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Program Hopping is More Effective

All gym-goers have a picture of the body they want, and they plan on achieving that either by working to burn fat fast or to build up muscle.

However, many do not realize that the plan to work like an animal at the gym is not really a plan at all. To be effective in accomplishing the goals set, one has to have a systematic and well-chosen strategy to get the job done.

This is where the help of experts and the use of correct programs and fitness products come in.

Fitness programs that employ the use of certain products abound online, however, not all of them can be trusted. Thus, it is important to find fitness authors who are reliable and who put out products that are safe and proven to be effective to burn fat fast or build up muscle.

A good advice is to seek out reviews of products on the market for you to avoid wasting your money.

Take note particularly also of the fitness approaches that are recommended, as these are the ones that should be adopted for your own in order for you to get maximum and effective results from your work outs.

Below is a sample of effective program hopping that use products that burn fat fast or build up muscle—that have received good reviews—for you to use or follow:

To build up muscle and gain more strength, try first Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better. 

Show & Go lays the foundation for your development in a period of four months where you get to build your strength and become more mobile.

After you have built up some strength in the first four months, continue to build up muscle by hopping on to the Accelerated Muscular Development product. This product focuses more on putting on muscle.

Follow up with the No Nonsense Muscle Building program to really pack on the muscles.

This program hopping routine can be done in just 12 month’s time, and which cost a total of $300 only or less.

How much do you spend on personal trainers per year?

To drop fat fast, the following products are recommended:

For the first 28 days of your quest, try the Warp Speed Fat Loss.

When you finish the 28 days, it would be time to allow your body to achieve a level of normalcy. Following the Show & Go program at this point is recommended.

After you have attained some strength and mobility, and recovered from lowering your body fat percentage, it would be time to deliver the coup de grace on fat by going into the Final Phase Fat Loss (program). 

From here, return to the Show & Go program.

If you want to build up muscle or burn fat fast or do both, you have to understand that the key to achieving your goal is to take the right approach that use different proven fitness programs.

Program hopping can be very effective, and can deliver the results that have eluded many gym-goers for years.

So, instead of just trying whatever is new out there, research the best approaches that string together a several programs. Development always come in phases.

Gain Muscle without Weights: 7 Body Weight Training Strategies

In today’s busy world, it isn’t always easy to get to the gym so that you can take advantage of the extensive equipment such a facility provides.  Unfortunately for those who are looking to gain muscle, not having enough weights around poses a significant problem.  With that in mind, we’re devoting this post to seven strategies you can use to gain muscle without weights (or at least the kind of “weights” to which you’re accustomed).

Strategy #1: Find a pre-made plan.

The absolute easiest way to circumvent your lack of equipment is to seek out a program that was created for those who don’t have access to a lot of (or any) equipment.  The single best product I’ve seen in this regard is Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne.  If you’re looking for a program that’ll allow you to really “get after it” in the confines of your own home – even if you don’t have weights – then Turbulence Training is the right fit for you.  We reviewed the Turbulence Training product in detail HERE, if you’re interested in learning more.

Strategy #2: Discover “non-traditional” weights around the house.

Look around your house, garage, and yard and I think you’ll be surprised to find that there are a lot of non-traditional implements that you can use to build muscle without weights (or actual weights, that is).  A common household chair weighs 15-20 pounds and can be held overhead while you do lunges or split squats.  A regular old backpack can be filled with soup cans for added weight on pull-ups or body weight squats.  The bench on a picnic table can be used for step-ups.  A gallon of milk can be great for a curl-to-overhead press exercise or 1-arm row.

Strategy #3: Find ways to make exercises harder.

There are quite a few ways to make a body weight exercise more challenging without adding weight.

You can put your hands overhead on lunges, for instance, and that’ll move your center of gravity up. 

You can increase the amount of time it takes you to lower (eccentric) or lift (concentric) your body weight – or add a pause at the point between the two (isometric).  Each different “tempo” has a different training effect.

You can use unilateral exercises, too, as a 1-arm push-up and 1-leg squat will always be more challenging than the 2-leg versions.

While we’re talking about push-ups, you can elevate your feet while doing push-ups to make them harder, or try that backpack trick again to add a bit of resistance.

Strategy #4: Find ways to make an exercise easier.

It may sound odd in light of our last strategy, but there are times when body weight training drills are too challenging for beginners.  Examples include 1-leg squats (also known as pistol squats), 1-arm push-ups, and 1-arm pull-ups.

For 1-leg squats, you can practice them in a doorway and hold the doorframe to take some of the resistance away.  For 1-arm push-ups, you can elevate your hands a bit with a couch or countertop, and gradually work your way down to the floor as you get stronger.  For the really hardcore of you out there interested in doing 1-arm pull-ups, you can hold the side of a door frame – or just jump up and lower yourself down under control – until you’re close enough to take a shot at your ultimate goal.

Strategy #5: Do more reps.

When you’re trying to gain muscle without weight, you simply have to do more repetitions per set.  It may not be optimal, but it’ll allow you to train closer to failure by the end of the set.  Chances are that anything over 20 reps won’t do much for you, but higher rep sets won’t hurt if they’re only mixed in here and there.

Strategy #6: Get out of the house.

Head to your local park and you’ll find loads of options for chin-ups and dips – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Your only limit is your creativity and how much effort you’re willing to put in!

Strategy #7: Take the next step.

Eventually, body weight training gets old and you need some real resistance.  This doesn’t mean that you have to go to a gym, though.  Lots of people exercise in the comforts of their own home with full home gyms – or even just adjustable dumbbells, a kettlebell set, or resistance bands.  It really depends on your finances, the available space, noise restrictions, and just how far you want to take your fitness.  If you’re looking to take that next step, at some point, you’re going to need to purchase some equipment to help you in your efforts.

High Performance Training: The #1 Way to Get Immediate Results from your Strength Training Program

Here at highperformancetraining.org, we try to offer strength training tips and introduce you to high-quality strength and conditioning programs and products – but it recently occurred to us that we never alluded to the important of the people in your strength training program.  Today, we wanted to highlight the importance of training partners for your high performance training success.

It’s often been said that it’s better to do an inferior strength training program with 100% effort than it is to do an outstanding strength training program with subpar effort.  A solid training partner (or training “crew”) helps to ensure that you can never get away with mediocre effort.

First, trainer partners make you accountable to something more than just a strength and conditioning program.  You know that they’ll be showing up to train, and if you don’t, you’ll be letting them down.

Second, strength training partners make your strength and conditioning program safer, as they’ll provide spotting that allows you to confidently lift heavier weights.

Third, they’ll be there to provide feedback on your strength training technique.  Additionally, they’ll be able to help you select how much weight to use, and tell you when you should add to or decrease the load you use from set to set.

Fourth, a simple “let’s go” or “c’mon” can do a lot to motivate you on a day when you’re dragging.  You just won’t get that training by yourself.

Fifth, having a set of training partners provides a different “circle” of friends that can often be really good for people socially.  I’ve known quite a few strength training enthusiasts over the years who have taken up lifting weights to meet new people and – in many cases – find a few hours a week to escape from being a spouse or mother/father and clear their heads!

If you don’t have a partner in your strength training program, I’d strongly encourage you to try to find someone of similar enthusiasm and experience level as you; it’ll make all the different in the world – and you might just make a friend for life in the process. 

Bulking Up: Overlooked, but Highly Effective Weight Training Exercises to Help You Put on Weight

In our previous article, Put on Weight with these Seven Top Bodybuilding Exercises, we outlined several compound exercises that your weight training program should include if your goal is bulking up.  In today’s post, we outline five more highly effective weight training exercises – but these are ones that you won’t see utilized very often.

Exercise #1: Farmer’s Walks– Farmer’s walks are about as simple as it comes.  Grab dumbbells (or barbells, or a specialized farmer’s walk handle) in each hand, and go for a walk.  This weight training exercise is fantastic for bulking up the upper back and forearms.

Exercise #2: Suitcase Deadlifts– With a suitcase deadlift, you hold a dumbbell (or barbell) in one hand, and then perform a deadlift as if you were doing it with equal loading on each side.  In other words, the goal is to resist the pull of the weight on one side as it attempts to tip you over.  This weight training exercise helps you put on weight in your upper back and forearms while helping you improve core stability and build leg muscle.

Exercise #3: Loaded Push-ups– Most people think that you can’t load push-ups, but that’s not the case at all.  Push-ups can be great for bulking up the chest, shoulders, and triceps (while improving core stability) if you wrap a band around your back (and then under your hands) for resistance.  If you don’t have a band, you can have a partner put a weight plate or two on your back once you’re set up in the push-up position.  These serve as an excellent addition to a weight training program that already includes bench pressing, but needs more variety.

Exercise #4: Thick Handle Training– Simply making the handle on a barbell, dumbbell, or chin-up or rowing apparatus can make an exercise much more difficult – and create just enough variety in your program to help you put on weight even faster.  While the emphasis on the back and biceps are about the same as with a regular grip, adding a fat grip really helps with bulking up the forearms.  There are several specialized pieces of equipment on the market that you can attach to your training implements, but if you don’t have one, you can always wrap a towel around the handles to create the thick handle.  Get ready for some sore forearms!

Exercise #5: Sled Pushing/Pulling– Pushing and pulling the sled are awesome weight training exercises because they involve little to no eccentric component.  Since the eccentric portion of strength exercises is what causes most of the soreness you feel after training, using sled variations allows you to train the legs more frequently in your quest to put on weight.  Expect to build leg muscle at a rapid pace!

Try these five uncommon exercises in your bulking up quest and you’ll be one step closer to your goal – and have plenty of variety along the way!

Strength and Conditioning: Top 5 Ways to Dramatically Improve your Sports Performance

It’s a question up-and-coming athletes ask strength and conditioning specialists all the time: “what’s the quickest way to improve my sports performance?”  While the answer isn’t always as simple and black or white as one would hope, we’re using today’s article to at least get you started with five quick sports performance tips.

1. Get Strong.

Want to jump high? Put more force into the ground (relative to your body weight).

Want to run fast?  Put more force into the ground (relative to your body weight).

If you don’t have strength, you’re at a huge disadvantage in sports performance settings – whether we’re talking about decelerating, accelerating, or stabilizing.  An ideal strength and conditioning program not only addresses strength for sports performance, though; it pays specific attention to gaining muscle strength to protect against injury.  A big bench press might sound sexy, but it won’t protect you from hamstrings strains or sprained ankles – so a comprehensive, well-balanced strength and conditioning program is essential.

2. Improve Mobility.

Mobility is a new-age term that takes flexibility to the next level.  Essentially, mobility is your ability to reach a certain position, and it includes a lot of factors, ranging from muscular length to joint stability.  The best athletes are able to get to the most advantageous positions, and you can’t do that unless your body is capable of safely “contorting” itself into the specific positional demands of your sport. 

Mobility is best trained during the warm-up period with a series of 8-12 mobility drills.

3. Take Rest Periods.

Even professional athletes take time off from training and competition – so you should, too!  For every 3-4 weeks of intense training, you should take one week of lower volume and intensity work.  This “down time” will allow your batteries to recharge so that you’ll experience the gains from all your hard work in the preceding weeks.  If you never provide adequate rest for your body, you’ll never adapt to the stresses you’ve imposed upon it.

4. Get Regular Soft Tissue Work.

While a comprehensive strength and conditioning program will do a lot to prevent injuries and improve sports performance, one thing that it won’t do is help the quality of your soft tissues (muscles and tendons, in particular).  Regular massage is ideal, but if you don’t have access to (or the money to afford) a massage therapist, you can pick up a foam roller to perform self-myofascial release.  Healthy “knot-less” tissues will perform better for strength, speed, agility, and mobility.

5. Train Your Weaknesses.

One of the hardest parts of designing your own strength and conditioning programs is the tendency to want to just do what you do best.  If you have a strong upper body, but weak legs, you’re going to naturally gravitate toward doing more upper body work when it’s really not what you need.  For that reason, we recommend you check out some of the strength and conditioning programs in our Training Product Reviews section.  “Outsourcing” your program to a qualified professional is a good way to make sure that you haven’t overlooked your weaknesses.  Two good sports performance products we highly recommend are Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better and Total Football Training.

There are certainly loads more sports performance training tips we could list, but hopefully, this has served as a good start.  Check back soon for more suggestions on how to get to the next level with your strength and conditioning program.

Healthy Ways to Gain Weight through Natural Bodybuilding

If you’re like many aspiring bodybuilders, the first place you probably looked for advice when you started out was the bodybuilding magazines that you can find on the newsstands.  Typically, these magazines will feature an outrageously large (yet insanely lean) man on the cover who is undoubtedly on an equally outrageous and insane amount of steroids.

In other words, his advice – whether it’s with respect to the latest biceps blast workout or the 9,000 calories of chicken and rice he eats each day – doesn’t hold a lot of merit for those interesting in healthy ways to gain weight through natural bodybuilding.  In this article, we talk a bit about how inaccurate and ineffective most of the advice you’ll find in these magazines really is for the up-and-coming natural bodybuilding enthusiast.

First, most professional bodybuilders train on “body part splits” – meaning that they might do legs on Monday, chest on Tuesday, back on Wednesday, arms on Thursday, calves on Friday, and shoulders on Saturday.  Then, they’d take Sunday off and repeat the whole sequence again.  Those involved in natural bodybuilding simply won’t respond well to this type of program because the lifting frequency is too high, and the amount of work devoted to small muscle groups like biceps and calves is excessive. 

If you’re looking to get big in natural bodybuilding, you’re much better off lifting 3-5 days per week with your sessions targeting the big movements.  An upper body/lower-body split routine works well, where both the upper and lower body are hit twice per week.  Another great option is to do a Mo-We-Fr bodybuilding routine where the entire body is trained on each day.  Each of these options allows for adequate recovery and ensures that you don’t get in your own way by training too much.

Second, bodybuilding magazines advocate almost exclusively sets of 8-15 reps, and as a result, their readers have come to think that this is the only way to get big.  In reality, though, most natural bodybuilders would be wise to include some heavier training in the 3-7 repetition range to challenge muscle slightly differently by recruiting the harder-to-get motor units and, in turn, activating more muscle fibers.  In fact, several well known professional bodybuilders have their roots in powerlifting and heavier lifting for sports like football; getting strong is an excellent foundation for eventually spending more time in the classic 8-15 rep “get big” zone.

Third, most diet plans outlined in bodybuilding magazines consist almost entirely of carbohydrates and protein with very little fat.  While both carbohydrates and protein are valuable parts of the bodybuilding process, excluding fat to such a great degree is not a healthy way to gain weight.  Fat has seemingly countless important roles in the body, from supporting testosterone levels, to bolstering immunity, to maintaining healthy skin and hair, improving cardiovascular health (in the case of the omega-3 fatty acids), absorbing certain vitamins (A, D, E, and K). 

So, if you are looking to be successful in natural bodybuilding, keep the quality proteins and healthy carbohydrates, but don’t let total fat intake be less than 30% of your total intake.  Just make sure you’re sticking with healthy fat sources like nuts, seeds, olive and flaxseed oil, fatty fish, and the fat that’s naturally found in your food.

If you involved in natural bodybuilding and are looking for healthy ways to gain weight, then stick to the principles we outlined in this article – not those found inside bodybuilding magazines.  Trust us when we say that the people writing these articles don’t understand what works for YOUR body; they are just trying to sell magazines. 

Get Strong By Implementing a Varied Strength Training Program

If you are trying to get strong, you need more than just motivation; you need an ideal strength training program.  Unfortunately, if you walk in to about 99% of gyms, all you see are ineffective strength training programs and techniques that are – in many cases – the exact opposite of what you need to get strong. 

In this piece, I outline the top six things you need to be including in your strength training program if your goal is to get strong.

1. Exercise Consistency – If you want to get strong, you need to practice the movements that you’re using to measure your strength!  A big part of getting strong is becoming more neutrally efficient with particular movements, which means that your neuromuscular system gets more efficient at working on particular tasks like bench pressing and squatting.

2. Exercise Variety – This seems like the exact opposite of the first point, but in reality, it’s important to rotate your strength exercises so that you don’t get stale and plateau.  Generally, it’s a good bet to switch your “main” strength exercises every 4-6 weeks.

3. Rest Phases – You can’t go hard all the time, and the more experienced you get, the more frequently you’ll need recovery periods.  These rest periods may come from reducing the number of sets and reps, the intensity (amount of weight you lift), or the training frequency.  In beginners, a rest week every six weeks is sufficient, whereas more experienced lifters will want to take recovery measures every 3-4 weeks in their quest to get strong.

4. Heavy Lifting – It might seem obvious, but I’m constantly amazed at how many strength training programs don’t actually include enough strength exercises performed at a high enough intensity (percentage of one’s one-rep max).  As a beginner, you might be able get strong with sets of 10-15 reps, but as you get more experienced, your strength exercises should be performed at or above 85% of your one-rep max.  For most people, this means that the weight should be heavy enough that you wouldn’t be able to perform more than 5-6 reps per set.

5. Compound Exercises – True strength exercises should involve multiple joints and large muscle groups so that you can move some significant poundages.  You simply can’t expect to get strong by doing biceps curls!  Stick to the basics: squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses, rows, pull-ups, and lunges.

6. Plenty of Rest Between Sets – When you are training to get strong, it’s important to include adequate rest between sets.  You want to be almost fully recovered before you start a subsequent set when you are working at such a high percentage of your one-rep max – from both a results and safety standpoint. 

These six items are just the tip of the iceberg, but they should get you well on your way to a more effective strength training program.  If you’re looking for some highly comprehensive programs that are pre-made, check out our Training Product Reviews page. 

Put on Weight with these Seven Top Bodybuilding Exercises

If your goal is to put on weight, it’s crucial to select the right bodybuilding exercises that will give you the best return on your investment in the gym.  A lot of beginning lifters think that they need to do tons of sets of a bunch of different exercises to put on weight, but the truth is that quality is far more important than quality.

There three main characteristics of the best bodybuilding exercises for those looking to put on weight:

1. They should involve multiple joints at once (e.g., a chin-up would be better than a biceps curl).

2. They should allow you to lift more weight, preferably including your body weight (e.g., a squat would be better than a leg extension).

3. They should utilize free weights (barbells and dumbbells) and cables, but not machines that mandate a fixed line of motion (and, in the process, take away any need for stabilization on your part).

Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Deadlifts (and their variations) will help you put on weight in your hamstrings, glutes, entire back, and forearms.  They also challenge your core.

2. Squats are another “full-body” bodybuilding exercise that will help you add mass to your thighs and glutes, predominantly, but they’ll also really help to strengthen your core.

3. Lunges and split-squats work many of the same muscles as squats and deadlifts, but they force you to train your balance a bit harder.  They are a great inclusion because they help keep you “functional” as you put on weight (you don’t want to just become a big lug who can’t move!).

4. Chin-ups are great if you want to put on weight in your upper back (lats) and arms (biceps and forearms). 

5. Rowing variations are also great bodybuilding exercises that will help build up the upper back and biceps/forearms, improve your posture, and keep your shoulders healthy in the process.

6. Bench presses (both barbell and dumbbell versions) are excellent for building up the pecs and triceps, as are push-ups, which should still be included for shoulder balance and health.

7. Overhead presses (both barbell and dumbbell versions) are awesome for those looking for bodybuilding exercises to put on mass in the shoulders, too.

These seven categories of bodybuilding exercises might not seem like much, but they should comprise about 90% of your training if your goal is to put on weight.  The remaining 10% can be devoted to “isolation” type exercises that may only involve one joint or not allow you to use much weight.  Stick to the basics, eat plenty of quality muscle building foods, and you’ll put on weight (and GOOD weight) in no time. 

Effective Program Hopping

Effective “Program Hopping” to Build up Muscle or Burn Fat Fast

One of the biggest mistakes a gym-goer can make is not having a plan; that goes without saying.

However, a lot of gym-goers do have a plan – but the problem is that it changes every single day.  They do whatever they read in some muscle magazine that morning – and essentially throw a bunch of crap on the wall to see what sticks.  They have goals – but really no cohesive strategy to get the job done – whether it’s to build up muscle or burn fat fast.

That’s why we strongly encourage fitness enthusiasts – whether they’re complete “rookies” or experienced exercisers – to enlist the help of fitness authors who have created products that outline safe and effective programs that make folks accountable to a specific strategy and training approach for an extended period of time.  

Here at highperformancetraining.org, we’ve gone to great lengths to review many of the products on the market to let you know which are the best, and which aren’t worth your purchase.  Our hope is that you can use these reviews to help determine your overall training plan, as it’ll enable you to experiment with the approaches of multiple authors to see what works best for YOU.  Here are some examples of how we’d set things up:

For Someone Looking to Get Strong and/or Build up Muscle

Start with Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.  This program lasts four months and will help you iron out your mobility limitations, build up some strength, and get more athletic in the process.  It’ll set a great foundation for what’s ahead.

Next, move to Accelerated Muscular Development. This product is more heavily geared toward putting on muscle than Show and Go, but it’s structured such that it’ll be “functional” mass.   And, it’ll make great use of the strength you built up in your first four month on the Show and Go program.

Finally, move to No Nonsense Muscle Building to pack on some size in a more “conventional” bodybuilding set-up.  You’ll be able to “sustain” the strength gains from the previous two programs quite well, even if you are using more isolated movements for a few months to really hone in on putting on muscle.

All told, that’s 12 months of training for under $300!  So, you get your entire year’s training planned out for less than you’d pay for three hours with a personal trainer.

For Someone Looking to Drop Fat Fast

If you want to drop fat fast, you won’t find anything better (or more hardcore) than Warp Speed Fat Loss – which is only 28 days, but crazy intense.

After that first month, it’d be a good idea to go to a more well-rounded program (we like Show and Go for this purpose) for two months to let your body recover and “normalize” for a bit. 

Once your body has readjusted, you can get a specific, targeted program like Final Phase Fat Loss in place to help you move to an even lower body fat percentage. 

When that wraps up, you could simply return to do the final two months of the Show and Go program that you hadn’t completed previously, as you want to give your body a chance to get accustomed to the lower body fat percentage and attempt to create a new, lower set point.

These are just a few examples of how different people might use different proven fitness programs to achieve their goals, rather than simply trying something new each time they walk in the gym.  The benefits of these programs are far-reaching, from affordability, to accountability, to efficacy, to safety, to innovation.  Try them out for yourself!