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You’re lying face down in the grass and someone is screaming at you to push that final press up.

You sweat, the muscles hurt and you may be thinking, “Sod this, why not go back home and crawl into bed?”

There are many answers to that of course. Working out gives you a chance to escape the kids for half an hour, regain the vigor of your loss youth or (and this seems very popular) the chance to “look good naked”.

Then there is your health. Being sick – long-term sick I mean – is an exhausting, unpleasant and miserable experience. That is obvious. It can destroy much of the joy in your life. Just getting about day-to-day when you have on-going heart problems or when you are dealing with cancer – think about what that would be like.

The health benefits of regular exercise (and the word “regular” is important here) have been known for a long time. Here is a list of the major ones:

And while this may be familiar to some of you, it’s also worth pointing out that regular exercise boosts self-confidence and helps prevent depression.

Obviously go and see your doctor if you’re concerned about any aspect of your health. If you have undiagnosed diabetes or serious depression then attempting 10 chin-ups is not going to help you. You need medical care.

But I do think that if a drug company could invent one drug that had all the health benefits listed above – it would have made billions.

Well we are saying there is a “drug” that can do all that. And unlike sticking a fistful of tablets down your throat in the morning, getting out and doing some training is a lot more fun – at least the way we do it!

Here’s a quick video of one of our Sydney boot camp workouts, check it out…

Wishing you the best of health

Emiliano
Boot Camp Instructor
Dangerously Fit Boot Camp

P.S Visit Boot Camp Sydney for more info.

                        

Recently we’ve incorporated boxing workouts into our Sydney boot camps and they’ve been a massive hit with everyone in the program.

Boxing is great for cardio fitness, self-defense, weight loss and will help tone the muscles in your upper body.

Studies show that a boxing workout uses both energy systems with 60% coming from the anaerobic system and 40% from the aerobic system.

So you can see why professional boxers are so fit, but you don’t need to be Muhammad Ali to enjoy the benefits of boxing.

Sure, if you want to take up boxing as a competitive sport I would definitely recommend you see a professional boxing coach for 1-1 training.

But if you just want to get fit, lose weight and blow off some steam then boxing fitness is safe and lots of fun.

Most boxing fitness classes will combine regular boxing drills with bodyweight strength exercises and running to enhance your strength, stamina and overall fitness.

Also, during a boxing fitness workout your heart rate can elevate up to 80-90% of it’s maximum which will raise your metabolism and put your body into fat burning mode.

Boxing training will bring about a huge number of positive results, so if your bored of plodding away on a treadmill and fancy a change, feel free to contact me for a free trial session at… dan@bootcampsydney.com

We currently have boxing classes at Rushcutters Bay, Bondi Beach, Centennial Park (Queens Park) and will soon have classes in the CBD (Domain) and Coogee Beach.

Train Hard!

Dan Clay
Dangerously Fit

                        

1. Cost effective – very little equipment is needed
2. Large variety of exercises
3. Competition between partners provides better fitness results
4. Accountability and social support
5. Its more fun!

We often use buddy training in our boot camps and find that it works particularly well. The competitive side in people comes out they push themselves to the limit which in turn yields better results – faster.

The Buddy Training Workout – Tabata Style

This total body workout will consist of bodyweight exercises. Each station you will alternate between 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. Repeat this 30 second set another 8 times for a total of 4 minutes followed by a 1 minute rest before moving on the next station.

Exercise 1 Med-ball squat and pass

Exercise 2 Buddy Push up and Row

Exercise 3 Plank and reach (tapping opposite hands across)

Exercise 4 Buddy resisted reverse lunges

Now go find yourself a buddy to train with – or join one of our Sydney boot camps and get training.

Train Hard!

Dan Clay
Dangerously Fit Personal Training
Sydney

                        

So without further delay…

The No-Crunch Six-Pack Abs System:

Step 1- Is to burn the fat that sitting on your abs

A.) Eat well and elevate your metabolism

Drink between 2-4 cups of water as soon as wake in the morning and then drink between 1-2 cups of water every 2 hours you are awake. Drink 1-2 cups of water for every 15 minutes of vigorous activity.

Eat as soon as wake in the morning and then every 2-4 hours after that for a total of 6-8 feeds per day (3 meals, 3 snacks – half the size of your meals, workout nutrition)

Focus on a wide range of lean proteins, natural fats, fruits and veggies

Sample One-Day Menu:

Breakfast – Scrambled Eggs, Greens

Mid-Morning Snack – Mixed Nuts and Fruit/Veggie of Choice

Lunch – Chicken, or Shrimp Caesar Salad

Mid-Afternoon Snack- Mixed Nuts and Fruit/Veggie of Choice

Dinner – Grilled fish and salad/veggies

Pre-Bed Snack- Protein Shake

Take a whole food based multi-vitamin and fish/flax seed oil.

Reduce carbohydrates:

Step 1- Eliminate white carbs and instead use 100% whole grain carbs, replace refined sugars with natural sugars.

Step 2- Reduce all whole grain starch and natural sugar consumption to within 1-2 hours post-workout or immediately upon waking for breakfast

Step 3- Replace all starches and sugars with fruits and veggies

Step 4- Replace all fruits with green veggies

B.) Workout to lose fat and increase your metabolism

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday- Perform Total Body Circuit Strength Training

Sample Total Body Circuit Strength Workout- 20 Minutes (not including five minute warm-up and cool-down)

50-10 Interval Five Exercise Total Body Circuit- You will alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 s of rest for each exercise in the following five-exercise circuit. Perform this 5 minute circuit up to four times for a 20 minute total body workout:

1. Reverse lunges
2. Press up
3. Squats
4. Inverted rows
5. Medicine ball wood chop

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday- Perform Interval Training

Sample Cardio Interval Training Workout- 20 Minutes (not including five minute warm-up and cool-down)

30-30’s- Alternate between 30 seconds of maximum effort and 30 seconds of active recovery. Perform this 1 minute round up to 20 x for 20 total minutes.

Step 2- Abs are built for stabilization, so train them that way

Here is one of my favourite core routines I use at our boot camps. It doesn’t involve sit up’s
but instead just pillar stabilization exercises. Once you master these awesome exercises and follow everything else you’ll have 6 pack abs in no time.

Tabata Style Pillar Workout

This killer 20 min whole body core workout uses just pillar stabilization exercises. The pillar involves working the core, hips and shoulders.

Alternate the exercises below betweens 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. Repeat this 30 second exercise 8 times for a total of 4 minutes followed by 1 minute rest and transition before changing to the next exercise.

To perform these exercises correctly tighten your abs whilst squeezing your glutes (butt) and keep a straight line from your shoulders to your heels.

Exercise 1- Plank (static or dynamic)

Exercise 2- Left plank (static or dynamic)

Exercise 3- Right plank Variation (static or dynamic)

Exercise 4- Back pillar (static or dynamic)

Let me know how you get on.

Till next time…

Dan Clay
Dangerously Fit

                        

But for many people it doesn’t matter how many crunches or sit-ups we do it never seems to happen. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me the following question:

“Everyday I do hundreds of sit ups and crunches but I still have fat around my midsection. How come?

Well before I reveal the 6 pack system, first I’m going to debunk some very important myths regarding how to get 6 pack abs.

Myth 1. You must lose weight to see your abs.

This is not entirely true, the focus should be on fat loss rather than weight loss.

The reason?

Your body consists of fat mass and lean body mass (muscle, bone, water, organs etc). The key is to minimize your fat mass and increase your lean body mass to ramp up your metabolism, a body that starves fat and builds muscle like clockwork.

So if you lose 8 kilos of scale weight but lose some lean muscle in the process you will slow down your metabolism, decrease performance and lose muscle tone.

However…

If you lose 8 kilos on the scale but keep your lean muscle you increase your performance, increase muscle tone and lose mostly body fat.

The scale has far too many variables to account for that lead to frequent fluctuations such as hydration levels, sodium intake, and for women the menstrual cycle. I firmly believe one should NOT keep a scale at their home- it is such an anchor, particularly for women. Get off the scale and get over the numbers. The true goal is fat loss, not weight loss. Focus on clothing size reduction, digital before and after pictures, and of course the mirror for the most accurate progress tracking.

Myth 2- Doing lot’s of abs training will burn stomach fat

Spot reduction doesn’t work. You can’t train a region of the body and expect to lose body fat in that area. Nearly everyone you see does crunches but only a few people will do total body workouts so why isn’t more people walking around with flat stomachs and fat arms, legs etc. Spot reduction doesn’t work!

Everybody loses fat in a genetically pre-determined way when you create a calorie deficit through proper dietary habits and the correct training methods. So the best way to train is to focus your training around burning as many calories as possible by training your whole body every workout and not just your abs. Big exercises that work more than one muscle at a time like push ups, chin ups, squats, lunges etc burn far more calories than working one muscle at a time like crunches and sit ups. So make sure you focus your training around these big movements and only do specific abs work to supplement the rest of your training.

Myth 3- Sit ups and crunches are the N0.1 exercise for abs

The scientific term for your six-pack muscles are your rectus abdominis. For years now, we have been conditioned to think that the best way to work your rectus abdominis is by doing endless crunches and sit-ups since these trunk flexion exercises make the muscles you want to see in the mirror “burn.” However, the true function of the rectus abdominis is to prevent hyperextension, not to flex forward over and over again. Anytime you brace your abs (think slight crunch before you get punched in the gut) and pull your navel into your spine you effectively stabilize your spine into a safe, neutral position. And the moment you relax your abs and lose that braced abs position, your back will begin to hyperextend putting you at greater risk for injury.

So, we focus on stabilization exercises in all three planes of movement (saggital- front to back, frontal- side to side, and transverse- rotational) by using pillar exercise variations (also know as planks). Besides training the true “anti-extension” function of your superficial ab muscles, these bridging/stabilization exercises also activate the key transverse abdominus muscles, or your deep abdominal stabilizers, that wrap around your spine and support your internal organs. Strengthening these inner ab muscles is the key to optimal posture and performance in addition to injury prevention, yet another benefit to performing pillars over primitive crunches and sit-ups that often cause unwanted neck and back pain.

Myth 4- Long bouts of cardio will burn fat and reveal your abs

Real world case studies and scientific studies prove that aerobic training for fat loss alone isn’t the most efficient way to train. Whole body resistance training is the best way to train for fat loss. Furthermore HIIT (interval training) has been scientifically proven to burn nine times more body fat than ordinary exercise. At our boot camps we combine resistance training and interval training to combine the best of both worlds.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2 of The Six Pack Abs System.

Till then.

Dan Clay

                        

Here is this weeks Boot camp workout of the week…

Partner Workouts
Split camps into pairs, depending on size of group set out a 6-10 station circuit. Spend 60 seconds on each station, 15 seconds rest between exercises.
1. Partner Med-ball Push ups
2. Partner Med-ball Sit ups
3. Partner Squat and Med-ball Pass
4. Partner Sandbag Pass
5. Partner Kettlebell Sprints
6. Plank
7. Kettlebell Swings
8. Partner Russian Twists

10 minutes of hill sprints

Running Drill
1. Sprint to 1st cone
2. Side shuffle to 2nd cone
3. Side shuffle other side to 3rd cone
4. Back peddle to 4th cone
5. Sprint back

Till next week.

Enjoy

Dan Clay
Personal Trainer Sydney
Boot Camp Sydney

                        

Here’s the workout

Split campers into pairs, 1 person performs the strength exercise, the other person will sprint to a cone 50 meters away and back. 90 seconds per station, 15 seconds rest then move to the next station.

Exercise 1 – Centennial Park Personal Trainer Combo:
1. Kettlebell Swings
2. Medball crunch
3. Push ups
4. Slam ball
5. Squat jumps
6. Kettlebell Swings
7. Medball crunch
8. Push ups
9. Slam ball
10. Squat jumps

Exercise 2 – Strongman sprints
Split camper into pairs, mark out 5 cones 15 meters apart. 1st person squats down and picks up the kettlebell then runs to first cone and puts the kettlebell down then sprints back and tags partner. 2nd person then repeats, continue until you have reached the 5th cone and then start making your way back until your back at the 1st cone.

Enjoy

Dan Clay
Group Personal Training Centennial Park

                        

People performing set after set of one exercise before moving onto the next exercise, it just takes forever!

I know, I used to be the same meathead who’d take 15 minutes to do 3 sets of 10 on the bench press…

What a waste of time!

Such diminished results!

And so…boring!

What’s the answer?

Fitness Boot Camps

Check out the video below to see some of the circuits we use (for advanced campers).

For a FREE 1 week trial to one of our Sydney Boot Camps and a FREE Quick start Fat Loss Kit, please visit www.bootcampsydney.com.au

Train hard!

Dan

Dangerously Fit Personal Training
Personal Training Sydney
Boot Camp Fitness Sydney
Corporate Fitness Sydney

                        

Performing straight sets of a strength exercise one after another with long rest periods is a thing of the past (unless your body builder or power lifter).

The problem with performing straight sets one after another is it’s an extremely inefficient way to order your exercises.

In the majority of commercial gyms you’ll often see someone perform a set of 10 reps of an exercise – let’s say bench press. They crank out a set of 10, have a chat with a mate, go to the water bubbler, watch some MTV, stretch, have a wipe down with a towel and then moll back to the bench for the 2nd set. They could spend up to 15 minutes just to perform 3 sets of one exercise! 4 exercises will take an hour.

A much more efficient way to train is utilizing the alternating set format. Here you’ll perform an exercise, have a short rest, perform another non competing exercise, have a short rest, perform another non competing exercise and so forth.

Using this format allows you to train more than one area of the body, gives each muscle more time to recover between sets and allows you to fit more exercises in per workout, the result – more fat loss.

There are several different ways to perform alternating sets…

Tri-sets: Alternate between three different exercises (e.g. push, pull, and lower body such as push-ups, rows, and lunges)

Supersets: Alternate between two different non-competing exercises (e.g. upper body and lower body such as push-ups and lunges)

Circuits: Alternate between four or more different exercises

Though all these options are good, I believe circuit training is by far the best option.

Here’s one of my favourite circuits to help demonstrate why this template is so efficient.

It’s called the 50-10 Five bodyweight Circuit: Alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for all five exercises in the following 5 minute circuit:

1. Push ups

2. Squats

3. Step ups

4. Chin-ups

5. Reverse crunches

Perform this bodyweight circuit up to four times for a 20 minute total body fat-melting workout.

As you can see in the same 15 minutes it would have taken to perform 3 sets of bench press you would have fitted in a staggering 15 different exercises.

Circuit training is an excellent way to simultaneously burn fat and build lean muscle.

This style of training also creates the optimal hormonal environment for fat loss by exercising at maximal intensity separated with short rest periods.

In the upcoming weeks Ill be showing you some great videos of circuits we use at our boot camps.

Train hard!

Dan

Dangerously Fit Personal Training
Personal Training Sydney
Boot Camp Fitness Sydney
Corporate Fitness Sydney

                        

5 min dynamic warm up

Exercise 1
Sprint 400 meters
a) Push ups x 10
b) Mountain climbers x 10
c) Crunches x 10

Complete 3 sets

Sprint 400 meters
a) Dips x 10
b) Lunges x 10
c) Step up with reverse depth jump

Complete 3 sets

Sprint 400 meters

Exercise 2
Everyone in pairs, 6 cones set out 10 meters apart. 1st partner sprints to 1st cone and back while partner performs an exercise, change and repeat until all 6 cones are complete.

Tuck jumps
Squat thrusts
Lateral hops (in push up position)
Squat jumps
Plank
Burpees

Exercise 3
Hill Sprints 7 mins

5 min cool down and stretch

Train hard!

Dan Clay

Dangerously Fit Personal Training
Personal Training Sydney
Boot Camp Fitness Sydney
Corporate Fitness Sydney