, people get caught up in the vast minutia of the fitness industry. It is truly a new, futuristic form of the wild west.
Take a look at the supplement industry for example, and you will find nothing but chaos. A “gazillion” of companies (and people) trying to push their “golden pill” down the consumers’ throats. I pretty much like to relate this instance to the analogy of a flock of birds all attempting to fly in different directions, simultaneously.
It’s essentially a flying mess of cow dung.
So with this in mind, what separates those who are successful in their fitness goals?
From my years of training clients (and myself), I have seen one exercise that determines the success or failure of a person’s fitness.
See if you can relate to this story below:
As my new client, Don and I sat there talking about his new training program, I asked him to describe his past workout program.
He laughed under his breath.
“Program? Well Monday and Friday I would do full body, Tuesday and Thursday I would do cardio, and Wednesday I would do chest and back.”
I wanted specifics. “Alright, good. Can you recall what you would do on Mondays?
“Well, it was different every time and I did whatever I felt that my body needed, so there wasn’t a whole lot of specifics involved,” Don replied.
“I just did what I thought the most important exercise was for me to do,” he said.
I then asked him the same question that I am going to ask you.
This conversation was a regular occurrence for me at the start of my personal training career, and was not at all a surprise.
So now I ask you, what is the single-most important exercise?
The plank?
The push up?
The squat?
Bench press?
Truthfully, none of these are the most important exercise when it comes to fitness.
The single-most important exercise you can do for long-term fitness success:
Plan.
Yes, plan. Planning for your workouts and having a strategy to get you to where you want is perhaps the fastest, and most rewarding action you can possibly do for yourself.
And yet, some people find this exercise to be more daunting than the actual workout itself.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Yes, the simple act of taking ACTION is key, but action without meaning is useless.
Utilizing simple planning strategies like a white board or calendar can be the hidden secret to your long-term fitness results, and also provide a visual example as to how far you have come.
The next step you should take if you haven’t already is to arm yourself with a plan. You can check out my Lean Body Revolution plan here.
In case you didn’t know…
I was the go-to expert when it came to getting US Marines in amazing shape in the least amount of time possible. These marines had to lose fat to move faster, become more athletic and they had to DOUBLE their conditioning all at the same time.
I used this NEW innovative technique of super-setting strength and interval work. Trust me, it’s not easy. But using this powerful combination can get you MORE lean, athletic muscle, shed stubborn belly fat and double your conditioning in under six weeks.
They can be modified or intensified to suit any fitness level. The great thing about burpees is that they’re more effective for fat burning compared to long slow cardio like ‘jogging’.
