Click Below to Watch a 30 second introduction from Dr. K
Transformation Prevention - The Limiting Factor You Don’t Even KNOW About
by Dr. Kareem F. Samhouri, CSCS, HFS
Metabolic Fat Loss & Fitness Expert
Simply put, everything you do, including every effort you put forth during exercise, originates in your body’s central command center, the Central Nervous System (CNS).
And for 99.9% of exercisers, the unfortunate reality is this: your central nervous system is operating at a very elementary level, and it’s absolutely holding you back from experiencing the most rapid fat loss results.
How and why?
Bottom line: most people simply do not understand how to properly communicate with their nervous systems, and as such are missing out on at least 60-80% of the metabolic potential of every single exercise they do. In fact, even advanced trainees tend to be “under-achieving” by at least 30-50%.
Can you just imagine how much faster you’d progress if you were able to double or triple the metabolic effectiveness of each and every exercise you do? The answer: A LOT FASTER.
Going back to the problem, inefficient nervous system communication results in:
poor signaling leading to decreased force output and sub-par muscular contractions
less overall motor units recruited
less weight used for every exercise, set, and rep (for a workout requiring 10 sets of 10 reps, that inefficiency is compounded 100 TIMES over)
overall less work done in any given session
neuro-muscular fatigue occurring before muscles even receive the necessary stimulus to grow and/or strengthen
fewer calories burned
overall decreased metabolic effect of exercise even when the same effort is put forth (the same effort for 1/4 of the results)
dramatically slowed results
dramatically less fat loss
On the other hand, an extremely efficient nervous system results in:
greater signaling, leading to greater, faster, more intense contractions
increased loads used for every single exercise, set, and rep (compound that improvement 100 times over for a workout requiring 10 sets of 10) - and that’s just one workout - imagine the effect this will have over 4 weeks worth of workouts!
increased motor unit recruitment
more stimulus from the same work
greater strength gains
greater lean muscle gains
greater metabolic cost of every single exercise you do
more calories burned (acutely/immediate)
exponentially greater fat loss over time
Legitimately, the difference in the rate of fat loss between the above two examples is the difference between getting in incredible shape for summer and being self-conscious all the way through August.
This is also the difference between hitting and maintaining your ideal body weight easily versus struggling for the rest of your life—period.
Do you realize this means you’re probably struggling to lose weight right now because your nervous system is operating far below its capacity?
Essentially, you’re working twice as hard for 1/4 the result—and I hate to see that happen!
The fact is this: Most fat loss programs do not even consider the role of your nervous system in program design, and as such, at best improve nervous system communication from ‘Poor’ to ‘Fair’. Even if you consider yourself “advanced”, you probably still have room to at least double your nervous system signaling efficiency, and therefore your results.
Bottom line: If you really want to dramatically hasten fat loss results, then you absolutely MUST learn to improve your nervous system signaling from ‘Fair’ to ‘Good’ to ‘Great’-all the way to ‘Excellent’.
And here’s the best part - it can be done in a very short period of time with the appropriate plan of attack, and you’ll do it while you lose fat at an accelerated rate.
But before I teach you how it’s done, you first need to understand exactly WHAT is holding you back from experiencing your true metabolic potential-and there are 5 major contributors (each taking a major toll on nervous system efficiency):
1. Muscle Imbalances
2. Incoordination
3. Sub-sensory pain signals in your joints
4. Inflammation & resultant decreased circulation
5. Improper use of rest periods in exercise program
Let’s go over these, one by one, so you have a better understanding…
Muscle Imbalances:
Whenever your body senses imbalance, it tries to correct for it. This means top to bottom (arms to legs), side to side (left to right), and back to front.
If you’re not balanced in all 3 ways, your body will naturally stop growing and strengthening in an attempt to regain balance and prevent injury.
As a practical example, many exercisers suffer from major imbalances from front to back. Their quads generally dominate their hamstrings, and their “pushing” muscles (chest, anterior shoulders) quite often overshadow those of their back (lats, rhomboids, etc). Essentially, these types of imbalances are actually like pulling the fire alarm for your body.
In effect, you’re screaming at your body and telling it to stop growing, stop strengthening so the weaker muscles can catch up. Unfortunately, unless you KNOW that’s going on and actively take steps to strengthen those imbalances, those muscle groups never catch up and progress declines or altogether stops - and this goes on indefinitely.
In the end, calories that should be going to fuel strength and lean mass gains get shuttled toward fat storage. Simply put, no matter how hard you work, you simply cannot outsmart your nervous system.
Incoordination:
There Are 2 Kinds Of Nerve Signals: Efferent & Afferent
Efferent (like ‘exit’) are nerve signals that exit from your brain and go down to your muscles & joints - these signals create movement.
Afferent are nerve signals that begin at your periphery (i.e. skin, muscle, joint, etc.) & work their way back up to your brain - these signals provide feedback after movement occurs to tell your brain what actually happened.
Until your joints are properly positioned and muscles receive constant, uninterrupted communication from your nerves, both your efferent & afferent signals are like a loose wire. They are firing off, haphazardly, and your body is having to work twice as hard to control movement.
Poor movement control = Poor coordination
Poor coordination = Poor strength
For example, incoordination may cause your forearms to work harder as you bench press, instead of the target muscle. The result: your forearms tire first and your chest is never fully stimulated. The same is true on a lunge; your back leg will get tired before your front, and that’s not even where you’re supposed to “feel” the movement.
Building a bridge between efferent & afferent signals will allow your coordination to improve, making advanced exercises easy, and improving the overall fluidity of every movement you make. In other words, you’re nervous system will be effectively communicating with your musculature and as a result your body melts fat and builds muscle.
Sub-sensory Pain Signals In Your Joints:
Your body is constantly in pain, or, in other words, pain is very much relative. You see, the types of nerve cells that respond to pain are never dormant; they are always awake, and they monitor the amount of activity at various areas of your body before reaching ‘threshold’ and setting off a chain of events resulting in palpable pain (pain that you actually “feel”).
When joints are maligned and exercises are done in the wrong sequence, there is a slight increase of pain receptor activity that takes place. Unfortunately, these nerve receptors send a message to your brain to turn muscles OFF and focus on eliminating the pain. That’s why we go limp when we have back pain, for example.
Now think about how much harder it must be for someone with overdeveloped pecs and a weak back to do shoulder raises. As the imbalance grows, there will inevitably come a point where “rounded shoulders” caused by the aforementioned imbalance will actually force the deltoids (shoulders) to turn off, and the upper back (trapezius) will then take over the movement.
From there, your upper trap attaches to your cervical spine, which creates and even bigger problem and more nerve signaling that’s turning off muscles as your trap pulls your spine out of place…yikes!
The end result is a vicious cycle until you eliminate the issue altogether.
Inflammation & Resultant Decreased Circulation:
Following any workout your body is inflamed, or at least it should be. Tiny little tears take place in your muscles, and this is what allows you to burn calories as the damage is repaired. Meanwhile, your muscles grow.
When there is more inflammation in your biceps, for example, than your triceps as a result of muscular imbalance between them, and one muscle is being over-shortened while the other muscle is over-lengthened, your lymphatic (healing) system will have a harder time getting rid of the swelling. Once it does get rid of swelling, your lymphatic vessels are supposed to dump the fluid into your veins.
Your muscle pump system (opposite muscle groups actually work like a pump to assist the venous system with the return of blood to the heart) becomes ineffective. Your venous system, as a result, has to work harder, and your veins end up blocking your lymphatic vessels from ‘dumping’ their fluid and sucking up more.
Swelling persists. Over time, this will lead to more compression on nerves, and decreased blood supply to them as well. Just like everything else in our bodies, our nerves need blood and oxygen to function at their best.
And if they’re not getting it, guess what happens? That’s right, nervous system inefficiency and decreased communication between nerves and muscles, leading to decreased fat loss and overall results.
Improper Use Of Rest Periods In Exercise Program:
Rest periods, when used properly, often do not rest your body at all. In fact, there’s a such thing as ‘active rest’ and ‘passive rest,’ but most people don’t know how to choose which one they need during various points in their workouts:
Active Rest - continue exercising, rest that particular muscle group
Passive Rest - sit still and do nothing
When training for muscle building (i.e. bulking) passive rest periods are an intricate part of the program.
When training multiple energy systems in your workout program, passive rest periods are essential to success with your second, third, and fourth sets.
When training for endurance, circuit-style training is best, because it is a submaximal level over a prolonged period of time. Naturally, this will lead to endurance, and you will be preparing your body for your particular goal.
When training for fat loss, there has to be a balance between strength, energy system work, and endurance in order to become successful. You have to build enough endurance to endure longer bouts of exercise without losing intensity, while you have to build enough strength to raise your metabolism. It takes a carefully designed program to consider all factors for rest periods in a top-notch fat loss program.
Here’s The Bottom Line…
You - yes, you - likely have quite a few “issues” that are holding you back from experiencing two to three times the fat loss results you’re currently experiencing. With my new program, Double Edged Fat Loss, I teach you how to address the ROOT problem, so that you can correct these issues and lose fat faster at the same time.
That program becomes available on Tuesday, March 16th, but don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging with just today’s information.
In fact, tomorrow I’m going to be back with another article to teach you THREE ways you can start immediately improving central nervous system efficiency while overcoming each of the 5 “problems” we addressed today.
The question you have to ask yourself is this: “Is setting myself up to double or triple my current rate of fat loss—whatever that may be—through a completely untapped medium, something I’m interested in?”
If so, stay tuned for some serious “solutions” coming at you tomorrow.
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I truly believe this is some of the most game-changing, revolutionary information to hit the fitness industry in years, and that’s exactly why I’m sharing it with you. I will be posting the second part of this article tomorrow, but for now, please post your comments and questions for Kareem and I to answer below.
P.S. And if you have not yet grabbed your copy of the webinar Vince Del Monte and I hosted with Kareem just a few days ago, then please, do that now by clicking HERE.
This weekend I’m back in the North East attending a marketing conference up in Connecticut, traveling with my buddy and fat-loss frenemy, John Romaniello.
Now you’ve probably never heard of a frenemy, but that’s who John Romaniello is to me. Part friend, part ENEMY. Allow me to explain.
First, John lives in the North East (enemy), where it’s like 3 degrees right now (double enemy). Okay, maybe not 3 degrees, but once you get under 20, it doesn’t matter.
I had to get on a plane to visit him (enemy), which took like 90 hours (triple enemy) due to delays, 3 guys in orange suits and an umbrella. Listen, I really can’t get in to it right now…
When I finally got there, John took me to the gym (ok, cool…) and then proceeded to take me through a workout that made me vomit about 23 mins and 42 seconds in (immediate jump to quintuple enemy).
On the other hand, John allowed me to use some of his $97 hair product before heading out to dinner, which I suppose makes him my friend.
Anyway, yes, the point of this blog post. It’s coming.
So, I’m on a rather strict diet right now. Why you ask? Because John Romaniello stole $5,000 of my money and has refused to return it to me, unless I come in at less than 212 lbs and 10% body fat by April 19th.
Somehow, he conned me in to signing my name somewhere, and I apparently agreed to this.
Either way, it was John’s mother’s birthday today. And prior to departing for our conference in Connecticut (from where I am composing this post, alongside a snoring Vince Del Monte), we decided to go out to a celebratory dinner at Bryant & Cooper Steak House (Long Island, NY).
Now, you would think that John was trying to sabbotage my $5,000 non-wager by taking me to such an establishment, but the truth is, John knows I’m a ninja.
No, like a real ninja.
And by that I mean that I still managed to leave very FULL and satiated and I even ate dessert without even so much as settling for a pre-mature cheat meal.
How? Simple, I learned a little trick called volumizing my plate (i.e. I chose the right foods and was able to eat a lot of them—while out to eat, without skipping a course, all while never having to “watch” anyone eat while I wasn’t—and without massive caloric damage).
I started with a green bean and tomato salad (tossed in a light vinaigrette), followed by the main course (a 10 oz filet mignon, lean as could be, and 2 “family size” sides of green veggies—the first, lightly buttered asparagus, the second, spinach tossed in olive oil and garlic).
And while John and his mother enjoyed a birthday pecan pie ala mode together for dessert (sweet boy, that John), I didn’t have to forgo the 3rd course either.
Instead of the thousand calorie pie, I chose a heaping bowl of mixed berries, which was, in comparison to their dessert, significantly larger, while bringing in about 1/10 of the calories.
The truth is this, you can EASILY be social, dine out, eat GOOD, and leave full when you make the right choices.
Not sure what to order? Just hit up a nice steakhouse and order what I had. It was, as the Italians say, delicioso.
And tomorrow, I’m having a beer. A really tall one. With some cake. Bring on the fat-loss accelerating Cheat Day.
By the way, for your next Cheat Day, order a birthday cake. It doesn’t matter if it’s your birthday or not, just do it. Trust me, it’s awesome.
Your friend,
Joel
P.S. What’s your favorite healthy “out to eat” meal? Let me know, along with your comments, below! At least 50 comments and I’ll be back early next week with some amazing content I’ve got lined up for you guys. Talk to you below (I’ll be checking in throughout the day ;)
When I find out about something cool or experience something great−be it a new CD, a great movie, good food, or the many other great things life has to offer−I want to share it with all my closest friends.
So, two things to share with YOU today (you know I consider you one of my closest friends, right? ;):
1. Citizen Cope’s new album, The Rainwater, just dropped today. Probably the best band you never heard of. Preview it on iTunes. Grab it at Best Buy. Trust me, you’ll enjoy it. My favorite song on the new album is “Lifeline”.
Second, I had the opportunity to cook up one of my favorite healthy breakfasts this morning, and while enjoying it thought who better to share the recipe with than you, my beloved subscriber.
The recipe is for Stuffed French Toast, and while that may not sound too healthy, I got the recipe from my colleague and good friend John Berardi−an absolute GENIUS when it comes to making healthy food taste great.
Check it out below and give it a try the next time you’re in the mood for super-charged, great-tasting healthy breakfast!
Stuffed French Toast
4 oz nonfat cottage cheese
1 scoop (20 grams protein) Vanilla Whey Protein
1 tbsp raisins
1/2 cup egg whites (approximately 4 eggs)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp skim milk
1/2 cup raw oats
2 large slices of 12-grain or 100% whole wheat bread
1 tbsp raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries for garnish
1 tsp of Splenda
Blend the cottage cheese in a blender until smooth. Remove to a medium bowl and add mix in the protein powder and raisins. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix the egg whites with the cinnamon and milk. Set aside.
Place the oats on a flat plate.
Preheat skillet on medium-high heat.
Fold each slice of bread to create a “pocket”. Fill each pocket equally with the cottage cheese mixture. Take the bread and dip each side into the egg mixture. Then, coat both sides with the oats. When ready, cook both sides until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes each side. Garnish with berries and serve.
Makes 2 Servings
Alright, comment time.
Did you enjoy this post? Will you give the recipe a try?
Are you familiar with Citizen Cope? How awesome is he?
And lastly, if you have a fun recipe and/or an “undiscovered” band that rocks out, share it with us all below!
At least 100 comments and I’ll be back with 3 more recipes later in the week!
Welcome to Body Transformation Insider! For some of you, you’ve been here hundreds of times before (more than 10,000 comments posted in the last 6 months alone), and for others, this may be your first time — either way, this gift is for YOU! Consider it a “Welcome” or a “Thank You” (or both!)
You see, within the fitness industry, I happen to “know” a lot of people. Which is a great thing, because I’m always scoring free stuff and special deals for you as my reader (not to mention loads of free blog content from me each week).
Well, John Romaniello, the creator of the Final Phase Fat Loss system just so happens to be one of my best friends.
And here’s what we have in store for you:
A *FREE* Bodyweight FPFL Density Workout that you can do anywhere with NO equipment!
No need to sign up anywhere or anything like that, just click and download below.
(Right click and select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to save a copy to your computer)
Whether or not you are one of the 9,000+ new Final Phase Fat Loss users or not, you can begin using this workout to accelerate your results today…and it costs you nothing (just right click to download).
(Right click and select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to save a copy to your computer)
Enjoy your free gift! I’ll be back with more blogging and body transformation strategies soon.
Your friend,
Joel
P.S. And if you haven’t yet picked up the entire Final Phase Fat Loss system (all 16 Density, Dynamic, Lactic Acid, and Strength workouts, plus bonuses), for a limited time you can still save $60 as a “Friend of Joel Marion” HERE. It’s not quite the 52% off Grand Opening price, but it’s darn close! Always lookin’ out for ya!
The below article is being reprinted with permission of John Romaniello and FinalPhaseFatLoss.com
Beings that John is such a good friend of mine, he’ll be stopping in again throughout the day today to answer questions you might have about the article and the awesome content he’s been providing at FinalPhaseFatLoss.com for the last week or so.
Fighting Hormones with Hormones
By John Romaniello
As I’ve covered previously, when you are breaking through a fat loss plateau or trying to get to the Final Phase of leanness, things get a bit murkier than they do with traditional fat loss.
Rather than dieting excessively in order to create a Calorie deficit, we seek to enter into energy debt by way of intelligently designed training protocols. In addition, keeping energy intake high ensures that leptin levels don’t drop and throw another hormonal monkey wrench into the machinery.
Because, as we know from yesterday’s article, when you’re getting very lean or you’ve hit a plateau, fat loss is not just about Calories in vs Calories out–it’s about your hormonal environment and the way that affects fat storage, and thereby fat loss.
When you’ve lost the first 20 or 30 or whatever pounds, you’ve lost the “easy” fat. What you’ll notice about your body is that you’re now holding fat specifically in your trouble areas; and those trouble areas are determined by your specific hormonal environment.
If you’ve been following along, by now you know that it’s not just about energy debt or cardio or to a lesser extent diet (although all of those things do factor in quite a bit, obviously).
When your fat loss has stalled and you’re trying to break through that wall, or when you’re trying to rid yourself of those last stubborn 5-10 pounds, it’s a hormonal battle.
And there is only one way to win: fight hormones with hormones.
We’ve established that there are three specific hormones that cause the three most common types of regional fat storage.
As a quick recap:
1. Estrogen - the female sex hormone responsible for lower body fat storage patterns.
2. Insulin - Or rather, insulin resistance; this nasty little dude heavily influences fat storage in the love handle and lower back area.
3. Cortisol - the appropriately dubbed stress hormone is part of the reason you’ve got more flab than ab.
Those are your enemies.
Now, I want to talk to you about how you can actually increase the production of other hormones that offset the above “bad” hormones–through the manipulation of training methods.
In this corner…
Estrogen vs. Testosterone
Now that we’ve established (again, with apologies to the ladies) that estrogen is the main reason lower body fat storage occurs, we need to know how to work around that.
Well, how else would you combat estrogen but with testosterone? In all honesty, when if comes to fat loss and muscle gain, testosterone good, estrogen bad.
It’s for that reason that professional athletes, bodybuilders and the juicers down at the Jersey Shore use illicit steroids that are derivatives of testosterone.
Of course, that’s not an option for us–and certainly not desirable.
Instead, we are going to increase testosterone levels naturally, through training. Not only will this increase the net fat-burning effect of all exercises, but more appropriate to our purposes here, it will also facilitate in getting rid of lower body fat.
I should mention something here to alleviate any concerns: it is NOT possible to produce a detrimental amount of testosterone through training. So ladies, you don’t have to worry about any masculinizing effects.
Instead, training produces what we would term a ‘high’ amount of testosterone from a physiological perspective, relative to what your body normally produces. For the guys, this means that such training will help you put on a bit more muscle–just not steroid muscle.
Got it?
Okay, moving on.
At this point, I know you’re thinking, ‘all right Roman, get to the point, what do I do?”
Great question. And the answer is Density Training.
Training in a way that seeks to increase training density is one of the best ways to spur your body to produce and release more testosterone, which will (obviously) help you lose that estrogen related fat storage.
Training density can be defined as the amount of work you do in a given amount of time during a training session. If you want to increase density, you can do more work (sets, reps, or both) in the same amount of time, or do the same amount of work and decrease the time in which you do it.
However, I’ve come up with a method of density training that is specific to radical fat loss, and this means that not only will you produce the testosterone necessary to mitigate your regional fat issue, but you’ll also lose more fat on the whole.
Pretty cool, eh?
So here is how we do it. As an example, let’s pick 3 exercises: the overhead press, the dumbbell row, and the squat.
Setting these up in a circuit fashion, you perform them one after another with little rest in between.
Sounds like just about any circuit training protocol, right?
WRONG.
Instead of having a set number of reps, we’re going to be forming each of these exercises for TIME–you simply have to do as many as you can in a given time period.
To make it easy, let’s say you did each of the above exercises for 30 seconds. In performing such a circuit, your results might look like this:
Overhead Press: 25 pound dumbbells for 20 reps
DB Row: 40 pound dumbbells for 18 reps
Squat: 100 pound barbell for 22 reps
Not too shabby. Now, HERE is where it gets crazy.
We’re going to take advantage of some cool things that happen in the body; triggers that happen which will make you more efficient and more capable.
To do that, we’re going to INCREASE the weight by 10-20% and try to do MORE reps.
Does that seem impossible? It isn’t. Due to neuromuscular junction and neural activation, in almost ALL cases, you’ll be able to do just that.
Your second attempt at that circuit might look like this:
Overhead Press: 30 pound dumbbells for 23 reps
DB Row: 50 pound dumbbells for 20 reps
Squat: 120 pound barbell for 25 reps
I know you’re having trouble believing that outcome is even possible, much less common, but I implore you–try it for yourself!
Density training is fun, challenge-based, burns a heck of a lot of fat, and–most importantly–is one of the best training modalities around for increasing testosterone production and release.
Training for increased workout density will help you shed stubborn lower body fat, and as we’ve mentioned more fat on the whole.
Insulin Resistance vs. IGF-1
As I mentioned in the video above, insulin resistance is combatted very nicely by a hormones called IGF-1, or Insulin-like Growth Factor one.
Producing extra IGF-1 via training will help you (and me!) improve insulin sensitivity and begin to rid ourselves of love handle and lower back fat.
We established yesterday that insulin resistance is very common, particular in people who were previously overweight; so if you have lost some fat and you’re now struggling to lose a bit more, and that fat happens to be in your love handles, I’m willing to bet you’re suffering from some degree of insulin resistance.
In order to get rid of that fat, we have to do fat burning workouts (obviously) and increase insulin sensitivity to the greatest degree that we can through the training effect. To that end, we need to employ what I call Dynamic Training.
Dynamic training is pretty much the over-arching concept of how I design fat loss training programs–it consists of using fast-paced movements to teach the body how to move more efficiently. Combination movements, like the squat-to-press I demonstrated in the above video are also brought to bare.
Because this style of training is extremely expensive in terms of energy (Calorie) demand, by and large dynamic training is excellent as a general fat loss modality.
Perhaps more importantly, however, is the fact that utilizing these types exercises and setting them up in a non-competing circuit fashion under the dynamic training umbrella is an incredible way to produce IGF-1–and that is one of the most effective methods to mitigate insulin sensitivity.
Take it from someone who knows; nothing is better for combating love handle fat than increasing insulin sensitivity–and one of the most effective ways to do that is to produce more IGF-1 through dynamic training.
Cortisol vs. Growth Hormone
And now we come to our final bout of the evening–the main event, as it were.
We have touched on cortisol a bit, so I won’t rehash that too much. Suffice it to say that the higher your cortisol levels are, the more fat you’re going to be storing on your belly. Given that fact, it stands to reason that if you store fat primarily in the abdominal region, you’re a victim of high cortisol.
Never fear, though: Growth Hormone is here.
Also known as the “fountain of youth”, growth hormone is the single most effective compound your body can produce to affect both fat loss and muscle gain. The more you produce, the faster you’ll lose fat and build muscle. It’s just as simple as that.
Now, in addition to that awesome little fact, growth hormone is going to whoop cortisol’s ass and help you burn belly fat.
Also, you’ve probably heard that one of the ways to reduce your cortisol levels is to get more sleep. That’s something you hear on nearly all the medical TV shows. What you don’t hear is the reason.
You see, sleeping is one of the main ways by which your body produces growth hormone. Or, saying it another way, while you’re asleep is your body’s primary opportunity to produce growth hormone.
And, as I stated previously, growth hormone is one of the main hormones that reduces the effects of cortisol.
Sleep more and you’ll produce more GH. Produce more GH and you’ll have less cortisol. Therefore, sleeping more results in lower cortisol levels. Got it?
Of course, I’m not suggesting you can just sleep your way past a fat loss plateau; although getting more sleep does help. I’m merely illustrating the relationship between cortisol and growth hormone.
Which leads us to the production of growth hormone as it relates to training.
While nearly all forms of exercise produce both growth hormone and cortisol, some types are better than others. Cortisol, as I mentioned in the previous article, is produced heavily in long duration cardio sessions–so let’s not do that.
Instead, we’re going to utilize a style of training that produces more growth hormone.
To do that, we’re going to employ a training method known as Lactic Acid Training.
In order to get to the growth hormone, you must first produce lactic acid.
Lactic acid, by way of a definition, is a byproduct of the chemical reactions that take place during exercise. This substance is wildly irritating to the nerves, and your body responds.
Think of lactic acid as sort of a type of oil igniting fires as it flows through you–your body will call the fire department to put those fires out. And your body will do that by dousing them with soothing, cooling growth hormone.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little simplistic with my metaphor, but it gives you a general idea.
In any event, we must structure training to produce the most lactic acid possible. And, because lactic acid is primarily produce in the concentric (positive) phase of anaerobic exercise, we extend that period, and decrease the eccentric period.
What that means is that we lift the weight very very slowly, and lower it very very quickly so that we can have a fast turn around.
As an example, if you’re doing a squat, you’ll descend to the bottom the squat very quickly (drop down fast, but still controlling the weight somewhat) and then lift the weight sloooowly, oh so sloooowly–over a period of 4-6 seconds.
This will create tremendous amounts of lactic acid, which will intern send GH production into overdrive.
I must mention that training in this way necessitates the use of lighter weights than you normally would on any given exercise. Therefore, if you’re interested in lactic acid training, I suggest you reduce the weight you’d use on any exercise by about 30% in order to be both safe and effective.
With traditional training methods, you’d lift the weight pretty quickly and lower it slowly. Here, we’re doing the opposite, in order to produce the most lactic acid possible, which will then lead to a corresponding increase in the production of growth hormone.
This will result in not only reducing cortisol, but also reducing cortisol related fat storage in your belly.
On top of it all, it’s great for fat loss in general!
Closing Thoughts
Although the battle against hormone-related fat storage can be a tough one, it’s certainly easier when you yourself have hormones on your side–tougher, stronger, better looking hormones!
Say goodbye to cortisol and belly fat with increase growth hormone production via lactic acid training.
Make lower-body fat (and man boobs) along with estrogen issues history through density training.
And combat the ol’ love handles and insulin resistance with dynamic training and IGF-1 production.
With Final Phase Fat Loss, stubborn becomes easy. Slow becomes fast. And it’s all because every single workout within the Final Phase system has been specifically created to combat the hormonal reasons you’re NOT losing fat.
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Again, John & I are here to answer your questions, so go ahead and ask away by posting a question or comment below!
The below article is being reprinted with permission of John Romaniello and FinalPhaseFatLoss.com
Beings that John is such a good friend of mine, he’ll be stopping in throughout the day today to answer questions you might have about the article and the awesome content he’s been providing at FinalPhaseFatLoss.com for the last week or so.
Three Hormones You MUST Address for Fast Fat Loss By John Romaniello
It seems like most fat loss programs focus on one main thing: to burn fat, you have to expend more energy than you take in.
Such a focus makes sense, of course, because if there is a universal truth to fat loss, that’s it.
This is what we call “energy balance.” In order to lose fat, you have to create what we call “energy debt” or “energy deficit” -that is, eliminate the balance and instead be on the negative side of the balance scales.
That works very well for “beginning” fat, of course. However, success doesn’t last forever.
As anyone who’s ever been on a diet and exercise program of any kind can tell you, at first it’s pretty smooth sailing. Eat less, do more, lose fat.
And then it stops-and usually, stops suddenly, as those same people can also tell you.
Of course, the first instinct people have is a very natural one: to simply do more of what was bringing them success in the first place.
So they eat even less and do even more.
And…have no results.
You see, what these people fail to realize (and what most fat loss programs fail to address) is that:
After a certain point, simple energy deficit no longer covers the tab.
It becomes more about what type of deficit. Speaking generally, you actually have to eat closer to maintenance calorie levels (instead of far below) and expend more Calories through exercise.
Even then, things don’t always happen as quickly as you want.
You see, once you’ve hit a fat loss plateau-or when you’re trying to lose the last few pounds, like I was when I was dieting for the beach house-fat loss becomes a bit less about energy balance a lot more about hormones.
Some hormones, such as leptin, actually control the majority of your general fat loss efforts and all the factors thereof: appetite, satiety, “starvation mode.” However, assuming you’re eating enough and trying to create an energy deficit through training, leptin isn’t the issue.
In Final Phase Fat Loss, you’re never on a severe diet, so you don’t have to worry about leptin.
There are other hormones which are a bit more insidious in their effects on your physique. They don’t just determine IF you gain fat-they determine where you gain it, and whether you’re able to lose it from those areas.
Those “problem” areas on your body are there for a reason.
“Problem areas” are created by your hormonal environment, and it’s your hormones that force your body to have particular fat storage patterns.
In this article, we’re going to talk about the three most common types of regional fat storage, and the hormones that cause them.
Back Got Back: Low Body Fat Storage
One of the most common types of fat storage that we see in women is the “pear shape” -fairly thin on top but heavy on the bottom (and IN the bottom, if you know what I mean).
This is so common that we often refer to a “pear shape” as a body type. This is true to an extent, but this type of fat storage is also heavily dependent on the female sex hormone estrogen. This is one reason why you see this type of fat storage primarily in women.
High levels of estrogen are awesome for enjoying Grey’s Anatomy and makin’ babies, but terrible for fat loss, which makes it obvious that women usually have more trouble losing fat than men.
However, anyone-male or female-with high estrogen levels will have trouble losing fat, especially from the lower body. In essence, the higher your estrogen levels, the greater the likelihood you’ll store fat in your lower body; mainly in the hips and thighs.
And yes, it IS possible for men to have high estrogen levels. Unfortunately, outside of having to deal with a declined rate of fat loss and lower body fat, these guys ALSO have to deal with the ignominy of man-boobs.
On the whole, estrogen related fat storage is a pain in the ass (get it!?) but it is not completely unmanageable. You see, you can offset this phenomenon with certain types of training.
In addition to helping you lose fat stored in the lower body, these specifically designed workouts will also be great for fat loss in general. Essentially, they’re great for burning calories and for shedding lower body fat through estrogen management-combine the two and the result is rapid fat loss, with a heavy concentration on lower body fat stores.
No worries, ladies (and gents!), I’m here to help.
Muffin Tops: No Love for the Love Handles
Probably my least favorite incarnation of regional fat storage is love handle and lower back fat. This is, of course, because I personally suffer from such.
Even when I am in lean condition-I’m talking shredded pretty much everywhere else-
I store some fat in my love handles and lower back. It used to take me an extra 3 weeks to get rid of it.
The reason I tend to store fat this way is because of how my body reacts to certain hormones, and because of the effect those hormones have on fat storage.
When I was a fat kid and ate lots and lots of goodies, I screwed by my endocrine system a wee bit. Nothing too serious, but a decade of eating rapidly digesting carbs followed by…well, followed by more rapidly digesting carbs made my insulin spike and crash and spike and crash all over the place.
On top of making me fat in that immediacy, it also completely had a pretty negative effect on the way my body processes and handles insulin period.
The degree to which you are able to process and respond to glucose (sugar) in your body is called insulin sensitivity. The higher this is, the easier and more efficiently your body utilizes carbohydrates for energy, and the less like you are to store carbs as fat.
On the other hand, insulin resistance is the opposite: you don’t deal well with carbs, and anything other than a low carb diet pretty much means you’re gonna hang on to some fat.
And, to make matters worse, as I mentioned previously, there are regional effects. It’s been shown that people who store fat in the love handles are generally very insulin resistant-and therefore it can be reasoned that insulin resistance leads to love handle and lower back fat storage.
Which means, of course, that insulin resistance makes it very hard to lose fat from that area as well.
I’m sure many of you out there who have been heavy before are experiencing much the same problems that I used to have.
The good news is that insulin resistance (and the resulting regional fatness) can be mitigated with certain types of training. For example, with careful planning and selection of exercises, you can start to whittle away at love handle and lower back fat while you increase insulin sensitivity.
The better news is that I’ve figured out a specific series of training sessions that will do just that.
The One, The Only: Belly Fat
Without question, the most common type of regional fat storage is belly fat. If this isn’t you, it’s someone you know.
Abdominal fat storage obviously has a lot to do with your diet and overall body fat level; that should be obvious but it never hurts to touch on it.
Outside of that, it’s hormones baby, hormones.
The one we’re talking about here is cortisol. This hormone has been in the media a lot the past few years, and I’ve talked about it a bit, so by now you know that cortisol is sometimes called a “stress” hormone.
That moniker is more appropriate than you know.
Basically, that means your body will produce cortisol (and encourage belly fat storage) under conditions of nearly any type of stress-both emotional and physical. So to combat cortisol, it’s not enough to just get more sleep or stop drunk dialing your ex-girlfriend. (Although that helps, I’ve heard.)
Instead, it is of far greater effect to combat cortisol through resistance training.
Now, if you’re observant, you may have noticed what seems to be a contradiction.
As I said, cortisol is also produced through physical stress. In fact, training is actually one of the primary means through which your body will produce this sneaky little hormone. Additionally, because cortisol has been linked to overtraining and has a catabolic (muscle wasting) effect, producing too much of it through training is certainly counterproductive.
It’s important to note, however, that long duration cardio and extended lifting sessions are what produce the most cortisol, and I always recommend against those.
Instead, short, intense training sessions using a particular type of training modality will help to counteract the effects of cortisol; both the muscle-wasting effect, and the cortisol related belly fat storage.
I’ll share that with you tomorrow.
In fact, tomorrow I’ll be sharing another entire article with you. In that article, I’ll teach you how to fight hormones with hormones. I’ll show you how to use specific types of training to combat the nefarious three hormonal nemeses by producing hormones that offset the effects of estrogen, insulin and cortisol.
Be on the look-out for “How to Conquer Your Hormonal Nemeses” tomorrow.
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I will be posting the second part of this article tomorrow, but for now, leave a comment or post your questions for John and I to answer below!
Transformation Domination LIVE was an unbelievable, unforgettable event for every speaker and attendee. It brought together people of every fitness level and walk of life. Personal trainers, moms and dads, every age from 20 -65. Some traveled as far as Japan, Belgium, England, and Russia to be there.
Simply put, these three days changed lives.
And today, I’m excited to share a small sampling of the weekend with you! As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words.
Enjoy the photos and drop a comment below!
P.S. The “quotes” are just me having a little fun ;)
Our Belgian friends with Vince Del Monte at Friday night’s cocktail reception. What a way to start off an amazing weekend!
Registration - 6:30 AM, Saturday, January 16th
Are you ready to get this party started?! I sure was :)
Workout Day 1 - Ballantyne is in charge and things are about to get all Turbulence-y.
People of all shapes, sizes, ages, and fitness levels all working together? That’s what we do!
The Grand Ballroom - Where we got our learn on all weekend!
The “Stage” - Special Thanks to Eagle TV Productions for the sweet logo!
The Logo “up close” - I love this photo!
Yours truly, kicking off the conference! - 8 Critical Components of Fat Loss Programming
Dr. Kareem, rockin’ the stage with his big personality and awesome content!
Shawn Phillips’ keynote was challenging.
The room was full! Except for that one chair…
“What can I say, you don’t get a body like this by eating dairy all day…it’s that simple” :)
Isabel De Los Rios dropped all kinds of nutrition knowledge bombs!
“I freakin’ told you, you’re NOT going to get the body you want by doing cardio!”
Zach Even-esh stole the stage with his “Kick Ass and Take Names” presentation. The crowd couldn’t stop laughing!
Jayson Hunter rounds out Day 1 with a killer presentation - “Calming the Hormonal Chaos”
Scott Colby leads the Day 2 workout - keep those abs tight, baby!
Jon Benson let’s everyone know the deal - “YOU are a bodybuilder. More muscle, less fat - that’s a bodybuilder.”
I think someone just told John Romaniello that he wasn’t as hot as he thinks he is…which is clearly…wrong.
Vince Del Monte brings some major motivation to the stage with his “7 Keys” talk.
“That’s right. I’m 37 and I’m a mom.” Holly Rigsby makes you drop every excuse…awesome presentation!
“What, you didn’t know that I’m actually a cyborg?” - Eric Cressey defies humanity with his smarts.
Tom Terwilliger closes out the day with the highest energy talk of the entire conference!
We didn’t even have a workout planned on Day 3 - but attendees just couldn’t get enough!
8 world-class experts answer YOUR personal fitness questions - Monday starts off with the Q&A Panel!
John Romaniello brings his signature wit to the group.
Scott Colby got everyone up and moving with his interactive “flat stomach” presentation.
“Listen to me - I’m smarter than you!” - although he’d never say it, Bryan Walsh was smarter than us all. Combined. Except Cressey…that guy is a machine.
Bryan had attendees captivated!
Courtney Rowsell’s live cooking presenation was the ultimate closer to an unbelievable weekend!
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All in all, Transformation Domination LIVE blew me away. The people I met, the stories I heard, the energy in the room — every single aspect of the weekend was incredible.
And truth be told, I was going into the weekend thinking that I probably wouldn’t do it again. But, from the phenomenal feedback I received from attendees, the appreciation, and the lives that left changed as a result of these 3 days, Transformation Domination LIVE will more than likely be coming back next year.
For those who attended, THANK YOU. This would have never been possible without you, and you’re the only reason we can continue to do what we love.
For those who weren’t there — start making arrangements now to do whatever you can to be in Tampa next January!
In yesterday’s post, we discussed several different ways to create a 300 calorie deficit:
Skip the morning bagel (-300 calories)
Walk on the treadmill for an hour and half (-300 calories)
Perform a very high intensity interval session (-300 calories)
In all 3 instances, the net calorie burn is -300 cals; however, as mentioned in the previous post, scenario 1 sucks, scenario 2 really sucks, and scenario 3 trumps them all–by far.
And today I want to share 3 other “scenarios” with you, with yet another lesson to be learned.
Out of the below 3 individuals, who will burn more fat and achieve better, faster results?
If you’re looking to shed body fat, there’s simply no getting around the fact that you absolutely must create some sort of caloric deficit.
Any way you look at it, you MUST burn more calories than you consume.
Now, it can get quite a bit more complicated than simple math would have us believe, but the fact remains–a deficit must be in place for fat loss to occur.
But, there are many different ways to create a deficit, some more effective than others.
For example, if you’d like to create an additional 300 calorie deficit per day, you could simply skip your morning bagel (approx 300 calories). Fairly simple to do, unless you have some weird affinity toward bagels like I do.
OR, you could walk for an HOUR AND A HALF on the treadmill and create the same 300 calorie deficit.
OR, you could do a 10 minute high intensity interval training workout and create the same 300 calorie deficit.
And here’s where things get a little more complicated than the numbers suggest.
The New Orleans Saints are headed to the Super Bowl.
Why?
Well, if you ask me, it all comes down to a single word…a single quality…and the city of New Orleans has it: Resiliency.
You know, in life, in sports, in just about any and every situation, there are lessons to be learned. And when it comes learning lessons, I’m an open book.
If I can learn a life-lesson from a kid (and I have), I’ll take it. From a sporting event, I’m “all ears”…
It’s funny, but I often watch football thinking “what can I learn from this…?”
For instance, every year Andy Reid teaches me extremely valuable lessons about the art of coaching and exactly what not to do in leadership type situations. It’s like a full-out anti-leadership education for free — I’ve learned so much over the years.
On the other hand, the New Orleans Saints have inspired me this year, and I hope by the end of this post they’ll have inspired you as well.
Well, since Vince Del Monte pretty much copies everything I do, I figured it’s time I return the favor ;)
Just kidding. Vince and I are pretty much business partners and we consult with each other pretty much daily, so it’s natural that we get a fair amount of ideas from one another.
The other week, Vince put together a “things I learned in 2009″ post on his blog. I loved it, and thought it’d be cool to do the same. Thanks for the idea, Vinny.
Below you will find my list of “49 insights” from 2009. Take a read through it and then respond in the comments section with your comments and/or 1 thing you learned this year! Rock on!
1. Curb Your Enthusiasm never stops being (inappropriately) funny. You gotta love the twisted mind of Larry David.
2. You can have whatever you want in life. It’s not metaphysical bull shit, it’s simply about believing in yourself and going after what you want full force.
3. Self-imposed limitations will cripple your potential. It doesn’t matter what other people think is possible for you-the ONLY thing that matters is what you believe you can achieve.
4. Excuses are nothing more than sugar coated self-imposed limitations.
5. Expect failure. Failure is an inevitable stop on the road to success. And even in the midst of success, you’ll still fail-get used to it. Fact is, I still fail-all the time. The difference is that winners simply keep trying until they succeed, while the majority just give up and fade away.
6. Expect success. Contradictory to the above statement? Nope. I KNOW I will succeed in everything I do and I expect to do so. I also know that I may have to fail several times first.
7. “Take action” is my new motto. If you’re not actively “doing” something to change your circumstances, then I’m not interested in hearing your complaints about those circumstances.
8. Being a complainer is still perhaps the most annoying, unattractive character trait.
9. Email is the biggest time-drainer in the world.
10. Short duration, high-frequency training is the most effective way to build muscle.
11. The only thing that matters with regards to overtraining is avoiding central nervous system burn out.
12. Motivation is the best way to assess central nervous system burnout. If you’re motivated to train, forget about soreness and get your butt back in the gym.
13. Turning something “negative” into something loved is a special skill (i.e. Cheat Your Way Thin ;)
14. Friday Night Lights is the most underrated show on television. Period. If you’re not watching it, do yourself a huge favor and go buy every season on DVD. Today.
15. It’s very hard for me to have a bad day when the sun is out. Thus, I moved to Florida.
16. Relationships are the only thing that matter in life. I could have every material possession in the world, but would be completely miserable without the interaction I share with so many “real” people on an every day basis.
17. 48 oz steaks have nothing on me.
18. Eating a healthy, big breakfast may be the most fundamental rule of weight control.
19. 99% of supplements are still bogus.
20. Vince Del Monte has the crappiest laptop in the world for someone who travels non-stop and runs an internet based business.
21. Do not call Craig Ballantyne. Text or email only. And if you mistakenly do call, do NOT leave a message.
22. Identifying problems and providing enjoyable solutions is a winning concept to build any business around.
23. Nothing could be more influential in one’s life than having a phenomenal mother.
24. Stay true to who you are and don’t allow past experiences to “harden” or change you-even if it means allowing yourself to be vulnerable (again). You are an amazing person and someone equally as amazing will love you and treasure you for every single one of those traits (thank you Lisa).
25. Taste buds change. I used to hate salad and seafood; now I can’t get enough of either. Try revisiting foods you once wrote off-you may be surprised.
26. On a similar note, sushi is actually really good. Never in a million years would I have thought I would have liked that.
27. Surrounding yourself with and building strong relationships with other passionate, driven people are perhaps the best things you can do for your life.
28. No matter how far you move away, home is still home.
Sometimes you just have to trust your gut and go with it.
29. Find a very small, core group of people to network with and get input from regularly, and keep it small. Too many opinions = confusion. Find the “core” people you trust most, and turn to them often (thanks Vinny and Craig).
30. There are much more important things in life than work. If your job controls your life, change that however you can, or simply find another job.
31. If you have a desire to work for yourself, GO for it full throttle.
32. 10 minutes well invested each day will give you hours of your life back each week dur to increased productivity (and a host of other benefits). Binaural brain-beat technology (www.UltimateMindEnhancement.com) works; I can’t say enough good things about it. If you do not own these CDs, buy them. Right now. They will change your life and I’ve been saying it for the last 8 months.
33. The “little things” continue to be the most important things of a relationship.
34. Dogs, like children, can be terribly annoying, but quickly become an irreplaceable part of your heart and family.
35. It’s better to spend the money for quality than to try to save a few hundred bucks when buying a flat screen TV for your living room.
36. Mentorship is a must for success.
37. You must be willing to invest in yourself. The more money I spend to better certain areas of my life, the better those areas become. WARNING: This is only true if you are someone who “takes action”. Spending money doesn’t equal results - taking action on your investments does.
38. Intensity trumps everything. You MUST at some point in your workout feel as though you are struggling to continue. Otherwise, your workout is worthless. There, I said it.
39. If you don’t have goals, you’ll never achieve anything. Success just doesn’t “happen”; you need to plan toward something specific.
40. The Philadelphia Eagles will never win a Superbowl with Andy Reid as their coach. I actually learned this about 5 years ago.
41. If Denzel Washington is in a movie, the movie will be good.
42. Certain books have the power to change your life, even for people who hate to read (i.e. me). Stop being lazy and start reading (more).
43. Art is pretty cool-even the abstract stuff. Some of it just flat out sucks, though.
44. People who are not taking steps to better themselves often project negativity onto those who are. The underlying cause of negativity is almost always jealousy.
45. The more you give, the more you get. I have straight up GIVEN away more information than ever before this year, and my business has grown exponentially because of it.
46. The mental component of body transformation is more important than the diet and exercise aspects by about ten fold.
47. Going out to dinner 5+ times per week is not only absurdly expensive, but also a fat loss nightmare.
48. The easiest way to stick to your diet while traveling is to go low-carb.
49. YOU are an incredible source of motivation and inspiration for me. The comments on this blog, the emails I receive, and the opportunities I’ve had to meet quite a few of you in person have been an incredible reminder of the value of what I do, and more importantly, an undying source of inspiration for me to continue to push to be my best.
So there it is, 49 insights from 2009! What did you learn this year? Respond w/ at least one “insight” in the comments section below!
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Bottom line: most people simply do not understand how to properly communicate with their nervous systems, and as such are missing out on at least 60-80% of the metabolic potential of every single exercise they do. In fact, even advanced trainees tend to be “under-achieving” by at least 30-50%.
Whenever your body senses imbalance, it tries to correct for it. This means top to bottom (arms to legs), side to side (left to right), and back to front.
Your body is constantly in pain, or, in other words, pain is very much relative. You see, the types of nerve cells that respond to pain are never dormant; they are always awake, and they monitor the amount of activity at various areas of your body before reaching ‘threshold’ and setting off a chain of events resulting in palpable pain (pain that you actually “feel”).
Following any workout your body is inflamed, or at least it should be. Tiny little tears take place in your muscles, and this is what allows you to burn calories as the damage is repaired. Meanwhile, your muscles grow.
We’ve established that there are three specific hormones that cause the three most common types of regional fat storage.
Training in a way that seeks to increase training density is one of the best ways to spur your body to produce and release more testosterone, which will (obviously) help you lose that estrogen related fat storage.
Dynamic training is pretty much the over-arching concept of how I design fat loss training programs–it consists of using fast-paced movements to teach the body how to move more efficiently. Combination movements, like the squat-to-press I demonstrated in the above video are also brought to bare.
In order to get to the growth hormone, you must first produce lactic acid.
And then it stops-and usually, stops suddenly, as those same people can also tell you.
One of the most common types of fat storage that we see in women is the “pear shape” -fairly thin on top but heavy on the bottom (and IN the bottom, if you know what I mean).
Probably my least favorite incarnation of regional fat storage is love handle and lower back fat. This is, of course, because I personally suffer from such.
Without question, the most common type of regional fat storage is belly fat. If this isn’t you, it’s someone you know.
Joel Marion on 
Zack on 
Chris Baggett on 
Chuka on 
Goran on 
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Jennifer (4)
Amy (3)
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...
Get my Fat Loss Secrets Exposed special report (17 pages of pure, no-filler, actionable content detailing my top 6 strategies for rapid fat loss) along with my exclusive subscribers-only VIP Insider e-newsletter, both 100% Free.