Who’s interested in wearing a bathing suit this summer? Shorts? A short sleeved tank top? C’mon, don’t tell me you’re fine in your turtleneck (we all don’t live in freezing climates…)

Understand that to get something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done before.

I know that many of you are ‘cardio junkies’, that is, you never want to give up your treadmill, elliptical trainer, bike, whatever…you have your magazine or your TV show that you watch and you’re all set. Is this getting you what you want?

I know there’s a better solution, but you have to want it. You have to be willing to sweat.

My pal, Mike Whitfield has some humor and great ideas for you here. I challenge you to give his workouts a try….

How to Burn More Fat in Less Time

Mike Whitfield, CTT

Author, Workout Finishers

It’s crazy that in less than 7 weeks, we’re going to be hitting Memorial Day.  That’s the next big “landmark” with your fitness.  That’s your next “checkpoint”.  It’s also a good place to put “quotations” on “random” words like “this”.

Anyway, do you remember back in January, you made a goal of hitting a certain weight or size, right?  Here’s the deal, 98% of the New Year “Bandwagoners”  <=== (more fun quotes) fail.  It’s the truth.

But you’re not in the 98%.  If you were, you wouldn’t be reading this and challenging yourself to learn more from cool people like Shawna.  You would be at home complaining why you can’t shake off that 20 lbs eating mindlessly on some Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough like this guy:

Yes, that is me.  I’m making fun of those that aren’t willing to do the work but sit there and complain about how bad life is and how they can’t shake off any weight.

You already know that it’s hard work to shed fat.  If you thought it was easy, you wouldn’t be absorbing this amazing info from this blog, but instead you would be on some message board where all these people try the latest fat-burning pill or watch these silly DVDs with a billion crunches that supposedly flatten your stomach and with literally no effort (their words, not mine).

Yeah, I’m calling them out.  It’s how I roll.

You’re smarter than that.  All you need is a swift kick in the butt and some adjustments to your workouts to start smoking off fat so fast, you’ll be turning heads at the beach (or the lake… or the grocery store… wherever, just know you’ll be turning heads).

Your Adjustments for the Next 7 Weeks

1) Switch to Single Limb Exercises

If you’re doing Squats – good!  Now, switch to single leg moves, like the Bulgarian Squat or the Split Squat.  Don’t underestimate the power of switching to single limb exercises.  These are more calorie-expensive, and require more work on the body, burning more calories.  Another fun one is switching from the DB Incline Chest Press to the 1-Arm DB Incline Chest Press.  Put one hand on your abs and lift with the other one.  You will feel your abs tighten up and your core will get fried.  You’re welcome.

2) Stay Active on Your Off Days

Here’s the deal – more than likely, you’re behind a desk most of the day.  So, you need to keep moving.  Don’t go to the gym.  Do something you enjoy for 30 minutes.  That can be walking, jogging, playing tennis, beating up a printer that doesn’t work (like the scene in Office Space), playing with your kids, or anything else you truly enjoy.  If you go to the gym and walk mindlessly on the treadmill and watch “The Price is Right” yet again, you will get burned out.  Yes, you know the price of that exotic trip to Scotland, but you’ve seen that episode 4 times, so you basically cheated.

3) Replace Cardio and Even Intervals with Workout Finishers

The bad news – doing too much cardio can increase your appetite.  So if you burn 250 calories on the elliptical, but you eat an additional 350 calories during the day due to your appetite, than you actually went backwards on your goals.  That’s horrid.  I don’t even know exactly what “horrid” means, but it just felt right to type.

Intervals are great, but these next 7 weeks are crucial, so you want to get the absolute most bang for your time invested.  If you incorporate incomplete recovery periods and calorie-expensive moves, you’ll get better results.  That’s where workout finishers come in.

You combine the metabolic effect of interval training, while using exercises that don’t require cardio equipment.  You also use more than just your legs, unlike interval training.

Think about this – if you did a strategic circuit of chinups, pushups, burpees, swings, squats, etc., etc., you’re going to use more muscle, right?  That’s why you will burn more calories.  But just being honest here – they are NOT easy.

They take just a fraction of the time than intervals or cardio, but you do MORE work in less time (brace yourself).

Let’s do one and sweat.

I have started to write more and more “Density Finishers”.  These finishers are fun to use because you can see your progress.

The 5-6-7-8 Finisher

Do the following circuit as many times as possible in 5 minutes, resting only when needed.  Record your TOTAL reps and try to beat that the next time you perform this finisher.

1A) Burpees (5)

1B) Spiderman Climb (6/side)

1C) KB/DB Swings (7)

1D) Decline Pushups (8)

Now the Spiderman Climb may be a new one to you – so here’s the breakdown of that one:

Spiderman Climb

1. Brace your abs. Start in the top of the pushup position.
2. Keep your abs braced, pick one foot up off the floor, and slowly bring your knee up outside of your shoulder and touch your foot to the ground.
3. Keep your abs braced and slowly return your leg to the start position.
4. Alternate sides until you complete all of the required repetitions.

And finally…

4) Use Total Body Workouts

It’s time to ignite the metabolism… use total body workouts.  Why?  Because you do so much more in less time.  Set up your workouts in a superset or circuit fashion.  In other words, you would do a circuit of:

Barbell Split Squat (8/side)

Pull-ups (2 short of failure)

DB Chest Press (10)

Ab Wheel Rollout (12)

You just hit every major muscle group and were able to give each exercise your best effort because while your lower body rests, your upper body rests and vice versa.  You also put the hardest moves at the beginning of your workout (smart programming is also important).

Putting it All Together to Burn More Fat in Less Time

So, here’s the formula to get shredded before Memorial Day:

• Total body workouts using big compound movements
• Switch to single limb movements
• Stay active on your off days
• Replace intervals and cardio with workout finishers
• Quit watching the Price is Right

You have 7 weeks – you can do this.  See how much progress you can make,

Mike Whitfield (aka “Mikey”), CTT

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This entry was posted on April 12, 2012 at 7:09 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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