Fat burning meals and metabolism boosting workouts can be the key to getting
you six pack abs. And as you know, I recommend lots of fruits and
vegetables, protein, and healthy fats for your fat burning meals, and
resistance training and interval training to burn stubborn belly fat.
I also talk so much about Bally my chocolate lab puppy that I was recently
asked if I'm writing a TT for Dogs fat loss program. Find out the answer at
the end of this TT insider's scoop on my fat-burning lifestyle.
Q: Craig, what do you eat at the start of the day?
CB:
Sometimes I will start the day with a bowl of blueberries and pecans with
perhaps a little natural peanut butter stirred in.
I'll then follow that up an hour or so later with a 3-4 Omega-3 egg omelet
with 1/2 ounce cheese, and several servings of raw broccoli and peppers, and
an apple. Both meals come with 1-2 cups of Green Tea. (Sometimes I have
leftover steak with the eggs.)
Other days I'll have the omelet first and the berries and nuts later,
depends on how hungry I am.
Eating raw vegetables first thing in the morning might sound odd, but if you
do it for a week or two, it will quickly become habit.
Oh, and for all those folks who have written in saying that "I MUST be on an
extremely restricted diet in order to get those abs", well, I'm very sorry
to disappoint you.
Q: Most folks skip breakfast because as you know... life is really busy
sometimes... what tips can you give us for a quick nutritional breakfast-on-
the-run?
CB:
Grab something high in fiber and containing some protein.
An apple and an ounce of almonds and a cup of yogurt is a great start. As is
any combination of those 3 foods. And there's no reason not to cut up some
vegetables the night before and add that to the mix.
Protein shakes are fine too. I don't use them and they aren't necessary in
order to have a great body, but they are a convenient source of protein.
Just realize, protein shakes are NOT a magic bullet for anything. It's just
glorified milk.
Q: How come you don't include steady state cardio workouts in your fat loss
program?
CB:
Cardio is just not an efficient use of your time.
Interval training has beaten steady-state cardio in the two "head to head"
research studies comparing the two, and frankly, interval training works
much better in the real world.
And you get done in half the time, which is the other important factor. So
even if interval training was only AS good as cardio for fat loss - and not
actually better - you'd still be better off choosing interval training
because it takes less time.
Q: Conventional thinking says we have to do a whole bunch of sit ups and
crunches to get six pack abs. And most of us hate doing sit ups and
crunches! How come you don't have these exercises in your workout plans?
CB:
Neither of the exercises is necessary to get six pack abs.
Crunches are a huge waste of your time. Such a small movement does little in
terms of burning belly fat or sculpting your abs.
Every smart trainer knows that if you can do a resistance exercise 50 times
in a row, like you can with crunches, that there is little benefit to body
composition.
Situps are a more difficult exercise, but like crunches, sit-ups are hard on
the low back. Spinal flexion - when you round your low back - compresses the
discs between your vertebrae and is actually the same mechanism that causes
disc herniations.
So both are un-necessary and risky moves. Too risky for my tastes.
An advanced replacement for crunches and situps is the "Pull-up with Knee-
up", and an intermediate replacement is the Stability Ball Rollout.
Q: Thanks Craig. One last question, you write a lot about your Chocolate
Lab ... is there a Turbulence Training for dogs coming out any time soon?
CB:
You know, the sad thing is, my dog actually eats better than 80% of the
North American population.
Before 9am he's already had more vegetables than probably 50% of North
Americans will have ALL day.
Diet for dogs, is just as important as for humans.
But as for the workout program, he ate it.
Say goodbye to crunches and Hello to more free time when you use the
Turbulence Training for Abs fat burning meal plans and six pack abs workouts.
About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training For Abs workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTrainingForAbs.com
