Kettlebell Training For Fat Loss, Muscle Gain, and World Class Conditioning

Kettlebell Training is really unique in a lot of ways. Here's why I think kettlebells are one of the best tools for getting you in great overall condition:

Training with KB's is a great cardio workout, no matter what your fitness level is

One of my favorite things to do is take someone who thinks they're in really good shape - like an recreational endurance athlete for example (hope I didn't offend anybody with that one ;) ) - and put them through a kettlebell circuit workout. They're usually smoked in less than 10 minutes - and I think a big reason for that is because kettlebell training taxes your body so differently than any other strength tool.

It hits the muscles that probably need it the most

The back of your body is a big focus with exercises like the kettlebell swing. Your glutes, hams, lower back, and lats are done after a hard swing session. These muscles of the posterior chain also happen to be areas of the body that most people lack strength.

You can get a great workout in a really short amount of time

Intelligently training with kettlebells is one of the best ways to get a total body workout in 15 or 20 minutes. It's the perfect tool for those of us who want and need a great workout but don't always have a lot of spare time.

Want to learn more about how to use kettlebells, dumbells, and your own bodyweight to build muscle, lose fat, and get into fantastic shape? Pick up a copy of my 7 day quick start guide by entering your name and email address in the form in the upper right hand corner of the page!

No Gym? No Excuse! Black Friday Sale!

I hope you're ready for the weekend! Get out there, knock out some Christmas shopping, and save yourself some serious money!

Hold on though - there's one more thing you must make sure to add to your holiday shopping list: We're running a Black Friday special on the No Gym? No Excuse! workout system! Order before Monday, November 30th at 11:59 PM and get a copy of the manual, DVD, flash card set, and bonuses in instant digital download form, plus a FREE physical copy of the book and DVD with free shipping! If you've been thinking about ordering, now is the time! Click HERE to order now!

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Bodyweight And Kettlebell Circuit Workout

Want a smoker of a kettlebell and bodyweight workout?

Got about 20 minutes, your own bodyweight, and a single kettlebell?

Try this new bodyweight and kettlebell circuit workout:


To recap, here's the workout sequence:

5 Burpees
10 KB Squat Cleans
15 Lunges
20 KB Swings
25 Sit Ups

Repeat the sequence two times as fast as possible.

The best part about this one is that you hit almost all of your major muscle groups, you get some light resistance training and a great cardio conditioning challenge, and it's done in about 15 or 20 minutes.

This workout could be done in lieu of a cardio session, or even on it's own if you're pressed for time and need a quick full-body training session.

Would love to hear some feedback on this one from everyone - enjoy!

Thanksgiving Diet Tips

Thanksgiving is almost here ... and while you gotta enjoy yourself a little, here are a few tips to keep you from completely blowing your diet:

1. Plan Ahead

On Thanksgiving Day, as long as you don't go completely overboard, go ahead and eat what you want. One meal isn't going to throw you that off track.

A bigger problem comes from the entire holiday season - the parties, familiy get-togethers, office gatherings, etc. It's the day-to-day stuff that collectively adds up. So stay good for the rest of the week and plan your cheat meal for Thanksgiving Day. That's your first Thanksgiving diet tip.

2. Make 'Healthier' Choices

Choose white meat turkey instead of dark meat. Have one glass of wine instead of three. Go for the veggies instead of the mashed potatoes. It's not rocket science - you probably have a pretty good idea what's healthy and what's not. This leads us nicely to Thanksgiving diet tip #3 -

3. Moderate Yourself

One glass of wine, a couple of crackers with some cheese on 'em, and one sensibly-sized plate of food isn't going to kill you. You'll still walk out of there having consumed 1500-2000 calories, but it won't be nearly as bad as it could be. You could easily consume 5000 (not kidding) if you're not careful. So take it easy and you'll be okay.

Planning ahead for your cheat meal on Thanksgiving day, making sensible choices, and moderating yourself are three easy ways to minimize the diet damage this Thanksgiving. But most importantly, have fun!

What's The Best Fat Burner?

I'm sure that burning fat is a priority for many of you guys. With your diet being the number one most important factor in reaching this goal, and a properly designed workout program being a close second, taking the right supplements for your fat burning goal can get you there even faster.

Once you've decided to add a fat burner into your supplement program, the next question

becomes: what's the best fat burner? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different fat burning products on the market.

So to simplify things for you a little, here are the top three selling fat burners on bodybuilding.com, one of the world's largest online supplement retailers:

1. Animal Cuts

This is the number one selling fat burner on bodybuilding.com. This product is quite literally a pack of several different components - stimulants that speed up your metabolism and give you more energy, diuretics, and appetite suppressants. It's a complete, all-in-one package.

Another thing that's pretty cool about the animal cuts product is that the components are packaged separately - you can take out the stimulants, or the diuretics, or whatever, if you want to. That's something that's pretty unique - you can't 'take anything out' of any of these other fat burners - they're all mixed together in one pill.

2. Lipo 6 Black

Here's another one that focuses mainly on the thermogenic component to aid in fat loss. It's got some supposed thyroid stimulants as well.

This particular fat burner actually has a 'female version' of the supplement called Lipo-6 Black Hers:

This version has several different ingredients that are geared towards fat loss for females. Click the picture above for more details.

3. Nutrex Lipo-6

Here's the original Lipo-6. This one was crowned 'fat burner of the year' by bodybuilding.com in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

It's a liquid capsule fat burner, and uses natural vegetable capsules that are devoid of any animal

products. It's got a variety of thermogenic compounds and metabolic stimulants to help you burn tons of body fat.

The main active ingredients in all three of these fat burners are, in reality, pretty similar. It ultimately may come down to personal choice when choosing the best fat burner for you.

What kinds of fat burners have you tried? Which ones have worked well for you? Would love to hear your input!

The Dumbell Complex

While the origins of the dumbell complex could be easily debated, Istvan Javorek is a strength coach who has recently popularized the complex concept.  The dumbell complex is a great tool that can be used for anything from a warm-up to an entire workout. A 'complex', although a rather general term, is simply when you perform a back-to-back series of different exercises, typically using either dumbells or a barbell, one after another in circuit fashion without rest. Here's an example:

Javorek’s Dumbbell Complex One

Exercise:

Dumbbell Upright Row X 6

Dumbbell High Pull Snatch X 6

Dumbbell Squat Push Press X 6

Dumbbell Bent Over Row X 6

Dumbbell High Pull Snatch X 6

Perform In A Non-Stop, Continuous Order As Listed Above.

Five Exercise X 6 Reps = 30 Reps/Set

Istvan Javorek may be responsible for popularizing the concept, but it's actually very widely used in one form or another. One favorite CrossFit workout I've used myself and with clients in the past is called the 'Dumbell Bear':

Dumbell Deadlift x5

Dumbell Hang Clean x5

Dumbell Thruster x5

While there are quite a few variations of this complex that can be performed to 'scale' the intensity up or down, the standard way to perform it is to do the sequence starting on the minute each minute for twenty minutes. This one is no joke; try it for yourself to see what I mean!

These two workouts are just a couple examples of what a dumbell complex might look like; enjoy and let me know what you think!

If you liked this article, check out my 7 Day Rapid Fat Loss Blueprint - it's got workouts a lot like these, a quick start meal plan, and even some motivational tips.  Simply visit www.ultimatefitnessresourcetoolkit.com to claim your free copy today!

Five Great Ways To Workout At Home

Busy and no time to hit the gym? No problem. You can stick with your workout routine easily and get a killer workout without leaving your house! Here are five ways to workout at home.

1. Use your own body weight

Do a circuit of exercises with your own body weight. The possibilities are nearly endless - try this sequence:

20 squats

15 sit ups

10 push ups

Do this three times without resting.

2. Use dumbells

Add a pair of dumbells and you have almost all you need to get a fantastic workout at home. Now you can add resistance to do exercises like shoulder presses, bicep curls, tricep extensions, rows, and much, much more.

Start by adding in a couple sets of fifteen each of bicep curls and tricep extensions to the previously listed body weight sequence.

3. Incorporate kettlebells into the mix

Incorporating kettlebell work into your program is one of the best ways to workout at home. A single kettlebell enables you to work your entire body in a really short amount of time.

One of the most basic kettlebell exercises is the kettlebell swing. Take a look at this YouTube video of me demonstrating how to do a kettlebell swing.

4. Jump Rope

If you need to get in some pure cardio work, jumping rope is another one of the great ways to workout at home. You can do single jumps, alternating feet jumps, hand crossover jumps, lunge jumps, double jumps - I'm no jump rope expert, these are just a few different jump rope moves that I try to mix into my routine. All I know is that after about five minutes of jumping rope I'm pretty smoked!

5. Stretch

Another great way to workout at home - work on your flexibility. It's important to do some flexibilty training to balance out your training program. I encorporate basic yoga moves into my clients routines all the time.

I find that many of the basic yoga poses - downward dog, pidgeon, child's pose, cobra - just give you a much better stretch in the target muscle groups than some other more traditional stretches.

These are five ways to get a fast, efficient workout at home. If you don't like the gym, or you just don't have time to hit it on a regular baisis, try one or all of these elements for your next home workout.

If you enjoyed this article, make sure to grab your free 7 day guide to building muscle and losing fat with kettlbells, dumbells, and your own bodyweight! Enter your name and email in the form to the top right of the page and you'll get instant access!

3 Reasons Why A Single Kettlebell is One of the Best, Most Efficient, Coolest, Most Cost Effective Pieces of Home Exercise Equipment You Can Buy

Here are three reasons why at least one kettlebell should be a part of every one's home setup:

1. You get a can get a home kettlebell workout with a limited amount of space

Whether you're outside, in a studio apartment, or on the beach, a smokin' kb workout can be had pretty much anywhere you are. 15 minutes and you get a total body workout that works the s#$& out of your cardio system in a way that nothing else can.

2. Kettlebells are cost effective

How much useless exercise equipment have you bought over the years? I know I've got some crap. Speaking of which, anyone want to buy a Bosu Ball?

For around $100, you can get a piece of equipment that will last you forever and is incredibly versatile.

3. Cardio + Strength all in one pop

If you're limited on time like I am, one of the biggest things is getting the most efficient workout you can in the least amount of time. It's all about high intensity when you only have 30 minutes a day. So a kettlebell is a perfect choice - 15 minutes and I get a strength and cardio workout at the same time.

Convinced yet? I hope so. Click here to order your Dragon Door kettlebell today!

USPlabs Jack3d Review

The #1 most widely used, most reliable, and most effective supplement on the planet for building muscle is Creatine. A creatine and pre-workout supplement that I've recently tried and am a big fan of is Jack3d by USPlabs.

Before I talk specifically about Jack3d, let's just do a quick review of exactly what creatine - one of the main active ingredients in Jack3d - does.

Among other things, creatine works by increasing the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels in muscle. ATP acts as the major energy carrying molecule in our bodies.

In effect, when we're doing, say, a set of Push-Ups, ATP is lost with muscle fatigue, and must be replenished in order to keep working. Creatine supplementation helps boost phosphocreatine levels in muscle, which can be converted to ATP as we fatigue.

In plain English: we can do a few more reps per set with a heavier weight when we're taking creatine or something like Jack3d, which over time leads to bigger strength gains, more muscle, etc.

The other cool thing about creatine is that it has a volumizing effect; so after about a week or so, your muscles look and feel a little fuller and bigger. Kind of feels like you're walking around pumped up all the time - pretty cool.

Now, there are a lot of different types of creatine products on the market. The old-school stuff was creatine monohydrate powder - it came in powder form and tasted pretty bad. You can still get a hold of it but there are a lot of better alternatives.

There have been a variety of different creatine products to hit the market in the last ten years; a lot of the new products mix AAKG with creatine for an increased volumizing effect like I talked about before, which I personally think works pretty well.

One of the newest, best, and most reasonably priced supplements like this is Jack3d by USPlabs. It's got the above mentioned ingredients in addition to some pre-workout stimulants to give you a little boost - which is nice. Click below to find out more about it and to order:

Jack3d by USPlabs

I hope that gave you a little background and information on Jack3d and creatine in general.  Good luck with your muscle building efforts!

The Magic of HIIT Cardio For Burning Fat

Is burning fat your #1 goal? Hate doing endless sessions of long, boring cardio? I've got a great solution for you - it's called HIIT cardio training.

HIIT (short for High Intensity Interval Training) could be the secret to reaching your fat loss goals in record time. Not for the faint of heart, this type of training is intense - but hey, that's a good thing. If you're gonna show up, you might as well bring it.

What is HIIT cardio? It's a short, intense workout geared towards burning fat. Sessions generally last about 15-30 minutes, and a typical workout might alternate low intensity cardio - a fast walk or jog, for example - with high intensity cardio, like a sprint.

But what about the fat burning zone? I thought I was supposed to be keeping my heart rate down if I wanted to burn fat. Short answer: ignore it. It's a myth. During lower intensity exercise, a higher percentage of the calories you burn are coming from fat - which sounds good. The only problem is that you burn less calories overall if you're not working as hard. When we're trying to burn fat and/or lose weight, the most important thing is calories in, calories out. We want to burn the maximum amount of calories possible in the time we have available for our workout. So unless you have an extra hour or two a day to spend at the gym (and I'm pretty sure you don't), HIIT cardio is more efficient for burning more calories in less time. Jack up the intensity and get it done! Rest assured your workout will be plenty productive.

So here are a few examples of a HIIT cardio workout for you:

Tabata Intervals: 20 seconds of all-out effort, 10 seconds of rest, repeat eight times.

The Tabata protocol is actually based on one of the pioneer and most frequently sited studies done on HIIT cardio training. This four minute workout turned out to be extremely effective for Olympic Speed Skaters for fat loss and improving overall conditioning. You can do this protocol with a variety of different exercises; try doing it alternating running with walking, with body weight squats, with sit ups - you get the idea.

2 on/1 off

This is a simple yet effective interval workout. After about a five minute warm-up, run or cycle or run up stairs for two minutes, then take about one minute of active recovery (that means take it easy - you're catching your breath). Repeat four to six times, do a five minute cool-down, and you're done for the day.

Track Intervals

Here's another simple one you can do at your local track. Remember to warm up properly, then simply run the straits of the track and walk or jog on the curves. You can run anywhere from six to twenty straitaways. Cool down and call it a day.

If you're trying to burn fat, please, please stop doing long and boring cardio. Give one of these HIIT cardio workouts a try today!

If you enjoyed these high intensity cardio workouts, check out this free article series I've put together. It includes workout ideas, diet tips, and motivation for reaching your fat loss goals in record time!

How To Incorporate Kettlebell Training IntoYour Strength Routine

In part one of this article (found over on www.charmcitykettlebells.com), I talked about a 'back to basics' kettlebell circuit. Please click here to check it out for yourself.

Now, I'd like to lay out a template for you to incorporate this circuit into your regular strength routine. Not everyone wants to jump into kettlebell training as a stand-alone tool, so here's how you can do it while continuing your barbell, dumbell, and body weight work at the same time:

We'll start with an outline of the entire week:

Monday - KB Circuit

Tuesday - Interval run or cycle workout

Wednesday - Heavy push day

Thursday - Heavy pull day

Friday - Interval run or cycle workout

Saturday - KB Circuit

Sunday - Rest Day

For the KB circuit days, follow the template I've laid out here.

Here's an example of what you could do for the heavy days:

Push

Bench Press 5 sets, 5 reps each

DB Push Press 4x6

Bar Dip 3x8-10

Skullcrusher 3x8-10

Pull

Deadlift 5x5

Lunge 3x8-10 ea leg

Pull Ups 30 reps total, as many sets as it takes to get there

1 Arm DB Row 3x8-10

Barbell Curl 3x8-10

And for the cardio days, simply do an interval run of your choice - www.crossfitendurance.com has an endless supply of great interval ideas.

We're able to get two days of kettlebells, two days of cardio interval training, and two days of heavy lifting. A great program to build strength and endurance at the same time. Give it a go and let us know what you think!