Non conventional, very demanding, multifunctional and holistic.

Besides the indisputable benefits that this workout will bring to your physical fitness and appearance, it will additionally offer you two very important advantages:

- it is perfectly suitable for busy people because with 3 workouts x 40’ per week, your results will be much more impressive than those of the most gym frequenters.

- you can complete it ‘outdoors’ or in your home, which will save a lot of time and money. You don’t need a gym!

On the other hand a main disadvantage is that it is suitable only for already fit people and only for those with strong self-discipline.

This is because this workout is really for tough guys.

Epigrammatically the workout consists of:

3 minutes for a general warm up

5 minutes for a total bodyweight workout

10 minutes of strength training with dumbbells

10 minutes of HIIT

7 minutes for cooling down and static stretching.

a) Warm up

First of all keep your body well hydrated and fueled!

Warming up is very crucial to prepare the body for the strenuous exercise that will follow. Since the objective is maximum results in lesser time I keep it short: round 3min.

This is an essential phase: muscles become more flexible and pliable, heart rate rises and body temperature increases. At the end you are ready to proceed to the next phase.

The warm up should be of general type, nothing specific.

I recommend starting with light aerobic exercise and slowly building up speed. Specifically:

- jogging in place

- doing some jumping jacks

- also some flexibility exercises (not stretching! Keep stretching for after cool down).

b) Total bodyweight workout

These tough and functional workouts are the best investment for your time. You can do three types of exercise:

- lower body exercises

Emphasis on various squats and lunges.

- upper body exercises

Emphasis on the endless versions of push ups, bear crawling etc.

- core and abs strengthening

Emphasis on spiderman lunges, mountain climbers etc. I prefer these multifunctional, multijoint exercises than static planks.

You can mix these exercises as you wish but the most logical sequence is:

Upper body exercise

Lower body exercise

Core strengthening.

For example:

Plyo push ups

Bodyweight squats

Spiderman lunges etc.

Exercises are executed in a circuit form, with no or minimal breaks. One exercise is used as a break for the other.

After you finish with your five minute total bodyweight workout, you are ready to grab the dumbbells and go on.

Chris Strogilis

http://totalfitness-christos.blogspot.com 

Going to the gym has become part of the lives of a lot of men and women, but many people feel they cant get going or don’t have the time.

Getting the right routine is never easy, but with a total body workout, and the Never fail system, you cannot help but succeed.

You need some dedication, some free time, the “smart diet” (in part 2 of this article) and will…that’s it.

The Never fail System.

The Never fail system works in the following way. It conditions your body and mind to the goal of getting in shape.

In fact, the basic principles of the Never fail system can be applied to any area of your life you wish to improve. Here are the basic principles

1. Right Resolve.

You must decide and believe in your decision to make a positive change

2. Time Management.

You must put aside regular time segments, on the days required, and do no deviate from them.

3. Envision the Result.

See yourself in your expected success mode. Do not envision yourself with your current state, but actually visualize yourself the way you wish yourself to be.

4. Treat Setbacks as Stepping Stones and NOT Obstacles.

If you are building a house and break a few nails, it doesn’t mean to stop building! There will be setbacks, lots of them. Look at them as stepping stones to your goal only. Something like tests you must pass.

The Total Body Workout – Preparation

You must set aside 3 days per week, and no more. You must follow the smart diet. You must begin slowly and keep at it, without deviation.

Find a gym that is not too crowded, or too social. It must have a good selection of the modern gym machinery and some relaxing areas, like a sauna, swimming pool, and so on.

Get some basic record keeping forms, or make them yourself to write down your routines, the weight increases, and your progress. Get yourself some comfortable workout clothes, and shoes and you are READY.

The Total Body Workout – Basic Routine (90 days)

You will start with the legs, move to waist and stomach, then back and arms, and that is it.

Do three sets of 8 repetitions, the first a warm-up set, with a low weight, the second with a weight in between your warm-up weight and your workout goal weight (for that exercise), and the third set your goal weight.

Try to increase your goal weight ever so slightly from week to week. The workout session will last no more than 45 minutes.

Ask any gym instructor to show you the correct form of the exercises below (done with various types of gym equipment)

Legs

Exercise 1 – The leg press

Exercise 2 – Leg extension

Exercise 3 – Leg curl

Exercise 4 – Standing calf raise

Midsection

Exercise 5 – Crunch

Exercise 6 – Back extension

Upper Body

Exercise 7 – Underhand-grip laterals pull down

Exercise 8 – Machine chest press

Exercise 9 – Machine row

Exercise 10 – Lateral raise

Exercise 11 – Seated dumbbell concentration curl (each arm)

Exercise 12 – Triceps pushdown

While you are still sweating, eat a banana and drink some water. Don’t eat again for 3 hours. Drink all the water you wish.

This routine will last 90 days, and a follow up routine utilizing the same principle of total body workout, section by section with more difficult exercises can be used. At the end of 90 days, you are a new you, you will see, and proficient at the gym.

Its simple, effective and anyone can do it and you can read more about it in parts 2 and 3 of this article.

As detailed in Part I of this article fitness boot camps have been around for years and have been featured in the national news all over the U.S. This type of training is very functional and based on basic movements and exercises used by U.S. military branches to condition our troups. For more details defining fitness boot camps refer to the first part of this article.

In addition to the benefits pointed out in Part I this section will shed some light on some additional benefits of this training format and why you should be a part of it.

1. Every work out is unique and different than the one before. Exercise intensity constantly changes leaving your body no time to adapt to a given regime. In a nutshell, each session offers a new shock to the body. As a result your body gets progressively stronger, more powerful and more lean. If you like constant change and would like to bring an end to your mundane, gym treadmill workouts then boot camp is for you!

2. As previously mentioned boot camp programs are based largely on methods used in military training. However, every exercise is adaptable and modifiable to meet the needs of any age group or fitness level. This includes pre-teens, 65+ year old men and women, couch potatoes and athletes. The flexibility options in these programs are endless. No matter where you are in life you CAN do this!

3. Boot camp programs are highly effective at achieving fast weight loss and conditioning in recruits. The good ones are highly planned and systemized for results. Therefore, money back guarantees are standard when it comes to these offerings. Look for boot camps that offer a guarantee. A guarantee gives you the chance to try it out risk free, with nothing to lose. So what are you waiting for?

Try this sample boot camp work out you can do at home, in a park or any other place you would like as you need no equipment to complete the exercises.

First, start with a 5-10 minute warm up of walking or jogging with some light stretching. Then perform these exercises in a circuit. Repeat this circuit as many times as possible in 20 minutes. Beginners scale time back to 10 minutes if necessary.

-25 squats

-run hard 100 yards

-15 pushups

-run 100 yards

-10 pullups

-run 100 yards

-10 burpees

The list of benefits and rewards of boot camp fitness programs could go on and on. It is my hope that these articles shed some light on how boot camps can affect your life in a positive way. Please visit http://www.montysbootcamp.com for more details and information about my programs and business. You can also email monty@montysbootcamp.com with any questions, comments or for other work out ideas.

Going to the gym has become part of the lives of a lot of men and women, but many people feel they cant get going or don’t have the time.

Getting the right routine is never easy, but with a total body workout, and the Never fail system, you cannot help but succeed.

You need some dedication, some free time, the “smart diet” (in part 2 of this article) and will…that’s it.

The Never fail System.

The Never fail system works in the following way. It conditions your body and mind to the goal of getting in shape.

In fact, the basic principles of the Never fail system can be applied to any area of your life you wish to improve. Here are the basic principles

1. Right Resolve.

You must decide and believe in your decision to make a positive change

2. Time Management.

You must put aside regular time segments, on the days required, and do no deviate from them.

3. Envision the Result.

See yourself in your expected success mode. Do not envision yourself with your current state, but actually visualize yourself the way you wish yourself to be.

4. Treat Setbacks as Stepping Stones and NOT Obstacles.

If you are building a house and break a few nails, it doesn’t mean to stop building! There will be setbacks, lots of them. Look at them as stepping stones to your goal only. Something like tests you must pass.

The Total Body Workout – Preparation

You must set aside 3 days per week, and no more. You must follow the smart diet. You must begin slowly and keep at it, without deviation.

Find a gym that is not too crowded, or too social. It must have a good selection of the modern gym machinery and some relaxing areas, like a sauna, swimming pool, and so on.

Get some basic record keeping forms, or make them yourself to write down your routines, the weight increases, and your progress. Get yourself some comfortable workout clothes, and shoes and you are READY.

The Total Body Workout – Basic Routine (90 days)

You will start with the legs, move to waist and stomach, then back and arms, and that is it.

Do three sets of 8 repetitions, the first a warm-up set, with a low weight, the second with a weight in between your warm-up weight and your workout goal weight (for that exercise), and the third set your goal weight.

Try to increase your goal weight ever so slightly from week to week. The workout session will last no more than 45 minutes.

Ask any gym instructor to show you the correct form of the exercises below (done with various types of gym equipment)

Legs

Exercise 1 – The leg press

Exercise 2 – Leg extension

Exercise 3 – Leg curl

Exercise 4 – Standing calf raise

Midsection

Exercise 5 – Crunch

Exercise 6 – Back extension

Upper Body

Exercise 7 – Underhand-grip laterals pull down

Exercise 8 – Machine chest press

Exercise 9 – Machine row

Exercise 10 – Lateral raise

Exercise 11 – Seated dumbbell concentration curl (each arm)

Exercise 12 – Triceps pushdown

While you are still sweating, eat a banana and drink some water. Don’t eat again for 3 hours. Drink all the water you wish.

This routine will last 90 days, and a follow up routine utilizing the same principle of total body workout, section by section with more difficult exercises can be used. At the end of 90 days, you are a new you, you will see, and proficient at the gym.

Its simple, effective and anyone can do it and you can read more about it in parts 2 and 3 of this article.

Now I know that there are no guarantees in the stock market, but if you follow certain strategies, you can be 90% sure that the stock will appreciate. With this particular agricultural stock, it was almost the perfect stock, and I was 99.9% sure that the stock would produce monumental gains. Sure enough, the stock exploded almost 130% higher in about a year. And this stock was not some risky penny stock trading at less than a dollar a share. This stock was trading at about $70 a share at the time I advised my friends to buy it. So below are the 10 surefire rules I employ to build enormous gains in investment portfolios.

(1)Buy When Fear is Rampant, Sell When Mania is the Greatest

Every investing course should be accompanied by a psychology course as well. The most difficult thing to do in investing is to buy more when fear and panic is rampant and to sell when mania is the highest. Stock markets and asset classes cycle in peaks and troughs. Most people will not buy stocks until after stocks are plastered all over the news and after they have just risen by 30%, 40%, 50% or more, believing that they will rise higher forever. Buying at the troughs when nobody is talking about a stock or during steep corrections provides a low-risk, high-reward setup for your portfolio.

(2)Learn What Your Neighbor is Doing, Watch Investment Shows on MSNBC and Bloomberg on TV, Listen to the Recommendations of Your Financial Consultant – Then Make Sure that You Don’t Have a Single Thing in Common With Their Strategies

If you are one of the thundering sheep herd and perpetually follow the mindless actions of others, you are virtually guaranteed to lose money or forever relegate your portfolio to average to below-average returns. The surest way to build an investment fortune is to buy asset classes and stocks when nobody is discussing them and to sell them when everyone is talking about them. This requires a nose for market timing. Is market timing impossible as all the global investment firms always tell you? Hardly. Learning what asset classes and individual stocks are poised to skyrocket every year just takes a little bit of time, but is really not that difficult. Since time is a commodity that Private Wealth Mangers and Financial Consultants employed by large commercial investment houses lack, they tell you that market timing is impossible merely because they don’t have the time to perform the necessary research.

However, purchasing stocks that are likely close to cyclical bottoms instead of believing that market timing is impossible and indiscriminately buying stocks will easily add another 10% in returns to your portfolio per year. Do you really believe that you can make a fortune by buying any stock that is advertised on a TV program watched by millions of investors worldwide? Ultimately, if you own the same stocks as your neighbor to the right, your neighbor to the left, the talking head on TV, and the talking head at your commercial investment firm, then are doing something the proper things to build an investment fortune.

If you don’t seek out stocks and asset classes at times when nobody is considering them, you will never make serious money in investing. You may make 10% a year or maybe even 15% a year but if you want to enter the world of the big boys and earn 25% or more in annual returns, you have to dig a lot deeper than your investment peers. Just a couple of months ago (June 25, 2007) this email landed in my inbox from a big investment newsletter publisher. “Over the past week, I’ve crisscrossed northwestern Canada looking for the next great investment. I’m up here to find out what everyone’s invested in. And after attending an investment conference in Vancouver last week, I can tell you absolutely that no one is interested in gold…Base and minor metals will continue to be the best place to have your money over the next few years. Gold, as a virtually useless metal that has few industrial uses, appears to have hit its peak and could be running sideways for years like it has many times in the past.”

Then, in August, when the HUI (the major AMEX gold index) took a sharp hit in response to global market corrections, everyone proclaimed that gold was no longer a safe haven and that gold was “done”. Now, just a one-month later, on September 26, 2007, a lot of people are talking about gold’s strong rapid surge. So was the newsletter that ended up in my mailbox that proclaimed gold as dead in June right in June but terribly wrong in September? The answer is neither. The only person that is wrong is you if you blindly listen to talking heads that end up in your inbox or that you watch on TV. The fact is that little-discussed asset classes and stocks are ignored because perhaps 1 out of 1000 investors truly understand them, and even the ones that parade as experts on TV have been more terribly wrong about their calls than right. So it’s up to you to get off your proverbial bum and learn how to invest for yourself. Chasing stocks higher and buying when everyone else is speaking about them is a sure way to lose money. And so is listening to talking heads. Learn a system that teaches you to buy assets when everyone is ignoring them and you’ll outperform everyone else.

(3)Concentrate, Don’t Diversify

If you’ve read the paragraph above, you already realize that Private Wealth Managers and Financial Consultants are in short supply of time as they partake in the race to gather as many assets as possible for their respective firms. Thus, this is the reason they employ the rule of diversification for your portfolio. U.S. Navy SEALs will tell you that during an operation exfil exercise, the easiest way out is rarely the safest way out. The same holds true in investing, yet diversification is by far and away, the easiest investment strategy that anyone could possibly teach to tens of thousands of financial consultants. Certainly, diversification cannot be a complex strategy if tens of thousand consultants from varied backgrounds and industries can all efficiently apply this concept to their clients’ portfolios with very little training. Diversification is the biggest cop-out investment strategy of all time. It screams of incompetence and lack of skill – “I have no idea what asset classes are going to perform well this year so I’m going to invest you in everything under the sun.”

Assume everyday, a NBA coach looked at his active roster of 12 players and said, “I have no idea who are the best players. Because I don’t know, and don’t care to take the time to figure it out, I’m going to ensure that all 12 players share equal time every game.” This coach is unlikely to win many games versus the coach that takes the time in training camp to assess who his best 5 players are and then consequently plays these 5 players the majority of minutes during every game. This is the difference between diversification and concentration. The coach that diversifies may win some games based upon pure luck because maybe he has a couple great players that can make up for the deficiencies of the poor players he puts on the court every night. Still, most nights, the deficiencies of the poor players will drag down the performance of the excellent players.

However, the coach that concentrates and puts his best players on the court every night will be able to field a team every night that has an excellent chance of winning. This is why we concentrate in investing. To give us the best possible chance of winning. Diversification will never achieve this.Study the best investors in the world. The best investors in the world always manage their own money and they concentrate their portfolios in the best asset classes every year. Don’t believe the hype about diversification – diversification stinks, it doesn’t protect your portfolio, and it certainly will never make you wealthy.

(4)Learn Everything You Can About the Relationship Between Politics and Stocks

On September 18, 2007, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut the Federal Funds Rate (the rates banks borrow from each other and the rates the rates banks loan to customers) by 50 basis points. The U.S. stock markets soared that day, followed by strong surges in Asian markets the following morning. The interest rate cut undoubtedly was not just motivated by a desire to manufacture stability and confidence in the U.S. economy, but also motivated by politics. If you don’t understand what I mean by this, then you have homework to do.

Governments and corporations in every major global economy in the world have formed relationships that have since been coined as “corporatocracies”. Politics has a major hand in all of the following: interest rate cuts, interest rate increases, the price of oil, the price of gold, the valuation of the Euro, the valuation of the dollar, the valuation of the Pound Sterling, permits to mine uranium in Australia, defense spending for national security, decisions to go to war, and contracts awarded to corporations. If you don’t understand politics, you cannot possibly understand global macro-economic trends and what asset classes and stocks offer the best low-risk, high-reward opportunities year after year. The lack of understanding of politics is what causes Chief Investment Officers of major commercial investment houses to make poor calls in the direction of commodity prices and the direction of global economies. Understand politics and your investment returns should increase tremendously.

(5)Learn Everything You Can About Gold as an Investment.

Gold, as an investment, is perhaps the most misunderstood and poorest understood asset class in the world. Some people believe that the physical commodity is the only way to invest in this asset, and as such, only put money into the paper gold ETFs. Other people that invest in gold stocks don’t understand the differences in price behavior between the juniors and majors; explorers, developers, and producers; hedged and unhedged companies; and the political risk of operating in different countries. Therefore, they never understand the risk-reward quotient of their gold portfolio, sell out during steep corrections, always lose money, and think that gold investments are speculative and stink. Furthermore, they don’t understand that short-term manipulation of prices of the underlying commodity and stocks can’t change the long-term outlook and performance. However, learn how to buy and sell this asset class properly and you will be rewarded as no other asset class can reward you

Article continued under same title, part II. To read the rest of the article, merely perform a search for “10 Surefire Ways to Make an Investment Fortune, Part II) or visit us at http://www.theundergroundinvestor.com

You may or may not have heard of one the hottest trends in fitness today. Fitness boot camps began on the West Coast and have made their way eastward. Although they have been around for 10+ years they are just now becoming mainstream. Boot camps are here to stay as a great alternative to 1-on-1 personal training. They have frequently been featured in the national news media including CNN, Fox News and the American Council on Exercise recently published a study about them. Style and format of boot camp programs varies dramatically depending on the instructor but all tend to include some variation of exercises used by The U.S. Armed Services. For example, pushups, squats, pullups and running are frequently used to condition recruits quickly. 

Why You Should Join

Boot camps offer similar benefits as personal training. Three of the benefits are:

1. You get access to the knowledge, leadership and expertise of a personal trainer but at a huge reduction in cost. Considering that the average cost of a personal trianer is at least $50/session these day you can save a ton of money with boot camps! Boot camp prices vary but average $15-20/class. You do the math.

2. People that do them get hooked immediately because they produce great results! This can be attributed to the combination of interval cardiovascular training and strength training exercises. As previosly mentioned, the types of protocols used in this setting are the same ones used by the U.S Military. If they work for them they will work for you.

3. Campers routinely report losing more weight and having more fun in boot camps than in traditional personal training programs. This is because they are done in a group environment they push individual performances to levels beyond normal limitations. The camaraderie built in this environment is priceless and is a big part of the success of people involved. You can make friends while getting into great shape!

Simply put, boot camps are the most effective and affordable fitness offering on the market today. If you are up for losing some weight, making some friends & getting in the best shape of your life then you have found what you are looking for, boot camp!  If you live in or around Wilmington, NC please give me a call or check out www.montysbootcamp.com. 

Obstacle #1 You crank the AC

Go green! Here’s how it can save (the shape of) your own rear, too: In a study published in Physiology & Behavior, researchers found that exposure to temperatures above the “thermo neutral zone”-the artificial climate we create with clothes, heating, or air conditioning-decreases our appetite and food intake. “At a slightly uncomfortable 81 degrees, the women in the study experienced a 20 percent decrease in appetite and ate 10 percent less than at 72 degrees,” says lead author Margriet S. Westerterp-Plantenga, Ph.D., a professor of food-intake regulation in the department of human biology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Detour

Instead of cranking the air conditioner every time you feel a little warm, learn to endure slightly steamier conditions. Hitting the “off” button is well worth a little discomfort if it helps you lose the saddlebags.

Obstacle #2 Always a go-getter, you work out at 6 a.m.

Why not? Morning workouts are great-if you go to bed at 10 p.m. Women who sleep 7 or more hours a night are less likely to put on weight than women who didn’t reports a recent study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Those who slept only 6 hours a night were 12 percent more likely to gain substantial weight-33 pounds on average over the course of 16 years! Women who only slept a short 5 hours had a 32 percent chance of gaining 30 or more pounds.) Other studies have linked lack of sleep to a higher BMI and have found that it negatively affects levels of the appetite-regulating hormones ghrelin and leptin.

Detour

Don’t sacrifice your snooze time..not even for an extra-long run. And quality matters more than quantity, so taking a siesta later won’t help. “In a 20-minute power nap you don’t get into the deep-sleep stage,” says Donna Taliaferro, Ph.D., associate professor of nursing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who conducts research on sleep and circadian rhythms. “You need to go through the cycles of sleep over a few hours to get the restorative rest that allows your body to work properly.” Bottom line: You’re better off sleeping through your workout every other day than stumbling to a sunrise Pilate’s class on too few zs’s.

Obstacle #3 You’re a teetotaler (or a sot!)

So what? Alcohol may not be the diet kryptonite you thought it was. Recent research showed that those who have a single drink a couple times a week have a lower risk of becoming obese than either teetotalers or heavy drinkers. Those who consume more than four drinks daily, on the other hand, boost their odds of obesity by 46 percent.

Detour

Go ahead and have a drink; definitely avoid the 245-calorie pina colada. Instead, raise a glass of heart-smart merlot (123 calories per 5 ounces), Light Beer (110 calories per 12 ounces), champagne (88 calories per 4 ounces), or sake (39 calories per ounce). Or mix a 100-calorie cocktail, like vodka and diet tonic or tequila and club soda. “Just make sure you drink it with some healthy food, such as raw veggies with low-fat dip or whole-wheat pita and hummus,” advises Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Eating slows the rise of alcohol in your blood — and cuts the odds you’ll drunk-order the deep-fried mozzarella sticks.