Bag Work 1

Now the Fun Begins.

Now that you have a handle on your caloric intake through the use of your food journal, and have shifted some of your meals around, it is time to Get to Work (See prior articles, Extreme Training: Fat Loss 1, Extreme Training: Fat Loss 2, Extreme Training: Fat Loss 3, Extreme Training: Fat Loss 4, and Extreme Training:Fat Loss 5 ( if you need a refresher.)

Understanding and refining you diet are important steps to fat loss.  Maintaining a Food Journal is also Critical.

But the best results you will obtain are going to come from performing the Optimal Extreme Training Program.

Once you have determined your base caloric needs – maintenance calories (what you can eat without gaining weight) it is time to bring Extreme Training into the picture.

Just like Diet, Exercise is a very Personal thing.  You should enjoy what you do, be challenged by it, and feel a sense of accomplishment that it so motivating you are compelled to return to the gym and train with an even increased level of intensity.

So, at this juncture it is time to make some decisions concerning what physical activities you enjoy or would like to try and set up a Plan of Action.

Your Plan of Action should be based on the following 3 decisions:

1. How much time are you committed to spend training on a daily or weekly basis?

2. How committed are you to achieving your fat loss goals?

3. Are you Willing and Courageous enough to try different exercise forms or are you a creature of habit who likes to do the same thing over and over?  Creatures of habit tend to be  Prey, where the Courageous are the Predators!

Then, you need to Plan and Commit to a Specific and Sacred time for your Training.  This time must be included in your schedule as a critical level appointment with your Destiny.  If you are willing to constantly shift your training time, or worse, skip it altogether, you need to question how committed you really are to achieving your objectives.  Without Commitment and Consistency Nothing will Happen and you will end up back where you started from, or as is more often the case, worse off.

As you think about the above questions, there are 4 Essential Factors to keep in mind:

1. The better your Condition Becomes the more Intensity you will need to apply to your Work in Order to get Continued and Lasting Results.

2. Variety is Essential. Your body adapts to new exercises quickly.  This is why the Extreme Training Zone recommends changing your workout from day to day – never do the same exact workout twice.

3. Increase your Training Program and Intensity Slowly. You will be training for the Rest of Your Life.  Why rush things (and risk injury or burnout)? Go at a pace that you are comfortable with and every week add a little more.  Increasing Intensity does not always mean an increase in exercise time.  It means Working Harder on a Consistent Basis.

4. Finally, over the years more and more research is proving (and all of my clients can attest to this) that “long slow fat burning pace” workouts are far less effective at burning fat than intense work performed for a shorter duration. The good news is with the right Extreme Program you do not need to spend hours on a treadmill or exercise bike (you would be better off lifting the treadmill and bike and walking around the block with them).

On the Extreme Training Zone Program you will Work Hard, Work Fast, constantly mix things up, Learn and Develop skills, such as balance and coordination that you didn’t know you had and develop a state of Functional Strength and Endurance (real world stuff) that will melt away not only unwanted fat, but Years as Well.

Sound to good to be true?  It’s not.  The very real cost is Commitment, a Spirit of Adventure, Consistent Hard Work, and an Intelligent Training Plan with Intelligent Fitness Professionals (like those found at the Extreme Training Zone at Peak Physique in Denver Co.) to help guide you along the path to Optimal Conditioning.

The next Installment of this Extreme Training: Real Fat Loss series will introduce you to the basic Extreme Training Concepts ( some of which have been discussed in some detail on this site in prior articles) and help you design an individual program that you need to develop Razor Sharp Muscles, Cuts, Strength, Endurance, Speed, and the Body of Your Dreams.

Have Fun in Your Training and Prepare to Embark on the Exciting Journey of an Extreme Life!

If you found this Article helpful or have questions, please leave a comment below.  And don’t forget to sign up for the Extreme Training Newsletter that, while slow in evolution and production will become your source for Leading Edge Training Concepts, Exercises, Nutritional Research, Motivational Strategies, and No-Nonsense Fitness and Health information you need to know to life the Extreme Lifestyle.

CLASSES FOR MMA STYLE CONDITIONING AND TRAINING FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO DO NOT ASPIRE TO FIGHT INSIDE THE CAGE…YET

After multiple requests for an Extreme Training Program that will get people into MMA Fighting Condition, the Extreme Training Zone started a group class focusing on Martial Arts Conditioning.

The pilot program runs Tuesday nights from 7:00 t0 8:30 at our training facility located at Peak Physique in Denver,  Colorado.  As the class grows, additional times and groups with higher skill levels and more focused objectives will be added.

The class is made up of athletes from all forms of Martial Arts.  The Training involves Leading Edge Combat Conditioning Drills used by ELITE MMA fighters, Boxers, Kick-Boxers, Muay Thai Fighters and Ground Fighters.

The specific drills used involve balance oriented training, Combat Endurance Training with and without Weights, Chains, Kettlebells, Bands as well as Heavybag and Pad work.

After the class participants have completed the grueling workout for the day, the class moves on to train Hands-On Fighting Drills.  The drills range from training blocking and counter-punching, to developing effective stand-up fighting combinations for each individual.  As the class progresses, participants move into more and more realistic training scenarios ranging from light sparring drills to Full-Blown sparring with MMA rules (very few) with Takedowns and GroundFighting allowed.

Of course, not all participants are interested in the more intense sparring sessions and are encouraged to work at the level they are comfortable with.  The Primary Objective of this Class is to Build Combat Levels of Fitness, not terrorize people.

The classes are well structured and designed to be of benefit to people of all fitness and fighting experiene levels.  Everyone learns something that will improve both their Core Combat Conditioning and Foundational Fighting Skills.

The common elements are  CHALLENGING AND VARIED WORKOUTS, HARD WORK and FUN. (Check your ego at the door).

Just how hard are the workouts?  They are EXTREME.

As an addition to your normal training routine, this can be the Extra Motivation and Training Variety that will kick your fitness (and body fat) to your next desired level of Fitness.

For more information and to set up your Free Initial Training Session contact me at james@extremetrainingzone.com.  In addition, if you have any ideas for other Specialized Classes, or areas to cover in Combat Conditioning, please let me know.  We take your feedback seriously.

Yours in Extreme Training and continuing to provide you with the most leading edge information, ideas and training technologies to bring your Physical Conditioning to Higher Levels.

Heavy Duty

Time to Move Things to the Next Level.

By now you should have a pretty good idea where you are with your eating habits.  You should have made some decisions concerning the number of calories to cut from your diet on a daily basis as well as identify the weak points in your diet.  If not, review the prior articles in this series.

In particular you should be aware of the Times during the Day when you have a difficult time sticking with your diet plan.

Armed with this information, it is time to Fine Tune your Fat Loss Plan.

Establish your baseline calorie intake amount.  In other words, what number of calories do you have to eat in order to maintain  the same weight?  Maintaining your food journal is essential in this process.   Keep in mind that fat loss is not an exact science and everybody responds differently to changes in diet.  For example, some people gain a fair amount of water weight when they eat high salt foods.  We are trying to get beyond these nuances and dial in the average number of calories you need to consume to stay at the same weight.

Once this is done, it is simply a matter of reducing the number of calories you take in to start to lose weight.  However, our objective here is to lose fat, not muscle.  This is where things get tricky.

First, you want to spread the calories you eat evenly across the day into five or six small meals.

There is a fair amount of information which suggests that eating smaller meals five or six times a day is beneficial for fat loss.  Beware that there also advocates who say that eating one large meal a day is also the way to go.  The problem is less one of science and more of psychology.  What will you actually do?  Eating one meal a day is hard to do.

That being said, it is easier to eat three meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then add a snack during your weak times, or after a workout.  This snack needs to be planned.  For example.  Breakfast at 8:00.  Snack at 10:30.  Lunch at 12:00.  Snack at 3:00.  Dinner at 6:00.  Snack after workout at 8:00.

You can experiment by moving the number of calories involved in each meal to see if that makes it easier or harder to stick to your plan.  For example, a larger snack at 10:30 may lead to a desire for a smaller lunch.  Keep track of how you feel in your Diet Journal and see if you can come up with a plan that is actually easy to follow.

You can also experiment with the types of foods you eat at certain times and their effects.  Fruit may make you hungry in the afternoon, but hit the spot in the morning.  Rather than concern yourself with the types of calories – carbs, fats, or protein – at this point you are trying to find what works, in other words, what you will actually eat at the planned time.

Keep in mind that everybody is different.  What works for one person may not work for another.  That is why people have difficulty with intricate diets that tell you exactly what to eat and when.  You may not want to eat a can of tuna for a snack, but are happy with a yogurt.

Second, you should make Healthy Substitutions as Possible. Eating before you get too hungry is a good tactic to employ in all cases.  Often junk food is consumed because it is easy and accessible.  If you have junk food in your house, throw it away.  Eliminate the temptation from as many areas of your life as possible and eventually making the  right choices will become easy.  For example, Cheese Sticks make a nice snack.  Something that makes you crave more and more of it, like chips or cookies, is not a good choice.

The reason why Junk Food is Bad, from our simple perspective here, is that it often leads to overeating. It is difficult to eat one potato chip.  Once you eat one, you crave more.  So, in a sense, the use of the term “junk food” here applies to foods that lead you to eat more than you should in order to maintain your daily caloric intake.

Remember, we are not focusing on what mix of carbs, protein and fat to eat.  What matters at this stage is the number of calories you consume.  If you want to eat something that others call “junk”, that’s OK as long as it doesn’t push you over your daily calorie targets.

Along the way you will discover that higher fat snacks, like cheese, tend to be more satisfying than salty carb snacks, like chips or pretzels.  Of course, eating a balanced diet is important, but first we want to get the total number of calories under control.  In other words, we are only focusing on one thing at a time.  Eat less calories.

So, if you are really fond of a “junkie” snack, build it into your diet plan.  Over time, your tastes, or nutritional requirements may change and you will find that the  snack you used to crave just isn’t worth the calories.

Third, Reduce your Calories Slowly. In the last article we discussed reducing your caloric intake by 250 calories a day.  See, Extreme Training: Real Fat Loss 4. That is not a very large amount, but over time, is very effective.  In particular, your body does not sense that you are on a diet and does not shift into survival mode and try to spare every calorie by lowering your metabolism.

Most diets that are too calorie restrictive lead to a lowered metabolism and an even harder time loosing fat.  Not to mention that many people become frustrated and quit the diet now that their metabolism is lowered which leads to Increased Fat Gain.

In this case, slow but steady works.  And, if you keep maintaining your food journal, and start recording your measurements with a tape measure (you can record weight, but that is really a secondary concern at this time), you will see on a week by week basis, whether you have properly identified your baseline caloric needs and whether your reductions are causing the desired effect.

If nothing changes, it is time to take a closer look at your diet and perhaps slowly reduce some of the calories you consume until you reach the desired effect.  Be patient! This process takes time and your body has many of its own tricks to play, as we will discuss later.

For now, work towards finding the baseline and making small reductions in calories.

Fourth, It is important that you Maintain your Current Fitness Activity Level During this Process. We are trying to make small adjustments in a way which provides us with information we can use in the future.  Once your diet is dialed in we will turn to the important exercise component.

But for now, work on eating evenly spaced meals, making a slight reduction in calories, and recording everything you do as suggested above.

Once we have the daily caloric intake dialed in, it becomes mush easier to design and implement or make improvements to your training routine. Next installment of this series we will make the shift towards integrating your training in a way that helps Accelerate the Fat Loss Process.

If you found this article interesting or have any thoughts about this topic, please leave a comment below.

For now, Enjoy your Training and your Life!

Heavy Bags

It is Time to Put your Rear in Gear.

In the last article, Extreme Training: Real Fat Loss 3, we discussed the importance of Recognizing Patterns in your Eating and Exercising Habits as well as to access your Current Level of Motivation to Change.

You should also have a good sense of what has worked or not worked in your past attempts to build a Healthy and Lean Body.

Now it is time to get to work.  The following Four Steps will get you moving in the right direction.

First:  Make sure that you have a clear image of what you want to achieve. For example, lose 5 pounds of fat in 10 weeks while preserving your muscle mass.   In order to achieve this goal your target should be to lose one-half  pound of fat a week.

You should now have a pretty good idea how much you eat every day from your Food Journal.

The average number of calories you consume every day is not necessarily your base-line.  It may in fact be an amount which leads to fat gain over time (this topic will be addressed later).

That’s OK for now.  Let’s start with the assumption that your average caloric intake is your baseline.  From there you will subtract the number of calories, per day, that it will take to reach your fist goal of losing one-half pound of fat a week.  In this example, if you divide the number of days to your weekly goal from the calories in a pound of fat, 3,500, you will come up with 250 calories per day.

Your goal, simply stated, is to eliminate 250 calories from your diet every day for the next ten weeks.

Second:  Write down your goal. It is important to have some way of measuring your process.  For some people this can be as simple as keeping track of their waist measurements.  If your waist is 35″ and all of your pants are size 32″ than tracking your waist size may be all you need to do to tell if you are moving in the right direction.

The scale can be a tricky thing. Especially if you are eating healthy and exercising.  It is possible to lose fat and gain weight in the form of Muscle Mass.  That is why the tape measure is more useful than the scale.

Keeping things simple, following the example above, your goal is to eat 250 less calories a day for the next ten weeks.

That’s it. Simple.

Third:  Identify the Weak Areas in your Diet. Now, you can make this as complicated or as simple as you want.  I believe that by keeping things simple you are much more likely to reach your goals.   In other words, don’t make things more complicated than they need to be by measuring and weighing everything you eat.  Also, don’t get caught up in the “optimal” ratio of carbs to protein to fat.  Why?  Because there is science out there which supports just about any kind of crazy diet you can imagine.  And the crazier the diet, the less likely you will actually do it.

If your goal is to lose one-half pound of fat a week you need to eliminate approximately 250 calories a day from your diet.  At this point forget about how many calories you burn up during exercise.  Why?  In very simple terms, the training you do should become a part of your lifestyle.  If you exercise more – we will talk about that later – great.  But for now, let’s keep focused on the first objective.

Now, look at your Food Journal and find the weak areas in your diet.  These will be places or times where you eat more than you need to eat – or even want to eat.   If you notice that you always eat a snack just before dinner of cheese and crackers, cut that snack out and eat something healthy, like a no-fat yogurt one hour before your usual snack.

Essentially you’re making trades in your current diet.  The reason why you should try to eat the substitute snack – of lower calories of course – an hour earlier is to prevent you from craving your usual snack at the usual time.  In order to achieve your goals it is critical to change your habits.   In this case you may discover that some cravings can be held off by eating something healthy before the situation gets bad.

Another common area to make improvements to your diet starts with breakfast.   Try eating a slightly larger breakfast by adding an egg or half a cup of cottage cheese.  Follow this up by eating a smaller lunch.  A small thing like eliminating french fries (or chips) from your lunch menu could, by itself, bring you to your fat loss goals.

The point is to go through your Food Journal and identify the targets that you will have no problem eliminating from your diet.  Decide what to cut and what to substitute and go to work.  Now.

If you have a passion for something that is really full of fat and sugar and are not willing to give it up, fine.  What we are focused on now are total calories consumed.  If you have to eat three cookies a day, cut out the equivalent number of calories from bread, or pasta – or, as is always a good method, just eat smaller portions of everything else that you eat.

The better alternative is to trade unhealthy snacks for healthy ones in smaller quantities.  Remember, just because something is low fat does not mean it is low calorie.  And the aim of this exercise is simply to cut 250 calories a day from your diet.

Four:  Remember What You are Doing. The reason you are cutting calories is because you want to achieve a specific goal.  If you can keep in mind the fact that the long term benefits of obtaining a healthy-lean body outweigh the short term pleasure a candy bar may provide, it will make things much easier to resist temptation.

The good news is, as you make healthier choices you will not crave the same things you do now.  In other words, making healthy substitutions will, over time, become your new normal.

But again, without getting too complicated, the essential point to focus on at this time is to slightly reduce the number of calories you eat from your current baseline every day.

If you are exercising heavily you should add more protein to your diet to make sure that you are not losing muscle mass along with the fat.  But, don’t dwell on this (this topic will be covered later in this series).  A simple habit to start developing now is to have a protein bar or shake as close after your workout as possible.

Quick Review:

We are taking things slowly, step by step.  And for now, this step is simply to begin eliminating a certain number of calories a day from your normal diet.  In order to do this you will be required to Pay Attention to what you eat, Maintain Your Food Journal, and note where you have cut calories from.  Take pride in your small victories. They add up, like calories, to big results!

Again, this Diet Journal information will be extremely valuable as we fine-tune your diet to make it as effective as possible.

In the next article we will discuss in greater detail some strategies which will help you reach your fat loss goals.

Disclaimer: This article is not medical advice but is intended for informational purposes only.  If you have specific medical questions, issues or concerns, consult your health care provider. [Lawyers - got to love them.]

If you found this article helpful (or not) please leave a comment below.

Enjoy your training and your life!

Weight

Permanent Fat Loss Requires Strategic Planning.

In the last installment of this series, Extreme Training: Real Fat Loss 2, the importance of maintaining a Food Journal was discussed.  The basic idea is to record everything you eat and drink for at least a week.  The reason for this is in order to make effective changes it is important to know what you are changing from.  Improvement requires that you  understand the dietary and exercise habits that contributed to your current situation (good or bad).

To Recap, Step One is to maintain a Food Journal.

Step Two is to Write a Diet History. This step can be as detailed or general as you want.  Keep in mind that the more information you have, the easier and more effective it will be to create a Permanent Fat Loss Program.

Your Diet History should be an overview of your eating habits and to the extent you can remember, the changes in your Body Composition over time.  For example, if you tend to gain weight in the winter and then lose some of it in the summer, this is important information to be aware of.   In very simple terms try to figure out what you do differently at certain times of the year.  It is possible that you simply play a sport in the summer, or do more activities outside while your diet remains relatively stable.

It is also possible that you will discover that in periods of stress you tend to gain weight (or in some cases, lose weight).

Keep in mind that you are looking for trends in your body composition over time.  For example, if you identify that you only gain weight when you stop exercising, this is obviously critical information.

It is also helpful to recall and record times when things were going well.  Times in your life when you felt great and were happy with your fitness level and condition.  Try to remember what you were doing then, what your diet looked like, what your level of physical activity was.

Think of this information as signposts which will help direct you to your Fat Loss Objectives.

Once you have compiled all of the information you can, it is time for some Self Reflection.

The following list of questions can help guide you through this process:

1. Was there a time in the past when you were committed to a particular fitness objective and succeeded?

2. If so, what happened to change your committment?

3. If you have been unable to achieve a certain desired level of fitness, what would you say were your major obstacles or set-backs?

4. Why is it important now to achieve a certain fitness level or body-fat percentage?

5. What, if anything, has changed in your commitment level to your goals?

There are no right answers.  The point of this exercise is to find reasons why achieving your fitness goals and body-fat levels are important to you.  Important enough to take action to change certain aspects of your life.

If you are committed to living a healthy lifestyle, there should be nothing that stands in your way.  Nothing should be more important than your health.  Your health is your life.   If you believe this and have an image of what you want to achieve, nothing should stand in your way.

In fact, the only thing that stands in the way of most people’s self improvement goals is themselves.

Without going into why people often become their own worst enemies – that is a topic for another time – it is enough to understand that if you exist in one shape, you have the ability to exist in another.  In the end, it is up to you to make the small changes that will lead to great improvements in your health and condition.

One last point before we move on:

We are all Growing Older.  What Worked in the Past may not Work in the Future.  Just as everyone of us is a unique individual, over time we continue to change in our own ways.

That is Life. And, that is something we can deal with.

Go through the Exercises in this article and really try to connect with what it is that you want to accomplish.  Knowing your individual history can help you prevent making the same mistakes again, or improving on something that has worked in the past.  Information is Key.

In the next article we will outline the steps required to build and put into action a Permanent Fat Loss Strategy.

If you found this article helpful or have any thoughts, please leave them below.

Enjoy your Training and your Life!

What is this?

In order to get where you are going you need to know where you are.

In the last article, Extreme Training: Real Fat Loss 1 we talked about 3 critical rules of fat loss:  1. Quick Fix Diets Don’t Work. 2. Exercise alone will not Eradicate Excess Fat. and 3. A Reduction in Body-fat Requires a Mixture of Diet and Exercise.

Now we take a look at the first step required to make a Lasting Impact on your Body-Fat Percentage.

Keep a Food Diary.

You need to keep track of Everything you Eat and Drink. Record what you eat and when you eat it.  A small notebook can do the trick.  Start this habit now!

Many people are surprised by the number of things that they eat during the day that they really don’t pay attention to.  A chunk of cheese here, a candy bar (one of those miniature ones) there, a soda, a fruit smoothie (that can contain as much as 1,000 calories).  The list goes on.

What you are looking for is Patterns.  Is there a time of day when you seem to turn into an eating machine.  Are there other stretches during the day where you go without eating anything for hours at a stretch.

What about Water?  How Much Water do you drink during the day, verses coffee, diet or regular soda?

Once you have a sense of what your eating and drinking patterns are it becomes much easier to make adjustments.

But, in order for this to work you need to be honest - only you, or perhaps your trainer, will see the journal.  You need to write everything down.  It’s simple.  Eat something, pull out your notebook and write down what it was and when you ate it.  Got it?

After a week of keeping your journal you should be able to see patterns. Remember, observing these patterns is critical to being able to change things.  In order to change it is far easier to know where to start.  When it comes to diet, a small change can lead to big results.  For example, eating 200 calories of snack food (approximately two medium size cookies) over the course of 17 days can easily lead to a Fat Gain of One Pound.  Over the course of a year, those two daily extra cookies in your diet can lead to a Fat Gain of 21 Pounds! Do you know what 21 Pounds of Fat looks Like?

The point being, do not miss anything in your food diary – no matter how small or insignificant it may appear.  Why?  Because everything adds up.

Now, the good news is that once you have an accurate picture of your eating habits you can start to Target it on Specific Things to Change.  For example, if you get hungry at 5:00, just before dinner and eat chips, and crackers and cheese and nuts and then a few pretzels (often whatever is around) you could try eating a yogurt at 4:00 and see if that helps you avoid the pre-dinner feeding frenzy.

It comes down to Numbers. If you can spread out what you eat over the day and cut down on a few things here and there – a cookie, a muffin, potato chips with dip because it is there, you can start to take control of what calories actually go into your body and when.

Will this make a difference?  Absolutely. The first thing this does is help to make you aware that everything you eat has a consequence. Then, you will start to get a sense of where extra calories in your diet are coming from and can target them for action.  If all you did was eliminate 200 calories of carbs and fat from your diet a day, that could either (depending on where you were in terms of your base-line calorie expenditure [more on this in the following article]) that could mean a Fat Loss of 1 Pound every 17 days or the Prevention of Gaining a Pound of Fat in that same period.

It all adds up. And, as you can learn from keeping a food journal, more of what you Eat is in your Control than you Might Imagine.

And, we are talking about making small changes which over time add up to big results.  As a final example. once you find your calorie balance point – something we will discuss in the next article – a reduction of 100 calories a day will lead to a 10 pound fat loss over a year.  Losing 10 Pounds of Fat a Year is a Tremendous Accomplishment. Especially when you consider that the reduction was so small it did require a radical form of diet (meaning it was not really very hard to do).  And, if you don’t think a 10 Pound fat loss is a big deal, consider that in three years that number has grown to 30 pounds.

Of course, some people want to lose fat at a faster rate.  With a higher level of commitment is can be done.  It is possible to expect a fat loss rate of 1 Pound per Week.   But for that to be a true fat loss amount requires hard work and focus.  And all of that Work and Focus is based on understanding exactly what you did (or do) to get to where you are now.  Once you know where you are, in terms of eating and drinking, you can create an Intelligent Plan for Fat Loss that is based on your levels of Commitment, Self Discipline, and Training Program.

No tricks, no secrets, and no magic formulas. The Process is Actually Simple.

In the next Article we will discuss how to use the information you have gathered in your food diary to design a Custom Fat Loss Plan.

If you found this Article helpful or have thoughts on this topic, please leave your comments below.

Until next time, keep track of what you eat and drink and get ready to make some Permanent Changes in your Body Fat Levels.

Have fun in your training and your life!

Weight and Speed

Losing Fat is Easy!

Maintaining your Target Body Fat Percentage or Size is another story.

This article will begin a series which is dedicated to helping you reach your ideal body fat level and stay there.   We will start off with 3 things that you must know before you can reasonably expect to reach your fat level goals.

1.   Quick Fix Diets don’t Work. The best you can expect from a quick fix diet is short-term weight loss, and most of that loss will be water and muscle, not fat.  Think about it.

You got in the shape you are by doing, or not doing, the things that you do on a Consistent Basis.  You do not get Fat by Accident. You look the way you do (and feel the way you do) because of your lifestyle.  How you live.  How you eat.

It is unfortunate that our bodies are so efficient at storing fat and yet so stubborn when it comes to letting the fat go.  But for most people, that’s the way it is.  In other words, it’s easy to gain fat, and not so easy to lose it.   The amount of money that is spent by people desperate to shed unwanted fat pounds on fad diets, programs and food-systems tells us three things.

One, an awfully large number of people are unhappy with their Fat Levels.

Two, these same people are willing to try almost anything to get rid of the unwanted fat pounds.

Three,  the diets don’t work and often make the problem worse. This leads to increased Desperation and Impulse Purchases of the latest and greatest fat loss schemes.

To make matters worse, most people that believe they are “successful” with their diets have merely succeeded in creating a Smaller Version of Themselves.  In other words,  their body fat percentages remain the same or even increase and what they lost was mostly muscle mass.

2.  Exercise alone will not Eradicate Excess Fat.

How many skinny runners have you seen with a spare tire ?  How can this happen?  Again, the body is very efficient at storing fat and extremely stubborn at giving it up.  It is possible to eliminate all of your extra body fat if you run far and fast enough (100 miles a week at a 7:00 pace should do it for most people).  But you will also lose a tremendous amount of Muscle Mass.  And look like a Stick.  For some that is OK.

The newest fad in the fat loss world is an exercise program which promises to burn fat and build muscle at the same time.  Essentially, this system claims that you can get larger and smaller at the same time.  Really.

Now, it is possible to Build Muscle and Loss Fat at the same time.  But it really doesn’t happen at the same time and it requires a serious and ongoing commitment to Optimize your Diet.  Which brings us to Rule 3.

3.  A Reduction in Body-Fat Requires a Mixture of Diet and Exercise. In other words, you need to change your life-style or you will end up back where you started, no matter what you do.  This should be obvious, but given the amount of money spent on Quick Diet Fixes it is anything but obvious.

If you understand that losing excess fat and then Maintaining a Lean Body requires a lifestyle change, you are firmly on the path to achieving your goals!

The next installment of this Series will help you begin the process to Design the Program you need to Achieve Your Fat Loss Goals.

If you found this article helpful (or painful) leave your comments below.

Enjoy your training and Enjoy your Life!

Weight Room 1

Unleash Your Potential.

If you are a reader of the Extreme Training Zone you know that Real Results in Fitness, Strength Training and Sports conditioning require Real Work. Maintaining a lean and healthy physique requires a lifetime commitment.  If you’re looking for permanent physical and mental change there are no quick fixes.  What fun would it be if that was the case?

But there are ways to Jump-Start your fitness level.  Extreme Training can do that.  Results can come very rapidly if you are Committed and Driven to Succeed.  But, once you achieve the condition you aspire to reach,  the real work begins.  Your Training becomes a Continual Process of Growth and Refinement. You are always reaching higher.  And achieving greater and greater results which leads to Feeling Better and being More Productive in all areas of your life.

That’s why it’s so important to have a training routine that is Challenging, Fun, and Productive.  Training should be one of the highlights of your day.  It should be rewarding on so many levels that it will be hard for you to imagine doing without.   If not, you may need to change your training program.

Results are Motivating. Seeing your body and mind transform into ways you never really believed were possible leads to higher and higher expectations. And, There are No Limits!

Once you tap into your Inner Strength you will find that Training Becomes a Way of Life.  A never ending mission to become a Better Person.  This is Extreme Life!

The Extreme Training Zone is designed to help you achieve your goals.  Our individual training philosophy is no different.  Everybody is different.  Everyone has a different set of goals, skills, limitations, inclinations, fears, obstacles and strengths.  A Personal Fitness Trainer can help you design a specific program which will deliver results.  A trainer can also help keep your Training Moving in the Right Direction.

If you need a Personal Fitness Trainer in Denver and are Committed to Personal Transformation, or are Motivated to bring your Fitness Level, Sports Performance to a Higher Level call or e-mail to set up a Free Initial Consultation and Training Session.

This site will continue to Inspire, Motivate and help sort through the seemingly never ending barrage of slick new information.  If you have specific questions about Training, Strength Gain, Fat Loss, or the latest Fad Training Program please leave a post or send an e-mail.

Enjoy your Training!  Enjoy your Life!

The main objective of the game is to stay alive.  For those of us who are fortunate enough to live in parts of the world where physical survival is pretty much guaranteed – abundant food, water, shelter, medical attention, digital cable – the staying alive part doesn’t factor much into our daily thoughts.  We get to pursue happiness.  At least until something goes wrong.

And eventually something always goes wrong.

To us or to a loved one.  And that’s when we learn how little control we actually have over the things that really matter.  The harsh reality is that the physical systems that make us who we are will eventually fail.   That appears to be what they do.

The question is, what do we do about it? Do we accept the inevitable, come to peace with the natural order of the universe, or do we try to take back some measure of control?

There should be no question that living a healthy lifestyle will increase your chances of living a long and healthy life.  The more you work your body the more your body will be able to work for you. And please don’t forget that your mind is part of your body.  You are a physical entity whose biological systems give rise to your mind, to who you are.

The most important resource you have is your body.  Your body provides you with your life.

Ignore your body and it will go away.

What does this have to do with Extreme Training?

It has to do with perspective.  It is the reason why I dedicate so much of my life to learning as much as I can about ways to constantly challenge our bodies  so that they can continue to grow and develop.  Not really for the sake of growth, but because if our bodies are not growing they are dying.  I prefer growth.

Life

What I didn’t expect was the impact physical growth would have on the development of my mind.  Issues, for example, “what do I want to be when I grow up”, suddenly became clear.  Obvious.  Our minds, like our muscles, are tools that can be developed and refined. We all have within us the the potential to do great things, whatever our definition of great things may be.

Do you believe that?  I mean, do you really believe that you possess the power to achieve greatness?

Physical training teaches you that you can always improve.  And the funny thing is, in order to improve, you need to believe that you can improve.  In other words, your mind is what drives your body to greatness. And in turn, your body powers your mind to produce greatness.

Which brings us to the bottom line:  Extreme Training is really about Training for Life.  Life in the Extreme.

Are you in?

Enjoy your training!

Please let me know your thoughts.

Dark Side

It is only a matter of time before something throws a big nasty Monkey Wrench into your Training.

The question is, how do you respond when it happens?

Warrior or Wimp?

Warriors know that in the long run, life is what matters most.  Without Life there is Nothing.

Wimps are afraid of life and everything in it.  Get over it.  Life is a Full Contact Sport.

OK.  On we go.

Those of you familiar with the message in this site – Extreme Training produces Extreme Results – may have caught onto the fundamental principle of Extreme Training:  Everything Works. (Well there are some things that don’t work that well… )  The Art of Strength, Muscle Building,  and Combat Conditioning is to achieve the highest degree of results in the minimum amount of time.

Planning is important. Knowing what you are going to do for a workout, every workout, and then recording your progress to see what works best for you, over time, is a Winning Strategy.  By planing what you’re going to do and then actually do the work, and tracking it, you’re giving yourself feedback which will help you build the next phase of your Training Program.

No Question.  This stuff works.

But, what about when something goes wrong.  Something, like an injury or illness happens – invariably at a time when your training is going really well and your progress is amazing – and your training is derailed.

What do you do?  There are 3 basic options:

1.  Ignore the Setback. Sometimes hardy individuals just power through a cold, or the flu.  This is not a medical site so I won’t get into all of the bad things that can happen if you try this.  IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRAIN WHILE YOU ARE SICK YOU MAY BE MAKING THINGS WORSE IN THE LONG RUN!!!! To the extent the non-giving of advice is advice, check with your doctor before training if there are any questions at all (or should be) concerning your health and fitness level.  Really!

2.  Deal with the Setback.  Deal with it.  You caught a cold, you are hacking and wheezing, but your bench press is finally climbing to new levels… Heard it, seen it, been there, done that.  How about this?  The reason why you caught a cold was because you were training on the edge which compromised your immune system.  Is this true or just science-techno-babble? I don’t know.  Whatever the cause, when you’re sick you’re sick.  Resign yourself to taking a few days off and get back to training when your (here comes the lawyer driven mumbo-jumbo) doctor says it is safe to train.

Unfortunately, most doctors – this is based on personal and close second hand information – do not think that Extreme Training is a good thing in any circumstance.  Why would a person want to Build Bigger and Stronger Muscles? They must be sick in the head or something.  Besides, when you get older it all turns into… bullsh*#.

That being said, the best you may get is your doctor telling you that you’re OK to resume “normal” exercise (which nobody really knows what that means anyway…so if you try to sue your doctor because he cleared you for training early, doctor could say “You were not engaged in reasonable exercise.  You overdid it.”  Did you?  Who cares?

3.  Use the Setback to Your Advantage.   Everyone knows that Rest and Recovery are critical to achieving Extreme Training results.  The problem is very few people ever want to PLAN TO TAKE TIME OFF.   It’s the hardest thing a dedicated warrior/athlete can do.  Take off.  To actually plan to do nothing, not even light cardio, or stretching may be the most difficult thing you every attempt to do.  Not the planning part.  But the not-doing-part.

By seizing the opportunity to really be sick, or injured, and rest for a week or two (really), you may discover something that nobody should believe (I don’t) but have seen time and time again that it’s actually true;  sometimes you come back from a setback, a week off, stronger and fresher than ever and make some of your greatest personal gains!

I’m not an advocate of the philosophy that everything happens for a larger reason.  But I can tell you, that in the long run, the Dark Side is Death.  It is the absolute price of life itself. The Ultimate Cost.

Extreme Training is Extreme because Life is Extreme. Doing great things requires taking great personal risk and expending great amounts of focused energy on a consistent basis.

However, when you’re faced with a temporary set-back, embrace it.  Use the time to Refresh and Recharge.  To increase you motivation and to really appreciate how valuable your training is.   The Set-Back is your opportunity to take the time you would never willingly take on your own in a million years.

So, the next time you elect to have some nasty kind of nasal surgery which actually makes it so that – as ridiculous as it may sound – training for a week is impossible, use that recovery week not only for your body, but for your mind.

Imagine how it will feel to be able to dig back into your training!

It feels great!

Lighter Side

Please feel free to leave any thoughts or comments below.   Those signed up for the newsletter will soon be rewarded.  Big Time!

Enjoy your Extreme Life!