The Gauntlet of Ab Workouts

This is probably one of the most difficult ab workouts I've ever put together. So, if you're not afraid to work your abs in an unconventional way that will leave yours abs sore and on the road to six-pack abs, then give this workout a try.

First of all, I should warn you that this workout is a little bit different because you will do ab work in the beginning and then move into a total body workout.

The first exercise are 10 hanging leg raises. Whenever you do this TT Gauntlet workout, you never move onto the next exercise until you have finished all the reps from the previous one or the amount of time.

For example, if you can only do 6 reps of the hanging leg raises, you don't move on until you have finished all 10, even if you have to take small breaks in between.

Use either a neutral grip with your palms facing inward, otherwise use an underhand grip. Let your body hang with your abs braced while you minimize momentum. Raise your legs up and slowly down as you do a little bit of curling back with your pelvis.

Move immediately into a stability ball plank for 30 seconds. Hold your body in a straight line with your forearms on the ball.

Move right into 20 reps of stability ball rollouts. Roll out and contract back up. Keep this controlled.

Move back to the stability ball plank for 30 seconds. Remember, you have to finish the 30 seconds before moving on (even if you have to take small breaks).

Next, move into 20 reps of stability ball jackknifes. Place your hands on the floor with your feet on the ball and your body in a straight line. Tuck your knees in towards your chest while keeping your abs braced and back out.

Once you have finished those, put the ball away and do cross body mountain climbers (10 reps on per side, alternating sides). Start in the pushup position and bring your right knee to your left elbow. Keep your body in a straight line.

Move into a 45 second side plank. This will give you a nice little break, but you have to finish the 45 seconds before you can move on.

Next is a Spider-man pushup. You will do 10 reps per side, taking as much rest as you need to. Bring your knee to your elbow as you lower down. Drive back up, alternating sides. All the rotation is done below your hips, but nothing in your lower back. It should remain straight and flat.

The next exercise is a chin-up with a knee-up. As you do a chin-up, your knees come up and as you lower down, you'll feel that eccentric stress on your lower abdominals which will cause some soreness.

Take an underhand grip and pull up as you bring your knees up with you. Slowly lower back down. The knee-ups will actually help you with your chin-ups because it will give you a little bit of momentum. Finish 10 reps, again, taking as much time as you need to complete them.

Go into a round of Bulgarian split squats at 1-1/2 reps. Drop all the way down, move half way up, back down again and then drive all the way up. Do all reps on one leg and then move to the other. You can also do forward lunges (1-1/2 reps), single leg deadlifts or reaching lunges in place of Bulgarian split squats.

Next is a Spider-man pull-up. Take an overhand grip and as you pull up, bring your knee up to meet your elbow (alternating sides). You will do 5 reps per side.

Finish this workout with 30 second shuttle sprints.

Only go through this one time in your first week.

This will take you about 18-20 minutes if you are advanced. You can do extra interval training at the end if you want to. That's it!

Get more FREE sample fat burning workouts at: http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines and will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment.

Discover another free bodyweight workout to help you burn fat, do more pushups, and build ripped six pack abs in less workout time than ever before.

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A Review on Award Winning LifeSpan Fitness TR 4000i Folding Treadmill

This treadmill is a new model for the year 2010 from the leading fitness equipment company PCE Health and Fitness under the brand name LifeSpan Fitness. This is a medium budget folding treadmill with solid construction for a superior performance. Leading fitness equipment reviewers like Health Magazine and Treadmill Doctor have rated this as the best treadmill for this year. It is very rare to see other treadmill models with comparable features under the price range of this machine. The safety features added to this machine help to give a trouble free exercise to all groups of people particularly the aged.

The Top Features of This Treadmill:
The machine is driven by a 3.25 HP continuous duty DC motor that delivers a speed up to 12 miles per hour and an inclination of 15 percent. The spacious running surface measures 20 inches wide and 60 inches long. The 2.8 mm thick orthopedic belt provides great support and cushioning. The one inch reversible commercial grade deck and aluminum side rails give durability and strength to the machine. The exercise data are automatically saved to your USB device which can be uploaded to the LifeSpan Fitness Club account for detailed analysis and reports. This machine has a large safety bar near the console for your safety. The multi colored LCD display shows the time, calories, distance, steps, and heart rate, speed and incline levels.

A variety of preset programs comprising weight loss, healthy living, sports training, user set up and heart rate control are provided in this machine. It also offers two My Zone heart rate control programs and two custom programs. The console has large easy to use soft touch keys, Start, Enter, Up/Down arrow keys and Quick Start buttons. Other features include a pair of high quality speakers, headphone port for plugging in your iPod or MP3 player. The treadmill has EZ drop folding mechanism which lowers the treadmill deck to the ground softly and gently. The maximum user capacity of this machine is 350 pounds.

When purchasing this treadmill you receive free membership to the LifeSpan Fitness Club which is a comprehensive online health and fitness tracking system. This online system is powered by Interactive Health Partner which lets you to select exercise programs, track your results and receive encouragement and motivation to achieve your fitness targets. The console records the workout results every 20 second and this data is stored in the USB device. After wards you can upload these data to your personal computer to get detailed reports and useful facts.

Because of the various innovative features, America's famous Health Magazine selected LifeSpan Fitness TR 4000i Folding Treadmill as the Best Treadmill. The Lifespan Fitness treadmills are manufactured by PCE Health and Fitness, a company which always tries to integrate technology to fitness equipment designing. The company has excellent warranty and service support to all of its products. This treadmill has life time warranty on frame and motor, five years on parts and one year on labor. For commercial usage there is five years warranty on frame and motor, one year on parts and one year on labor.

Jerry invites you to get Fitter and Healthier the easy way, with the latest Reviews and info on the best Fitness Equipment to help you get into shape and lose those unwanted pounds! Jerry is a fitness freak who has helped hundreds of people change the way they look and feel. Check out his latest news and reviews here Fitness Equipment Reviews.

5 Best Fitness Boot Camp Workout Methods

The key to a great fitness boot camp workout is to "bring the energy". Your clients are there for a fun workout and to escape the stress of the real world. They don't care about equipment - they only care about results and having a great experience!

Here are the 5 essential components to the best NO-equipment, bodyweight exercise fitness boot camp workouts! You'll start with a total body warm-up and a series of multi-muscle exercises to specifically prepare the muscles and joints for the following exercises.

The strength exercises follow the warm-up and are done at this time when the muscles are not fatigued. After the strength exercises comes the circuits focusing on moderately difficult exercises. Three circuit methods have been included, however not all fitness boot camp workouts contain all three methods. Most workouts only use 1-2 different circuit methods.

The first circuit is the classic Big 5 Circuit method. The order of this circuit is squat, push, pull, single-leg, and total body ab exercise. Due to a lack of equipment, the "pull" exercise is often replaced with a squat that also trains the upper back (i.e. Prisoner Squat or Y-Squat) or the Stick-up exercise. If you have equipment such as a kettlebell, dumbbell, or resistance bands, you can use traditional pulling exercises such as rows.

The second circuit method is the new Depletion Workout template. The order of this circuit is jump, push, squat, push, single leg, total body ab exercise, and finishes with some type of sprint or explosive exercise (i.e. run in place, jumping jacks, etc.).

The third circuit method is the Tabata protocol using bodyweight exercises such as squats, pushups, planks, lunges, etc. Each "Tabata" is done for 20 seconds with 10 seconds of recovery. To add difficulty, we can do the 10 seconds of recovery by holding the exercise in a difficult position.

After the circuits comes ab training using total body ab exercises. There are no crunches in the NO-equipment Fitness Boot camp Workouts. In two of the workouts below, extra abdominal work has been added for variety. Your clients will love those workouts!

Finally, you have the option of using the Fun'n'Games to finish off the program. In my experience, clients love the "follow the leader" game as well as the chance to lead the group for a few moments. Once in a while you can insert the Fun'n'Games after a warm-up, if your clients really love this routine.

So that's it. Cover these 5 aspects in your fitness boot camp workouts and bring the energy and you'll have a lot of raving fans and happy campers!

Discover the NO-equipment boot camp workouts and why the Personal Training industry is DYING here: http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines and will help you do boot camp fitness workouts without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment.

Discover more boot camp fitness workouts here.

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3-Minute Pushup Challenge

This weekend I want you to take the 3-minute Men's Health pushup challenge designed by Martin Rooney (from Page 46, April 2010 Men's Health). Martin is one of the most experienced strength and conditioning coaches in the world.

It's a really cool test, and you'll love not only the numbers that you get, but also how you feel right after the test. It's amazing, one second you'll be cruising along cranking out pushups, and the next second your triceps will fatigue. It's humbling, but a great test. And you can also try it with other exercises, such as squats, pullups, bodyweight rows, chinups, and even lunges. But train safe - these tests are tough.

In the test, you'll try and do as many pushups as you can in 3 minutes. But make sure you know the rules before you try it.

Rule 1) Rest whenever you want - but the clock keeps running.

Rule 2) Perfect form...all the way to the top and all the way down to 2 inches above the floor.

Rule 3) Pace yourself however you'd like...Rooney says to take a 15-second break once you start to slow down after your first burst. Then take longer breaks as you get more tired. Do NOT go to total fatigue.

Proper pushup form:

Keep the abs braced and body in a straight line from toes/knees to shoulders. Place your hands on the floor slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Slowly lower yourself down until you are two inches off the ground. Push through your chest, shoulders and triceps to return to the start position. Keep your body in a straight line at all times and elbows tucked in.

When scoring the 3-minute pushup challenge, here's what Martin Rooney suggests as categories. If you get less than 55 reps in 3 minutes, you are below average. If you get 55-74, that's average. Over 75 but less than 99, that's good. To be excellent, you need to get 100 to 110. And if you get 111 or more, that's extraordinary!

Lots of folks will surprise themselves with their results...in a recent challenge, we had one woman hit 91 and another did 110. I personally achieved 114, but our top male did 138 reps. We are proud of everyone who has taken the test!

But no matter what you get, just make sure you use this one big tip.

Do NOT overdo it in the first set. If you're a guy and can do 40 pushups straight, don't do more than 15-20 in your first set. I can do 57 in a row and I stopped at 20 and went:

20-20-20-15-10-10-10-5-4 = 114

If you do 30 in your first set you'll bonk too quickly.

Don't be satisfied with the norm if you want more. It's okay to want to achieve special results. The world needs folks who dream and achieve big things. Keep pushing to reach your full potential. Persevere. Never give up. And don't let anyone hold you back.

Get more FREE sample fat burning workouts at: http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines and will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment.

Discover the pushup workout challenge to help you burn fat, do more pushups, and build ripped six pack abs in less workout time than ever before.

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info.

Hotel Room Workouts- Total Body Fat Burning Workouts

Anyone traveling this week? Fortunately, I'm done all work travel until September, then it picks back up again. Airports and hotels just aren't as cool as they used to be when I was 25.

As far as hotel gyms go, sometimes you can make them work. Sometimes you can't. Here are some remedies.

Hotel gyms have a reputation for being tiny, ill-equipped, and crowded at peak hours. So next time you're on the road and need to stick to your workout plan, here are a few exercises that can turn your hotel bed into an impromptu exercise device.

Beginner Routine:

1. The incline push-up. Instead of struggling through full push-ups, place your hands on the bed to reduce the difficulty. Lower your chest toward the bed and push back up to the start position.

2. The bed-squat. Stand at the side of the bed, facing away from it. Push your hips back and lower your body until your butt rests on the bed. Then push through your feet to return to the standing position. (You can use a chair instead of the bed.)

Advanced Routine:

1. Advanced push-ups. Place your feet on the bed and your hands on the floor. Sink down, bending your elbows. Then push up until your arms are straight.

2. The advanced bed-squat. Lift one leg off the ground and point it straight ahead. Push your hips back and lower your butt to the bed as slowly as your supporting leg will allow. Extend both arms straight ahead for balance. When your rear end touches the bed, push with your supporting leg to return to the start position.

Alternate between the two exercises, doing 8 to 12 repetitions each. Do up to three sets for a quick five-minute workout.

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training for Fat Loss have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Turbulence Training for Fat Loss workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

Total Body Workouts Are Better Fat Burners

Total body fat burning workouts beat cardio every day of the week. If you want to sculpt your body weith fat burning exercise sessions, burn fat with total body workouts.

Cardio (a.k.a. aerobic exercise) is no longer the King of Exercise. Research now shows that you can burn fat, improve your heart health, increase your quality of life, and reduce your risk of disability with resistance training.

Sure, you can get some benefits by using machines at your local health club. But total-body "functional" exercises (like squats, push-ups, and bodyweight rows) are even better. And resistance training doesn't mean barbell bench pressing with heavy weights. You can use dumbbell free weights or a variety of creative bodyweight exercises at home.

An extra benefit of bodyweight or free-weight exercises is that they give you the ability to complete a total-body workout in less time. For example, if you do a bodyweight or dumbbell squat, you will replace the need for the leg extension and leg curl machines in a health club. Push-ups or dumbbell chest presses replace the chest fly and triceps extension machines. And chin-ups replace the need for machine-aided pulldowns and biceps curls.

In three or four "functional" moves, you can complete a total-body workout. Do each exercise two to three times for 8 to 12 repetitions per set. Rest one minute between sets. You can do your exercises in a circuit (all exercises done back to back without rest) or in supersets (two exercises done back to back without rest) to cut even more time from your workout. Aim for three total-body strength-training workouts per week.

Total body workouts are where its at.

Commercial Gym Example:

Squat

Seated Row

Bench press or DB Chest Press

DB Split Squat

That's a thorough workout, and you'll be sweating up a storm and your heart rate will be up - but that only matters for people that are addicted to the sweat and increased heart rate of cardio. What really matters is the turbulence put on the muscle and the increased metabolism and muscle growth that happens outside of the gym

Do the work in the gym, and burn the fat during recovery,

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked total body fat burning workouts have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. The TT fat burning workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight workouts for fat burning help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info.