Fat Loss For Intermediates

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SET NEW (AND BIGGER) GOALS If you ever feel unmotivated and you want to get over it, just take a look at your goal list. What? You don't carry a frequently updated, written goal list around with you? Well, I guess we know why you're not motivated don't we? Goal setting is not an event - it is an ongoing process. When you move up the ladder to intermediate status, the modest goals of a beginner are a thing of the past. "I am walking for 30 minutes three days every week" is a great beginning, but now it's time to move out of the minor leagues. Goals are the fuel in the fire of motivation. Goals get you out of bed early and into the gym in the morning. Goals keep you on the treadmill for forty-five minutes when you feel like stopping at thirty. In a set of ten reps, goals are what make you push for that eleventh and twelfth rep. Goals are so much more powerful than you can imagine. Read any book on the subconscious mind, such as "Psycho Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz or "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" by Dr. Joseph Murphy and you'll begin to understand why goals are so important. If you don't have goals...and if you don't have a new set of them every few months, then you're not ready to move up to the next level. And one last thing - a goal is not a goal if it's not in writing - its only a wish (as in wishy-washy) MOVE UP TO A 2 DAY SPLIT ROUTINE A full body routine performed three days per week is probably the best way for a beginner to start weight training. However, this routine gets old fast. Within months or even weeks, you will outgrow it and you'll need to add exercises. The problem is, the more exercises you add, the longer your workouts will become. If your workouts are too long, you begin to reach a point of diminishing returns, and ultimately, the excessive duration has a negative effect. The solution is a split routine. A split routine means that instead of doing all your exercises in one session, you "SPLIT" your body in half and train one half on DAY ONE and the second half on DAY TWO. Adding more exercises allows you to: 1) Work each muscle more thoroughly and more deeply into the fibers 2) Work the entire muscle group; for example, front deltoid, side deltoid AND rear deltoid 3) Concentrate on each muscle more instead of spreading your attention out 4) Apply more energy and effort to each body part instead of holding back and conserving energy for the last few muscles Here's a sample 2 day split: Day one: Chest, shoulders, triceps, Abdominals Day two: Thighs, Back, Biceps, calves, And here's how it would fit into the week if you're training four days per week and hitting each muscle twice per week Mon: Chest, Shoulder, Triceps, Abs Tues: Thighs, Back, Biceps, calves Wed: Off (or just cardio) Thu: Chest, Shoulder, Triceps, Abs Fri: Thighs, Back, Biceps, calves Sat: Off (or just cardio) Sun: Off: Total rest day I don't have space to write out a complete program with every exercise, but the next section will give you a few ideas. If you're interested in having a custom tailored training program developed for you, e-mail me at tvenuto@mindspring.com. Here's one important tip when you're designing your own split routines: CHANGE YOUR EXERCISES FREQUENTLY! This will help alleviate boredom and prevent your muscles from "adapting" to the routine (Changing routines every 4 to 12 weeks is called the "muscle confusion" principle.) JOIN A HEALTH CLUB OR INVEST IN SOME NEW EQUIPMENT FOR YOUR HOME GYM Does your workout still consist of walking around the block, and/or doing the Billy blanks Tae Bo video or the Richard Simmons Sweating to the Oldies video in your living room in front of the TV? If so, then don't worry, I'm not going to make fun of you - actually I want to congratulate you for doing more than 95% of the lazy world population - you got started! However, if you're reading this, you've expressed interest in moving up to the next level, so it's time to put those 2nd grade workouts back on the shelf and move up to something with a little more "punch" (pardon the pun). First, I'm going to repeat my advice from part one of this series: Join a health club! Since you'll be adding new exercises, a good health club will put an almost infinite number of exercise choices at your fingertips. Many people are scared to join a gym "until they get in shape." Now that's really putting the cart before the horse isn't it? If you're in this category, let me put you at ease: You'd be amazed how supportive the environment is in a good health club. I've been in the health club industry for 14 years and I've never heard a member or employee of any club I've worked in make fun of a beginner or someone out of shape. (Personally, I NEVER make fun of the beginners or intermediates. I like to make fun of the blunders made by the "big-ego, know it all experts," but "gym blunders" will have to be the subject of another article.) I've seen people who were very overweight in our club and the attitude of the staff and members is usually one of "Good for you! Is there any way I can help?" If fact, you're more likely to get a derogatory comment from someone on the street than you are in a health club. You owe it to yourself to put yourself in a positive, supportive, caring environment and there's no better place than a health club. It also helps to realize that everyone has to start somewhere, and everyone was "out of shape" when they started. We're all in the same boat in the beginning and intermediate learning stages. If you choose not to join a club, that's fine too, but you'd be well advised to invest in a few additional pieces of equipment beyond the bare basics. Let's assume you own a bench and a set of dumbbells. The next additions to your home gym should be a barbell set, a set of squat racks and a cable-pulley apparatus with a high and a low pulley. By owning these pieces equipment, you've just opened up a whole new world of exercise options for yourself such as: Barbell squats, barbell lunges, barbell rows, barbell bench press, barbell shoulder press, barbell curls, barbell tricep extensions, wide grip lat pulldowns, close grip lat pulldowns, low cable rows, triceps pushdowns and cable curls. By the way, why so much talk about weights? Isn't fat loss mostly nutrition and cardio? Yep, that's true. However, I'm emphasizing weight training because it plays a bigger role in fat loss than most people realize. If you're busy aerobicizing and dieting without hitting the weights, you're much more likely to lose muscle along with the fat. And when the muscle goes, your metabolism begins to go down the tubes too. READ, STUDY AND LEARN I know you're just a budding "intermediate" now, but would you like to know how to rapidly blast through the intermediate stage, into the advanced stage and then ultimately go even beyond the advanced stage and become an expert? If so, here's how: Read one hour a day, five days a week, about training, nutrition, and personal achievement. In three years you will be an expert. Suppose you only read 30 minutes a day, but you do it every day as a discipline. That's one book per week, 52 books per year, 520 books in ten years. Think about the level of knowledge you'll achieve. I personally read two or three hours a day, I have 1700 books in my library and several hundred audio and video programs. I'll miss an hour of sleep before I'll miss an hour of reading. People always ask me how I learned so much about bodybuilding and nutrition. Now you know. Here are some good places to start: Get a good book about motivation and psychology. Here's one of the best: "Maximum Achievement" By Brian Tracy: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684803313/qid=1020029471/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-5253132-6903026/fitnessrenaissan Also, get a good cassette program about motivation so you can listen in your car and while you do your cardio. What? You listen to music? Thought so. Most beginners do. Highly effective people and achievers always double up and do two things at once whenever possible. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Learn while you get lean! Here's a suggestion: pick up Jim Rohns audio program "The Art of Exceptional Living." at: http://www.jimrohn.com/ps.dll?a=unevt3634 Get a good book about nutrition for fat loss. So far, the best book I've ever read on nutrition for fat loss is Chris Aceto's "Everything You Need to Know About Fat Loss." (read the reviews on Amazon if you want verification of the value of this book - all 5 stars) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966916867/qid=1020030186/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-5253132-6903026/fitnessrenaissan Finally, get a good book about weight training. I recommend Ian King's Get Buffed. Pick it up at: www.getbuffed.net or www.kingsportsinternational.com. Tell Ian Tom Venuto sent you. Next month, the conclusion to the Fat Loss From Beginner to Advanced Success Series. series. I'm going to reveal a few of my competition-level training and nutrition secrets that I usually only share with my protégés so stay tuned. This article originally appeared in the March 2002 issue of Tom Venuto's Bodybuilding and Fitness Secrets E-mail newsletter. If you enjoyed this article and would like to receive others like it, you can subscribe FREE by clicking here: www.fitren.com/listserv.cfm Tom's Newsletter