Fit 209: Lean Abs, Vitamin B for Fat Burning and Patience

Published: June 24, 2014, 2:34 a.m.

In this episode:
How to get lean abs before summer! Vitamin B and fat burning! Patience, do you have any?

FYI-I'm using different software and computer for this one, so if things sound funny, please email me! kira@fitnessmakeover.com

Check out the "remodeled" FitnessMakeover.com site!

TRAINING
Ways To Lose Fat and Reveal Your Abs!  Can you lose body fat and reveal your abs by doing specific workout? Yes, and No.  When it comes to burning fat, doing sets of sit-ups, leg lifts and other abdominal exercises are a waste of time. Sure, you want muscle there and you should do abdominal exercises, but you definitely don't need to do as much as you think!

I still see people spending 20-30 mintues on ab training daily and never see a change in their body! Listen up! If you really want to change the look of your body, especially if you want to see your abs, then you should focus on full body weight training and sprints.

You've heard me talk about this before, but have you changed your workout ways?

Multi-joint training burns more calories, increases your metabolism longer and is the way to get hard, cut abs. If you want to see your abs by summer time, start doing a total body training program combined with a sprint program! More intensity, less cardio and less time! Your midsection will thank you!

Not convinced? Need proof? Here we go!

A study from 2011 showed that six weeks of abdominal training produced no loss of body fat, despite participants spending 4 hours a week doing crunches, bicycles, and sit-ups.

Now, we know that training with heavy, multi-joint exercises such as squats and deadlifts will build the abs. So it's obvious that another group of athletes who trained squats and deadlifts had much greater muscle development throughout the oblique abdominals than a control group.

Secret to faster fat loss:  In addition to multi-joint exercises, do high-intensity sprints a few days a week. A few, meaning 2-3 times a week. More than that can be counterproductive!

Ditch the repetitive 15-minute sit-up and crazy roman chair routine for 15 to 30 minutes of sprint training. Here's some example programs to use:

* The 30-20-10 model in which you jog/fast walk/bike for 30 seconds, run at a moderate intensity for 20 seconds, and sprint for 10 second. Repeat for a 5-minute interval. Do four sets with 2 minutes rest in between.

 

* Think you're in good shape? Great! Try this: 1 to 1 interval-to-rest program.  Do four x 4-minute intervals of 30-second sprints and 30-second jogging recovery.

 

* Heart rate recovery intervals: Do ten sprints of 15 seconds, increasing to fifteen sprints of 30 seconds. Base recovery off of heart rate—once it returns to 120 beats per minute, do the next sprint. • Do ten 30-second all-out sprints with 90 seconds rest.


NUTRITION

Facilitate fat burning by being sure you have an adequate supply of the B vitamins.  There are certainly many fat-burning nutrients I could recommend, none of them would work as efficiently and be as beneficial for results if you don’t get enough B vitamins.

What do B-Vitamins do for you? B vitamins are necessary to detoxify environmental toxins and excess hormones, such as estrogen. Many fitness conscious folks who eat a high protein-diet and/or take extra BCAAs increase their demand for B vitamins.