Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

an interview by Geovanni Derice with Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Geovanni Derice, of 4evertoned.com. The interview is below and I think you’re going to like it…I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike Geary to 4everToned’s Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 15 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning. At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 30 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.

I decided earlier in my 20’s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.

I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work…if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.

There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is…after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat. In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is…are you ready for this? They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.

Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).

However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing…and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the overprocessing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.

For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains. Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth.

The point is to not fall for some gimmick like low carbs, low fat, high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another. Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this interview and plucked several nuggets of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you don’t already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I’ve developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!

Here are some exercise tips you might find useful in the gym or elsewhere. I will be giving these short tips so it will be easier to read and remember.

1. Split Cardio.
Spread your cardio to double your gains. A University of New Hampshire study found splitting a 30 minute session into two halves led to a 29% rise in workout capacity. Reap the benefits by cycling to and from work.

2. Rest to Grow.
A Taiwanese study found that performing heavy bicep curls with sore muscles did not slow muscle recovery - as long as there had been at least a 48-hour rest period. So hit the gym four times a week, working the same muscles every other session.

3. NO Floor-gazing.
Looking down when you squat can cause an injury, say scientists at Miami University. Floor-gazing during the move causes your body to lean forward, increasing the strain on your lower back. Keep your head straight by looking at your image in a mirror.

It’s the news every man has been waiting for - drinking beer doesn’t give you a beer belly! Yeah it’s true - its not ONLY the beer, but a whole about dieting and exercise or the lack of it, that gives a beer belly! The article in sundeyherald is interesting - with answers to common misconception that muscle building can shrink your testicles. Quite funny, its not really the body building per se, but the abuse of testorerone booster that some bodybuilders use that may cause it.

read more | digg story

A young, trim farmer with four or more children: According to a new study, that’s the ideal profile for American men hoping to reach 100 years of age.

If you watch some documentaries on time and why people live as long as they do, one of the more common theories on the length of life depends on how often and how many new things you experience. Time goes faster when your doing something new, as in return its much slower when your doing things repetitive or common until time slows down so much you eventually pass away.Thats of course pushing aside medical issues. So in relation to that theory that would explain why he lived so long, but who really knows?

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Here’s an interesting (but scary) food fact - “The food industry spends $25 billion a year marketing their products, the government spends just $1 million advertising its new food guidelines of five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.” No wonder, we’re getting fatter. Oh well, it’s just another excuse for being fat.

The choice of what, how much, and how often, to eat is not controlled entirely by rational thought. If it were, most people would die of starvation. Evolution has hardwired us with a compulsion to eat, with a bias towards over-eating and against under-eating. Fast food marketing affects us on that primal, sub-conscious, non-rational level, and is *definitely* *directly* responsible for some percentage of the excess weight in our country.

That’s not to say the overeaters themselves are blameless, but for many of them, a world sans fast food ads, even with everything else remaining the same, would be a world where they are thinner than they are now.

What, do you think they’d make the ads if they didn’t work?

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This is from dumblittleman.com- “A few of the original readers of DLM may remember my article about quitting smoking. Well, after hearing that my father-in-law gave up coffee and caffeine 8 months ago and how it’s impacted him, I decided to do the same.”

Good article, but I don’t agree with abstaining from coffee at all and how it will make you healthier. The key is moderation. Too much is too much. But a couple cups a day won’t hurt you.

Moderate coffee drinking can actually be very beneficial. Coffee itself is loaded with anti-oxidants, and caffeine in reasonable doses is good for neural health.

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The quality and quantity of work you can produce is dependent, not only on the effort you put in, but on your ability to concentrate. No matter how hard to you try, if your brain isn’t performing well, you won’t be as productive as you should be.

I really like all the 5 tips:
1. Take enough rest.
2. Aim, plan and go for the plan.
3. Eat Healthy.
4. Exercise!
5. Take breaks and avoid monotony.

All are cool advices.

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