6 Pack Abs

What does it take to get a six-pack? 

Developing a six pack has more to do with nutrition and genetics than training alone. To start seeing ripples, you'll likely need to bring your body fat below 10 percent. Fine tune your eating habits by asking yourself five key questions:

1. Are you eating 5-6 mini meals per day?

Eating smaller portions spread evenly throughout the day helps rev up your metabolism and curb hunger.

2. Are you eating the majority of your carbohydrates around times of activity?

Think about eating the majority of your carb-dense foods, like grains, before and after exercise. By doing this, your body will use carbs for energy so they're not stored as fat. Outside of the hours surrounding your workout, focus on eating smaller portions and aim to make fruits and veggies your primary sources of your carbohydrate.

3. Are you including a lean protein source with each meal?

Protein has a high thermic effect, which simply means your body burns more calories to digest it. Make sure you include protein--chicken, fish, beef--with each meal to keep your metabolism running at full throttle.

4. Are you drinking enough water?

Aim for half an ounce to an ounce of water per pound of bodyweight a day to stay hydrated. Green tea is another proven metabolism booster. Drink 16 ounces of green tea a day.

5. Are you drinking alcohol on a regular basis?

Alcohol is a major weight loss saboteur. Just another reason to think before you drink.

Maximize Muscle Gains

MAXIMIZE MUSCLE GAINS Want to build muscle and recover from your lifts faster than ever? Nutrition is the answer. Consuming enough of the right kinds of protein and other nutrients, at the right times, can supercharge your workouts and help you build lean muscle faster than ever. Start by following these rules: Make protein a part of every meal. Most experts recommend getting 1g of protein per day for every pound of body weight. Focus on high-quality sources of protein, like whey. Don’t ignore amino acids, like L-glutamine and L-arginine. These 2 important acids help speed muscle recovery and boost muscle growth. Eat more at breakfast and after training, when your body is looking for nutrients. Obviously, it’s important to fuel yourself throughout the day, but immediately after you finish a workout is when your muscles are most hungry for protein to build and repair themselves. Aim for 6 small meals per day. This keeps you from getting hungry and potentially starving your muscles from the fuel they need to get your through your next workout. Look for complex carbohydrates, and avoid simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are those found in whole grains, oats and brown rice. Avoid the simple carbohydrate sugars in sports drinks; they will give you a temporary boost, but drop off quickly, and can be more easily turned into fat.

Improving Fitness Training

FULL ARTICLE

Follow these eight cardinal training principles and you will be well on your way to designing effective fitness programs.

Specificity Principle

The specificity principle asserts that the best way to develop physical fitness for your sport is to train the energy systems and muscles as closely as possible to the way they are used in your sport. Thus, the best way to train for running is to run, for swimming is to swim, and for weightlifting is to lift. In sports such as basketball, baseball, and soccer, the training program should not only overload the energy systems and muscles used in that sport, but should also duplicate similar movement patterns. For example, in strengthening a quarterback’s throwing arm, design the exercise to simulate the throwing movement. Warning: This principle can be taken too far. Ample evidence suggests that cross training, or doing another sport or activity, can help improve performance (see the variation principle).

Overload Principle

To improve their fitness levels, athletes must do more than what their bodies are used to doing. When more is demanded, within reason, the body adapts to the increased demand. You can apply overload in duration, intensity, or both. If you increase a cross country runner’s long-distance run by five minutes, you’ve added an overload of duration. If you instead ask the runner to run her normal distance but in a shorter amount of time, you’ve added an overload of intensity.

Progression Principle

To steadily improve the fitness levels of your athletes, you must continually increase the physical demands to overload their systems. If the training demand is increased too quickly, the athlete will be unable to adapt and may break down. If the demand is not adequate, the athlete will not achieve optimal fitness levels.

Diminishing Returns Principle

When unfit athletes begin a training regime, their fitness levels improve rapidly, but as they become fitter, the diminishing returns principle becomes law. That is, as athletes become fitter, the amount of improvement is less as they approach their genetic limits (figure 13.9). A corollary to this principle is that as fitness levels increase, more work or training is needed to make the same gains. As you’re designing training programs, remember that fitness levels will not continue to improve at the same rate as athletes become fitter.

Variation Principle

This principle has several meanings. After your athletes have trained hard for several days, they should train lightly to give their bodies a chance to recover. Over the course of the year use training cycles (periodization) to vary the intensity and volume of training to help your athletes achieve peak levels of fitness for competition. This principle also means that you should change the exercises or activities regularly so that you do not overstress a part of the body. Of course changing activities also maintains athletes’ interest in training.

Perhaps you’re thinking that the specificity principle and variation principle seem to be incompatible. The specificity principle states that the more specific the training to the demands of the sport, the better; and the variation principle seemingly asserts the opposite-train by using a variety of activities. The incompatibility is resolved by the degree to which each principle is followed. More specific training is better, but it can become exceedingly boring. Thus some variety that involves the same muscle groups is a useful change.

Reversibility Principle

We all know the following adage: Use it or lose it. When athletes stop training, their hard-won fitness gains disappear, usually faster than they were gained. The actual rate of decline depends on the length of the training period before detraining, the specific muscle group, and other factors. A person confined to complete bed rest is estimated to lose cardiovascular fitness at the rate of 10 percent a week. Smart coaches and athletes today recognize that maintaining a moderately high level of fitness year-round is easier than detraining at the end of the season and then retraining at the beginning of the next.

Individual Differences Principle

Every athlete is different and responds differently to the same training activities. As discussed in chapter 5, the value of training depends in part on the athlete’s maturation. Before puberty, training is less effective than after puberty. Other factors that affect how athletes respond to training include their pretraining condition; genetic predisposition; gender and race; diet and sleep; environmental factors such as heat, cold, and humidity; and of course motivation. As discussed previously, it’s essential to individualize training as much as possible.

Moderation Principle

Here is another familiar adage: All things in moderation. Remember that training is a slow, gradual process. Give athletes time to progress. Your challenge as a physical conditioning coach is to design a training program that progresses optimally using the principles just discussed. You want to gently coax your athletes’ bodies into superior condition, not beat them up by overtraining.

Make training fun. Design games and activities that challenge athletes to do the same work but without the drudgery of monotonous exercises. Be encouraging and promote a positive attitude about training. By all means don’t use training activities as punishment for misbehaviors.

Take Control of Your Career and Financial Situation

Nutrimanage


If you work for most companies, you don't have a contract that gives you a meaningful severance package if you are terminated without cause.  The fact is that employers don't need to give you warnings.

The vast majority of employees in the US are "AT WILL"" employees. Such employment may be ended by either party, without notice, and for any reason.  So, the bottom line is that you could be terminated ANY TIME for ANY REASON or NO REASON.   As an employee, you basically have no control over your career or your life. Yet, you can also leave anytime, but in today's economy it is not easy to find a job, so if you are terminated you could be in for a long stint of unemployment.  And, that stats are clear that the older you are, the longer you are likely to be unemployed.  Many over 50 employees have found it impossible to find new jobs even if they were senior executives for many years. 

So, what do you do? 

A. Start a consulting company...this assumes that you have a specialty that companies (and maybe your former employer) will pay for.

B. Buy into a Franchise....many people have made fortunes in the franchise business (McDonald's, etc.)....but, it is tough to find the right one and many franchisors have lousy business models, require toe much marketing that only benefits the franchisor, and cost a lot of money to open (especially retail). In addition, if you are borrowing money, you will have to personally guarantee the loan (either via a bank or the Small Business Administration).  Bottom line, if you are interested in becoming a franchisee, you need to take a long time doing your due diligence, interviewing other franchisees (though often they dont want to badmouth the franchisor because they might want to sell their business).  

C. Start company with a new idea.  If you have a patent or have been working on a new concept, now may be the time to move forward with your dream. But, starting a new company has tremendous financial risks. Many people don't have the skills or the financial wherewithal to build a company from the ground up, attract key people, raise equity, etc. 

D. Get involved in a Multi-Level Marketing business on the side while you are working.  Although it is not easy to network with a product company, the reality is that this is the lowest cost option and if you are successful at it, you can eventually build an income that will allow you to get debt free and quit your job.  You need to be able to recruit people to sell for you.  However, with the internet, your options to attract people has changed dramatically, as you can do a lot online as opposed to years ago when you invited people to your home (which was awkward).  Also, you should find a product or group of products that you believe in and are passionate about and is in a category considered a growth industry.   For example, the sports nutrition, supplement, weight loss and energy products market is booming due to the aging population and a bigger focus on fitness and nutrition. 

Here is one opportunity in that category that requires $89 to get started (you get samples and your own microsite), and your own 20% discount off the retail prices on the site. As you either buy or get people to buy and/or distribute the products (which are competitors of GNC), you earn 40% commissions.  So, this is a great business to test out while you are working:

Nutrimanage

It is time to take control of your career and financial situation, because your employer can terminate you any day and ruin your life.

Stop Working for The Man

CLICK HERE FOR A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY


Most people are tired of working for someone else...you have to deal with bad bosses, ridiculous HR policies, back stabbing employees and a corporate culture that rewards people who are basically nasty to their fellow employees. And, 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. There is a better way.

If you don't have a great idea or a lot of money, it is a challenge to go out on your own (unless you have a specific expertise that you can turn into a consulting business).  The worst thing you can do is get into a retail business or franchise that sucks the life out of you (retail is 24/7, watching the cash, having to deal with a lease that requires a personal guarantee that goes after your assets if you fail, having to find good employees, and dealing with the vagaries of customers and season issues).

Furthermore, the internet has revolutionized the world and offers everyone the opportunity to sell either nationally or globally in many different ways.  Combine that with the right multi-level marketing ("MLM") business and you have a very powerful combination.  In addition, the right MLM business does not require a significant upfront investment and allows you to succeed at your pace.

So, what is a potentially strong candidate in the MLM/intternet marketing space?  One that combines products that are in a high growth industry....nutrition, wellness, energy, weight loss.  In other words, products that compete with GNC and a business model that does not require you to open a store (and drain your savings).

As an example:

Supplement sales hit $11.5 billion in U.S., report says

Supplement sales across the U.S. have shown strong, steady growth in the face of economic uncertainty, posting a 7% gain in 2012, according to a new report.

This is a big business and growing as the population ages.  

Click Here for a distributor opportunity in the wellness, energy, weight loss and sports nutrition business that requires only $89 to get going and NO other commitment.  You have to either sell products directly (you can do it online or out of your home, but you dont have to buy anything after the initial purchase, so if you feel that you can't make it work, you are not draining your bank account.  This company is thriving and offers tons of great products for many different target markets.

Sports Nutrition Market

PROSPECTS

• The growth in consumer education will bolster the growth in mainstream sports nutrition users. As such, during the forecast period, protein products is expected to record a constant value CAGR of 7% to reach US$6 billion. The increase in mainstream consumers is giving major growth opportunities for companies to expand their offerings that are vegetarian and vegan-friendly, as well providing new delivery formats which is more accessible to non-extreme athletes.

NUTRIMANAGE  offers a great opportunity in the sports nutrition market for people who are tired of working for the man.  Gain financial freedom selling products that you love.

Living Paycheck to Paycheck

According to CNN,

Roughly three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings, according to a survey released by Bankrate.com Monday.

Are you tired of this? Time to stop working for the man, paying off your debt and living a better life.  

Fewer than one in four Americans have enough money in their savings account to cover at least six months of expenses, enough to help cushion the blow of a job loss, medical emergency or some other unexpected event, according to the survey of 1,000 adults. Meanwhile, 50% of those surveyed have less than a three-month cushion and 27% had no savings at all.

"It's disappointing," said Greg McBride, Bankrate.com's senior financial analyst. "Nothing helps you sleep better at night than knowing you have money tucked away for unplanned expenses."

Even more disappointing; The savings rates have barely changed over the past three years, even though a larger percentage of consumers report an increase in job security, a higher net worth and an overall better financial situation.

So why aren't Americans saving more?

Last week, online lender CashNetUSA said 22% of the 1,000 people it recently surveyed had less than $100 in savings to cover an emergency, while 46% had less than $800. After paying debts and taking care of housing, car and child care-related expenses, the respondents said there just isn't enough money left over for saving more.