The Brutal Truth About Losing Weight

Comes a time when we must face reality.

Every ounce of fat you are carrying on your body got there through your mouth!  Don’t believe it?  Well how else did it get there?  Did someone sew it onto your belly?

No.  It is a result of what you have eaten.

So, how do you lose weight?  Quite obviously, stop stuffing so much through your mouth!

Now, this is going to mean a lifestyle change and that is not easy to maintain.  It can be just as hard as giving up other addictions such as smoking.

It can be done if you really want to … but it will take time.

Firstly, reduce your serving size.  No need to make a drastic change to your diet to begin … just eat 20% less.  Use smaller dishes.  Drink more water.

Secondly, as your stomach (and mind) get used to smaller meals you can then gradually introduce one of the better fat burning weight loss diet and exercise programs … and if you are really serious about losing weight you will need all the encouragement you can get from one of the better programs.

You will be guided to tasty and healthy, low calorie meals that will speed your weight loss and help you to maintain your desired weight and a well designed exercise routine will help you burn the fat and improve your mobility.

“I just don’t have time to get to the gym!”  you say.  Well that really shouldn’t be a problem once you understand how you can get a proper fat burning workout done with basic or minimal equipment.

In order to get a great high intensity fat burning workout that stimulates the growth of lean muscle tissue, accelerates your metabolism and fat burning, and provides cardiovascular conditioning…you should perform a variety of exercises that work all of your major muscle groups in the same workout.

You don’t need fancy equipment or a membership at a hot fitness club.  All you need for your fat burning workout is good old-fashioned dumbbells…or less.  You can work your entire body from head to toe with a good set of adjustable dumbbells and a simple bench.  In fact, movements like pushups, chin-ups, sit-ups, etc. can  provide great muscle stimulation  by using your bodyweight as the resistance, rather than dumbbells, barbells, or machines.

Change your lifestyle and get rid of that belly fat permanently.  You put it there and only you can get rid of it.  Brutal?  Yes, but true.

The end result will be a new you.  Trim, taught and terrific!

Kettlebells and martial arts conditioning: the dirty truth

MARTIAL ARTS CONDITIONING PUTS UNIQUE DEMANDS ON THE BODY

Unlike some athletic pursuits, martial arts is all about skill. While conditioning, strength, and flexibility are undoubtedly important, they’re just the building blocks upon which your skills are perfected.

Therefore, you need a conditioning regimen that boosts muscular endurance to unprecedented heights of achievement, but leaves you with enough energy to devote to your skill training. If your conditioning workout leaves you dead tired, your martial arts will suffer.

KETTLEBELLS AND MARTIAL ARTS CONDITIONING: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIE

So do kettlebells and martial arts go together like two peas in a pod, like the kettlebell marketers will have you believe? The proven answer is: NO.

In fact, the best martial arts conditioning workout is to perform the art itself. Just like boxers can’t dispense with boxing training — hitting the bags, sparring, shadow boxing, etc — martial artists can’t neglect their skill training in favor of a kettlebell workout that doesn’t involve specificity to a martial artist’s goals.

So don’t let kettlebell hype influence your training methods to the point where you are actually hurting your chances of reaching your goals. Kettlebells offer a minimalist approach that appeals to many of us, but when looked at objectively, they fail to deliver as well as the standard workouts utilizing dumbbells.

MARTIAL ARTS CONDITIONING: GUARANTEED BETTER WITH DUMBBELLS

Unlike with kettlebells, conditioning workouts utilizing one or two adjustable dumbbells are scalable. That is, you can easily adjust the weight until you are able to challenge yourself with the rep range you need.

This is in direct contrast to kettlebell conditioning workouts. In these sub-standard workouts, you are forced to adapt your workout to the kettlebell, instead of adjusting the tool to your needs.

One rarely-voiced fact about kettlebells is that they tear up the skin on your palms. Unless you spend literally months developing thick, resilient calluses, a good set of kettlebell snatches will earn you a magnificent crop of painful, debilitating blisters. Dumbbells, on the other hand, have ergonomically-designed handles which don’t promote the formation of blisters. And, unlike a kettlebell’s off-center weight configuration, dumbbells won’t spin and twist during the movement — in short, they don’t cause blisters when you use them in the standard way for snatches and other exercises favored by kettlebell enthusiasts.

Dumbbells are also better than kettlebells at maintaining joint integrity in the shoulder, elbow and wrist. Anyone interested in martial arts conditioning knows that these joints are crucial to the proper pursuit of the pastime. With kettlebells, you risk hyperextension and repetitive stress injuries, especially during the high-rep work necessitated by a non-adjustable kettlebell of less than ideal weight.

DUMBBELLS ARE OVERLOOKED MARTIAL ARTS CONDITIONING TOOLS

Virtually anything you can do with a kettlebell, you can also do with an adjustable dumbbell. The only difference is: dumbbells allow you to do it safer, more efficiently, and with less expense than kettlebells.