Power Cardio Burns Fat

Power Cardio is intense exercise and burns fat like crazy. You won't get bored doing power cardio but you will be exhausted!

Power cardio will help you break through your weight loss plateau. All of the early success associated with starting an exercise program can send you into a tailspin when you reach a plateau. You become frustrated and wonder "what am I doing wrong?" You probably just need to change up your exercise routine and you'll be okay.

There are many ways to change up an exercise routine----do new exercises, adjust the intensity, adjust the amount of weight, adjust the repetitions/sets, etc. One of the best ways to get you "out of your exercise funk" is to add some power exercises to your cardio routine! Shorter, more intense workouts (weight training or cardio) will give you more fat loss gains!

Here's an example: instead of doing cardio on the elliptical machine, do your cardio with a pair of power exercises. All it takes is 20 intense minutes! It can go something like this:

--Full speed medicine ball diagonal chops, 1 minute
--Slow jog for 2 minutes
--Full speed medicine ball front chops, 1 minute
--Slow jog for 2 minutes

Just do this rotation for 20 minutes and you have a very intense power cardio workout! And, on your weight training days, you could mix in some power exercises. Before you know it, you will have broken through your plateau! Try it! From personal experience, I know it works!

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"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Portion Control Is Key To Weight Loss

Portion control will help you stay with your meal plan and control your calories during the day. Don't ruin great workouts by eating bad food with a million calories! Its possible to hide those hard-earned muscles with a thick layer of fat! Don't fight against yourself!

We are kings and queens of "too large" servings of food and that's without even "super-sizing" anything! Keep your daily food journal to track what, how much and why you are eating! This will help you with portion control.

Make needed changes to your eating habits and reach your fat loss and weight loss goals!

MAKE THE COMMITMENT TO CHANGE YOUR EATING HABITS AND DON'T "GIVE UP" EVEN IF YOU "GIVE IN" AT TIMES! PERSEVERANCE IS THE KEY TO BEING SUCCESSFUL WITH ANYTHING!

It will be easier to keep your commitment if you plan your meals for the week. And, instead of eating out during the day, pack your food. This will protect you from binge eating and haphazard eating (i.e. grazing).

Here are some common sense do's and don'ts when it comes to eating:

Cut out these foods: sodas, sugary fruit juice drinks, candy, cookies, donuts, fried meats and fried foods, fast foods, ketchup, mayonnaise

Add these foods: whole grain breads, whole grain cereals, oatmeal, almonds, nuts, low-fat dairy products, low-fat yogurt, fruits, veggies, unsweetened tea, water, lean meats (baked, broiled or grilled), olive oil, cinnamon, mustard. You get the idea!

Get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Stability Ball Exercises Activate More Muscles

Stability ball exercises can activate more muscle fibers if done correctly.

The stability ball is one of the most versatile and cost effective pieces of exercise equipment. You can take it with you and do exercises at home, work or on vacation. Doing your ab crunches on the stability ball is superior to the traditional floor crunches. According to researchers in the Department of Kinesiology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, crunches performed by 41 test subjects on the stability ball showed significantly greater abdominal muscle activation than the traditional floor crunches.

I recommend doing the ab ball curl up (pictured below) instead of crunches to avoid low back injuries.





The results found heightened activity in the upper rectus abdominis, lower rectus abdominis and external oblique activity by 31%, 38% and 24%, respectively, when compared with the traditional floor crunch. The rectus abdominis muscles are affectionately called the "six-pack" of the abdominal region.

There is also another great reason to do your ab curl ups on the stability ball: you achieve a greater range of motion during the exercise because you are able to go back further and extend your trunk along the contours of the ball. When you first try ball curl ups, it will feel very unstable to you. Don't let that stop you---you will adjust to this exercise!

Get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Bird Dog Exercise

The bird dog exercise is a great core exercise with special emphasis on strengthening your low back. Low back pain affects nearly 85% of all adults at one time or another. The best solution for any injury is prevention. Include the bird dog exercise in your program:



1. Start by placing yourself on hands and knees.

2. Slowly raise your opposite arm and opposite leg and extend them out away from the body. Keep your back straight. Your extended arm and leg should line up with your torso. Tighten your abdominals and contract your glutes. Hold for 3 seconds.

3. Return to the starting position and repeat with the other side.

4. Repeat for the desired repetitions.

5. Always keep this movement slow and controlled.

The bird dog exercise will also improve your balance. Have fun!

Get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Vitamin D Deficiency May Be Genetic

A report from University of Toronto shows that genetic factors cause some people to develop severe vitamin D deficiency while others do not (Clinical Biochemistry, July 2009). An earlier study showed that some people and mice have abnormal Vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) and therefore cannot respond to vitamin D normally (Endocrine Reviews, June 2008). They are at increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, certain cancers, depression, athletic injuries, muscle weakness and so forth.

Over the years I have been unable to run effectively in the winter and injuries forced me to miss six Boston Marathons. This same pattern of winter-time weakness and injuries plagued me when I switched to cycling. It wasn't until a few years ago that I drew blood and found that my vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) was 22 nmol/L (normal is greater than 75). Taking as much as 3000 IU of vitamin D failed to get my blood levels much over 30. I moved to Florida and rode my bike very well last winter. This winter was extremely cold and often cloudy, and my injury and weakness pattern recurred from January through March. I notice that a good day in the sun allows me to ride well for about three or four days, but the weakness and injuries recur until the next day of warm sunlight. My skin has never been damaged by sunlight, has no pre-cancers and looks much younger than my 74 years.

Vitamin D deficiency is associated directly with muscle weakness (Scandanavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, October 2009) and athletic injuries (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care, November 2009; Molecular Aspects of Medicine, December 2008). It is my opinion that:

• Certain people are genetically susceptible to vitamin D deficiency
• These people are likely to be injured when they try to exercise vigorously in the winter
• Vitamin D pills will help some athletes, but many do not regain their athleticism at conventional doses
• These people may get better when they are exposed to sunlight during exercise. Of course they should be concerned about skin cancer from excess sunlight, but I think that people who are at high risk for vitamin D deficiency are at reduced risk for skin cancer. However, I have no available data to support that impression.
More on vitamin D deficiency

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Burn Fat With Cardio Workouts--Only 20 Minutes!

Yes, you can burn fat with cardio workouts--with the right cardio workouts! You might have to change your thought process about how you do your cardio. If your cardio workout sessions are 45 minutes to an hour, get ready to change (if you want to burn fat and tone your body)!



Long, slow cardio sessions wastes time and your precious muscle mass also wastes away! Anaerobic cardio sessions, like sprint intervals, have been proven to give superior heart-health and fat-burn! So, stop wasting your time and start building your lean, mean fat-burning machine! Devote more time to strength training and less time to cardio! That way, you will build more muscle mass and speed up your metabolism!

If you want to blast the fat in the minimum amount of time, get My Fitness Hut's 20-Minute Fat Blasting Cardio Workouts for FREE!

There are 8 different types of challenging workouts for you to do this spring and summer and they all burn fat like crazy! I do these workouts all the time and so do my clients! And, as always, the workouts are based on my proven Fat Blaster Athletic Training System!

Get your FREE 20-minute fat burning workouts and start your spring and summer workouts the right way!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Burn Fat Using Strength Exercises

Strength exercises will burn fat and lean out your body. Build more muscle mass to speed up your metabolism and burn more fat.

To recruit more muscle fibers during workouts and improve your success, focus more on MULTI-JOINT OR COMPOUND EXERCISES.

COMPOUND EXERCISES will help you burn more fat because you are working large muscle groups in your body. For example, the largest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus and squats/lunges would target this area (among other areas). You will also burn more calories after your workout.

Examples of SINGLE-JOINT EXERCISES are biceps curl, seated calf raise, leg extension, leg curl and triceps pushdowns. Spend less of your time on these exercises.

Here are some top strength exercises that will help you burn fat:

Squats - Bodyweight, dumbbell or barbell....do your squats!

Deadlift - Deadlift is a must for your exercise program. It is also one of the best ways to build muscle thickness in your lower back. Lower back fat is a problem for many people.

One-arm dumbbell rows and Pullups - These two are a must for any routine so I'm counting them as one exercise.

Clock Lunges - Clock lunges work your body in all planes of motion. Lunge with your right leg at 12 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 5 o’clock and 6 o’clock. That’s 1 repetition for your right leg. Lunge with your left leg at 12 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 9 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 6 o’clock. That’s 1 repetition for left leg. Maintain upright posture throughout to improve core strength.

Dumbbell Chest Press on Ball - Doing the chest press on the ball forces you to balance while lifting. Each arm also has to do equal work.

You should also include exercises like standing shoulder presses, step ups, pushups on medicine ball and tricep bar dips in my workouts.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

Read more »