New, FUN, Killer Home Fat-loss Workout

My fiancé filmed this masterpiece from my luxurious home gym (my living room).  I was supposed to do kettlebells for my intervals today, but I came up with a “better” idea instead.  (I say “better” because it really kicked my butt and made me sweat like a pig, but it was a better workout.)  Besides not being able to breath it was actually a pretty fun 20min.

Watch the video – you want to catch my jokes and be sure that you understand how to do this correctly (safety and efficacy).

Here’s the workout and warm-up:

Warm-up

10 brides
10 squats
5 inchworms

The Goblin Squat/Squat Thrust Ladder (from hell)

10 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 10 squat thrusts
30sec rest

9 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 9 squat thrusts
30sec rest

8 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 8 squat thrusts
30sec rest

7 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 7 squat thrusts
30sec rest

6 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 6 squat thrusts
30sec rest

5 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 5 squat thrusts
30sec rest

4 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 4 squat thrusts
NO rest

3 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 3 squat thrusts
NO rest

2 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 2 squat thrusts
NO rest

1 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 2 squat thrusts

Rest 2 min

Repeat once more

Collapse in a pool of your own sweat!

Workouts like this will massively accelerate lypolysis (fat-burning) and enhance your fitness levels in just 20min.  Oh, and you will get both a better looking and fitter body in 20min of this kind of workout than you would in 60-90min of a regular workout like jogging.

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.

Josef’s 6-Pack Beef Stew

This is THE beef stew that will actually help you achieve your health & aesthetics goals, AND still tastes good! Normally beef stew involves breading beef with flour and then pan frying it in un-godly amounts of butter or oil – increasing your waist-line, insulin resistance, and your risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Please note, while this dish only takes 15-20min. to prepare it does need to cook for 2 to 2.5hours (you don’t need to do anything to it while it cooks though). You could drive to the gym, workout, drive home, and shower, or watch a movie, cook other stuff, clean your house, or do anything else while it cooks.

Ingredients

2lbs beef chuck (or boneless beef shank) – trim all visible fat, and cut into 1” x 1” cubes (grass-fed beef if you can find it)	927 kcal
4 tbs tomato paste	60 kcal
2 tbs balsamic vinegar	20 kcal
1 tbs flour	29 kcal
2 small/1 large onion – 1” x 1” cubes	69 kcal
3 medium turnips – cubed	102 kcal
5 large carrots – chopped	148 kcal
4 cloves garlic – diced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dry thyme (1 tbs fresh)
1 cup water
1 cup red wine	198 kcal
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F, and chop veggies & meat.
2. In a large Dutch oven (5qts) combine beef, flour, tomato paste, vinegar, and salt & pepper (be generous).
3. Add the veggies, bay leaf, thyme, water and wine, and bring to a simmer on stove top.
4. Cover pot, and transfer to oven. Allow to cook for 2 to 2.5hrs (until meat is fork tender).

Nutrition Facts

6 servings, 426 kcal per serving

My New Favorite Meal – Five Guys Burgers, No Fries

I love Five Guys. But I also love having energy and fitting into my pants, so I thought that Five Guys was going to be a once in a blue moon treat. I’m embarrassed that it took me 3 years to think of this, but I can now eat Five Guys every single day with just one minor adjustment – take off the bun.

Step 1 – buy 2 (if you have my appetite) double burgers, hold the fries. I like mine with lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, grilled onions and mushrooms.

Step 2 – remove bun

Step 3 – devour

Its still really, really good without the bun. What makes it even better is that I can eat at Five Guys without having to take a 2 hour nap afterwards, and without the incredible mucous storm that happens after eating a bunch of wheat and potatoes. Oh, and if I eat Five Guys without the bun three or four times in a week I look better with my shirt off, not worse!

Writing this blog post made me hungry, but they don’t open for 20min:-(.

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.

$60 or $2,699? The Cheaper, More Fun Home Interval Workout

Time has become really, really tight for me lately.  With the new book, new web sites, the new CD-club, new writing gigs, a rapidly expanding training business, etc I am finding it very, very, very difficult to get all of my workouts in.  This is funny because I work at a gym 5 days per week and specialize in time efficient workouts.

At this point in my life I am not able to spare the time to walk or drive to the gym, go do my intervals, then walk or drive home.  Can’t do it.  I’m just too busy, or I’m just not up to it at the end of a 16 or 18 hour day.  HOWEVER, I am NOT one to let something like that get in the way of me being super fit.  Necessity is the mother of adaptation, so I adapted!  (This is what I meant by resourcefulness.)

Here’s what I’m doing now:

#1.  I bought a kettlebell (KB) from here.

By the way this place has THE best prices for quality products AND the fastest, least expensive shipping of any place that I found.  I bought my mother a 12kg KB for Christmas for $60 + shipping.  Shipping was a LOT, but I love my mommy.

It turns out that I could have gotten my mom’s KB for just $39 at this place.  I actually bought myself a 24kg (twice as much weight) KB for the same price as my mom’s and the shipping was the same!  I won’t be buying from that other place again!

#2.  I bought DVD’s from Target (yes, Target!) and from Perform Better. (I like the Art of Strength DVD’s that they carry.)  I go to town at home for 20min and I am completely done.  Now my “commute” is right down the hall from my office, and I can do it midday when I have more energy.  And, I get a BETTER workout that’s actually more fun, and has unlimited variety!

The Not-So-Good Alternative

This home elliptical trainer has an MSRP of $2,699!  And would devour my living room!  No good option.  Plus you can only do ONE thing on it.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert 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.

A New Year, A New Body

Happy New Year!

You asked for it, you got it.  Many of you all have asked for:

• Help with motivation
• Help with energy
• Help with finding the time
• More samples of my programs
• More exercise guidance
• Help with dropping belly fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, butt fat…

Here it is. With the good folks at Primer Magazine, I have laid out a complete 12-week, 3-phase program that addresses ALL of the above points and spells out the nutrition AND exercise program to get you MAXIMUM results in MINIMUM time.

For the ladies, yes, Primer is a men’s magazine, don’t worry about this.  This is a fat loss program NOT a muscle growth program.  While almost everyone will gain some muscle on this program, the women just won’t gain that much and what you do gain will be sexy and feminine.  It takes a lot of a different kind of work to turn into a she-man, and this isn’t that program.  (Not to mention that there really isn’t that much demand for the she-man look.)

There are only 2 differences between men and women when it comes to body-composition training (improving ratio of fat to muscle):

#1.  Women usually need fewer carbs.  So just eat more fruits and veggies and use a Whey recovery drink intead of a carb + protein one (i.e. Surge)

#2.  Sometimes women need extra cardio.  Occaisionally women need to add 10, 15 or 20min of hard steady-state work AFTER their intervals.

However, I don’t see this very often.  I have plenty of ladies in their late 50’s who look great without any steady-state work.

So, 1st follow the plan as written and track results.

2nd If results are not as desired, check that you are eating on-point and lifting heavy enough weight.

3rd, if #2 doesn’t fix (it almost always does), then tack on 15min.

Here is part one of the road map to a brand new you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.