I got an overwhelming amount of email this week from people who
sound as fed up as I do about some of the things they see in
commercial gyms.

Thanks for the emails, I love getting them, even if you don’t agree
with me.

Today I’m challenging my own philosophy a bit.

I’ve been called a ‘chronic overthinker’ by some people - ie. mostly
my girlfriend - so obviously I get deep in thought about training
methods.

Maybe a little too much sometimes.

Thoughts for the week (from my overthinking mind):

- Here’s an example of how my head works about decided that interval
training is the way to go.
I hate jogging. Yes.
Does that mean it can’t be uses as a fat loss method? No
If people like jogging and want to lose weight should they jog? Sure.
But what about the loss of lean muscle that comes with jogging? It’s
probably not that big of deal unless you don’t lift weights hard and
really overdue it on the cardio.
So why don’t I teach long cardio? It sucks and I hate it. Actually a lot of
people I talk to hate jogging.

Why do I pump up interval training so much? It’s time efficient,
decreased risk of nagging little injuries by a ton, revs up your
metabolism for longer after your workouts so it will lead to greater
fat loss. It’s been proven in countless research studies to be WAY
better at fat loss results then long cardio, and it’s been proven
in real life with my clients and a lot of other trainers clients I
know and study.
So interval training is better for fat loss? Yes.
Can someone do both? Sure.
Okay. But I’ve seen people who do long cardio and weight training
get some good results.

Why don’t I teach it? Most of those people
don’t know about interval training, their diet is good - what you
eat makes up about 70% of your results, by the way - and usually
their stomach is still a major PROBLEM area to lose a lot of fat.
Interval training has been proven to burn significant amount of
stomach fat.
What about beginners? Can they do Interval Training? Yes.
How? Because the ‘work’ interval is 80-90% of their level. That might
be a fast walk.
So it will still work the same for them? Yes.
So that’s why I teach interval training. Yep.
- So just incase you’ve ever wondered why I teach interval training
or if I just copy some of the big names, I actually go through
quite elaborate thinking about it. Actually a lot more then I actually
just wrote. I didn’t even mention cortisol effect.

But, maybe I’m just overthinking it.
Wait till you hear my continual thoughts on weight training…
Maybe I’ll just save that one till next time.
What are your thoughts on my methods and thoughts?
What do you do to shed the pounds or build the muscle?
Let me know, I’d love to hear from ya.
Have a great one,
Dan Grant

PS - I’m in Sherwood Park, Alberta right now in training. Make sure you visit my blog at http://www.bodytransformationcoach.com where I’ll be updating it frequently with thoughts and training advice.

PPS - Here’s an email I got about one of my articles on The Soko

“I don’t like you anymore…

BUT I LOVE YOU!
I just read your article on weight loss and HIIT
i couldn’t agree more that jogging is a bad BAD thing.. and I am proof…
i am a 25yr old female ,my left ankle was sprained several times. and yet when i thought it recovered i was jogging to burn fat.. the jogging only debilitated the joints and made me go into a 4-6weeks resting period in which i ended up putting more weight than i started with.
so yeah you’re right a short interval training is better than hours running like a fool.
it is nice to know that one of your clients had some disabilities too and managed to lose weight *i always respect people who overcome their chronic injuries like i do. and not make excuses to be fat and lazy*
 
will look forward for more articles from you!
 
thanks..”

PPS- The Fat Loss Crew gives you REAL advice on fat loss because they’ve all done it. Some did it with walking, some intervals. A lot of things can work. Learn from them at http://www.thefatlosscrew.com.

SORRY! I’ve been on the road for what seems to be forever so posts have been limited.

Here’s my soon to be released article at The Soko:

There’s a lot of people out there who have used the information and programs that I have made for them and used them to great success. Yet, there as some that have gotten the same information and programs designed specifically for them but didn’t ‘believe’ in the program and got nowhere with it.

Those people, for whatever reason, now don’t like my ‘stuff’.

Some Success…

And that’s fine. I had a client who overcame double knee replacement surgery to lose over 20 pounds of fat in 2 months with only 60 minutes TOTAL of exercise per week. I’ve also helped a lady going off to Police College who couldn’t do a regular pushup to do 25 perfect pushups in 10 days.

And A Little Bit Of Failure…

I had a lady who paid me quite a bit of money for me to analyze her current program and then have me create a newer revised program because she wasn’t getting any results with her current program. The problem was that she never followed my program the way I wrote it out for her.

Why? Because it was ‘different’ from what she was used too. No kidding…

Anyways, this isn’t really a popularity contest for me, I just try to solve people’s fitness problem. So in this column we’re going to discuss a little bit of that.

I Don’t Hate Jogging…I Just Don’t Recommend It…Actually, I Do Hate Jogging

People who read my articles or decide they want to actually listen to me ramble on with fat loss advice often wonder out load, “Why don’t you like jogging? I thought that was how you lose weight?”

Yep, you can lose weight jogging and you can also lose weight by not eating for a week. Does that mean not eating for week should be recommended as fat loss protocol?

I used to work at a chiropractors office doing rehab work with people. I lost count at how many people came in with really bad knee, ankle, and/or ITB injuries. I probably don’t have to ask you why they kept coming in with these injuries, but I will just for fun anyways.

Do you know what the number one factor was that caused all of these injuries? Yep, you got it…jogging.

Do you know how many people came in to get treated for injury because they did sprint intervals (which many of the clients there did after talking to me)? NONE, a big ole’ goose egg.

I can keep bringing up examples and can continue to keep ranting but it would end up getting out of hand and I would probably never be allowed to write on here again. Well, that might happen anyway if this article gets a lot of people angry, but I’m willing to take that risk for the good of successful fat loss training.

Now, before I get totally anti-cardio on you, I will tell you that I do advise certain clients to do long cardio. And yes, doing something it better than nothing.

Interval training is just better for fat loss. It’s been proven in both clinical and real world studies. Plain and simple, you just burn A LOT more fat doing intervals then you do jogging for hours on end.

For more information on interval training check out one of my earlier articles, ‘3 Steps To Losing Belly Fat’.

“Yep, We Aren’t Touching The BOSU Ball”

You know what my new clients are usually most surprised about when they start training with me. That I don’t recommend using the BOSU ball (the half stability ball).

Why is the BOSU ball so friggin’ popular?

I know most people’s answer would be because it helps you ‘work’ your core too, but that just seems to be non-sense in my eyes.

For one thing, I see a lot of people doing a lot of bicep and tricep exercises on them, which if you read my articles you now know that’s not going to help your fat loss very much.

Secondly, this whole ‘working’ your core thing has gotten a little out of control in my eyes. Yes, you should do some ab exercise but you don’t need to bring in a BOSU ball to do it.

Squats, deadlifts, lunges, pushups, planks, ab wheel rollouts, sprinting, skipping, ‘work’ your core…just to name a few off the top of my head.

And i realize if you do a squat on a BOSU ball it will challenge your balance and you’ll feel a good ‘burn’, but it’s not going to have an optimal effect on your fat loss. Why? Because you aren’t really building any lean muscle…you’re just maybe improving your balance a little bit.

Now, remember we’re not talking about balance or performance type training here. But if you want to improve those things then the BOSU ball may be a good option.

I’m just saying lift some weight and stop worrying about this whole ‘work’ the core thing that comes along with stability equipment.

_________________________________________
different can be a good thing

Being different and not following the pack is almost always a good thing. You can realize that just by walking into a commercial gym. Typically, you can tell the difference between a fit person’s workout and an out of shape person’s. Here’s a hint, a lot of the people who are really fit with good looking bodies are the ones doing full body lifts and aren’t reading a magazine while doing their cardio training.

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this column post…and if you still like me or not.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

Had a pretty fun weekend. Went to Busch Gardens Europe and Colonial
Williamsburg, VA (Revolutionary War period themed).

At Busch’s I went on all the roller coasters - even The Griffin - which literally
hangs you over the edge at 205 feet for what seems like eternity and
then shoots you straight down so the people laughing at you from
the ground can see what faces of pure terror look like.

But it was fun and the picture of the weekend - I didn’t buy it
because of total embarrassment - was my girlfriend beside me on one
of the roller coasters with her hands in the air and big smile on her
face and me next to her holding on for dear life and the total
opposite of a smile on my face.

So, needless to say that was a picture that was never getting out
to the public - cause NOTHING scares me :).

My Thoughts from the week:

- when you’re doing your interval training, make sure during the
‘rest’ interval you’re only working at about 30% intensity. The
sprint is the most important part of the interval and if you go
down to 60-70% intensity at rest all you’re really doing is turning
into a cardio session.

- quote of the week: “If you can’t stand the heat, you better get out
of the kitchen” - President Harry S. Truman “(I was at a President’s
Museum too - it was a VERY American weekend)

- Happy Mother’s Day to all the mother’s that read my
blog.

- My top 3 tips to keep healthy while at an amusement park: 1. drink
water 2. spend the little bit extra for some decent quality food (I
mean - it cost’s like $60 just to get in - what’s a few dollars more)
3. bring a few healthy snacks with you

- don’t something really fun and really different in the gym every
once in awhile. Doing the same type of workout all the time just
plain sucks sometimes.

I usually have a ‘fun’ week every 6-8 weeks or so where I just do
different things to keep my self interested. For example, one week
I did 3 sets of 50 reps on the leg press and then did jump squats to
boot - it sucked, but it was different and refreshing in a way.

- here’s my new column piece at The Soko called: The Brilliance of
Baseball. It’s actually about exercise :).

Talk to you soon,

Dan Grant

For years and years we’ve all been told that spot reduction is not possible. Recent research might be telling us something different, however.

As a body transformation coach, one of the number one areas that people want to ‘lose’ is the stomach. The problem is, though, that most of those people are trying to get rid of their belly fat by doing an endless amount of crunches and abdominal exercises.

Unfortunately that doesn’t work. Another way people are trying to lose their belly fat is by doing a long, steady state aerobic cardio. This is what the fitness industry has taught since the Arnold days and especially in the 80’s and 90’s. Long cardio, however, hasn’t really proven to be totally efficient at bringing everybody shredded six-packs.

Over the last few years the tide has been shifting to a training protocol called High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT. HIIT is performing a short burst of high intense activity at about 80-90% of your maximum effort (100% is as hard as you can possibly go) and then ‘resting’ for a longer period of time at about 30% of your maximum effort.

Keep in mind that your 100% intensity might not be what mine is, for example. Mine is a full out sprint. Yours might be a fasted pace walk.

Another thing you need to know about how to perform interval training properly is taking into consideration the length of the ‘work’ interval. If the ‘work’ interval is 30 seconds long then your 80% intensity should be able to handle the 30 seconds, but you should not be able too much longer than that.

Steve Boucher, a fitness professional in Australia, came out with some interesting findings in a research study he performed about HIIT.

During a 15 week study he had women perform either HIIT or steady state cardio for 45 minutes 3 times a week. The HIIT group performed a 5 minute warm-up, did 8 seconds of bike sprints at 90% intensity with 12 seconds of ‘rest’ at 30% intensity for 20 minutes, and then finished with a 5 minute cool-down.

At first the HIIT group only did 5 minutes of HIIT and built up to 20 minutes by the sixth session (2 weeks).

Here’s what he found:

• The HIIT group lost 3 times MORE fat then the steady cardio group
• The HIIT group worked out HALF as much then the steady state cardio group
• The HIIT groups aerobic fitness actually increased MORE than the steady state cardio group (26% and 19% respectively)
• The HIIT group lost a SIGNIFICANT amount of fat off of their stomach

If you are currently performing long, steady state cardio you could be holding yourself back from maximum fat loss. And if you’re trying to shed that ugly belly fat from your body then interval training is the way to go.

Here’s what I do with my clients.

If you are a beginner you should shorten up the length of your high intensity intervals. Generally, most of my beginning clients do 15-20 second intervals at 80-90% of their max with 90-120 seconds ‘rest’ at 30% of their max intensity. Typically 5-6 intervals are sufficient to begin with.

Remember to always do a 5 minute warm-up and a 5 minute cool-down.

As you progress all you have to do is make the intervals longer. Perform anywhere from 30-60 second hard intervals with 30-120 ‘rest’ intervals. Perform anywhere from 6-8 intervals and you’ll be shedding belly fat in no time.

Let me know what you think below or by sending me an email.

Have a great one,

Dan Grant

PS - There is an UNANNOUNCED sale happening right now for readers of THIS blog only. The Degrees of Change Fat Loss Plan with 10 of the top fat loss experts in the world told me their secrets on what they do with their clients. Plus there are some pretty amazing bonuses I’ve picked up for you too.

PPS - You can find out all about it at www.degreesofchangefatlossplan.com

PPPS - This unannounced sale ends Tuesday, March 18 at good ole midnight.