STOP BEING PARALAZED BY YOUR DIET! 

Must….eat…crap….

Everyone focuses on the small issues when it comes to dieting. Are carbs bad late at night? Does fruit have too much sugar? Whole-grain or twelve-grain? Who shot JFK? Straight talk express: sound workouts and proper nutrition equal fast permanent body changes. There are no short cuts or special secrets.

Victim of the failed “no vegetable diet”

Pet fish: suddenly a very convenient source of protein

4. Time carbohydrates around physical activity (best ingested post-workout)
5. Comply to healthy eating 90% of the time, so 10% of the time you can eat what you want (work out and get to eat that cake!)
6. Limit liquid calories, focus on water and green tea- and drink a lot of it
7. Plan meals and prepare, no unscheduled meals = no visible fat

Following these seven rules continually will produce big changes. If you are already following these rules and are NOT seeing results, either you are 1) fairly lean 2) not working out (or not working out intensely enough) 3) lying to me.
 

Don’t lie to me about where you eat

Do you follow these rules already?

If you think slow steady state running is your answer to fat loss, you are on a one track path to no where. Why do you run? Is it because you think it’s the fastest way to fat loss? WRONG! Do you think it will help improve cardiovascular health? WRONG! Ok maybe it does, but so will just about any physical activity, there is nothing magical about running. What I’m going to show you is going to help your body burn fat fast. So if you are interested in spending less time training and seeing faster fat loss, this workout video is for you:

To summarize, why is this form of cardio better? It maintains and builds lean muscle and creates sustainable fat loss through increased post exercise oxygen consumption. In other words, you burn fat faster, for longer afterwards, known as the afterburn effect. In other words, it helps keep you sexy. The negative effects of too much steady state cardio include:

Dangers of excessive cardio:
Fat loss comes to a halt
Muscle breakdown begins
Cortisol levels Increase
Fat storage occurs for survival
Muscle strength decreases
Testosterone levels decrease

As you can tell, the left side indicates the dangers most people (especially women face) when they perform excessive cardio.

Here are the guidelines for the workout prescribed in the video.

Energy Systems Work

1. Sprints 500m in total, 100m x 5
80m x 6
60m x 8
40m x 12
Perform the sprints on off days, or if you do workout, separate the two activities by at least six hours.

2. Interval Running 20 seconds sprints, 1 minute recovery
Lower it to 15 seconds sprints and 45 seconds jogging
Perform for 15-20 minutes maximum, three times per week, after a strength based workout or on off days

Combine sprints and HIIT together for the most successful fat loss results.

Are you doing HIIT and sprints? Share Below!

I probably come across like a food Nazi with my suggestions on how to curb poor food choices and eat healthier. I guess it comes from knowing the disastrous effects of a poor diet. At the same time, life needs balance. Too much work in life becomes boring. Too much dieting, and it begins to feel like a grind. For this reason, it is important to take breaks every now and then to indulge and enjoy yourself. Our ying needs that yang. So, for your amusement ( and my ), let me recount a night of food debauchery.Alcohol also equals shitty bar fights

It began innocently with a Guinness while watching the UFC fights (alcohol=better fights).

Well after not eating for close to five hours. The beast was hungry.

Hungry beast MUST be fed

I figured it was a Saturday night, I’m out on Queen West, its 1:30am, there are plenty of places to go to eat. Wrong. After searching for awhile I came across the Korean Grill House.

Do you know where you are? You’re in the Grill House baby, you gonna fryyyyyyy

 And thats when I read the sign: “All You Can Eat Meat”. Listening to the wise council of my gut, I entered. At $8.99 I was determined to get my moneys worth. Offering pork, beef, chicken, squid, and whitefish, and armed with my bro as my gut wingman, the feast began. Ignoring the vegetables and soup (eating big is serious business), we started grilling up the meat. Unsatisfied with how slow things were going, we started operating two grills at once.

Grilling and Chilling

I honestly think the people working there were scared of us. Meat plate after finished meat plate, we were creating a leaning tower of dead animal carcass. Uninformed about the restaurant closing at 2:30AM, we were kindly asked to leave. Unfinished with our meal, we kept eating. But then we were asked again. And again. And again. Not wanting to foster a bad relationship (who knows when hunger might strike at 1:30AM again), we left, leaving the place nearly bankrupt, employees cursing our names under their breathes, and our guts firmly filled.

This is what happens when I miss one meal, the consumption of entire livestock

So after grabbing a shitty hot dog (fooled by street meat again!), we fetched a ride on the streetcar home. Well it might have been called A Streetcar Named McHungry because McDonald’s was the next-stop. After interacting with some homeless dude at the drive thru (hey the man was hungry- he needed a burger at 3am, I understood him) we got the pimply faced McEmployee to read us our options. Now, being super health conscious, I went with the small Rolo McFlurry (lying to yourself at 3AM is easy). Maybe it was the cool spring air, or maybe it was just my gut, but it was quite delicious.  

McFlurry: McF@%!ing Delicious

After being in a sugar daze, I wandered home and collapsed, gut bloated, and satisfied. Now this is an extreme example. Let me preface by saying my eating is clean 99% of the time, and such an excursion happens at most, once every two weeks, but it helps illustrate a point. Live your life, enjoy your life, don’t be a slave to a diet. The most important thing is to keep an active healthy lifestyle, so that you can bake a cake and eat it too. A firm bun cake that is.

Now go forth, be free, but ask yourself this, have you worked out today?   

It seems like being a man these days relies heavily on being a fat bastard. The latest propaganda of the fat agenda is the Hellman’s Mayonnaise commercial. They are trying to promote the new low fat version of their mayonnaise and one man remarks that with the new low fat version its still a “man sandwich”.

Real man, real manwich

The implication is that the low fat Hellman’s taste so good that it is indistinguishable from the full fat version, which helps contribute to a “man sandwich”. What? So being fat is manly? Are heart attacks manly too? What about being so overweight you keep your shirt on at the beach- is that also manly? Has our society’s image of being a man become so degraded that we have to equate undesirable traits with being masculine?

Bald, hairy, and fat; ladies meet your ideal masculine man

Self-denial doesn’t help either; the line I hear from most overweight guys when they confront their obesity is that they have “ten pounds to lose” (its usually more like forty to fifty pounds). Let me put it this way: if you are a guy and your boobs are bigger than your girlfriends, there is a major problem (no its not her bust).

Bras: yes they really are meant only for women

My definition of being a “man” strangely enough does not include being a lazy slob. Feats of strength and accomplishment have been replaced by mediocrity and lack of ambition. Whereas before we might hunt for our food, we now hunt our fridge for double deep fried chicken wings. Another common sign of manliness is getting drunk (especially on light beer).

Another victim of light beer and a poor educational system

Drinking alcohol has been linked to higher levels of estrogen, so unless gyno is now included under “desirable physical attributes of males”, thats a bad thing.

Three things I hate: man boobs, short shorts, and steady state cardio

Put the Doritos down, hit the weights and take that damn sports jersey off; unless you still are active, you look like an oversized child. Now can someone pass me a steak with some mashed cauliflower?

Do you think society projects a distorted image of what it means to be a man?

Stretching, its whats on the menu today. If you are not presently stretching on a regular basis, you are either setting yourself for a potential injury or reducing your gym performance. Usually it takes an injury to realize the value of a proper warm up and regular stretching. Don’t wait until you hear snap crackle pop to act, start stretching now! Proper stretching helps by:

Increasing flexibility and range of motion (by helping to reduce muscle adhesions)
Fixing muscle imbalances
Reducing the risk of injury
Activating tight inhibited muscles to improve performance

 Before stretching make sure the muscle is warmed-up properly, a warm muscle is more easily stretched. Its not necessary to do cardio, or even to skip, simply moving around is enough. Now for each stretch hold for at least twenty seconds, this is to make sure the muscle relaxes and stretches properly. If you are wondering where to stretch pre or post workout, it is better after. This video neatly summarizes what you should do:

To summarize the stretches performed in this video:
Hamstrings
Glutes
Quad
Hip Flexor
Hip Extensor
Adductors
Slave
Pecs
Calves and Shoulders
Neck

Now get back to me when you can put your feet behind your head?

We all have examples of people in our lives that things seem to come together easier. No where is this more frustrating than in the gym. These people seem workout less, eat worse, and generally don’t have a plan- yet they make more progress then we do. This frustrates and discourages us.

                                                                   I cut out white bread why am I not losing weight?!?!?

 I had a friend, Johnny, when I was younger, who had a ripped eight-pack. And he was twelve years old. I asked him how he got his abs and he replied “from doing push-ups”. Excuse me? He did no direct core work yet he had an eight-pack of a Men’s Health cover model! I thought maybe it was what he ate-a good clean diet, right? Wrong! Johnny’s favourite food was Captain Crunch, with a cup of sugar on top.
 

 I likes me my Captain Crunch

Talk about diabetes in a bowl. Frustrated in my pursuit of the summer six pack, I gave up after cursing the gods of bodyfat.

This was foolish of me. Rather than let others accomplishments infuriate us, it should inspire us because what do we ultimately build when working out? Its not only the physical aspect we are training. Sure good buns are good to go, but we also build our minds as well. The discipline, focus, and self-respect built from training are so much more valuable than the body we attain. If you ever catch yourself comparing with others- stop and focus on yourself instead. Your body, and your mind will thank you.

 Gosh Darnit You Are Worth ItWhat excuses are holding you back?    

Above is a video detailing a routine I’ve developed when working with clients who want fat off- fast. This is a quick workout (approximate duration is less than forty minutes). It is designed to burn as many calories in as little time as possible and increase whats known as the afterburn effect (how many calories you burn after the workout). The routine is as follows:

Circuit A
A1 Benchpress                  3 sets of 20 reps
A2 Front Squat                                  3 sets of 20 reps
A3 Bent over Row            3 sets of 20 reps
A4 Romanian Deadlift    3 sets of 20 reps
A5 Leg Raise                       3 sets of 20 reps
Perform all three circuit sets (A1 to A5) in a row, no rest, then rest 3-5 minutes

Circuit B
B1 Military Press               3 sets of 20 reps
B2 Back Squat                    3 sets of 20 reps
B3 Upright Row                 3 sets of 20 reps
B4 Sumo Deadlift             3 sets of 20 reps
B5 V-Crunch                       3 sets of 20 reps
Perform all three circuit sets (B1 to B5) in a row, no rest, and the workout is complete

For guys, perform the first circuit with 65 pounds and the second with 45 pounds. For women, perform the first circuit with 30 pounds and the second with 25 pounds. Try to complete this as fast as possible. Incorporate this routine twice into your weekly training schedule and be amazed by the fast results. Its hard (hence the name Inferno) but your body will thank me with the rapid results!

Have you tried this routine? Post your feedback below!

The above video details how to properly warm-up before exercising. This should be done for any strenuous activity: weight lifting, running, or any competitive sport. The benefits of the warm-up include: reducing the risk of injury, increasing mobility, teaching proper movement patterns and increasing performance. Look good, feel even better, all in under five minutes!

To recap the exercises:
Exercise                                               Reps                      Muscles
1. Side-to Side:                                  8/side                   Low-Back
2. Scorpion:                                        8/side                   Low-Back
3. Birdog:                                             8/side                   Glutes, core, low-back
4. Rocking Ankle:                              8/side                   Calves
5. Cheat Push-up:                            10                           Shoulder Blades
6. Wall Slide:                                       12                           Shoulder Blades
7. Windmill:                                        10/side                 Back, Shoulder, Legs
8. High Knee Walk:                          5/side                   Glutes
9. Hip Swing:                                      10/side                 Hip
10. Squat to Stand:                          8                              Legs
11. Gravedigger                :                               5/side                   Legs, Core, Shoulder, Back
12. Walking spider-man:               5/side                   Hips, Legs

Bootycall 101: How to Develop a Firm Booty in no Time

Sir Mixalot you had it wrong, I don’t like big butts, and I cannot lie. I like a firm booty and if you do too, then this routine is for you. Want to develop Beyonce’s booty without all the attitude? Does your butt`s shape resemble the Great China Wall? Want to turn those saggy baggys into buns of steel? Here is a great twenty minute glute specialization routine that will have people saying “heyyyy baby’s got back!”. Here is the video:

To summarize the workout:
Workout
Kettle Bell Swing (or Dumbbell) 1 min
A1 Glute Bridge activation 3 sets x 10 reps per side, hold one sec top
A2 Sumo Deadlift 3 sets x 8 reps, rest 60 seconds, repeat
B1 Alternating Reverse Lunge from Deficit 3 sets x 8 per side
B2 Pull Through 3 sets x 15 reps, 60 seconds rest, repeat
C Supine Hip Lift With Plate 3 sets x 8 reps per side, hold one sec at top 60 seconds rest

Tempo, control the lowering portion, explode and squeeze at top

Use a weight that you feel comfortable using. Gradually attempt to increase the intensity by increasing both weight and volume. Perform three times per week, after your normal workout. Do this for four weeks. WARNING: Omar Isuf is not to be blamed for you receiving a dramatic increase in cat calls (or any other forms of sexual harassment).

How’d this routine treat your buns? Let me know below!

To cheat, or not to cheat? That is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the gut to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous hunger or to take up three Whopper Supremes and by consuming, end them. If you are debating whether or not to cheat, save yourself the mental hassle and ask yourself this- have you:

1. Eaten clean solid meals for 90% of the week (by clean meals I mean those comprising of lean protein and vegetables)?

2. Exercised at least five to seven hours that week (comprising of at least three weight training sessions)?

Wait, you mean this might be bad for me?

If you answered yes to both questions, go ahead and save yourself the internal debate and have the cheat meal. It is healthier from a psychological perspective to have occasional breaks from dieting than to accumulate pent up hunger pangs. What can develop are insatiable cravings for bad foods. What once could have been solved by a pizza slice will now only be fulfilled by a whole pizza! It has to do with your body’s leptin levels, which regulate how hungry you feel. The longer you’ve been in a calorically deprived state, the hungrier your body becomes. Appetite for diabetes

I remember one particular long cut where I fell off the wagon and consumed in the span of an hour: seven shitty chicken/mayo sandwiches, six plain bagels, half a plate of lamb lasagne, two beef burgers, three bowls of mascarpone cheese, twelve mini cheesecakes (in my defence they were minis), and some mints (hey with all that food I couldn’t leave my breath stinky!). Prevent this disaster on yourself by keeping a healthy balance. Think about it this way: with all the time you spend debating whether to cheat or not, you could have cheated and worked out to burn off the extra calories. Lose the mental baggage; it weighs more than any pounds of fat gained from a cheat. So go forth and gut bust-within reason of course!

Clearly has been listening to my advice

Copyright April 19th 2009 Omar Isuf

What is the worst cheat you’ve ever had?