You Can Win Free Personal Training With Me
August 28, 2009 by admin
Anyone who comes to this Saturday’s 20 Min Fat-Loss Solution Workout will be entered into a raffle for FREE personal training.
This is true even if you are a current client.
The top prize is 1 month FREE with me as your coach.
For current clients – you will get your next month free no matter what plan you’re on.
For non-clients – you will get a month on the Basic Program.
To improve your odds bring a friend. For everyone you bring you get an additional entrance into the raffle.
All the details are right here.
Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.The Truth About Core Training: Why You Should NOT Be Doing Crunches
What does everyone who wants a better stomach do? Crunches, crunches and more crunches.
Why? Because that’s what he or she sees everyone else doing. The funny thing is that rarely if ever do those other people doing all those crunches actually have midsections worth emulating. Somehow our minds filter out all of the people crunching until the cows come home with no results, and only pay attention to the 3% of people in the lucky sperm club that look good.
I’m not really pointing any fingers here because I did the same thing for at least a decade myself.
Why You Should Not Be Doing Crunches (and most, if not all traditional ab work for that matter)
#1. It will not make you look any better: Everyone that I have ever met who was dissatisfied with their midsection only ever has ONE problem – there’s too much fat over top of their ab muscles.
You were born with your abs in a 4, 6 or 8 pack and when you die, they’re going to be that way too. The only issue is that the layer of fat on top of them is too thick for you to be able to see them.
The solution to a better stomach is a good fat-loss program. (I’ve written about the hierarchy of fat-loss before.) In 3 or 4 hours per week you can slash your body-fat in half (or more) with a good fat-loss program.
If you slash your body-fat in half, but do no direct ab work whatsoever your abs will look better than they have in years (or possibly ever). But if you waste those same 3 or 4 hours per week just working your abs directly, your stomach will look no better AND you posture will probably get worse and your back will probably hurt more.
#2. Crunches make your posture worse:
When you crunch you bring your head, shoulders and chest down towards your pelvis.
What is bad posture? A forward head, shoulders and a dropped chest. Or, to put that another way, your head is forward, and your rib cage and shoulders are pulled down towards your pelvis.
If you already spend all day at your desk hunched over looking at your computer, why would you want to spend any more time hunching yourself over and over and over again with crunches?
#3. They won’t help your back feel better:
Contrary to popular “wisdom” doing a bunch of “ab” work will NOT help to protect your back at all.
A little anatomy – when people talk about their “abs” they’re talking about the long flat muscle that sits on top of everything called you “rectus abdominus.” It runs from the bottom of your rib cage to the bottom of your pelvis. Its fibers are vertical.
If you think about the physics of that, you will realize that there is no possible way that a vertical muscle on the front of your body can provide any support to a vertical structure on the back of your body (your spine).
Think about it. If it contracts concentrically (gets shorter), then it just lowers your rib cage which actually rounds your lower back and puts it in a position that it is MORE vulnerable to injury in.
If it contracts eccentrically (resists getting longer), it keeps the rib cage from moving backward. How does that support your lower back when lifting or twisting?
Your Own Weight Belt
The reason why people where weight belts is that if you synch them up tightly enough the squeezing of your midsection provides support for your lower back when you are trying to move something heavy. You actually have your own internal weight lifting belt of muscles that is built into your body. It’s made up of muscles that tighten inwards to support your lower back during movement, lifting, etc. These are the muscles that are weak when you have “pooch.”
The natural question is “how do I isolate those muscles?” That misses the point for a whole bunch of reasons that I don’t have the space to get into.
In people with a properly functioning core (and no back pain) your internal weight belt turns on automatically right before any kind of movement. By the time you think about “bracing” your core it’s already too late.
What you want is the kind of training that puts your body into positions that force it to fire the right muscles at the right time automatically (without you having to think about it).
You will never throw out your back when you are all braced up and prepared for a movement. It’s going to be when you don’t expect and your body failed to automatically and unconsciously prepare that you will hurt your back. There is no kind of crunch that will help with this.
2 Core Exercises You Should be Doing Instead
P.S. Don’t the FREE fat-loss bootcamp that I’m doing this Saturday (8-29). This will be a very fun, fast and effective fat burning workout, and I will make a donation to the Capitol Food Bank on your behalf if you show up. More details right here. This will be the kind of training that will actually help your midsection look better.
Two Important Things For You To Know About
August 24, 2009 by admin
#1. How to sign-up for the Free, Fat-Loss Bootcamp
#2. Today is the LAST day to get the brand new Client Success Manual for 50% off
How to sign-up for the Free, Fat-Loss Bootcamp
Spots are going, so send an email to my assistant, Natillie (thebodyyouwant@yahoo.com), to reserve a spot in the class time you want.
The subject line should read “Josef’s bootcamp“, and in the body include:
1. the time you want (9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30 or 2:30)
2. your name
3. email address
4. phone number
Today is the LAST day to get the brand new Client Success Manual for 50% off
Today, August 24th, 2009 is the very last day that you can get the Client Success Manual for half price. If you’ve ever wondered exactly what to do in the kitchen and in the gym to get the body you want in the time that you actually have without being hungry, then this is your answer. In this manual I break down the mindset, nutrition and exercise program to help you get and keep the body you really want.
It’s got a complete 16 week program, a three phase nutrition program for life-long leanness, and 30 delicious, usually easy fat-burning recipes. For more info click here.
If you’re a client, don’t worry about this. If you are a current client when I get my first shipment of the manuals, then you’ll be getting one absolutely free.
Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.
