Today I have a killer Abs Circuit for you. There are 5 exercises below. Do each exercise for 20 seconds, and then rest for 10 seconds in between each exercise. Repeat the circuit twice for your 5 minute flat abs workout.

1/ Horizontal Scissors

Position: Lay face up with legs flat in front of you.

Technique: Raise legs just off mat and alternately raise one leg above the other in a scissors motion. Brace stomach throughout.

Points to Remember: Ensure back does not arch off the floor. Place one foot over the top of the other.

2/ Side Plank w/ leg abduction –1

Position: Lay on your side with legs straight and your elbow directly beneath your shoulder. (Rest on knees if neccessary).

Technique: Push hip off the floor, resting on your feet and elbow. Squeeze the hip as high as possible and hold position still. Raise top leg up and down as high as possible at the same time.

Points To Remember: Keep your body straight, i.e. don’t lean forward or backwards. Make sure your elbow remains directly beneath your shoulder and doesn’t slide forward.

 3/ Side Plank w/ Leg Abduction- 2

Repeat above on other side.

4/ Ab Raise

Position: Lay face up with knees bent.

Technique: Raise knees and squeeze… Read more->

Kettlebells are becoming more and more popular nowadays. Personal Trainers are using them with their clients, more and more gyms have them, and more people in general are using them.

So how good are they really for burning fat? And are you missing a trick if you aren’t using them?

If you haven’t seen kettlebells before, let me give you a quick run-down. As you can see from the picture above they are similar to normal weights, but with the handle on top of the weight making for a totally different piece of equipment.

It is often argued that kettlebells are better than free weights. The theory is they require more stabilising muscles to come into play to control the lift and therefore work you harder. The other selling point is that they give you a more varied workout.

For someone that has exercised consistently over many years, with a combination of weight training and bodyweight training, I would agree that kettlebells can add something extra to their workout.  For these people kettlebells can add some much needed variety into their program.

But for the average person that exercises to try and lose weight I don’t believe kettlebells are the answer. They area lot more difficult to use and control than free weights. And in my experience as a trainer most people looking to lose weight don’t have that much experience using free weights, so are in no way ready to move on to kettlebell training.

Injuries can easily occur for people… Read more->

So many people find food cravings really tough to handle. They do their best to fight them off, but sooner or later they lose the battle. Is their a way of overcoming this?

Chocolate, crisps, biscuits, whatever your ‘weakness foods’ are, they stop the fat loss process dead in its tracks.

So what can you do?

Eat More!

So many people cut calories when they are trying to lose weight. This results in your body not having the calories  its used to.

What happens next? You are more hungry than ever.

And what does hunger lead to? Cravings and bad food choices.

 Have you even been shopping when you are really hungry? Bad move. You can bet that a lot more rubbish will end up in your trolley when you do that.

Its the same if you let yourself get too hungry. It’s so much more difficult to resist bad foods if you are hungry because you body will rule over your brain.

If you are nicely full and don’t need any food you are much more likely to make a rational decision based upon what is best for you in the long run. Rather than an impulse decision to stuff you face.

So as well as you 3 main meals, you should have 2 snack meals between them. This could be fruit, nuts, seeds,… Read more->

There are many ‘experts’ that claim exercise early in the morning before you eat anything results in you burning up to 30% more fat than if you exercised at any other time. Could this be true?

Here’s the theory behind the claim. 

Due to the fact your body hasn’t taken in any calories in recent hours, it is basically ‘empty.’ Therefore when you workout your body doesn’t have to burn any of the calories from the food you have eaten. Instead it can concentrate on burning away the existing fat on your body. As much as 30% more can be burned according to 1 study.

Does this work?

If you are going to exercise before breakfast, assuming you have a job to get to, you are pretty much going to roll out of bed and get straight to your workout.

Now I don’t know about you, I am certainly not at my most ‘productive’ first thing in the morning. I can say for sure than my workout would be substantially less productive than if I did it at any other time of the day when I was properly awake.

And additionally, if you do you workout at 7am, you body hasn’t had any food (fuel) for up to 12 hours. So you are basically running on empty and asking your body to do a workout. You simply aren’t going to have enough energy for the workout.

Aside from this, I simply don’t believe exercising without eating beforehand is beneficial to your body or its ability to burn fat. I’m… Read more->