Have you ever wondered if cardio increases your muscle building?

Most of the old time bodybuilders will tell you that doing cardio will just waste your time. This is really another one of the many myths spread about building muscle.

Cardio not only helps build muscle, it helps in two different way.

1) Muscle building cardio warm-up.

A short five minute session of cardio is the best way to warm for a weight lifting routine.

This short cardio session raises the core temperature of your body and preps your limbs for your weight lifting session. This prep is needed to help reduce the chance of injury doing your workout and should never be skipped.

Any type of cardio is good for this whether it is cycling, running, jogging in place, or using equipment like an elliptical trainer or stair climber.

Cardio will increase your heart rate causing increased blood flow throughout your body so that it is properly prepared and warmed up for weight training.

2)Cardio is good for building muscle.

If your primary goal is to just build strength and muscle volume, then cardio will not play much of a role except during your warm-up.

But, if you want to get six pack abs and be able to show of a great ripped look then you need to add some high intensity cardio to your weight routine.

In gyms all over the country you can see people that start wanting to look like their favorite sport or screen idol with that fabulous ripped  physique so they hit the gym.  They pump iron for months and they do get bigger and gain strength if they are doing it right. But they simply don’t get the definition and tone they wanted. Definition will never come if they do not include muscle building cardio in their workout routines.

So which type of cardio do you include? Do you do a hard 45 minute treadmill workout 3 times each week or long pleasant run through your local park?

Neither of them will give you what you need. You need to go for high intensity, low interval cardio if you are truly serious about muscle definition. It is a must to get those washboard abs and a seriously ripped body.

Running on a treadmill or taking a long run through the park will not do it for you. Not just any old cardio will do the job. To be really effective, muscle building cardio can be short but it has to be intense.

Okay. We know that cardio has to be intense to be effective, but how often do we need to cardio and is there a best time? Studies have shown that if you do your high intensity cardio immediately after your weight training workout you will burn the maximum fat.

Since you are going to do both your weight training and cardio at the same time you can truly have an off day to relax and enjoy. If you are up to it, doing some additional muscle building cardio on your off days can also maximize your fat loss.

Like all new routines, when you begin high intensity cardio to build muscles, you need to start slow. Trying to make up for lost time will only increase the chance of injury. This doesn’t mean that you should reduce the intensity of your workout but you should not do it every day of the week.

Some guys think that cardio is just too easy to build muscle but they are wrong. It is hard work.
When you are panting for breath, with your eyes watering and muscles burning, you may want to quit.  But if you keep on, you will finally see those muscles you have been building which have been hidden beneath the fat.

And you will realize that cardio can build muscle and it was all worth it.

Technorati Tags: cardio, Fat Loss, high intensity cardio, Muscle Building, Six Pack Abs

This is the second part of the interview of Mike Geary by New York fitness professional Geovanni Derice. If you have made it this far, you are no doubt serious about getting in shape and showing off those abs you have hidden under that belly! If you missed the first half, check it out here: Flat Six Pack Abs.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those 6 pack abs is…are you ready for this? They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! Sounds crazy, but it’s true. Remember, having a visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs. Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book). However, maximum definition in the midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing…and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the over processing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body. For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains. Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth. The point is to not fall for some gimmick like low carbs, low fat, high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another. Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information. For more info on Mike Geary and his internationally popular Truth about Six Pack Abs book, please be sure to visit his site below. Remember that 6-7 weeks from now, summer will be here, and if you wait until then, I’m afraid to tell you, but it will be too late!”

I hope you enjoyed this interview and got as much out of it as I did. If you haven’t yet checked out Mikes TruthAboutAbs site, go there now and get his bonuses just for visiting.

Technorati Tags: flat abs, how to lose belly fat, Mike Geary, Six Pack Abs, truth about abs, truthaboutaboutabs

The Truth About Abs by Michael Geary is the #1 Rated Abs Program on the internet.  That is no surprise to those who have the program and know Mike. He is extremely open and sharing of his knowledge and time, not only with his clients but with everyone.

He recently took time to be interviewed by a fitness professional from NYC, Geovanni Derice, of 4evertoned.com. The first half of his interview is below and I think you’re going to like it. He reveals some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of body fat to uncover those six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike Geary to 4everToned’s Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 15 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning. At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 30 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis. I decided earlier in my 20′s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc.

That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process. I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work…if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs. There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is…after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn body fat. In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and sit-ups for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really de-conditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles. I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

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That’s it for now. I’ll  post the rest of this interview tomorrow so be sure and come back. In the meantime, visit Mike’s TruthAboutAbs site to receive a free copy of the innovative ebook, Training & Nutrition Secrets for a Lean-Body, as well as your own free personalized metabolic rate calculator.

Technorati Tags: flat abs, how to lose belly fat, Mike Geary, Six Pack Abs, truth about abs, truthaboutaboutabs

It may seem like I am devoting an awful lot of time recently to abs. Well, I am and there are a couple of reasons for that.

First, some of the top fitness expert have brought out new or updated abs programs and these need to be looked at and discussed.

Second, the most common fitness questions I receive from people all over the world have to do with their struggles with shedding that flabby stomach fat that sticks to them no matter what they do.

Well, fellow fitness professional Mike Geary of TruthAboutAbs.com is a well-known expert who deals exclusively with the most effective strategies for losing stomach fat so that you can finally uncover those hidden six pack abs that everyone tries to find. So I thought I would see what his upgraded program had to offer.

Some of Mike’s strategies deal with nutrition aspects and others deal with training techniques, but I was impressed to see that Mike has put together one of the most comprehensive resources for dealing with all of the aspects necessary to finally get rid of that nasty belly fat for good.

The key is that Mike focuses on the REAL techniques that are going to get you lasting results, and teaches you how to avoid all of these “quick-fix” scams and gimmicks that are all over the infomercials and the internet these days.

Several of the mistakes that Mike see’s every day where people are going wrong in their fat loss attempts are:

Mistake #1
Most people are wasting way too much of their time doing hundreds of reps of ineffective crunches, situps, and other “abs pumping” exercises in their attempt at losing stomach fat.

Mike has discovered that there are certain highly effective exercises that stimulate your metabolism much better, and increase your fat burning hormone levels much more. These exercises that Mike outlines are the best of the best for getting a lean, chiseled body.

Surprisingly to most, the majority of these most effective exercises for stomach fat loss are NOT “abs-specific” exercises. Not only that, but Mike shows you how to combine and sequence them to get the best metabolic and fat loss results possible, changing the shape of your entire body.

Mistake #2
Most people are wasting way too much time doing hours upon hours of boring monotonous cardio routines.

Mike has researched this topic extensively, including an entire course he’s taken comparing different modalities of cardiovascular exercise. After all of this research, we’ve come to the conclusion that the majority of people out there are not doing the right types of cardio exercise. In fact, most people may actually be inadvertantly decreasing their metabolic rate by doing too much of the wrong types of cardio!

The strategies that Mike reveals in his program go beyond “interval cardio” too.

Mistake #3
Most people are failing miserably with fad diets.

Mike reveals exactly why most low-carb or low-fat diets are actually working against what your body needs to become lean and ripped and maintain it for life! Mike shows you exactly how to stop falling for the gimmick diets and finally develop a truly healthy eating style that you can actually enjoy for life without being overly restrictive. It’s actually easier and more enjoyable than you believe!

Go to Mike’s Truth about Six Pack Abs site today and discover the exact system that Mike is using to help thousands of his clients from all over the world get leaner than they’ve ever been before. This system will help you to lose that stubborn stomach fat that has plagued you for years, so you can finally get that sexy six pack that you’ve always wanted. Here’s the site:

Truth About Abs

Don’t forget to visit Mike’s site today, as he’s giving away some great free bonus reports and other tools that might not be available much longer.

To a lean, strong, and healthy body for life!

Technorati Tags: Abs Exercises, Mike Geary, Six Pack Abs, truth about abs

Ab workouts and ab routines are one of the most looked for fitness workouts on the internet. And it’s easy to see why. Our waste lines continue to grow and hide that six pack we have.

There are several good abs programs to choose from and many that really don’t do the job at all. I have asked one of the top fitness experts, Vince DelMonte, to give us his take on all of the confusion. Here is what Vince had to say:

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When trying to achieve the illusive six pack, it’s easy to get confused by all the “best ab workouts” available. You’ll likely notice that there is a multitude of ab workouts to choose from, so deciphering which ones will work the best can be tricky.

The thing to remember is that whenever you are trying to work your core, everything works, for a certain period of time. Everything from high reps, low reps, weighted work, bodyweight work, stability ball exercises, and BOSU ball exercises – it all works until your body adapts and says, “This is easy, I’m not going to change unless you give me a new reason to adapt.”

Your ab training should be progressed from stable floor work with your body weight to a unstable surface with weighted work. Progressing to movements that will reduce your base of support as much as possible are the best ab workouts because they will call into play all the muscles within the core, especially those really deep that stable floor work can not target.

Such examples of floor ab exercises that would do this would be crunches, sit ups and leg raises. Eventually you want to do these same exercises against gravity, then a load and then on unstable surface like a stability ball. Body weight exercises like “front planks” and “side planks” should be the foundation of a core program and progressed to one arm planks in the frontal and side planes and then eventually on a stability ball or BOSU ball for further recruitment.

The best ab workouts to make your abs “pop” would be a variety of weighted movements. I’m sure you’ve skinny guys with a flat stomach but no “eye popping” abs, which is because they have not developed the actual abdominal muscle, just like every other body part. Part of getting nicely chiseled abs is going to be developing the muscles underneath the fat, and weighted ab crunches with cables or on a stability ball with a heavy dumbbell will do this best.

During all your ab workouts be sure to get a full stretch during the eccentric phase of your ab exercises. Going through an entire range of motion on the way up (if doing a crunch on the floor or ball) is not necessary, however, you should be “crunching” your upper abs onto your lower abs during each rep to maximize the burn, recruitment and full development.

The one weighted exercise you will not find in my programs is weighted side bends, as this could make you look wider in the waste, distracting from creating a lean image.

One concerning question most people have is regarding lower ab workouts, typically the most troubling spot. Yes, hip flexion (emphasis more so on lower abs) is important to perform and should be done first in the workout but the reality of the matter is that you cannot specifically separate your abs into upper and lower components. Whenever you perform any type of ab movement you should automatically be focusing on working both the upper and lower portion at the same time.

Good exercise to definitely direct a little more force into the lower area would be the progression of lying leg raises, lying leg raises on a incline and eventually hanging leg raises fully vertical. Lying leg raises on a stability pull is also an extremely challenging and advanced exercise to create razor sharp abdominals.

Finally, the last thing to consider is when you are going to perform your ab workout is training frequency. Again, generally speaking, the more the better assuming your abdominals have recovered. Whether you want to perform it at the end of your workout, before your workout, during your workout or on a day of it’s own is up to you.

My ab workouts incorporate all methods depending on if you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced. Some theories of that warn you not to start with abs is because abs work as a synergistic muscle for so many of the other exercises you’ll do, if you pre-fatigue them before the start of the workout, you may not progress as much during the rest of your workout. I don’t agree with this and if you’re abs are your weakest link then they should be given first priority when you are the most fresh, the start of your workout.

Incorporating a specific ab workout is only a small part of the battle – diet, lifestyle and overall caloric expenditure through weight training and cardio are the true building blocks to creating a sexy and desired mid section.

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A little about Vince DelMonte:

Vince is the author of http://www.YourSixPackQuest.com and his top selling fitness program No Nonsense Muscle Building.

He provides chubby guys and gals with the best ab workouts to get a six pack without gimmicks, supplements or dieting.

Try him, you’ll like him – and so will your body!

Technorati Tags: Abs Exercises, Six Pack Abs, Vince DelMonte