Category: Blog

I get asked two questions a lot by guys without fail. “Do you take steroids/growth hormones/testosterone replacement/etc” and “How did you get the mass you have”

Now I will admit that i have some size on me. 5’11 265 lbs. I have between a 33-34 inch waist most of the year, and when i am dieting, its smaller! Now please know i am not saying this to brag, its just so you can get an idea of why i am asked these questions all the time.

Well I am finally going to give an answer to those questions: NO I have never taken any form of drugs, I work my ass off every training session. And I will to share one of my training secrets with you…

Guys if you want to achieve some serious muscle gains (or women if that’s your goal), then try German Volume Training!

GVT is an old school style of working out specifically for packing on a lot of muscle mass quickly. Gains of five pounds of solid muscle are often seen in as little as three weeks. Many articles have been written about this workout, but a lot gets lost in translation when it comes to explaining why this particular program works so well.

 GVT works by targeting a group of motor units (nerves that cause a specific group of muscle fibers to contract) and subjecting them to an extensive volume of repeated efforts. Specifically, 10 sets of 10 reps of a single exercise. The body adapts to this extraordinary stress by hypertrophying the targeted fibers.

German Volume Training goes beyond being a challenging workout physically; mentally, the sheer volume of the work can eventually make you dread going to the gym. After a GVT training cycle you’ll need a break—a long break. A good training plan would be to perform GVT for just one month, once a year or, at the most, twice a year.

With that background, let me explain some of the mistaken ideas associated with GVT, along with a few tips on how to get the most from this workout.

First, some bodybuilders believe that GVT is simply a slight variation of Vince Gironda’s 8×8 workout. It’s not. One of the major differences is that there’s more rest time between sets in GVT, making it possible to use more weight for each exercise and thus build more muscle mass.

Although GVT doesn’t produce a high level of growth hormone release, it’s not as effective in the short term for reducing body fat as other programs, such as the German Body Comp program. However because GVT is a superior method of increasing muscle mass, it will more effectively raise your metabolism (i.e., the rate at which you burn calories). It has been found that for every pound of lean tissue gained on GVT, there is often a loss of an equal amount of fat weight—this is especially true with women.

There’s also the mistaken belief that  Olympic lifts and their assistance exercises, such as power cleans or snatch pulls, could be used within the GVT program. No, they can’t. First, it would be difficult to maintain proper form in those complex exercises using such high reps—even in pulls. More importantly, those exercises are dynamic with no eccentric overload, and as such the time under tension for those types of assistance exercises is too short to create maximal gains in hypertrophy.

With a few exceptions, such as leg curls, it would also be a mistake to use machines for GVT. Machines don’t provide the same stress from a total-body training stimulus due to their increased stability. Performing 10×10 of leg presses is certainly difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as squats. Select exercises that recruit a lot of muscle mass. Triceps kickbacks and side leg raises are definitely out—squats and bench presses are definitely in.

You’ll increase the weight only after you complete all 10 sets with the predetermined starting weight. The load you use will be submaximal— you don’t try to reach failure on all sets; only the last three sets should be hard. Basically you get the training effect from the law of repeated efforts. Once you’re able to complete 10 sets of 10 reps, you’ll increase the weight by 2ó–5%. Also, you’ll perform the reps without any outside assistance.

Due to the physical and mental challenges of the GVT, I’d recommend at least a year of conventional training before trying it. If you’ve tried GVT before, review the previous three paragraphs! The German Volume Training program is one of the most difficult workout programs you’ll ever perform, but the results are worth it. For a more detailed explanation, check out  www.poliquingroup.com

The following includes a sample GVT workout within a month-long program that involves performing each training session a total of six times. Although supplementary work can be performed for the same muscle group, only two exercises in each workout are performed for 10 sets of 10 reps. Any additional work could easily push you into overtraining.

ARMS
Exercise	Sets/Reps	Rest (sec)
A1. Ez-bar Reverse Curl	10*10	75
A2. Dip	10*10	75
B1. Incline Dumbbell Curl	3*12-15	60
B2. Ez-bar Lying Tricep Ext	3*12-15	60
Chest and Back
Exercise	Sets/Reps	Rest (sec)
A1. Incline Dumbbell Press	10*10	75
A2. Chinup	10*10	75
B1. Flat Dumbell Press	3*12-15	60
B2. Single Arm Dumbbell Row	3*12-15	60
Legs
Exercise	Sets/Reps	Rest (sec)
A1. Back Squat	10*10	75
A2. Lying Leg Curl	10*10	75
B1. Stiff Legged Deadlift	3*10-12	60
B2. Standing Calf Raise	3*10-12	60

Let me know if you like this style of training. Leave me a comment or email me. Train Hard!!!!!!!

 

Everyday there are newbies to the Gym Junkiez mentality. They go to their local gym and try their best to learn what exercises are best for specific body parts they desire to improve, or try different methods of working out to get in shape.  With technology constantly changing and improving, it is becoming easier to find the information to achieve the desired fitness results. Below are some of the best apps out that provide excellent workout routines, as well as allows you to track you progress towards your physique goals. These apps can easily take the place of a physical personal trainer.  If you want to get in shape but do not want to pay the insane fees some personal trainers charge, download one of these apps and give it a run!

 

#1 JEFIT
This all-in-one app contains powerful fitness routine planning and tracking tools that help you target your workouts and keep easy track of your progress. Plan a routine—you can build whole workouts around individual body parts, if you like—before you hit the gym. Once you’re inside, JEFIT takes over, telling you what’s next (including animations) and even timing rest periods between exercise. It stores your info for later reference, plus packs more than 1,300 instructions and animations to help you find new exercises to achieve your goals.
Rating: 4.59 stars on 22,994 ratings
Available On: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android
jefit.com

#2 StrongLifts 5×5
Based on the popular StrongLifts 5×5 workout—5 sets of 5 reps of free weight compound lifts—this app is out to make you really strong, really fast on only three workouts a week. Like your own personal Bob Harper, StrongLifts tells you what exercises to do, how much weight you should lift (making on-the-fly adjustments when you plateau or fail) and congratulates you when you put in a solid effort or achieve an important goal.
Rating: 4.50 stars on 252 ratings
Available On: iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
stronglifts.com

#3 Fitness Builder
This app has all the tools you need to get fit—a massive library of instructional training videos, live streaming personal trainers, progress reports, drag-and-drop workout builders and fitness plans. Bummer: You lose a lot of the FREE features after a trial month, but still get 300-plus exercise photos and videos and a handful of PumpOne workouts. It’s $6.99/month to continue at the Plus level.
Rating: 3.53 stars on 2,198 ratings
Available On: iPhone, iPad touch, iPad and Android
fitnessbuilder.com

I see a lot of people new to the gym junkiez lifestyle doing random exercises, some of them are even doing those exercises incorrectly. Several guys have asked me what exercises to do for various bodyparts or what plan they should follow to get bigger and/or stronger. I’m now going to provide you with a couple of plug-n-play – make that plug-n-train – templates that you can use to quickly and easily design a slew of great, no-nonsense training programs.

Since I generally recommend training four or five days per week, I’ll include both a four-way training split and a five-way split. That way you’ll be covered either way.

I encourage you to use these templates either as-is, or as a base upon which you can build your own training program.

 

Be Flexible

“I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.” — Everett Dirksen

Nothing in these templates or the following exercise options is set in stone. For example, you may already have huge calves. If you happen to be so lucky, then you may want to opt to do no calf exercises at all.

Or you may be a recreational Mixed Martial Artist who needs to work on grip strength. Thus you’ll want to add grip/forearm exercises to the templates below.

Whatever the case, just remember that while bodybuilding training is definitely a science, it’s just as much an art – and even though you and I use the same science, your art may very well look different from my art.

Be Rigid

“Life is indeed terribly complicated–to a man who has lost his principles.” — G.K. Chesterton

Although creative flexibility is welcomed, don’t get carried away. Whether you use my 11 bodybuilding training principles (which are built into the following templates) or your own, you should definitely have some parameters to guide your decision-making, otherwise it’s easy to venture too far from the tried and true.

For example, if you’ve ever seen a leg workout that consisted of 3 sets each of leg extensions, leg press, and leg curls, you’ve seen a lack of training principles in action.

Rest Intervals

The topic of rest intervals is a perfect illustration of the need to be flexible and rigid at the same time.

While walking around in the touristy part of San Francisco the other day, I saw a shirt that said, “Some say I have ADD, but they just don’t underst….Hey, LOOK, a Squirrel!”

If your friends would say that shirt applies to you (or you already own said shirt), then you may very well get bored between sets, especially when you’re focusing on strength and need to get copious rest between sets. In that case, you need to be more rigid, getting at least the minimum amount of rest prescribed between sets.

On the other hand, it’s important to be flexible regarding your rest intervals between sets – at least flexible enough to allow common sense to prevail.

For example, if a workout calls for you to only rest 30 seconds between sets, yet your breaths per minute and the beats per minute of your heart haven’t even begun to slow, then it’s time to be flexible and use some common sense – take more rest.

With that said, here are the rest intervals that you should adhere to, unless you have a good reason not to – and getting bored isn’t a reason!

• Short rest: 20-60 seconds (45 seconds on average)
• Moderate rest: 1-2 minutes (90 seconds on average)
• Long rest: 2-5 minutes (3 minutes on average)

Besides implementing a rest period that aligns with your goal of doing a given exercise (which I’ve done for you with the following template), the other thing to remember is to be consistent with your rest intervals. Otherwise, your performance will be inconsistent and impossible to monitor.

Sets & Reps

As a rule, we could say there are three general rep/weight ranges:

• Low Rep / Heavy Weight: 1-6 reps (5 reps on average)
• Moderate Rep / Moderate Weight: 7-12 reps (10 reps on average)
• High Rep / Light Weight: 12 reps (15 reps on average)

But I point out the above ranges more for illustration, as we’re not going to stick precisely to those.

In the templates I’ll lay out the exact sets and reps I’d typically recommend for that particular exercise, but don’t get too hung up on being 100% consistent with what I’ve laid out. Instead, use them as a guideline to know what ‘ballpark’ to stay in.

For example, I may say do 5 x 5 (five sets of five reps), but instead you’d like to do 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That’s totally fine – you’re still in the same heavy weight/low-rep ‘ballpark’ so-to-speak.

On the other hand, if I prescribe 3 x 6-10 and you instead do 3 x 12-15, then you’re changing things a bit too much and essentially creating your own training template. Again, that’s fine, but just make sure you have a legitimate reason to tweak things that much.

When In Doubt

When in doubt as to whether to stick to the plug-n-train template I’ve laid out or to tweak it, I’d highly encourage you to stick with the template as is.

After all, I’m putting in (literally) over 20 years of trial-and-error experience and the same amount of book learning into these templates – so, to say I’m confident the following templates work would be a serious understatement.

So my rule regarding tweaking the following templates is the same as Mrs. Mathews’ (my eighth-grade English teacher) rule regarding comma use – when in doubt, don’t.

Exercise Selection

It would be impossible for me to list every possible exercise for each body part. Instead, I’m going to list what I’d call the “No-Nonsense” exercises for each body part.

(FYI, when designing workouts for myself or clients, I rarely feel the need to venture outside of these.)

Although you’ve probably got some good, unique exercises up your sleeve, resist the temptation to use too many ‘fancy’ new exercises or machines. Otherwise you’ll stray too far away from the meat and potatoes exercises, which happen to be the ones that we know work!

Primary and Secondary Exercises

To systemize everything, I’m dividing exercises into primary (1°) and secondary (2°) exercises.

Generally, primary exercises will be compound, multi-joint exercises, while secondary exercises tend to be more isolation movements. However, I’ve based this division on more than compound versus isolation.

Take dips for example. They’re undoubtedly a compound exercise, yet I’d still consider dips secondary in terms of chest exercises.

Make no mistake, there will be times when you’ll want to implement a secondary exercise in place of a primary one. Maybe you want to pre-exhaust your lats with pullovers, for example.

A more likely exchange would be doing another primary exercise where I’ve listed a secondary exercise.

For example, you may opt to do skull crushers – a primary exercise for triceps – last in your triceps routine. Nothing wrong with that.

Although this primary versus secondary thing is flexible, be more hesitant to swap a primary exercise for a secondary exercise than vice versa – otherwise your routine might not contain enough tough exercises that are easy to loathe yet highly effective, like barbell squats.

Without further ado, let’s get into the specific exercises for each body part.

Chest

• • 1° Chest Exercises
  • Incline Press (barbell or dumbbell)
  • Flat Press (barbell or dumbbell)
  • Decline Press (barbell or dumbbell)

 

• 2° Chest Exercises
• Cable Fly/Crossover (high-to-low, low-to-high)
• Dumbbell Fly (incline, flat, or decline)
• Dip
• Machine Press (incline, flat, or decline)
• Machine Fly
• Push-Up

Back

• • 1° Back Exercises
  • Deadlift (full or rack)
  • Barbell Row (overhand or underhand)
  • Pull-Up / Chin-Up
  • One-Arm Dumbbell Row
  • T-Bar Row

 

• 2° Back Exercises
• Cable Row (neutral, overhand, or underhand grip)
• Reverse Fly (dumbbell/machine)
• Dumbbell Pullover
• Pulldown (neutral, overhand, or underhand grip)
• Row Machine
• Pulldown Machine

Shoulders

• • 1° Shoulder Exercises
  • Overhead Press (barbell or dumbbell)
  • Dumbbell Lateral Raise

 

• 2° Shoulder Exercises
• Arnold Press
• Overhead Press Machine
• Cable Lateral
• Front Raise – (barbell or dumbbell)
• Rear-Delt Cable Kickback
• Rear-Delt Dumbbell Raise/Extension
• Truck Driver
• Upright Row – (barbell, dumbbell or cable)

Triceps

• • 1° Triceps Exercises
  • Skull Crusher
  • Close-Grip Bench Press
  • Dip
  • V-Bar Cable Pushdown

 

• 2° Triceps Exercises
• Kickback (dumbbell or cable)
• Randy Press
• Straight-Bar/Rope Cable Pushdown
• Overhead Extension (barbell, dumbbell, or cable)
• Reverse-Grip Cable Pushdown

Biceps

• • 1° Biceps Exercises
  • Barbell Curl – (straight or EZ/cambered bar)
  • Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curl

 

• 2° Biceps
• Spider Curl
• Drag Curl
• Low-Cable Curl
• Preacher Curl (EZ bar or dumbbell)
• Dumbbell Hammer Curl
• Reverse Curl
• Dumbbell Concentration Curl
• Chin-Up

Abdominals

• • 1° Ab Exercises
  • Hanging Leg Raise
  • Bicycle Crunch
  • Decline Crunch

 

• 2° Ab Exercises
• Rope Crunch
• Reverse Crunch
• Frog Kick
• V-Up

Quadriceps

• • 1° Quad Exercises
  • Back Squat
  • Front Squat
  • Hack Squat

 

• 2° Quad Exercises
• Bulgarian Split Squat
• Leg Press
• Leg Extension
• Walking Lunge

Hamstrings

• • 1° Hamstring Exercises
  • Stiff-Legged/Romanian Deadlift (barbell or dumbbell)
  • Seated Leg Curl

 

• 2° Hamstring Exercises
• Lying Leg Curl
• Hamstring Ball Roll
• Unilateral (machine) Leg Curl
• Hamstring Rope Pull-Through

Calves

• • 1° Calf Exercises
  • Standing Calf Raise (machine)
  • Unilateral Dumbbell Calf Raise

 

• 2° Calf Exercises
• Calf Press (on leg press)
• Seated Calf Raise

Training Split Templates

My goal in creating these templates is to completely take the guesswork out of designing your own training programs. That way you can use your precious energy for training instead of thinking.

Simply plug-in the appropriate exercise and you’re off!

4-Day Training Split

The following 4-day training split is, as you likely surmised, for those of you who are going to train four days per week.

Notice I didn’t say “might train four days per week” or “will often train four days per week.”

It’s important that you decide, in advance, how many days per week you can commit to. Otherwise you’re going to compromise the effectiveness of the program. So if you’re thinking, “I can consistently train four or five days per week,” then go with four, because it needs to be something doable week in and week out.

Note: Sure, we can design training splits that are more flexible in nature, allowing you to train on a more random schedule, but that’s a topic for another post.

No-Nonsense 4-Day Training Split

• Day 1: (e.g., Monday) – Chest & Biceps
• Day 2: (e.g., Tuesday) – Back & Abs
• Day 3: (e.g., Thursday) – Shoulders, Triceps, & Abs
• Day 4: (e.g., Friday) – Legs

Chest & Biceps

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Chest (press)	5	5	Long
B	1°/2° Chest	3	6-10	Moderate
C	2° Chest	4	12-20	Short
D	1° Biceps	4	5	Long
E	1°/2° Biceps	3	8-12	Moderate
F	2° Biceps/Forearm	3	10-15	Short/Moderate

Back & Abs

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Back (vertical pull)	4	6-10	Long
B	1° Back (lift/row)	3-4	6-10	Long
C	1°/2° Back	3	8-12	Moderate
D	2° Back	4	10-15	Short
E	1° Ab	3-4	6-10	Moderate
F	2° Ab	3	10-20	Short/Moderate

Shoulders, Triceps, & Abs

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Shoulder (vertical press)	4	5	Long
B	1° Shoulder (abduction)	4	8-12	Moderate
C	2° Shoulder	3	10-15	Short
D	1° Triceps	3	6-10	Moderate
E	1°/2° Triceps	3	8-12	Moderate
F	2° Triceps	3	10-15	Short
G	1° Ab	4	6-12	Moderate

Quads, Hams, & Calves

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Quad	5	6-12	Long
B	2° Quad	4	8-15	Moderate
C	1° Ham	4	6-10	Moderate
D	2° Ham	3-4	8-15	Short/Moderate
E	Ancillary Leg (as needed)	2-3	8-15	Short/Moderate
F	1° Calf	4-5	6-12	Moderate
G	2° Calf	3	10-15	Short

5-Day Training Splits

For those who can commit to training five days per week, this is a great training split.

Note: If you’re a bit savvy, you can reconfigure the following template to use with a different 5-day training split.

No-Nonsense 5-Day Training Split

• Day 1: (e.g., Monday) – Chest & Calves
• Day 2: (e.g., Tuesday) – Back & Abs
• Day 3: (e.g., Thursday) – Shoulders & Hams
• Day 4: (e.g., Friday) – Quads & Abs
• Day 5: (e.g., Saturday) – Arms

Chest & Calves

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Chest	5	5	Long
B	1° Chest	3-4	6-10	Long/Moderate
C	2° Chest	3	8-12	Moderate/Short
D	2° Chest (weak point isolation)	3	10-15	Short
E	1° Calf	4	5-10	Moderate
F	1° Calf	3	10-15	Short/Moderate
G	2° Calf	3	12-20	Short

Back & Abs

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Back (vertical pull)	3-4	6-10	Moderate/Long
B	1° Back (lift/row)	3-4	4-8	Long
C	1°/2° Back	3	8-12	Moderate
D	2° Back	3	8-12	Moderate
E	2° Back (weak point isolation)	4	10-15	Short/Moderate
F	1° Ab	3-4	6-12	Moderate
G	2° Ab	3	12-20	Short

Shoulders & Hamstrings

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Shoulder (press)	4	4-8	Long
B	1° Shoulder (abduction)	4	6-10	Moderate
C	2° Shoulder	3	8-12	Short/Moderate
D	Shoulder Health (i.e., ext rotation)	3	12-15	Short
E	1° Ham (knee flexion)	3-4	6-10	Moderate
F	1° Ham (hip ext)	2-3	6-10	Moderate
G	2° Ham	3-4	10-15	Short/Moderate

Quads & Abs

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Quad	5	6-10	Long
B	1°/2° Quad	4	8-12	Moderate/Long
C	2° Quad	3-4	8-12	Moderate
D	2° Quad	3	10-20	Short/Moderate
E	1° Ab	3	6-12	Moderate
F	2° Ab	3	12-20	Short

Biceps, Triceps, & Forearms

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
A	1° Triceps	4	4-8	Moderate/Long
B	1° Biceps	4	4-8	Moderate/Long
C	1°/2° Triceps	3	8-12	Moderate
D	2° Triceps	3	12-20	Short
E	1°/2° Biceps	3	8-12	Moderate
F	2° Biceps	3	12-20	Short
G	Forearms (as needed)	3	8-15	Short/Moderate

Ancillary Exercises to Consider

Here are some smaller/more specific body parts that you may want to give some attention, along with the exercises to accomplish that task.

As needed, simply plug these into your split where they fit best, as illustrated above with the ancillary leg, forearm, and shoulder health exercises.

• • Tibialis Anterior
  • Resisted Dorsiflexion
  • Heel Walking

 

• • Forearm Wrist
  • Curls/Flexion (Barbell or Dumbbell)
  • Wrist Extension (Barbell or Dumbbell)
  • Wrist Rolls
  • Reverse Curls

 

• Shoulder External Rotation
• Cuban Rotation
• Side-Lying DB External Rotation
• Cable External Rotation

Ancillary Exercises

Target Muscle	Sets	Reps	Rest Interval
Tibialis Anterior	4	8-15	Short-Moderate
Wrist Extensor	4	8-15	Short-Moderate
Wrist Flexor	3	8-15	Short-Moderate
Shoulder External Rotation	4	8-15	Short-Moderate

In Closing

I’ll be the first to admit, there’s nothing revolutionary in this post, but that’s sort of the point – we’re not trying to reinvent bodybuilding training here.

Instead, these templates are meant to be something more like elegantly simple, yet extremely effective.

With that in mind, I’d encourage you to print them out or screenshot them and take ’em to the gym with you. That way, you’ll always have the information you need to construct a bad ass training program whether you like to have a plan before going to the gym or want to instinctively train and create one  on the spot.

Train Hard!!!!!!

Do you eat well most of the time, but just can’t seem to lose stubborn pounds? It could be that you are eating the right foods, but in the wrong combinations. Or you could be eating the right combinations of food, but not timing your meals correctly. No matter how you slice it, your weight loss is determined by your metabolism. A revved-up metabolism will easily yield more weight loss than a sluggish one. The good news is that you do have control over your fat-burning capacity!

WE ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

Before I teach you how to eat well for an active metabolism, let me dispel the myth that we are all created equal. When it comes to calories-in and calories-out, we are NOT all equal. I might work with two clients who are the same age, same sex, and do the same amount of exercise, yet one can get away with eating a lot more food than the other, and still lose weight. Some of it will depend on muscle mass (the more muscle, the higher the metabolism), however some of it is just straight genetics. This is one of the reasons that obesity runs in families.

To help rev-up your metabolism, I offer the top eight ways we slow it down and how to avoid them.

1. NOT EATING ENOUGH DURING THE DAY

Not eating enough during the day slows down your metabolism two ways. First, your body thinks it’s starving, so it will slow down your calorie-burning capacity in order to “survive.” Second, you are likely to make up for low caloric intake in the last few hours of the day, causing your body to hang on to the food through the night in preparation for another day of “starving.” Plain and simple — eat early and eat often — it will get your engine revving on high!

2. NOT DRINKING ENOUGH FLUIDS

Drinking water is one of the easiest ways to turn up your fat-burning capacity. I cannot say that drinking water alone will cause weight loss; however, if you are eating a perfect diet, but are dehydrated, you will lose less weight. When your body is dehydrated it cannot burn fat. So please, get 64 ounces per day—and as a bonus your hair and skin will shine!

3. ALL-OR-NOTHING DIETING

One of the biggest problems with “fad” and “crash” diets is that they usually provide a very low calorie allowance. Not only will this cause your body to burn fewer calories, but it will also make you more likely to binge. A slower metabolism combined with an increased likelihood of binging spells disaster. So play it safe; find a well-balanced diet that does not overly restrict calories.

4. EATING TOO MUCH SUGAR

I often find that my clients are eating the right amount of calories for weight loss, but are not losing weight. The culprit is usually sugar. Sugars and refined carbs have the unique ability to stop weight loss in its tracks. Think of this: Your body is burning fat (from your hips, maybe?), and all of a sudden it gets an influx of sugar. It will use the sugar as energy and promptly stop burning the fat. So really, cut the sugar.

5. NOT WEIGHT-TRAINING

So many of my women tell me about the hours they spend on the treadmill — thinking that this is the secret ingredient to burning more calories. Sadly, it just doesn’t work out. Sure, you burn more calories by walking on the treadmill than by lying on the couch; however, without the proper amount of weight training, you will not increase your metabolism. Your resting metabolism is directly affected by how much muscle you have — so go on, build more muscle!

6. “EATING BACK” YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES

Many people want to know how many calories their exercise session burned. Usually the reason they want this information is to quantify it in terms of food. In other words, they justify eating a candy bar since they already worked off those calories. However, this equation just doesn’t work. You’ll end up not losing weight, or you might even gain some weight. So remember, food and exercise are separate issues.

7. DRINKING TOO MUCH ALCOHOL

There is nothing wrong with a few cocktails per week, but too many will absolutely reduce your fat-burning capability. Not only does alcohol provide a hefty dose of calories, but it also stops fat burning in its tracks (similar to sugar). Add in the side effect of the increased hunger you might feel while imbibing, and you’ve set yourself up for weight loss failure. Enjoy your cocktails…sparingly.

8. SKIMPING ON PROTEIN

During the low-fat food craze of the late 1980s, we all became afraid of protein. It was linked to higher-fat diets, and many trendy diets limited protein to 2 ounces per meal. This has a disastrous consequence on weight loss. When you skimp on protein, your body has to burn its own muscle for fuel, resulting in decreased lean muscle mass. Less muscle means less calorie-burning action! Additionally, without adequate protein you can’t build more muscle mass (to burn calories). And lastly, diets that are low in protein cause increased sugar cravings. So eat your protein, often! Remember, a good rule of thumb for protein intake is to consume between 0.6 – 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Enjoy!!!

If you are adhering to these protocols then you will be on your way to a healthy metabolism and a leaner YOU. Whether you want to be in better shape for the summer time or just want to be healthy, this will help you achieve both. Eat Smart!!

Enough is enough. Everywhere we go, I am tired of being inundated with ads promising people that taking a few pills a day will burn fat. Turn on the television and you hear doctors recommending the latest and greatest fat burner (here’s a little secret: most doctors take only one class in nutrition during their education, and thus know very little about nutrition and metabolism). Let me first say that MOST fat burners work about as well as what you see the guy in this picture doing.

 

NOW If you want to waste your money on fat burners, go ahead and stop reading. If you want to learn the truth, keep reading. We’re going to take an evidence-based approach, and see what the actual scientific research says about these popular fat burners. 

A Quick Tangent on Research

Before we dissect the 10 most popular fat burners, I want to take a moment to talk a little about scientific research. If you want to skip this section, go ahead, but I think it will help your understanding a lot.

Due to cost and time considerations, a lot of studies are done on rats instead of humans. It’s a lot easier to get 50 rats doing what you want, when you want, how you want. You can see the effects of various supplements across generations and over a long period of time. You can do things to rats you really can’t do to humans.

Rats are great. But they are also not humans (an understatement!). Often times we come across promising research that works in rats but is useless when applied to humans.

Research originally happens in rats and human cells in test tubes or petri dishes. This is an important distinction – a human body spends a lot of energy and effort regulating what goes on within. A human cell inside a test tube is free from those constraints. So what may be extremely effective in a test tube can be completely useless inside our regulated bodies.

Once we start studying humans, even then the quality of research can vary dramatically. Double-blind studies, the “gold standard,” are when you have two groups of people: One takes the supplement you are testing, and the other takes a placebo (usually a sugar pill). Neither the participants nor the researchers know who belongs in what group – this is what makes the test “double blind.”  Researchers try to make sure the two groups are mostly the same, so that if any changes do occur, you know it was because of the supplement, and not other factors. The group that takes the placebo is called your control group, and is basically your quality control.

Weak evidence is when you make grand statements while you skip on all that quality control. When you test only on rats; when you test on only a few people; when you don’t do double-blind testing; when you only see what happens in a few days and not over months.

Basically: The quality of research matters. A lot.

Also of importance is that different people can respond to treatments differently. For example, men may respond differently than women in some instances. Other research is conducted on people of a certain body type. Because of their weight and its associated metabolic damage, it’s easier to get a positive response to a supplement when dealing with obese people. When the same supplement is given to people with more normal weight and metabolisms, the positive results can easily disappear.

Now that you know how companies and people can twist legitimate  research into “supplement x will make you lose 10lb!” (while they take your cash), let’s actually discuss the real deal with the 10 most popular fat burners. (all of this information can be found at examine.com)

Green Coffee Bean Extract

The Claim: A “miracle” fat burner. It’s a source of chlorogenic acid, which gets lost when coffee beans are roasted. Chlorogenic acid is supposed to slow down your body’s absorption of glucose, which promotes weight loss.

The Reality: Green coffee bean was found to have a slight effect in obese people. For people who are merely overweight, it is unlikely to have any effect. Furthermore, the positive research was industry funded, so take that research with a grain of salt.

Other Notables: Surprisingly, green coffee bean extract could be a health supplement in itself! It could help with your cardiovascular system, and potentially cognition too. The research is far too early to make any proper recommendations.

5-HTP

The Claim: 5-HTP is converted to serotonin in the brain, which is supposed to suppress hunger.

The Reality: It does suppress hunger – by making you nauseous! That is the “magic” – taking 5-HTP makes you feel nauseous, and you end up eating slightly less. It should be noted that the oft-recommended dosage of 200mg/day is well below the dosage you need before you notice it.

Other Notables: 5-HTP is actually used to help treat depression, as it gets converted to serotonin in your brain (people suffering from depression tend to have lower amounts of serotonin). For those taking anti-depressants, taking 5-HTP could potentially cause serotonin syndrome, a condition where serotonin reaches toxic levels and can induce cardiac arrest.

Garcinia Cambogia, aka Gambooge

The Claim: Superlatives used to describe this fruit-based supplement include: “breakthrough,” “magic,” “holy grail” and “body-fat buster.” Gambooge is supposed to burn fat because it is a great source of hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which is supposed to decrease your appetite. The supplement you buy is usually the HCA extracted from the fruit.

The Reality: Gambooge has research on it dating back to 15 years ago. A recent systematic review (in which researchers look at all relevant research to make a general recommendation) of over 700 participants concluded that gambooge has an irrelevant effect on your bodyweight.

Gambooge is a great example of the rats vs humans issue. While it was very promising in rats, human studies found none of those benefits.

Other Notables: Garcinia cambogia is traditionally used to enhance the flavor of food. The fruit itself has a sour taste (like lemons), and is frequently used in curries. In traditional medicine, garcinia cambogia is used as a laxative!

Raspberry Ketones

The Claim: Of all the “doctor-recommended” fat burners, this is the most popular one. Extracted from raspberries, this compound is meant to promote lipolytic activity. In simpler terms, it’s supposed to cause fat breakdown.

The Reality: Raspberry ketones were found effective in rat studies, at a very high dosage. That’s it. There is literally zero legitimate research done in humans. Extrapolating from some rat studies and applying them wholesale to humans is disingenuous.

Even the results in the rat studies were pathetic! It was as effective as taking a car from 42 MPG to 42.1 MPG.

Other Notables: Its fame is exponentially greater than its efficacy. Raspberry ketones are the best example of what marketing and vague “backed by scientific research” claims can do. For those who have experienced fish burps, some people get raspberry burps when taking this supplement.

There is some evidence that applying raspberry ketone cream could help improve your skin and hair!

Green Tea / EGCG

The Claim: There are four main polyphenols (a kind of compound commonly found in nature) in green tea. The most potent of them is EGCG, which is supposed to promote fat burning. The four polyphenols interact with each other in a health-boosting manner.

The Reality: For once, a fat-burning supplement (kind of) delivers! There are human studies that shows consuming green tea/EGCG helps burn more fat and decrease your overall fat mass. While it’s not by a lot, there is at least evidence that it works!

The catch? It seems to only work on those who don’t regularly consume caffeine. If you regularly drink coffee or tea, the fat-burning effects of green tea/EGCG are heavily compromised.

Other Notables: First of all, the supplement itself comes in a variety of combinations – green tea catechins (a form of polyphenols), green tea extract (crushed raw green tea which contains green tea catechins) and EGCG. Our recommendation is that you buy green tea extract, and that it be roughly 50% EGCG.

The other interesting note is how healthy green tea is for you! It has positive effects throughout your body such as low-grade anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties paired with a reduction in cancer risk. I drink green tea regularly (even though I think it tastes horrible) just for its health benefits.

Caffeine

The Claim: Caffeine is supposed to increase your metabolism. This lets your body use your fat reserves for energy, which means less fat stored.

The Reality: Caffeine is a potent stimulant, and does indeed increase your metabolism.

But just like green tea, caffeine only works if you are not used to it. As you become a regular user, its stimulant effects wear off, and so does the boost to your metabolism. For caffeine to be effective, you need to cycle its usage.

It should be noted that potent is relative – yes caffeine burns fat, but the bulk of your fat loss will be through your diet. Since you become used to caffeine, it is not an effective everyday fat burner. It can help, but it’s not something you can rely on every day.

Other Notables: Caffeine is a stimulant, and you have to be careful not to abuse it. It increases your blood pressure, and can also negatively impact your sleep if you take it too close to bed time.

The two main dietary sources of caffeine (tea and coffee) have a host of health benefits themselves (we covered green tea above). With that in mind, caffeine is a cool supplement because it has a slight effect on a lot of things: adrenaline, testosterone, workout ability, reaction time and more. Two other interesting sources are yerba mate and guarana.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid, aka CLA

The Claim: CLA is supposed to interact with the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) system in your body, which is related to fat metabolism inside your body.

The Reality: A common theme emerges – what works in rats does not work in humans. CLA barely interacts with the PPAR system, rendering it unreliable. The end result? No fat burning.

Other Notables: CLA was one of the first promising fat burners, and thus there is a lot of research conducted on it: over 20 human studies! Alas, while most of the other supplements listed here have some other interesting tidbit, CLA seems to be a very uninteresting and boring molecule.

7-keto, related to DHEA

The Claim: Stimulates your thyroid to increase your body’s metabolism. This means less fat is stored.

The Reality: 7-keto is one of three oxygenated metabolites of DHEA, a naturally occurring hormone in your body. Studies do seem to indicate that 7-keto can increase your metabolism, but the quality of research is extremely iffy (due to conflicts of interest). At this time no statement can be made as to whether 7-keto works or doesn’t.

Other Notables: While its parent, DHEA, is a hormone, 7-keto itself is not hormonal (which means less potential side effects).

White Kidney Bean Extract, aka Phase 2

The Claim: Prevents the breakdown of carbs into simple sugars, so they are not absorbed by your body. As a result, complex carbs pass through your digestive system unabsorbed.

The Reality: White kidney bean extract does seem to reduce the absorption of carbohydrates, but its potency is so weak that it has little overall effect. It’s as effective as having a few less bites of food.

Other Notables: You may think that white kidney bean extract sounds like fibre, but they are not the same. Fibre still helps in digestion, and it also interacts with intestinal bacteria. For better or worse, white kidney bean extract makes you poop sugar and starch.

L-Carnitine, aka ALCAR (Acetyl-L-Carnitine)

The Claim: L-Carnitine helps shuttle fats into your mitochondria (the “powerhouse” of a cell), where they get burned off.

The Reality: Another supplement which works in theory, but does not work in reality. Supplementation only works in burning fat if you are deficient (which is common only in very elderly people); taking more carnitine than your body needs results in no extra fat burning. This is likely due to your body’s regulatory facilities.

Other Notables: L-Carnitine is used as a brain booster, increasing alertness and neuronal support. It can even help alleviate side effects of aging (neurological, fatigue) for those in a weakened state.

So what does all of this data mean. Basically – Stop wasting your money on these “Get Fit” quick products and schemes. Use those funds to by the foods you need to achieve your goal!

Losing weight/burning fat will only take place through hard work and discipline. A balanced diet, exercise (weight training for the gym junkiez), and patience are the only way you will achieve the results you want. There are products that will ASSIST you in that process but thats it… NOW I will definitely admit that many fat burners do give you energy to power through those grueling bouts in the gym. And they will help you Sweat!!! I do recommend them for that reason only; and even then use sparingly.

As always if you have questions, or have information you would like to share or if you want to discuss where i went wrong in the delivery of this data please leave me a comment. Eat Smart, Train Hard!!!!!

 

Ashante Hinton is an avid gym junkie! She had an awesome transformation and in the process has acquired some extensive knowledge that allowed her to take a very focused approach at helping the masses improve their health and fitness through holistic means. Check out the spotlight and learn more about Ashante and her Phoenix Holistic Wellness company!

 

Tell a little about yourself

I’m a 34-year-old single mom and registered nurse.  I’ve just started my own health and wellness company and am an advocate for prevention

When did you become a “Gym Junkie”?

For a while I was unhappy with my weight and my health. I decided to do something about both so my fitness journey started about six years ago. What began as a way for me to lose weight and get off of the medications I have to take soon became an addiction. I then developed a passion for the science behind nutrition and weight training. I am now a lifetime lover of the fitness life and an advocate for health and wellness.

   

 

What is your favorite training style/workout routine?

I have tried every form of working out from spin classes and Zumba to weight training. I fell in love with CrossFit and Tabata. CrossFit has helped to improve my stamina and allowed me to begin losing weight at a steady pace. Plus, it’s FUN and the adrenaline rush is insane!!!!!!!!

What nutrition plan has worked best for you?

This is a hard one! I have tried everything with my health conditions but so for being vegetarian with some keto elements has worked the best for me. I have not cut out meat completely but cutting back on meat and increasing healthy fats has definitely helped me become healthier and improve my energy levels.

What is your ultimate goal?

Personally, my fitness goal is simple. I want to be 180 lbs. strong, fit, and healthy. I also want to cease using the blood pressure medication I have been on for a portion of my adult life. Ultimately, I would like to use my degree and experience in Nursing, as well as my certifications in personal training and holistic medical approaches to health and wellness to help any and every one become the best version of themselves. I want everyone to develop good habits towards fitness and nutrition and live long healthy lives. To that end I have started a wellness company call Phoenix Holistic Wellness to work towards this goal.

 

Talk about Phoenix Wellness…

Phoenix is my baby! I’m a Scorpio and one of the symbols of the Scorpio is the Phoenix. A Phoenix is a mystical creature that dies and rises reformed from its ashes. I chose that name because my business is centered  around holistic lifestyle changes. You get to change who you are inside and out! Through personal training, nutrition services, support groups, and holistic wellness nurse coaching my goal is to help my clients live healthier more fulfilling lives.

 

How can people reach you?

I can be reach by email PhoenixHWLLC@gmail.com. you can follow the Instagram page phoenixwellnessllc or Facebook at Phoenix Holistic Wellness!