



When you know what you're doing it's not hard to build muscle and burn fat fast.
A key part of the process of building lean muscle tissue and burning fat is properly preparing for the high intensity work necessary to stimulate the neuromuscular and endocrine systems of your body.
Just three months ago I went on a cruise to the Riviera and made it a point to eat as much as I wanted to.
I wanted to see how much weight I could gain.
Yes, I'm el Ludlow loco, I know.
To give you an idea of how much I was eating, when it was time for dessert, I wouldn't order one.
Oh no. I ordered one of each.
That's right.
Apple cobblers. Lemon bars. Bread pudding. Ice cream.
That was at a single typical meal. And when you're on a cruise ship it's always meal time.
They don't close down the kitchen. It's always open. No limit to how much you can eat.
You can guess what happened, can't you? That's right. I gained more than 12 pounds in 9 days. This is how bad it got. I bought a new suit the week prior to the trip.
The suit fit perfectly.
On the last day of the trip I couldn't button the pants without sucking in my bloated belly.
Yes, I was fat and happy :)
The good news is that when I got home, I got back into my old routine.
Good lifestyle habits.
And I lost all twelve pounds in less than three weeks. So what are the habits that helped me lose the weight relatively quickly?
Here are just a few: high intensity interval strength training, eating clean 90% of the time and properly refueling after training.
What are the essential habits that allow YOU to change your body at will?
Well, a frequently overlooked part of the process of building lean muscle tissue and burning fat fast is properly preparing for the high intensity work necessary to stimulate the neuromuscular and endocrine systems of your body.
The problem is that most people still prepare for challenging high intensity workouts and for athletic performance events with inefficient and potentially dangerous exercise methods that actually weaken muscle tissue.
An example of this is the use of static-stretching as a warm up.
Unfortunately, static stretching - known to most people simply as "stretching" - doesn't seem to be the best method of preparing for high intensity exercise or for improving flexibility [1] [2].
Research also suggests that a dynamic warm up has greater potential applicability to enhance performance and prevent injury in sports and in resistance training as compared to static stretching [3].
It's for these reasons that we very rarely perform static stretching before our training sessions.
But there's more to it than that.
Is it possible for a particular exercise to have more than one function?
Can a single exercise work to burn fat, build muscle and improve flexibility?
Yes.
That's why in this episode of Boot Camp FX television you'll see two challenging exercises that can be used as part of your dynamic warm up, dynamic stretching routine or during the strength training portion of your workout.
These exercises also work well as active recovery exercises. For the beginner, these movements may be sufficient to build muscle on their own.
The first exercise you'll see in this workout is the kettlebell globetrotter lunge.
When used as part of your warm-up, be sure to use a light kettlebell and work at about 50% of full-speed.
The next exercise is the kettlebell halo.
The trick here is to hold the kettlebell by the horns and reach as far down the shoulder blades as possible.
Again, use a light kettelbell and go at about half speed.
The exercises in this workout video are just two that work well as part of a dynamic warm up.
Evidence suggests that the habit of warming up with dynamic exercises helps build muscle, burn fat and improve flexibility better than traditional static stretching.
Add it to your workout routine and see for yourself.
[1] J Strength Cond Res. 2006 Aug;20(3):492-9.
[2] J Strength Cond Res. 2008 May;22(3):809-17.
[3] J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Sep;23(6):1811-9.