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Heavy Bag Workout for Kickboxing and Boxing for Rapid Fat-Loss
AN UNCOMMON GUIDE TO RAPID FAT-LOSS, INCREDIBLE POWER, AND BECOMING SUPERHUMAN.
The Hard to Believe Fat Loss Story of a Formerly Fat, Lethargic and Out of Shape Dad and Busy Exec
Thomas here and I was formerly out of shape dad and busy executive. Warning this is going to be a long review because these workouts have changed my life, maybe even saved my life. I first met Mike a CKO Kickboxing I moved and started using the 1 Hour Heavy Bag Workout and Power Striking. I’d like to share with you how I went from being tired, out of shape and miserable to becoming a lean, energetic and a much happier, much more optimistic guy; all with just a very small time commitment and a few small changes to my lifestyle. I am sharing my story because I realized that I’m just like most people out there. You see, I used to be one of the millions of people running an ultra-busy life with a ton of responsibilities and no time to workout. My schedule was crazy! Between work, my family and all my other responsibilities, there was absolutely no way I can commit any time to exercise (or so I thought at the time).
My “me time” had become practically nil and as I was getting older, my waistline was getting bigger and my energy was disappearing. Time to workout? HA! I didn’t have time to read the daily paper, forget about working out! Like most people, finding the time to work out was low on my priority list, but only because I felt like I couldn’t fit it into my busy schedule. I just couldn’t imagine spending hours a week working out. No way. I felt like I just didn’t have the time. Not only that, but thinking that I had to spend hours a week at the gym just completely demotivated me. Then one day, I had decided to get on the scale. What happened next was….well what happened next changed the rest of my life. When I got on the scale, the number on the scale was the highest it’s ever been. I weighed more then I ever weighed in my life. Not only that, but I went from a 31″ waist to a 37″ waist. I was disgusted. I swore I was going to do something about it. I walked into the doors on CKO in the worst shape of my life. Mike changed my life no BS. When I had to move for work, I was devastated, I really was. So I got a heavy bag and hung it in my basement, I started use the one hour heavy bag workout. I realized I stumbled upon gold. The workout put my in the zone. Now I have the Complete Series and I have been able to workout when I travel. It’s amazing and simple. I wouldn’t take the time to write this review if it wasn’t. I love this. Truth me get it!
I’m a former Power Striking junkie.
That program literally changed my life and got me into the best shape of my life, even at 30 years old. So I was pumped when I saw this one coming down the pike. This is all boxing, kickboxing, cross fit, floor exercises using your body weight with lots of plyometric and isometic exercises, cardio and core exercise that will work you – hard. And then it will work your core even more. Its primary focus is the core. And it will get you into the best shape of your life. I now do it several times a week, when time permits. I can tell you this, though: I do the Plyometric workout from P90X when I need an easy day. My leg strength, especially the explosive kind, has increased tenfold. And my cardio is through the roof. But this will kick your a** no matter what kind of shape you are in. Breathing is key. Drink lots of water. And move at your own pace. People commented on my weight loss, even though I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I just couldn’t eat enough food. Your food intake will determine your results. So I shrank but, in many ways, I was stronger than ever. Size doesn’t always equal strength. You will notice your body change, your core will be the strongest it’s ever been and you will be in incredible shape, even if you only do the program at half the intensity. I give it a thumbs up
I never thought I could get this lean
Overall, I am very happy with the intensity of this workout. I started with Power Striking, which I also like a lot. I was getting stronger. I switched to The Complete Series, and within a week I noticed a difference in how my clothes were fitting. My fat loss journey started and never stopped. I never thought I could get this lean. This series made it happen, mainly because I could do it anywhere.
Jaier Ruiz’s Heart Rate Monitor:
1291 calories burnt with the warm up!
HEAVY BAG WORKOUT – KICKBOXING CROSS TRAINING BOXING MMA MP3 INSTANT WORKOUTS
..How much is one outstanding workout worth to your life?
- Suppose you could push play, grab your gloves or some hand weights, and immediately get a top-notch, results-driven, kickboxing, boxing, and cross-training workout?
- Envision a workout that could transport you to the next level of your fitness training in just one session, improve your kickboxing and cross training technique, while still leaving plenty of room for unlimited growth…Here it is
Allow me to introduce myself and tell you how I can help you improve your conditioning, custom tailor your MMA fight technique, increase your striking power and speed, melt extra body fat, and get unbelievably ripped. My name is Michael Andreula, and over the past 13 years I have developed, refined, and cultivated my Kickboxing for Fitness class. The goal of this class is to get you in the best shape of your life in the shortest amount of time. Muscle and Fitness Magazine rates Fitness Kickboxing as the number one fat burner, with up to 1200 calories burned during a one hour class! That is 3 times as effective as running on a treadmill.
This workout is quick, easy, and fun. You will ENJOY doing it, and be ready for more! It’s the same Kickboxing for Fitness class we use at CKO to get people absolutely ripped, cut, toned, and coming back again and again. I developed this class and the drills it contains for myself, to fit into my insanely crammed schedule.
Now it’s offered at CKO, a unique gym that provides the most innovative instructional fitness programming anywhere. We take fitness to a new level every single day with variety, results-driven workouts, and energetic, motivating instructors. We have the largest boxing and kickboxing-for-fitness programs in the country, with classes running seven days a week.
This program has revolutionized the kickboxing industries, blending authentic Muay Thai kickboxing training with intense calorie burning drills and phenomenal resistance training. Hitting the heavy bag improves your muscle tone as well as your cardio endurance. It literally torches any stubborn body fat you’re having trouble losing.
In just one hour, you can burn up to 1200 calories – no other workout even comes close!
No bag? No problem!
Grab a 5-pound weight, and you are set. No weights at home? I just recorded a podcast showing people doing the class with soup cans! The CKO Kickboxing for Fitness workout has been recognized in several national fitness magazines. We were also featured on NBC’s The Today Show. So stop wasting time, try a class TODAY and GET REAL RESULTS! P90X doesn’t have jack on us!!!!
There is no middle ground, no gray area in this class; it will push you to reach your goals.
The good news is that it’s simple to get started, especially now that I have made it available in an Mp3 format for anyone and everyone! No matter what you may be struggling with right now, or how bleak your current fitness situation is, just try this Mp3 class. It will change your life, almost instantly. On the other hand, if you’re doing well, but your progress has hit a plateau, this class will help you break through to the next level and beyond. You can take my class anytime you want. My class is iPod, smart phone, and Mp3 ready. The format has been kept as simple as possible for the following reasons:
· You will not destroy your phone or Mp3 batteries while playing the workout.
· In class, I always try to put you in the “zone”. This is a state of mind that allows you to perform at levels you never dreamed about, because you are in a state of no thought. There is no mental dialog happening in your brain. Analyzing and complaining can’t occur. You are in the moment, performing the drills at an outstanding level, and it becomes an indulgence for you instead of feeling like a workout.
Standing Torso Twist: Want To Improve You Roundhouse Kicks, Elbows, and Hooks
Standing torso twist
Fat covering your abdominals?
Want to improve you roundhouse kicks, elbows, and hooks.
The workout of abs needs to be combined with a well balanced diet to get any real results, doing this will help you remove any fat covering your abdominals. The solution to getting flat abs then is to do abdominal workouts on a regular basis combined with a good diet.
Internal obliques workouts recommendation
I would recommend that you aim to work up to 20 reps of the following internal obliques workout, but feel free to do more if you feel up to it. Doing as many as you can with this exercise is ok and remembers that it’s also part of okay to feel the burn.
Here is a great beginner internal obliques workouts to help get you started on the path the having the amazing abs you want. This is a good internal obliques workout if you are just starting out or looking for a new workout to try out. The standing torso twist And other exercise that work the external and internal obliques and can help get rid of love handles.
Standing torso twist
Here is a good move for beginners for this one, forget about bringing your sternum and pelvis together and just think about using your obliques to twist strengthen your obliques with this twisting movement of your trunk
1) Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with your hands behind your head and elbows straight out to the side
2) rotate your torso 90 degrees to the left, so that you’re facing the left side with your upper body but your feet and legs still face forward. Think about leading with your shoulder Hold for a beat, tighten the abs, and then return to the starting position
3) Repeat on the same side 15 20 times then do the same thing on the right side. Don’t rush through Make sure you hold the twist position for a few seconds before your return to centre
Four Hour Body Tim Ferriss
The Four Hour Body (Exclusive Video) The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
In the next this post I’m going to feature a free interview between NY Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss. (record with evernote)
- Mobile Workout 
Secret System
Secret System - How he got super-strong with just a few sets & reps each week
- The one type of alcohol he says is OK on a fat loss diet
- And much, much more
By the way, you really need to get this book…it covers fat loss, secrets to amazing sex, better sleep, running long distances faster (without a lot of running), getting stronger, amazing sex, and becoming a better athlete…oh yeah, and secrets to amazing sex. There might also be a massive sextion devoted to better sex. I think.
Now let’s get started!
Hey everyone, and I have a special guest with me today. He is a New York Times best-selling author and the author of a new book called The 4-Hour Body. His name is Tim Ferriss. Tim, welcome to the call.
Tim Ferriss: Thank you for having me.
And let’s maybe just start with how you would describe this new book. Is it some kind of owner’s manual to improving your health and fitness? You have the word “superhuman” on the book, is it more than just health and fitness?
Tim Ferriss: The book is really, the way I describe it – keep in mind, I live in Silicon Valley – but it is a hacker’s guide to the human body. So if you’ve ever seen a choose your own adventure book where you can choose your own path based on what you want to do, what you want to experience, I’ve spent the last three years testing everything from maximal muscular gain to strength, ultra-endurance, sex, sleep with some of the best scientists in the world.
And the book, the subtitle I think is a good description which is – so it’s “The 4-Hour Body”, and then “An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman”. The reason uperhuman is in there, which you mentioned – the original title of the book was “Becoming Superhuman” – and the superhuman really just refers to one of two things.
People doing things, accomplishing things they think are impossible, like pulling 400-500 pounds off the ground if they’re currently at 200 or running 50-100 miles or just losing the last 10 pounds of fat, or things that most people consider superhuman. So a lot of those things would also fall in that category.
So for a person who’s only ever run 5K, running a 10K might be a very big deal to them, and it should be. But, also in the broader world if you run 50K to most people that’s impossible. So really teaching people how to accomplish the impossible in very small steps.
Yes, very good. And definitely the emphasis of your book is doing things fast, which is what people are going to really enjoy. I read the book from start to finish, although your book recommends not doing that, I did that on Saturday afternoon. I went through the entire book.
Tim Ferriss: Wow.
Yes, hopefully you’re not mad at me.
Tim Ferriss: No.
I skipped over the running chapter a little. I definitely read the sex chapter. That sounds like it was a heck of a lot of fun, but we’re going to leave readers to read the sex chapter on their own.
Tim Ferriss: Yes. Some chapters were more fun to research than others. That’s true.
I’m sure they were, yes. So even before this book you were definitely running toe-to-toe with the Dos Equis guy, being a candidate for the world’s most interesting man. And you certainly even did a whole lot more experiments in this one. And you mention the term “experimental lifestyle”, kind of an introduction to the book. Can you explain what that is and why it’s so important?
Tim Ferriss: Absolutely. So the book is really also a guide to becoming a good self-experimenter. That doesn’t mean you do anything dangerous. It doesn’t mean you do anything extensive. It just means that rather than relying on an annual checkup or two visits to your doctor per year as an indicator of health and longevity and all those things, instead of relying on just memory alone if you’re going to the gym naturally do a few simple things track a few simple variables to figure out exactly how you personally can get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.
And to give you an example of how that can work, how quickly that can work, for me personally when I was able to figure out exactly how many rest days I required, the range of motion, I required to improve my deadlifts – I put on about 150 pounds, actually closer to 165, in the span of less than six months. And it could have happened much faster. And that type of progress is not impossible.
Yes. You also have people who have never run more than five miles who you get to 50 miles, mountainous ultra-marathons in 12 weeks, which I know sounds again impossible, but it’s not.
Tim Ferriss: The only way that you get to that point is by doing small experiments. And there are a lot of tools that are available. There are free tools. Certainly online you can go to sites like patients like Me where you can look at people who are replicating clinical trials and sharing data, but instead of 10 people in a study you have a thousand people on a website. Alternatively, you can look at tools like Zeo, for example. Zeo is a device. I think it costs about $200, that you put next to your bed, and you wear a headband and it will track all of your brainwaves during a sleep, or before sleep, so you can identify exactly if you’re improving your sleep and how you’re improving your sleep by changing diet and things like that. So by doing that I figured out how you can use cold or saturated fat to improve the quality of recovery during sleep, for example. And these are all really easy to do.
So the experimental lifestyle certainly applied to my first book. The 4-Hour Workweek. And most people know me for time management productivity, but I’ve tracked almost every workout I’ve done since age 18 so my obsession with the physical tracking predates the productivity work, the work at least, by at least a decade. And the experimental lifestyle is going into anything you want to accomplish, any goal, and testing assumptions and tracking a few important things. And I think that applies to relationships, that applies to business, and it certainly applies to the human body.
Now when someone’s doing a fat-loss program, and we’re going to talk about that quite a bit, would you have any recommendations of some of the most important things for someone to track during their fat-loss program that will guide them, that will really keep them within the course of success?
Tim Ferriss: Absolutely. I think the first and most important – there are actually two things. Well, I’ll mention three actually. So the first, and this is more of a baseline than a measurement, but it’s getting a before photograph. Most people who want to improve their condition do not get before photographs because they’re embarrassed, or they dislike it for whatever reason.
If you look at, and this is something I did, view an analysis of the transformational challenges that have been done in the last decade or so. And you look at the most successful, like Body for Life, and you look at the winners the one consistent factor or element. Sometimes their workouts are different, sometimes their diets are different, but they all use their before photographs very effectively, maybe putting them on the refrigerator, etc. So that would be step number 1. And the photographs are really important, the visual part of it.
Step number 2 would be, and this is something that even very intelligent people miss, is body composition. So you don’t want to track weight alone if you’re losing fat because it’s very common. Let’s say even if you’re not doing resistance training, if you increase your protein intake because you’re removing refined carbohydrates let’s say or starches. There’s a very, very high likelihood that you’re going to add some muscle mass. And if you’re only tracking your weight it can appear to be a plateau when, in fact, you’re actually losing a tremendous amount of fat, two to five pounds a week or more in some cases. That’s step number 2.
And number 3, for the same reason if you’re on a budget and let’s just say you can’t get body composition analysis, like caliper analysis. I recommend a few other things like Bod Pod of you have access to it. Certainly, in the U.S. it’s not very difficult. Or DXA scan for example. If you don’t have access to these things you can use circumference measurements. So you could use a simple tape measure to measure around the middle of your thighs, waist, the widest point at abdomen and let’s just say upper arms and the bi bicep is all pretty easy to measure.
And what you’ll find is that, even if your weight doesn’t move, if you’re losing inches in the right places that signifies that you’re losing body fat, particularly if you’re still maintaining your strength. So those would be a few points that I think are very commonly overlooked, even by very smart people when they’re tracking fat loss.
Yes. I remember in the book that you mentioned your father really regrets not having taken those measurements. And we hear that quite a bit from the people in our transformation contests as well.
Tim Ferriss: Yes, absolutely. I mean it’s extremely common. And the other thing my dad regretted. So my dad lost estimated – and I’ll explain that in a minute. I mean he lost, as you read, about 90 pounds of fat and gained probably between 20 and 30 pounds of muscle. However, because he didn’t have his starting body composition it was impossible to tell. Now he was 245-250 at 5′6″, so you can estimate based on a few things.
However, really he, like you said, regrets not having those starting points because it would have allowed him to appreciate his progress much more. He came very close to quitting a few times when his weight seemed to – it didn’t plateau, but instead of losing 20 pounds a month he was losing seven or eight pounds a month. And he was doubling and tripling his lifts over that same period of time. So he was very clearly gaining muscle, but because he hadn’t measured it, it looked like he was slowing down or plateauing which weren’t the case at all. So very, very important to get the baseline before you start.
And that’s true with blood testing too. I mean I’ve done thousands of blood tests. And one of the problems with doctors in the U.S., and I suspect probably most doctors in Canada as well, is that they’re very good at diagnosing a problem once it’s a problem. So you’ll get your blood test results back, and they’ll say, “Okay, this is out of range. We need to address that.” Or “This is out of range. We need to address that.” And the first thing a doctor will do, and I know a lot of good doctors, is they’ll scan through the sheet and see what’s out of range, and they’ll just pay attention to those because those are the problems.
However, if you do blood tests more frequently what you can see is if let’s say your albumen levels – or let’s say testosterone, something a little better known, is dropping 10% with each test over three months, six months, that’s a problem. And you can address that with an intervention really early if you catch it, but the doctor’s not going to do anything until it’s out of range and that’s when you have a really serious problem. So getting that baseline and looking at the trending is really, really important no matter what type of change you’re after.
Now, when your dad was going through those struggling periods. And a lot of people listening to this call are going to go through those same sorts of things. First of all, what were some of the things you said to him to get him to keep going? Was there some type of a force because it was going to be in the book? And then in addition to that, what technical points did you give him that kind of helped him get his weight loss back on track, or fat loss back on track?
Tim Ferriss: Yes, absolutely. So the first was it wasn’t that forced because it wasn’t clear that he was going to end up in the book at all. I prefer to keep my family out of the limelight as much as possible. So I don’t think that was a huge factor, the potential of being in the book.
The most important thing I did, one of the most important things, was to tell him when I expected he would have problems. When I expected that he would want to quit. And so the first thing I said is, “It’s normal.” Somost people face self-doubt and what they perceive as plateaus at a few different points. So the first is probably going to come two months after you start. So if you have a lot to weight to lose like he did, 250, he’ll lose 20 pounds the first month or 25 pounds and then let’s say 17 pounds the next month.
And then the third month is, it’s pretty consistent with most people. They’ll lose let’s just say less than 10 pounds. And not always the case but very frequently, and that’s when people get demoralized, and they look at what they perceive is a trend in slowing fat loss and they’re like, “Oh my God. The month after this I’m probably not going to lose any body fat.” And then they quit.
So I told him that’s going to happen. It doesn’t mean that you’re not losing body fat. It means that you’re gaining muscle most likely, increasing bone density, things like that. And I also then at that point said, “The way we’re going to address that and accelerate it so you feel like you’re making more progress is increasing your protein intake.” So we increased his protein intake and timed it such that he was consuming, I think it was 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. That’s the easiest way to remember it.
And he went from – I’m lacking the exact numbers in front of me – but something like an average over three months of seven or eight pounds of fat loss per month to 17 pounds of fat loss per month as soon as he changed his timing of protein. Because my dad, like many people, would wake up, have a cup of coffee and do whatever, he was doing, read the newspaper for an hour to an hour-and-a-half before having his first meal. And that very negatively affects fat loss on a number of different levels.
The other point, this is actually related to my mom – my mom also lost 30 pounds – was water intake. So two of the most common mistakes that people make. Number one not consuming 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, certainly within 60 minutes. And number two is really under consuming water. And for whatever reason women have more trouble with this than men. There are a lot of women who just dislike drinking water, which for whatever reason, and I don’t know why this is the case but it is true, much more common among women. So forcing people to have even just three or four more glasses, let’s say 12 ounce glasses of water per day, can make a significant difference.
Okay, well that’s easy enough. And hopefully people listening to the call will implement those two things if they’re struggling right now.
Tim Ferriss: Yes, absolutely. They’re simple. And the guiding question with this entire book, whether it was improving vertical jumps, hitting home runs, whatever – there are 50 topics in the book – the question was what are the smallest changes that produce the biggest results. And what you find is that you don’t have to do a complete overhaul of everything you do all at once. In fact, I think that’s usually a bad idea.
Rather you start by making a few small changes like eating 30 grams of protein in 30 minutes of waking up. Easy to remember, you make it part of your routine. And secondly, you might just replace the milk in your coffee with two teaspoons of cream, for example, and add some cinnamon to improve insulin sensitivity. Just by doing that – milk’s a very interesting one, but I’ve seen people who’ve stalled on the slow carb diet, the diet I describe in the book, one of the diets I described. And they removed just the dairy in their milk, and then they immediately lose an additional two to five pounds per week, which sounds unbelievable and it is on some of them, but for whatever reason, and I have some theories of mechanisms. That’s also the case. So if you start to add these small things together the cumulative results are pretty impressive.
Now that brings us to the MED definition that you have in the book, which is the minimum effective dose which is kind of one of the motto’s of the book is, like you said, getting the most results from small changes. And so can you explain a bit more about how that not only applies to fat loss, but also maybe use a training example as well.
Tim Ferriss: Sure. So the minimum effective dose really refers to looking at exercise like medicine. And it also applies to supplements and things like that, but let’s just talk about exercise. And this is borrowing very heavily from a doctor Doug McGuff. If you look at exercise like a does it’s not a case of more is better. And if you want to find the precise dose of exercise that gives you the result you’re looking for. And you want the minimal effective dose, because the higher the does the more the side effects. And that would be the main criterion for everything in the book.
The only way I felt I could differentiate this book by using the training that I had and the experience that I have in business and elsewhere – I also ran a sports nutrition company for eight years – was to try to find the smallest things that had the greatest impact. To give you a training example, so let’s just take the running – let me ask you this. Do you think more people listening are interested in endurance training or in let’s just say maximum strength?
Let’s error on the side of caution and say endurance training. There will probably be a lot of people interested in running a bit more.
Tim Ferriss: Okay. So what I did – in the case of running, I hate running. I really do. And my endurance is terrible because I was born premature and can’t use my left lung effectively. This has always been a problem. And not only do I overheat but my capacity, also my enzyme levels are terrible for endurance. So I wanted to target doing an ultra-marathon. And what I did in seeking out models and trainers was I tried to identify people with body types that didn’t fit ultra-endurance running. So you can certainly go to someone who’s 6′2″ and 120 pounds and ask them how they train and that might work, but they’re designed for running, for ultra-distance running just like Michael Phelps is designed for swimming. I’m 5′8″, 180 pounds, lean, muscular but that’s not an ability associated with long distance running.
So I found a few different people, a number of whom were between 5′8″ and 5′11″ let’s say and 190 pounds that could front squat 315 for reps who also ran 100 mile races. And those guys were the people who were interesting. What I found is that for a body type like that certainly you can’t train like many of the 6′2″, 120 pound guys train. Those guys will put in. It’s very routine, 20 to 40 hours a week of endurance training. And if you do that with more of a mesomorph type body type you don’t recover and your entire life suffers as a result of that; you get sick, your relationships are damaged, etc.
So the protocol that we ended up putting in the book which has been very effective, which took, like I mentioned before, The Rookie was his nickname, one of the trainees from, I think it was five miles to 50 miles, mountainous ultra-marathon in about 12 weeks was less than six hours of training per week. And that’s acombination of metabolic conditioning, strength training and not a single run of more than 10K. So to train for a 50 mile race no run longer than 10K, and most of the runs are 100 meter repeats, 400 meter repeats, 800 meter repeats. So it’s really turning everything on its head and allowing to train at a very low volume to accomplish something that’s very, very high volume.
And I’ve seen this in my own experience. I’m kettlebell, Russian kettlebell certified. So RKC1 and also RKC 2. And the RKC2 test, as well as RKC1, they’re quite demanding. The RKC2 certification is, if I remember correctly, I did it not too long ago, between eight and ten hours of training and exercises and practice for three days straight. That’s a lot of training. And to prepare for that I worked out for between I would say 15 and 30 minutes three times a week to prepare for that volume of training. And the rest of it was nutrition based, nutrition and supplementation based. So I think that those are two examples of just how little can go so far and do so much.
Yes, that’s a very powerful example with the kettlebell one. Now I don’t want to leave the strength training people out, so can you maybe do the strength training example as well that you maybe we’re going to give for the minimum effective dose?
Tim Ferriss: Yes, for sure. So I studied – I went all over the planet to find people I studied with. And I found combine specialists. I studied with power lifters, one of who was Mark Bell from Bigger, Faster, Stronger and trained at Westside. I met a lot of the best power lifters in the world, and also worked with quite a lot of swim coaches. I studied with Charlie Francis, who is famous for training Ben Johnson. Unfortunately, the steroid scandal affected how people viewed his training.
But to give you an example, of how I borrowed from sprinting to develop more maximal strength, I coached on the deadlift and I really feel that bang for the buck deadlift has to be one of, if not the best, barbell exercises you can do. There are a few other options, squat’s great as well, but really the deadlift I just view it as just about the king of the exercises. It works everything except for your pecs basically.
And I actually modeled my approach to the deadlift after that of a sprint coach based in Los Angeles through training – I’m trying to get her name right, I’m not going to remember her name – trained a high school athlete to break just about every world record they didn’t set for her distances. I think it was 100 meters. And then she went directly from high school to professional track and field. And the approach was very, very simple. It was three times a week doing one pressing movement, like the bench press, and then dead lifts.
And there was a very minimal warm up. Then there was the bench press where you’d do three sets of two to three reps. You’re looking at probably 90% to 95% of your one rep maxed for two to three reps, four to five minutes of rest in between, a few very brief, like 20 second – not even – 10 to 20 seconds of plyometrics after each set. So it would be like a set of two or three, 10 second of plyometrics, four minutes of rest, and then you repeat that two more times.
Then you move to the deadlifts, do the exact same thing. You’re doing sets of two to three, usually using a sumo deadlift stance. Your legs are wider so you can keep your back more upright. And then repeating the exact process. And you’re doing this either two or three times a week for most people. And this is how I went. I have very small hands, I have weak hands. So my weak link so to speak has always been my hands for the deadlift. I just couldn’t hold on to the bar. I felt like my back was stronger, my body was stronger, but my hands couldn’t hold onto the bar with more than about 300 pounds. I could pull 300 maybe once or twice and then I’d have to put it down because I felt like I was going to drop the bar.
About a month ago I did, and this was over the span of like six months, I did rack poles from my knees with about 630 pounds with double overhand grip with chalk, no wraps. So this is not an alternate grip, which is what you use to pull that kind of weight usually. This is a double overhand grip, not a hook grip. So it’s like the weakest grip I could use with chalk pulling 630 from the knees for three, I think it was. And it’s from the exact program I just described, and it’s amazing. It’s incredible. That volume, it’s something like less than two minutes of total time under tension per workout.
It’s just phenomenal how little it takes of the proper exercise, how small the dose can be to trigger in the type of response that you want. It’s really amazing. Now that’s not to say there isn’t a place for higher volume training. I do think that there can be, but in the book I wanted to just highlight, I wanted to highlight one or two methods for each that I was able to use for myself very effectively checkpoint number one, and then replicate it with other people checkpoint number two.
But I do think there can be a place for higher volume training. And to give you an example of that, what I would also do to supplement that list about 48 hours later usually, or by 48-72 hours before one of those max effort days. I tweaked the protocol slightly, and I would do high repetition kettlebell swings. So I would do literally one set of kettlebell swings with the heaviest weight that I could use for between 30 and 50 reps. And was able to progress from the 53 pounder, which I’ve done a fair amount of kettlebell stuff, so I can do an unbroken set for like 150-200 reps of that, up to the beast which I think is – it’s 48 kilograms. I’m not sure what it is in pounds. But it’s over 100 pounds for 52 reps.
And that was it, that’s the entire workout. And it’s not minimalism for the sake of minimalism. It’s not how little can I do to just eke out progress. It’s how much do I need to do to make the maximal amount of progress but without adding unnecessary workloads that’s going to affect my recovery. In that particular case, it’s a bit of a long answer, but that’s the approach that I took.
That’s a very important point, how little work to get maximum results. And like you said, not just to eke out the progress. So that’s some impressive stuff. And then one other thing that kind of relates to that you mentioned in the book was a comment that people shouldn’t try and just stay in peak shape all year round. Can you maybe comment on how that approach then connects with the training in the book and maybe give us some comforting words to people who are trying to stay at low body fat all year round and why it’s really hard to do that?
Tim Ferriss: Absolutely. I think at the end of the day the purpose of improving your physical machine, improving your body, is quality of life. So there has to be some translation of quality of life. And if you look at any of the top bodybuilders, fitness competitors, if you look at certainly power lifters. And the quote I used in the book was from Marty Gallagher, who coached Ed Coan. Ed Coan is the most successful power lifter in the history of the sport. He deadlifted 900 pounds at 200 pounds – or 220, it doesn’t really matter. It’s so ridiculous to be almost unbelievable. However, he said that trying to stay in peak condition all year round is a trip to the mental ward, and it’s true.
So what I prefer to attempt to do is to change my definition of peak conditions throughout the year. What I mean by that is for people who have only been going to the gym to lose body fat it is a lot of fun, and it reinvigorates you and gives you more scope and more enthusiasm if you start targeting other types of skills as well.
And what I mean by that is I only did the gym and then combat sports training, like kickboxing, for the longest time. And only in the last few years have I set aside, okay here are 12 weeks, I’m going to work on swimming. Here are 12 weeks. I’m going to work on distance running. Okay here are 12 weeks. I’m going to work on maximal deadlift. Here’s 12 weeks. I’m going to work on who knows, high repetition kettlebell presses, which is not something I did but hypothetically something like that. Here’s 12 weeks, I’m going to actually go to the batting cages and I’m going to learn how to be a homerun hitter. Something like that.
So varying the definition of peak condition so that it correlates to different goals I think is very, very valuable because mentally when a program becomes stale that’s generally when you also plateau and that’s when you also let yourself slide from your routine regardless. So you might as well plan for that and go in basically 12 week cycles with different objectives, because 12 weeks really is plenty of time to make incredible progress with any of the things I just mentioned.
I couldn’t swim at all. When I say swim I mean I could do one or two laps in an Olympic pool, and my heart rate would be at 200, and I’d get out of the pool and quit. I went from that because of my lung issues to swimming 40 laps, a workout with no problem in the span of one week just by looking at the biomechanics and tweaking the biomechanics with the help of a few coaches, and that’s also in the book. However, the changes do not have to take a long time.
There are a few exceptions to that. The one exception I would say is you want to be very careful with the maximal strength just because your muscular strength will far exceed your tendon and ligament strengths. You want to be very intelligent about that, because certainly if you go from 300 pounds to 600 pounds, or 200 pounds to 400 pounds overnight you can do some damage to yourself if you’re not careful. So you just have to – that’s another reason to build in, let’s say the higher rep of kettlebell swings, in between those workouts so you space your progress a bit more.
And then when somebody does those 12 weeks, they’re going to have that high level that, even if you kind of go away from the for a while you’re always going to have that built up so much better than if you tried to improve incrementally by a small amount over the course of a year. You’d actually be further ahead if you did 12 weeks of it hard core then took your time off.
Tim Ferriss: Absolutely. I totally agree. And the reason is related to one of the principles in The 4-Hour Workweek, which is Parkinson’s Law. So the complexity of the task will swell, fill the time that you have to complete it. So if you have a year and there’s no particular goal in mind it’s just to maintain – well, let’s just say the goal is to maintain a certain low body fat. You can be fairly sloppy if you have a year, somewhat disorganized. If you have 12 weeks to hit a performance goal that also produces the side effect, the physical benefits which I highly encourage.
I like people to have one physique goal, one type of appearance goal, and one type of performance goal. The performance goal is very important. Then suddenly you get a hell of a lot more done, number one. And number two, it just makes life more interesting. And as for me, I didn’t realize how much I was missing by only doing strength training all the time. I really didn’t realize how much I’ve missed maybe because I thought I couldn’t do those things. Running, you’ve got to be kidding me. I hate running. It makes me feel like I’m going to have a heart attack so I can’t run. That was assumption number one. Swimming, forget it. I almost drowned. My lung’s out of whack, can’t swim, assumption number two.
As soon as I fixed those things I go visit a friend in Tahoe, and he’s training for an Ironman. It’s like, “Yeah, let’s go swimming together. No problem.” I go to South Africa, and I meet with Timothy Noakes whose legendary for writing this book called the Lore of Running, it’s like the definitive guide to running on the planet. And he says, “Hey, you want to go for a run in the mountains?” “Sure, no problem.” And I can go running, and it’s not like I’m going to beat everybody, it’s not like I’m going to beat someone who ran 50 marathons. However, can I keep up with them for a decent run? Yes, absolutely, no problem. It makes life just a lot more fun. And you don’t have to always be clanking the plates together. You can actually get out and do other things. And for me that was a real breakthrough, and I’m hoping for many other people that will be true as well.
And that also applies to people who are just doing cardio or endurance stuff. It’s like if you’re just a lungs and legs person as they say, if you’re always doing cycling, and you’ve never done upper body pressing movements, like, “Dude, do some Westside. Then in 12 months getting really strong, and you’ll feel better about yourself.” And I think that there’s a lot to be said for diversifying your physical identity that way.
That’s a good way of putting things. Now completely switching gears, we definitely want to get into the fat loss hacking. So we’re going to start with the diet program that you used in there, the slow carb diet. If you can just start with an explanation of that, maybe the structure of the seven days, the meals, and then we’ll go from there.
Tim Ferriss: Yes. The slow carb diet is really, really simple, and I think that’s part of the reason it works. I attract hundreds of people following this prescription, have several thousand blog comments that I used also as feedback. The slow carb diet’s very straightforward. Really there are only a few rules. You can’t eat anything white. The only exception to that I can think of is cauliflower offhand. Cauliflower is fine, but you can’t eat bread. You can’t eat pasta. You’re going to get rid of grains, etc. Six days a week.
Okay, so you follow this diet six day a week, and you have one off day, one binge day so to speak. So don’t eat anything white, don’t drink your calories – so no milk, no fruit juice – don’t eat fruit. This is a controversial point that we can get into if you want, but fructose really stalls fat loss the way that most people consume it. Don’t eat fruit, certainly don’t drink fruit juice. Again, all these things apply six days a week. And then lean protein, 30 grams within 30 minutes of getting up.
So you’re basically eating vegetables and protein, very much a paleo-like diet, but you’re also adding in – and this is another controversial point – you’re also adding in legumes, things like lentils and beans and so forth like that just to maintain caloric load among other things. And that’s it.
And on the binge day you go nuts. So you spend one day a week, you do whatever the hell you want. There’s no calorie counting at all on the entire program. And on the binge day it doesn’t matter if you eat 10,000 calories, honestly. The last time, close to Halloween, that I had my binge day it was pretty disgusting. I’m not going to lie. This is really repulsive, but I bought all this candy, and I thought that I was going to have trick-or-theaters because I recently moved, and I got one trick-or-treater. So I bought all these Twix bars, and I ate two boxes of Twix bars, it’s like 3,000 calories of Twix bars, in about 20 minutes. I mean really disgusting behavior, but I like Twix, what can I say, and it was Halloween. So that type of behavior once a week will not throw you off course.
And I’ve been doing this for more than five years now. And that’s the exact diet, the exact same approach that my dad used, the exact same approach that many of the people in the book used to have lost more than 100 pounds. And it works. It works really effectively. It’s not complicated. It’s easy to follow if you travel, which can be more difficult with let’s say stricter varieties like paleo it can be more challenging if you’re in an airport, and you need to eat paleo, and you’re not allowed to have beans, for example. I just find that it’s very effective middle ground that allows people to be compliant for a much longer period of time. Fifty-eight percent of the people I tracked said it was the first diet, they’ve ever been able to follow. And that’s it, so that’s the slow carb diet.
That ends Part 2 of 3 of my interview with Tim about the “4-Hour Body”. I know that info will help you, but it gets even better in the rest of the interview.;
- Why red wine is the most acceptable alcohol on a fat loss program (controversial)
- The Cheat Meal vs Cheat Day Debate
- His amazing step-by-step plan for maximizing a cheat meal
- The one weird thing he puts on a pizza.
Now, there was one thing that was kind of surprising in there is that you said red wine was okay, beer and white wine are not. Can you just explain that? Some people are going to be super-duper happy to hear that.
Tim Ferriss: Yes. And I will be honest. I think part of it is just me trying to rationalize why I can drink red wine because I love red wine. But there’s actually some science behind it. So it has to do with residual sugar, and it has to do with glycemic index – or glycemic load I should say. Now there are things that are wrong with the glycemic load.
We don’t have to get into the really technical side to that, but the short and sweet of it is beer almost always contains maltose. And it triggers a tremendously high insulin response. So if you could design the perfect foods for gaining fat you’d probably at the top of the list have beer and then doughnuts. I would say those are probably right up there neck-and-neck. So if you’re drinking beer just imagine you’re eating doughnuts. That’s roughly the effect that you’re having on your body composition.
The residual sugar, meaning the sugar that’s left after fermentation, in white wine tends to be much higher than in red wine. So I have not seen any negative effect in drinking one or two glasses of red wine let’s say four or five nights a week. You certainly don’t have to do it that often. But I like red wine. I live in Northern California, in the middle of wine country, so I’ve tested this with myself and other people. And really I haven’t seen a tremendous negative impact from drinking red wine at all. Once you exceed two glasses for most people, once you really start to place a burden on the liver, then yes there is an impact. But if you’re moderate and you’re doing one or two glasses to wind down at night, I don’t see any problem with it.
And then another question in there are some people just say one cheat meal per week and then some of you guys will be about the cheat day. So can you explain just a little more about why you do that. And then we’ll get into – you have a really cool structure for your cheat day that helps you maybe maximize results. So just do the cheat day question and then go right into that structure.
Tim Ferriss: Sure. It’s primarily psychological. It’s less about the physiology and more about the psychology. As you noticed in the book, the first 50 pages or so are dedicated to failure proofing whatever program you decide to go on. It’s like how do you buy insurance against the worst of human nature, so that you actually succeed with what you’re doing as opposed to quitting or missing workouts or whatever. And the psychology is very important. So, in this particular case when people have a cheat meal, if you can pull it off fantastic.
There are a few reasons why the women I still suggest a cheat day. Some women if they’re for whatever reason restricting calories, if they don’t get that binge day and a spike in calories they’ll have issues with menstruating and all sorts of things. And this is true on any diet. So having that one day a week if you’re doing any type of low body fat dieting is I think very helpful.
But for most people if they have a cheat meal they will either have more than a single cheat meal when they have their cheat meal, or they’ll have a really, really big extended cheat meal and they’ll feel guilty about it and feel like they went off of their program. And as soon as someone feels like they’ve broken their promise to themselves the next step is usually saying, “Well, look, I’ve already blown it for today and tomorrow so I may as well just eat whatever, I want tomorrow as well.” And that type of psychological response is really consistent.
So to avoid that I just say, “Look, from when you wake up to when you go to bed you can eat whatever the hell you want on Saturday,” or whatever you cheat day is. I always use Saturday, and I recommend people use Saturday – Friday or Saturday. And it’s just proven to be more effective is the bottom line when I’ve done it with people who have a lot of weight to lose. Now if you’re a body builder, or if you’re trying to get to let’s say sub 8% body fat or – yes, let’s say sub 8%, which is really low. Most people when you ask them what your body fat is, they’re like, “yeah. I’m like 8% or 9%.” No way dude, you’re 14%.
Like I mean for most people 8%, like you have veins on your abs. I know it sounds crazy but just having done hundreds of body fat tests, 8% is really, really ripped for most people, especially if they have some muscle mass. But let’s say you want to get sub 8%, then maybe a cheat meal makes sense. When doing something a little more advanced like cycling calories make a lot of sense. And that can make sense even when you have more weight to lose, but it’s not something I focused on.
In terms of the structure of the cheat day, there are a couple of things you can do to minimize the fat gain during that cheat day. The first is to just make your first meal so you wake up, and you have one small non-binge meal. So my default tends to be one or two whole eggs – free-range organic eggs – two whole eggs with some spinach and vegetables, like in a small bowl. It’s not a big meal. And that will slightly inhibit your appetite for the rest of the day. And it’s not a bad thing. My next meal is usually I’ll walk down the hill to my favorite bakery, and I’ll get two chocolate crescents, a big cup of coffee and grapefruit juice. And there are reasons for this.
So the grapefruit juice, you’ll notice I’m breaking my rule but this is my day off. If you have fructose, especially something like grapefruit juice, it flat lines your glucose response. It can help prevent huge glucose spikes when you eat a bunch of crap. So I will make a point of having this early I the day on my binge day. It also solves fat loss. But here’s the thing. It solves fat loss, but for this particular day it will minimize fat gain. So those are two different things, but it’s important to realize the difference.
The caffeine is also important. You don’t have to consume caffeine, but by having coffee, and I’ll do this two or three time throughout the day, it increases the speed of gastric emptying, so the speed at which food leaves your stomach and passes through your digestive tract. So what does that mean? That means you’re absorbing through your calories. So there’s a message to that madness as well.
And then throughout the day you can use various types of tricks. In the chapter “Damage Control” one of them very simple would be just getting the juice from let’s say three to four limes or lemon wedges and consuming than before you have your meal, which when I tested – I had a medical device implanted in my sides to measure blood glucose 24/7 for about three weeks and tracked everything – it tends to lower the blood sugar response by at least 10%. And that’s significant if you compound it over time. Cinnamon also very helpful. So I always put cinnamon in my coffee at the same time I have the pastries, which is usually my second crappiest meal of the day.
Lunch I might have let’s just say Thai food with some rice. I usually don’t have rice, but I’ll have Thai food with rice because I love rice if I’m allowed to have it. And then for dinner that’s when I’ll also go crazy, so I might have a huge full pizza, wild nettle pizza with an egg on top with some wine and then afterwards I’ll have an espresso and some ice cream. And that’s pretty much what it looks like.
You can also use exercise very effectively during that day to minimize fat gain by understanding how you can increase insulin sensitivity. I won’t go into all the details, but there are a lot of things you can do to prevent fat gain while binging. So this is also very helpful for times like Christmas or Thanksgiving or New Years.
I’m sorry, you put an egg on a pizza?
Tim Ferriss: Oh man, it’s delicious. Yes, absolutely. It’s like a soft cooked sunny-side up egg on a wild nettles with proscuitto pizza. It’s the greatest thing. You put it right in the middle. It’s so delicious. I highly recommend it.
Wow, that’s some impressive stuff. Now there’s one term that you mentioned in the book called “deferred eating”. Can you explain how you use that to get through the week to the cheat meal?
Tim Ferriss: Sure. So many of the people who use the slow carb diet, particularly in the first two weeks. Past the first two weeks, it’s usually not very hard. The hard part of any new dietary approach, any lifestyle change like this, is finding your default meals. Once you find what your default meals are, like your two or three meals you have for breakfast, you two or three meals you have for lunch, which everyone has. People overestimate the variety of their diet. But you look at what you ate for breakfast this last week, how many of those were the same two meals? Pretty much all of them for most people. So once you find your default meals you’re usually fine.
In the first two weeks you’re like, “Oh my God, I just want to have some pasta. Oh my God, I just want to have macaroni.” Or “Oh my God, I just want to have a sandwich, and I need bread.” You just take a note and write down all those things that you want to have, and you just put “For Sunday” or “For Binge Day”. And you write down all the things you’re going to eat on Saturday, and that consistently reminds you, “I’m not giving up this food forever. I’m just giving it up for three days, two days, one day. Bang, now I can do whatever, I want.”
And then why don’t you go over some of the exercise tips quickly.
Tim Ferriss: Which exercise tips? I’m happy to go into whatever you like.
Like just the body weight exercises you did.
Tim Ferriss: Oh, right. So I’ll give a simple one because I think for most people they may not want to do the air spots or chest pulls, things like that. So you can increase your muscle cell’s ability to absorb carbohydrates by doing some contractions, muscular contractions, around the time of your meal. So usually what I’ll do is I’ll have an appetizer and then when my entrée arrives, I’ll go to the bathroom, this is really simple, and put my hands on the wall about shoulder width apart at shoulder height. And then I’ll move my feet back – so I’m standing straight up – I’ll move my feet back let’s say foot-and-a-half or two feet, so I’m leaning forward into my hands. And then I’ll just do tricep extensions. And do 30 or 40 of those. Give the 15 minute section of Complete Mobile Workout a shot.
a shot.And what that’s going to do – I did a lot of research into what are called glucose transporters – and that’s enough to open the channels and allow more carbohydrates to make it into your muscles, in this case your upper body musculature, as opposed to being put right on your abdomen. So that’s another approach to minimizing fat gain when you have to overeat, or when you choose to overeat.
Very nice, very nice. And then one other thing that you mentioned in there, in the book, not related to the cheat meal per se, but for weighing for women that – what was it, the 10 days before menstruation you should just kind of like not even acknowledging those weights because that’s when the water retention is occurring?
Tim Ferriss: Yes, exactly right. That’s another way that women can get derailed is if they misinterpret water weight associated with menstruation with some type of plateau awaken. So I don’t know the exact number of days, but I do recommend that they avoid a certain period around menstruation. And just avoid the body weight completely. Don’t pay attention to the scale for that period of time. Absolutely.
Okay. And another rapid fire question. You had almost every single method of body fat measurement done. Which one would you choose if you were going to try and go for the most accurate and reliable method, if there were no limitations?
Tim Ferriss: Yes. If there were no limitations, I’d say my first choice is probably something called DEXA, which is – it is usually a GE device. It’s used for measuring osteoporosis. It’s used for looking at bone density very often. But you lay down on this bed. It’s a full body scan. And the radiation risk is low to my knowledge, compared to CAT scans, x-rays, etc. And not only do you get your body fat composition, but you get to see the mass analysis. So if you have some type of muscular imbalance that could produce an injury later you’ll see that very clearly. You also get your bone information. So if you can do that for $50 to $100, I highly recommend doing it. And so it’s either D-X-A or D-E-X-A.
My second choice would be – it’s kind of a tie. I’d say the one that people will probably have the access to if they look for it is Bod Pod, B-O-D P-O-D, its just bodpod.com. You can find locators. This is a cool device. It’s actually a chamber that you sit inside, and it’s like a space capsule. And they use pressurized air to determine your body fat composition. It’s pretty wild. But it basically replicates hydrostatic weighing, underwater weighing that’s considered the gold standard. It’s as accurate as the hydrostatic weighing, but you’re not wet, and you don’t have to hold your breath. Not really, you hold your breath like a second when they take it. But you sit in this capsule, and it’s all done with air. So those would be the two recommendations.
If you can’t do that, if you’re going to use calipers, which is most common. So if you go to a gym, and you’re going to have someone take your caliper reading, it’s very important that you have at least three points and that one of those measurements is a leg measurement. If you leave the leg measurement out forget about the body fat percentage that you see as a result. It’s telling you your upper body, body fat percentage. But if you want something for your whole body you need a leg measurement.
What I would recommend is they use different algorithms, different equations. If you go in use the same person every time to do your measurement, and ask them to use what’s called the Jackson Pollock algorithm, much like the artist. Yes, Jackson Pollock is the one that I would recommend as being most reliable from my experiences.
Awesome, that’s great. And then just before we go, before we finish up here, why don’t you just tell us what you had the most fun learning about in the book, excluding the sex chapter which I’m sure was obviously probably the most fun. And again, anybody listening to the call I’m just going to leave you hanging. You’ll have to go read that one yourself. But what about the training staff? Kettlebells, the running, the deadlifting.
Tim Ferriss: The most fun for me was – I’m really tied, but I think I know which one is the winner. I’d say the maximal strength. I mean putting 20-30 pounds on your deadlift almost every time you go in is crazy. I mean that’s just, it really kind of blows your mind. That was incredible, number two. And actually the first place winner would be the swimming. The swimming was one of my biggest embarrassments and insecurities for my entire life, and I fixed it in one week. That just completely changed my paradigm, of how I looked at everything that I thought was impossible. I had given up so many times. I had tried so many classes and just given up, completely given up on being able to swim. And I went from two laps to about 40 laps a workout in a week. And then very soon thereafter was swimming a mile open water in the ocean. I mean it’s crazy. It’s completely unbelievable to me, even now, that I was able to do that. And it’s very easy to replicate.
So for me, I would say that was probably the most eye-opening and certainly the most – of some of the training, the most gratifying for me just because it had been such a fear and insecurity for so long. I would say that those would be two of the highlights out of many.
That was very cool. Well, I highly recommend everyone grab the book. It’s a nice Christmas for you or for someone else. It’s literally a handbook and a guidebook to making your life a whole lot better pretty quickly. So, Tim, is there anything else you want to mention about the book or anything at all about the topic before we close off?
Tim Ferriss: Sure, absolutely. There are two things I would say. The first is that if you want to improve productivity, business performance, relationships, whatever it might be, there’s a lot of research done on this. I won’t bore you with the particulars, but improving your physical machine, your physical body, is the absolute most effective way to do that. It affects everything else. That would be number one. So if you’ve accepted any type of genetically supposedly genetically fixed limitation, endurance, strength, fat loss, whatever, this is the right time to really test those assumptions because I’ve yet to see more than a handful of cases of anything that can’t be fixed with the proper training and nutrition in terms of body composition and performance.
The last thing I would say is that if people are interested, I had to cut between 100 and 150 pages of content from the book just because the publisher was concerned with the cost of printing. They’re good chapters. It’s just the cost of printing. Some of them include things like spot reduction. I actually kept it topical approaches to fat loss, which ends up working on the abdomen and thighs, things like that, genetics testing, so how do you determine what type of supplement you’ll respond to or not respond to, things like that.
Yes, yes, it really was. And we’ve met a couple of times, and we had a good time learning how to kill terrorists and drive cars in a short amount of time. We did that this year. And so it was just like your book, it was concentrated learning, and you leave with a skill set that if you try to do it half-hazardly you wouldn’t have accomplished in two or three months. So it’s really just a focused block of time and then away you go.
Tim Ferriss: Absolutely, agreed. So thank so much for having me.
Is there a way that people can resource on the internet?
Tim Ferriss: Yes, absolutely. So if you’re in a place – if you just want to check out all the crazy stuff that, case studies, or if you’re not in a place financially to get the book also totally fine. Just go to CKOtrainer.com And there’re tons of stuff. I’ve got 300 different posts, all categorized. You can search by popularity.
Awesome, that’s great stuff. So everyone, have a great day. Check out that book. And I look forward to hearing about your maximum results in minimum time experiments from The 4-Hour Body. Bye-bye everyone.
PS – By the way, you definitely need to get this book…
…it covers fat loss, secrets to amazing sex, better sleep, running long distances faster (without a lot of running), getting stronger, amazing sex, and becoming a better athlete…oh yeah, and secrets to amazing sex. There might also be a massive sextion devoted to better sex. I think.
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4-hour body interview with Tim Ferriss, about cheat meals, and more.interview, cheat meal, deadlifting, four hour body, rapid fat loss, tim ferriss
How To Do A Squat and Dips: Body Weight Workout
The squat is an excellent upper and lower body workout that primarily targets your thighs (quadriceps or “quads”) and hips (gluteus maximus or “glutes”) but also works the hamstrings and lower back. If done incorrectly, it can lead to pain or injury, so you have to be careful about getting it right so that you don’t get hurt. There are many variations of the squat, so the steps below will describe the classic barbell back squat, followed by variations.
Select weights that are appropriate for your strength and set them up on the barbell. If you have the option of adjusting the height of the bar, bring it to a level below your shoulders, to about your armpits.
3Get below the bar and bend your knees slightly. Plant your feet flat on the ground about shoulder width apart. You’ll want equal weight distribution throughout each foot during the exercise.
Point your feet slightly outward, not straight ahead.[1]
Don’t stand with your feet much further than shoulder width apart (wide stance). That’ll bring your adductors (inner thighs) into the movement, which can cause stress to the medial collateral ligament, abnormal cartilage loading, and improper patellar tracking. Likewise, keeping your feet too close together (close stance) [[will put too much stress on your back and knees.[2]
4
Position bar on the base of the neck and across the back of your shoulders. Grasp the bar with your hands at a spot that is comfortable, usually about six inches (15cm) from your shoulders.
5Raise and dismount the barbell]] from the rack (take a step forward or back if the rack will interfere in the motion).
6
Look straight ahead and keeping your back straight (not round or arched; keep it flat) bend at your knees as if you were going to sit back in a chair. Keep your heels on the floor. Make sure that you get your quads parallel to the ground, for full range of motion. Inhale as you descend.
Never let your knees extend beyond your toes, as this will increase the likelihood of damage to the patellar tendon and ligament in the knee.[3]
7Stand up by extending your hips and knees until your legs are straight, and exhale on your way up.
8Replace barbell on rack when finished.
Variations
Air squat
Front Squat
Overhead Squat
Knee straps are a bad idea. They put pressure on the fluids inside the knee where the miniscus pad resides, which may result in too much stress for the cruciate ligaments.
The up and down movements of a squat should be slow and controlled movements (unless you are coached by a trainer or are training for a specific purpose and absolutely sure what you’re doing). On your way down, don’t just “drop” and let gravity do all the work. Similarly, the upward movement is just like standing up; never try to spring up or bounce.
Keep the weight on your heels, stick your butt back and look forward.
To get a feel for the correct motion, practice squatting without weight facing a wall with your toes a couple of inches from the base of the wall. This will help correct your form if you tend to lean forward.
It is a myth that doing squats will give you a broad butt. The rate and shape of gluteal development is determined by genetics.
editWarnings
You do not always need a spotter for squats. Spotters are generally only needed when lifting significant amounts of weight.
Don’t “bounce” out of the squat position. This happens when one tries to use the momentum of coming down to assist him/her in the initial portion of the lifting stage. This puts extreme stress on the knee joint overall and can lead to injuries in the long run. If done in the extreme, it might cause the knee to literally pop out of place. It is really more of a sit back then a sit down.
Never arch your back. If your back is straight (flat), the weights are supported by your legs. But if your back is arched, all the weight comes down on your upper body and lower neck, which aren’t in a position to support it!
Squats can be extremely dangerous when done incorrectly. Never, EVER bend your back awkwardly or let your knees fall forwards.
There is no scientific evidence to suggest that squatting before puberty can stunt your growth.
Putting blocks or weights under your heels (practiced by some bodybuilders to increase isolation) makes your knees go past your toes, which will damage your knees over time.[5]
Stand with feet hip distance apart with your toes, knees and hips in a straight line.
Pull your belly button towards your spine and contract your abdominal
muscles.
Slowly lower your body, as though you are sitting in a chair.
If you can, go down until your butt is in line with your knees (knees at 90 degree angles). If you can’t go down that low, go as low as you can.
Take a moment and look down make sure your knees are BEHIND your toes.
Keeping the weight in your heels, slowly push your body back to starting position.
At the top of the movement, do NOT lock your knees. Keep a slight bend in them.
Repeat the movement 10 to 15 times, performing 1 to 3 sets. For each repetion, count to 3 on the way up and on the way down to ensure you’re not going too fast.
Rest 30 to 60 seconds in between sets.
Stretch your quadriceps and hamstrings after each set or after your final set, spending at least 10 to 15 seconds on each stretch.
Tips:
Warm up with 5 minutes of cardio before you start!
Stand sideways in front of a mirror to watch your form and make sure your knees stay behind your toes.
To make it more difficult, hold a barbell across your shoulders or hold dumbbells at your side.
Breath continuously and keep your neck in line with your spine.
Practice by actually standing in front of a chair and sitting down on it briefly before standing back up.
The Jersey Shore Workout (MTV Bonus Clip)
Circuit Training For Mixed Martial Artists Circuit training is a great form of exercise to acquaint yourself with if you plan to compete in mixed martial arts. It allows you to work on strength and cardio at the same time. In addition to that, circuit training has the potential to burn an amazing amount of calories, so if you are looking to drop some weight these are the exercises for you. WHAT IS CIRCUIT TRAINING? Circuit training is a form of conditioning in which you string together a number of exercises completing one after another without rest or with minimal rest. The exercises that you string together form what is called the circuit. HOW TO DO IT. There is a huge amount of room for creativity when it comes to creating a circuit. You can vary the overall length of time, the time spent on each exercise, the time in between exercises, what exercises you use, how much weight you use (if you are using weights), etc. Let’s take a look at some of the things to consider when creating a circuit training program to improve performance in MMA. Time length – This one is pretty easy. You will usually want to try to mimic the length of time you will spend fighting and resting during a mma fight. For example, if you have a 3 round fight with each round lasting 5 minutes with 1 minute rest in between, then you would want to create a circuit that uses those times. Of course there are instances that you may not want to do it exactly that way. For instance you may want to increase the intensity of the workout beyond what you will experience in the fight e.g. less rest and longer periods of activity. Exercises – Well, I’m a big fan of exercises that use large muscle groups, since that is usually what you use in a fight. Think pull ups, push ups, bent over rows, and squats. Not exercises that isolate one part of the body like one arm bicep curls, calf extensions and tricep extensions. Also try to make the exercises as sport specific as you can. For instance, rather than doing squats, grab a partner and practice shooting in for a double leg, then pick him all the way off the ground, then repeat. You can replace wind sprints with an intense round of kicking the thai pads. That being said, you can pretty much use any exercise you want in your circuit providing it is safe and will push you in the direction of your goal. How often? – This is not an easy question to answer because it will vary from person to person. But it’s definitely an important one to ask so that you can prevent over or under training. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get a better idea of how often you should be trying to fit this into your routine. Am I gearing up for a fight or just trying to maintain the fitness level I already have? How intense is the other training I am currently doing? Have I recently had a fight and need to recover? How intense is the circuit I created? The answers to those questions will hopefully give you an idea of how often to implement circuit training into you conditioning program. Other than that, just make sure you listen to your coach, he is there to monitor your training and make sure you neither over nor under train. No good article on circuit training would be complete without a real deal workout suggest. So I will turn it over Allow me to introduce myself and tell you how I can help you improve your conditioning, custom tailor your MMA fight technique, increase your striking power and speed, melt extra body fat, and get unbelievably ripped. My name is Michael Andreula, and over the past 13 years I have developed, refined, and cultivated my Kickboxing for Fitness class. The goal of this class is to get you in the best shape of your life in the shortest amount of time. Muscle and Fitness Magazine rates Fitness Kickboxing as the number one fat burner, with up to 1200 calories burned during a one hour class! That is 3 times as effective as running on a treadmill. Click on the item to get it on itunes This workout is quick, easy, and fun. You will ENJOY doing it, and be ready for more! It’s the same Kickboxing for Fitness class we use at CKO to get people absolutely ripped, cut, toned, and coming back again and again. I developed this class and the drills it contains for myself, to fit into my insanely crammed schedule. Now it’s offered at CKO, a unique gym that provides the most innovative instructional fitness programming anywhere. We take fitness to a new level every single day with variety, results-driven workouts, and energetic, motivating instructors. We have the largest boxing and kickboxing-for-fitness programs in the country, with classes running seven days a week. This program has revolutionized the kickboxing industries, blending authentic Muay Thai kickboxing training with intense calorie burning drills and phenomenal resistance training. Hitting the heavy bag improves your muscle tone as well as your cardio endurance. It literally torches any stubborn body fat you’re having trouble losing. In just one hour, you can burn up to 1200 calories – no other workout even comes close! No bag? No problem! Grab a 5-pound weight, and you are set. No weights at home? I just recorded a podcast showing people doing the class with soup cans! The CKO Kickboxing for Fitness workout has been recognized in several national fitness magazines. We were also featured on NBC’s The Today Show. So stop wasting time, try a class TODAY and GET REAL RESULTS! P90X doesn’t have jack on us!!!! There is no middle ground, no gray area in this class; it will push you to reach your goals. The good news is that it’s simple to get started, especially now that I have made it available in an Mp3 format for anyone and everyone! No matter what you may be struggling with right now, or how bleak your current fitness situation is, just try this Mp3 class. It will change your life, almost instantly. On the other hand, if you’re doing well, but your progress has hit a plateau, this class will help you break through to the next level and beyond. You can take my class anytime you want. My class is iPod, smart phone, and Mp3 ready. The format has been kept as simple as possible for the following reasons: · You will not destroy your phone or Mp3 batteries while playing the workout. · In class, I always try to put you in the “zone”. This is a state of mind that allows you to perform at levels you never dreamed about, because you are in a state of no thought. There is no mental dialog happening in your brain. Analyzing and complaining can’t occur. You are in the moment, performing the drills at an outstanding level, and it becomes an indulgence for you instead of feeling like a workout. Click on the item to get it on itunes It’s Effective! I can’t answer all of your prayers, like a lot of the products on the market claim. For example the Ab-rocker, Acai berry pill, and hundreds of other fitness products out there are claiming miraculous results. We aren’t stupid, we know they’re full of lies! This class is unique and effective for thousands of people because it is simple and can be done anywhere. The trends of fitness products on the market have gotten extraordinarily complex. Who has time to do Spin on Tuesday and Interpretive Dance on Saturday? You need to be able to maximize every second of the time you have allocated for your work out. This is the definition of being effective. It’s Exciting! Results are born from consistency; consistency is realized when you are excited about your workout. If you are not into the workout, then you will not reach your maximum potential. If you love to run, and it’s working for you – outstanding; this product is not for you. On the contrary, if you are the type of person that likes to work punches, kicks, combinations, calisthenics, core work, boxing and MMA-style fitness workouts, then I have something you will be excited about! Click on the item to get it on itunes Reviews KICKBOXING BOXING MMA CROSS TRAINING HEAVY BAG WORKOUTS iTunes Reviews Incredible Bnaps04 This is the best workout you can get without going to a class with Mike. I have done CKO Kickboxing for years, but with college starting my schedule doesn’t allow much time to go to class. I needed something to help me workout on my own.Power Striking withor without a heavy bag are a great workout whenever I have time. I also use the first CKO mp3 class when I am traveling or otherwise don’t have a heavy bag. Just shadow boxing to the class is a good workout. Start with the first one if you can. Don’t just hit the bag, but concentrate on your technique and movement. It is a fantastic workout. The Power Striking step the intensity up when you feel the first class has become too easy. These class do not try to teach you MMA. They are intended to facilitate a workout. However, if you keep your mind on your technique and movement, the workout will help reinforce your skills.” My Second purchase from CKOTrainer byLouick34 “Great workout Mike! This one really gets you pushing yourself, the vocals are powerful. I almost crashed after the first set, haha. Would LOVE to see more at this intensity.” Speaking of MMA fitness, this workout I have created involves the highest level of class conditioning for MMA training. El Guapo once said, “The stand-up is the best conditioning for MMA.” (If you don’t know who El Guapo is, then you must be on the wrong website.) I decided to go a step further, adding drills to condition you for ground attacks and strikes from the bottom. Power Striking and My Everlasting-Gob-Stopper Workouts Power striking is 20 minutes of non-stop, urgent striking designed to allow you to achieve the conditioning levels of some of the world’s greatest strikers. Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Mirco Cro Cop, and countless other MMA champions constantly place a huge priority on perfecting their improvised striking. To explain what I mean by improvised striking: Many forms of martial arts such as Karate, Kung-Fu and Tae Kwon Do focus on a ‘strike combination’, and then on ‘counters’ to those combinations. That strategy works efficiently, but only when your opponent fights by the same rules! Improvised striking is the ability to strike based on the openings provided at any given time. In this class, you will absolutely train combinations, but I’ll allow you the freedom to change levels, head/hand positions, and come in from different angles, all-around working your movement.
How to Do a Mountain Climber Calisthenics Exercise
How to Do a Mountain Climber Calisthenics Exercise
The mountain climber calisthenics exercise conditions your entire body and is excellent for developing foot and leg muscles. You can increase your overall stamina and core strength by doing the mountain climber. Perform this exercise properly by reviewing and executing the following steps and you can be climbing to fitness.
Instructions
1 Stand with your arms by your sides, feet together.
2 Bend down and put your hands shoulder width apart on the floor.
3 Place yourself in the basic push-up position with your arms in line with your chest and your legs extended outward.
4 Rest on the balls of your feet while bringing one leg (for this example we’ll say left leg) forward to your chest and back to its original position. Keep the right leg tucked during the forward and back movement of the left leg.
5 Check to be sure your bent leg and hands carry the weight of your body and that you hold your head up during the back and forth leg movements.
6 Repeat the motion described in Step 4 rapidly, alternating one leg forward and one leg back. This movement mimics the “climbing of a mountain.”
7 Repeat as many times as you can. Remember to inhale and exhale steadily during the entire mountain climber exercise.
2 Bend down and put your hands shoulder width apart on the floor.
3 Place yourself in the basic push-up position with your arms in line with your chest and your legs extended outward.
4 Rest on the balls of your feet while bringing one leg (for this example we’ll say left leg) forward to your chest and back to its original position. Keep the right leg tucked during the forward and back movement of the left leg.
5 Check to be sure your bent leg and hands carry the weight of your body and that you hold your head up during the back and forth leg movements.
6 Repeat the motion described in Step 4 rapidly, alternating one leg forward and one leg back. This movement mimics the “climbing of a mountain.”
7 Repeat as many times as you can. Remember to inhale and exhale steadily during the entire mountain climber exercise.
Goblet Squat -CKO Kickboxing with Michael Andreula
The natural stance of the goblet squat will ensure a more upright body during the downward motion. If you’re attentive to a straight-back position, a narrow-stance, butt-back goblet squat is perfectly save and very effective as an exercise you might keep in the arsenal for years to come. While doing your goblet squats, drop down to rock bottom, rise back up to just parallel, then drop down again and repeat many times. Then, without rest and still maintaining good form, do step-ups while holding your dumbbell or kettlebell in the goblet squat position.
