Bloom to Fit

Soft Tissue Work to Better Your Body

Srdjan Popovic — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:14:09 +0000

When was the last time you gave your soft tissues some lovin’?

I mean really.

When was the last time you gave them some attention?

Day in and day out you put them through hell with your poor biomechanical habits, your terrible posture and your intense training activities.

You torture them!

So when was the last time you did some nice, effective soft tissue work to show them how much you really care?

Right about now I’m picturing this confused yet (hopefully) intrigued look.

Let me explain…

Like I mentioned before, soft tissue work is the best form of self-myofascial release. It’s purpose is to break down soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue.

Note: If this is all new to you, I suggest you get in terms with the myofascial release philosophy – it will change your life.

Your soft tissues are simply the soft materials that make up your body’s musculoskeletal system: your muscles, the fascia that surround them, and the tendons and ligaments that hold them together.

There are two situations to consider.

The first is your training. When you train, you create micro-trauma to your soft tissues. This is normal and is followed by a natural process where the tissues heal, grow and get stronger. But during this healing process, tissue adhesion and scarring can occur which can result in knots and damaged areas within your soft tissue. This essentially impedes the performance of the soft tissue.

The second situation is more frequent. Poor biomechanical alignment and poor posture can cause your fascia to lose its flexibility and become tight. This introduces tension throughout your body. When your fascia is tight and damaged, it tends to stick to the underside of tissue such as skin, blood vessels and nerves which can lead to all sorts of nasty problems.

The purpose of soft tissue work is to eliminate these adhesions and get rid of the knots. With some simple and cheap soft tissue tools, you can improve the quality of your soft tissues by improving their ability to lengthen and relax. Doing this will bring them back to their balanced, healthy state.

When done regularly, soft tissue work will improve the quality of your tissues and higher quality tissues will improve your blood circulation, your nerve transmission, your biomechanical alignment, your sleep and your general overall feel.

But how do I know if I have poor tissue quality?

Good question.

Answer: 95% of the time, you do.

This is especially true if you spend a good chunk of your time sitting or standing, if you have poor flexibility and posture, if you’ve experienced trauma (falls or accidents) or even if you’re active but do little soft tissue work.

You can do a simple test to find out.

Choose a muscle group. Let’s say your quadricep (top part of your thigh) as an example. Using a soft tissue tool or even just your thumb, roll up or press down on the muscle and search for tender spots. A tender spot is a pain spot. It’s very sensitive to pressure. It hurts when you press on it. If you’re digging around and you feel pain, you’ve just found a knot (damaged fascia).

It’s not uncommon to find these pain areas all over your body.

If that’s the case, you need to get to work.

How often should I do soft tissue work?

Another great question.

Answer: As often as you can, but only for brief sessions.

5-10 minutes of daily soft tissue work with varying tools is more than enough to improve the health and quality of your tissues.

How do I do it?

Ok, you’re on a roll here…

Using the tool of your choice, firmly apply pressure (usually in a rolling or circular manner) for anywhere from 20 to 90 seconds (depending on the amount of pain). It will hurt for the first little bit but soon the tender spot will start feeling better and you will feel what is called the ‘release’ of pain or tension.

Move from one muscle group to the next and perform the same routine. Soon you’ll know where your most tender spots are and you can work on those regularly.

The key to soft tissue work is consistency. Your soft tissues experience constant stress so they need constant attention. 5-10 minutes every day is not a lot to ask for if you can make a drastic improvement to the health of your tissues, your posture, your flexibility, and the opportunity to live a pain-free life.

So what do you say?

I think it’s time that your soft tissues start getting some love. Get yourself some tools and start doing some regular soft tissue work. Your body will love you for it. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below.

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40 Kettlebell Exercises to Build a Better Body

Srdjan Popovic — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:46:25 +0000

Kettlebell exercises…

They spark the creative being within every warrior.

Kettlebell training, as I’ve mentioned so many times, is one of the most dynamic and unique styles of training. It works the body on so many levels to help develop the posterior chain, strengthen the core, improve cardiovascular fitness, and build highly functional and mobile joints.

If I had to choose only one tool that I could use for the rest of my life…

It would be the kettlebell.

The following video will show you exactly why.

The kettlebell exercises shown below vary in design and overall complexity. You’ll see variations of static and dynamic exercises and some amazing combinations of the two.

If you’re new to kettlebells, start off with the static ones. Get a feel for the kettlebell. Get an understanding of how it works with the body. And always start off with lighter weights until you get the technique down first. Then you can slowly progress to more complex (dynamic) movements and heavier kettlebells.

Without further ado…

Here are 40 incredible kettlebell exercises that you can use to build yourself a better body.

[Note: if the video player is not showing, please hit the refresh button and I promise it will appear!]

If you’re interested, you can get your free copy of the kettlebell training guide here:

Ultimate Kettlebell Training Guide 1.0

So how do you actually use these kettlebell exercises?

What I like to do is look for unique ways to combine the exercises to create kettlebell workouts that are balanced, functional and challenging. I look for ways to make them effective yet still quick and enjoyable.

I focus mainly on creating simple tabata style kettlebell workouts or interval type kettlebell routines. At times, I will also combine kettlebell exercises with bodyweight exercises to create high intensity circuits.

The options you have with this incredible tool are endless. You are only limited by your creativity and willingness to better your body.

I hope you enjoyed the video! Stay tuned for my series of kettlebell workout videos that I’ll be putting together to show you exactly how I combine kettlebell exercises to build a better body.

Once again, you can also grab a free copy of my kettlebell training guide to get started right away!

If you liked this post, subscribe to the Bloom to Fit newsletter. It’s free and you’ll get exclusive tips and updates. Plus I’ll throw in a free gift, just for you.

How to Stretch Your Back with this Spinal Decompression Exercise

Srdjan Popovic — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:33:49 +0000

I feel bad for the spine.

I really do.

It’s constantly being loaded with forces from all different angles and directions.

Especially compressive forces.

Thanks to gravity, your spine is constantly under compression.

Whether you are standing, running, squatting, deadlifting, pressing or even if you have your ass planted in a chair 40 to 60 hours a week, your spine is being compressed.

Heavily.

The spinal compression itself doesn’t create problems. Our bodies have learned to adapt to the forces of gravity. We’ve been on this planet long enough.

But our bodies were not designed to function in our current sedentary environments. Our bodies were designed to move, not stay glued to a chair. They were designed to be challenged with periods of intense activity, not left unmoved.

Over the years, we’ve created what my friend Elliot Hulse likes to call muscle viruses – or muscular imbalances that wreak havoc on our bodies.

When these muscle viruses are coupled with compressive stresses on the spine…

That’s when problems arise.

I’ve learned this first hand.

Some time ago, my body was overwhelmed with muscle viruses and I was constantly loading my (lumbar) spine with compressive forces from intense training and excessive sitting (mostly as a result of living in the library during my last years of University). It only made sense that a disc herniation was to follow.

But what can you do. You live and you learn.

What I want to teach you today is how to stretch your back effectively. I want to show you how to decompress the spine with an amazing exercise that I only wish I had known about back in those days.

This is an exercise that I discovered as I was flipping through the Strength Training Anatomy book. [Note: this is an excellent reference for understanding which muscle groups are affected by different exercises]

You see, what happens when you load your spine with highly-compressive exercises like a squat or a deadlift (or even when you sit or stand for prolonged periods), the interverbral discs (jelly like cushions between your vertebrea) get squished.

Depending on the position of your spine (i.e. flexed or compressed), the nucleus inside the disc can move around and if you have the wrong combination of spinal flexion with high compressive loads, you can cause some serious damage.

The following exercise is designed to stretch the back and decompress your spine. It causes the small intervertebral ligaments and muscles to stretch, thus reducing the compression on the discs.

Here’s a picture showing how to stretch your back with this spine decompressing exercise:

Find a chin-up bar and hang from it with a wide overhand grip. Your thumbs should be pointing at each other. As you hang, do the following:

Inhale and exhale slowly. Concentrate on fully relaxing your body. This will allow the muscles in the back to relax and lengthen, allowing the pressure inside the discs to equilibrate.
When you are completely relaxed, lean your head forward, trying to touch your chin to your sternum. This helps stretch the upper and middle back.

To make this stretch even more effective, swing gently back and forth. Even better, get a partner to grab your hips and slowly pull your down.

Note: The stronger you grasp the bar as you hang, the more intense the stretch for your lats and teres major will be.

Try to hang there for 30 to 60 seconds or for as long as you can.

This is a fundamental stretching exercise for the back that I recommend you do at the end of every workout. If you have a pullup bar at home, then I would recommend doing it every day.

It’s important to take a little bit of time to learn how to stretch your back with this incredible spine-decompressing exercise. It’s a great way to take some pressure off your intervertebral discs.

I hope this spine decompressing guide has shown you how to stretch your back effectively. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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How I Lost 15 LBS of Fat in 5 Weeks with VI Phase 3

Srdjan Popovic — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:41:30 +0000

Time flies…

I started Phase 3 of Visual Impact back on November 13, 2011 with two goals in mind:.

Get lean
Build some ridiculous strength

I prepared my meals, I structured my workouts, and I prepared myself for a few weeks of what I quickly discovered to consist of unusual training and endless mind games.

Let me fill you in…

It was November 13. I stepped on the scale and it read a solid 184lbs.

Using the Visual Impact program, I embarked on a mission to get as lean and as strong as I can in the shortest time possible. I set goals of dropping 10lbs of fat and improving my strength by at least 20% in 4-6 weeks.

A mere 5 weeks later, the results (once again) blew me away.

I was 15 lbs lighter.

And my strength was up by an average of 15%.

I was happy with my results, just like I was when I gained 19lbs in 8 weeks.

Before I get into the details, I want to make sure you’ve had a chance to check out the previous posts in this series. If you’re interested to see, in detail, how I’ve set up my training and how I’ve structured my diet for getting lean, you can check out the following posts:

My objective, as it was during my muscle building challenge, was to record as much information as possible so I can relay it all to you guys. I want to give you everything you need so you can replicate the results.

So let’s get into the details.

The Beginning – November 13, 2011

Here were some pictures of me taken on November 13, 2011, the beginning of my getting lean challenge.

I was fresh off of finishing up Phase 2 of Visual Impact – a 5 X 5 style of training and more of a transition phase from Phase 1 to Phase 3. I weighed in at 184lbs and my body fat percentage was around 12-14% (this wasn’t measured just estimated using reference pictures). I had decent muscle mass, mostly in my chest and my back.

Let’s fast forward 5 weeks…

The Transformation – December 17, 2011

Five weeks of heavy weight training, strategic cardio, and well-prepared dieting later, I had some good results to show for it:

As you can see, I’ve completely leaned down. I dropped to a solid 169lbs and my body fat percentage was hovering around 9%. My waist completely shrunk down, my chest expanded, and, most notably, my back got super defined.

What you can’t see in the picture is how dense my muscles got. They became hard to the touch even when they weren’t flexed. The feeling is amazing!

To see how my weight has fluctuated over the 5 week period, I’ve put together a little graph to show you exactly how my weight shifted from week to week.

Notice how my weight change was fairly consistent over the course of five weeks, with my largest spikes being in week 2 and week 3 where I lost 4lbs in each week. The reason behind these spikes was mainly because my body started to adjust to the caloric deficit it was experiencing and was quickly shedding the stored fat that I had accumulated over Phase 1 and Phase 2. It started to slow down to about 2lbs per week (still impressive) in my last two weeks as I had less and less fat on my body.

As a side note, if I was to continue through with this phase, I would make sure to switch to doing only LIT cardio after my workouts and forego the HIIT. This would ensure that I continue to burn fat (whatever is left on the body) instead of breaking down protein, turning me into one lean-ass mofo.

Here is another picture that shows the changes my body has gone through over the 5 weeks:

You can definitely see the changes in my overall body fat. My waist also shrunk dramatically but my muscle mass stayed fairly consistent. This goes to show that going on a calorie (and carb) deficit doesn’t mean your muscles will break down.

What about Strength?

Let’s take a look at how my strength has evolved over the 5 week challenge. What I’ve done is I’ve kept a training log with me and filled it out each training session. So after I was done I wanted to be able to look back and see exactly how my lifts improved over the course of five weeks.

Here’s a chart that shows my progress in strength development:

The Max Weight at Start column simply refers to the weight I was lifting in week 1 of the Phase during my last (and heaviest) set. The Max Weight at End column is the same thing, only for week 5 of the Phase.

You can see that there are areas where I’ve had some good gains and some areas where I’ve had quite minimal gains. Dumbbell exercises, such as the incline dumbbell press, the seated (shoulder) dumbbell press and the one arm dumbbell row saw the greatest boosts in strength. Major barbell lifts such as the bench press and the military press saw minimal gains.

The reason behind this is that a lot of the major gains I’ve had in these big exercises came in Phase 2 when I trained in the 5 X 5 style so there wasn’t too much improvement left to make here in Phase 3.

My biggest boost in strength was in the weighted dips where I was able to work up to doing dips with two 45lbs plates hanging off of me. Now that felt good!

What I Learned from this Challenge

Lesson: To build strength, NEVER go to failure.
What you can take away: Most people are under the impression that to develop strength, you need to lift super heavy weights until your arms fall off. The fact is, if gaining strength is your number one priority, you’ll want to end each set before you bring your muscles to failure. You’ll always want to have a few reps left in you at the end of each set. What this does is it teaches your neuromuscular system to create stronger contractions which leads to greater lifts. Temptation plays a huge factor here. Training in this manner takes time to get accustomed to because we’re so used training to failure. There are going to be times when you’re lifting heavy weights and you know you can crank out a few more reps. Don’t! Stop right there and prepare for your next set. That’s how you build strength.

Lesson: I lift more with a spotter.
What you can take away: I typically like training alone. I just find my workouts are more efficient and I’m more focused when I’m by myself. But when you’re training for strength you’re focusing on low volumes and very heavy weights. When you deal with heavy weights, there is a greater risk of injury if you’re doing things by yourself and it becomes very psychological. I found that by having a spotter, I felt safer (and more motivated) to lift heavier weights. When I was by myself I held back a bit, afraid that I might injure myself. If you can, find someone you can work out with but be 100% sure they know what they’re doing when they’re spotting you!

Lesson: I really hate long rest periods!
What you can take away: When you train for strength development, you want to extend your rest periods between sets to 2-3min. What this does is it allows for enough time for your muscles to fully recharge before starting the next set. When you don’t allow your muscles to fail and you extend your rest periods, you can train harder and longer.

Lesson: The mind to muscle link is HUGE here.
What you can take away: I’ve talked about the mind-to-muscle link before, but here it makes a big difference. You need to fully concentrate on each and every repetition you’re doing. Focus on contracting every muscle group in your body during every repetition. You’ll need all the help you can get when you’re facing heavy weights.

Lesson: Your cardio needs to be strategic.
What you can take away: Most people don’t put much thought into their cardio sessions. They jump on the treadmill or the bike, throw it on a certain speed and then go at it until they feel like they’ve accomplished something. If you want to get lean, you need to be strategic. I found that combining high intensity interval training (HIIT) with low intensity training (LIT) after a weight lifting session worked best. HIIT is great for getting your heart rate up, helping turn your body into a fat-burning furnace for hours after the workout. LIT uses your fat stores as energy and is great for burning off those last few pounds. The proportion of HIIT and LIT will change as you progress through the phase.

Lesson: The slow-carb diet works.
What you can take away: This was my first time trying a diet like this and I’m happy to say that it works really well. It’s easy to follow and the results speak for themselves. You can learn more about the diet here.

Lesson: Your body adapts quickly to hunger.
What you can take away: I went from consuming roughly 3,500 calories when I was in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the program down to roughly 1,600 calories for Phase 3. The first week I felt like I was going to literally die of hunger, but I stuck to it. Within a week, my body already adapted to the drop in caloric consumption and my hunger cravings were nearly gone. But when you’re on a caloric deficit for a prolonged period of time, there will be days that you get cravings. I found that coffee, tea, and water are great hunger suppressants.

Lesson: During periods of constant, prolonged calorie deficits, your mood (and personality) can change.
What you can take away: I found this to be fascinating. Although my carbohydrate (and overall calorie) intake was low, I never felt like I was lacking energy. But people told me I wasn’t being myself. They told me I was talking less. It seems as if the body utilizes any means possible to conserve the energy that it does have. Remember, the body is built to primarily do one thing: survive. And that’s exactly what’s happening here. My body realized that it was being deprived of energy (from food) so it compensated by changing my mood (and my personality in a way) which resulted in me talking less. Crazy!

Lesson: Don’t do this shit during the winter holidays.
What you can take away: This is more of a psychological thing than anything. When you are striving to eat less, make sure you’re not setting yourself up for failure by surrounding yourself with endless temptations. That’s exactly what happened to me since I was constantly faced with having to resist food during the Christmas holidays. Thankfully, my will power is strong enough to resist the temptations, but it wasn’t easy. So if getting lean is your objective, get rid of all temptations in your environment (home, work, etc.). Make it easy for yourself to succeed.

Lesson: Visual Impact works!
What you can take away: If you’re looking for a program that can help you get lean and strong, then Visual Impact is the way to go.

So what’s next?

Had I stayed longer in Phase 3, I probably would’ve hit the 6-8% body fat range at some point. However, I was not really interested in dropping my body weight any more.

So I’ve decided to move on…

There is actually one more Phase in the Visual Impact Muscle Building program that I’m really looking forward to testing out.

It’s called the Bonus Phase and it uses the same principles that actors and fitness models use to get that truly ripped and defined look.

I’ll fill you in on all the details soon!

Anyways, I hope this post has given you a good overview of what it takes to get lean. I’m clearly not completely there yet but it goes to show how much can be accomplished in as little as 5 weeks.

If you have any questions or comments about my results, my strategies or anything about getting lean, feel free to drop a comment in the comment section below.

If you liked this post, subscribe to the Bloom to Fit newsletter. It’s free and you’ll get exclusive tips and updates. Plus I’ll throw in a free gift, just for you

Myofascial Release for a Better Body

Srdjan Popovic — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:00:50 +0000

“Myofascia – the tissue of movement”

Have you heard about it?

The term ‘Myofascial Release’ might flicker some lightbulbs up in your head. If it doesn’t, prepare to be blown away because this stuff is powerful.

It’s time to lay down some (important) facts.

The term myofascial release has actually been around since the early 1950s, but the lack of research and support on the topic has kept this magnificent therapeutic philosophy out of the limelight for decades.

That’s why I’m here. To get you caught up!

So what exactly is Myofascial Release?

Myofascial Release, dubbed as MFR, is a very hands-on therapeutic approach and it’s used to do one thing:

Correct soft tissue dysfunction.

It involves the application of gentle, but sustained pressure to restore motion, eliminate pain, and improve the health and quality of your precious soft tissues.

The actual effects of Myofascial Release can easily be explained using known neurophysiologic phenomena. This is what Carol J. Manheim had to say:

“Our brains recognize our current posture, muscle tension, and movement patterns as being “normal” — not necessarily as efficient or pain free. Myofascial Release requires re-education of the central nervous system to accept the new posture and muscle tension as better and less painful.”

In the simplest of terms, myofascial release refers to the process of applying sustained pressure to your myofascia to improve the health of your soft tissues.

But before we can get a good understanding of this powerful therapy, we need to learn what exactly the fascial system is.

What the heck is Fascia?

Think of fascia as a spider’s web – deeply intertwined and covering every area of your body.

It’s absolutely everywhere.

Fascia is a seamless unit of tough connective tissue that is very densely woven, covering and connecting every muscle, bone, blood vessel, nerve, internal organ, and even the deep layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord right down to the cellular level.

Fascia is actually very strong. It has a tensile strength of over 2,000lbs. (For anyone not in the field of Mechanical Engineering, this translates to ridiculously-fucking-strong!)

If you want a great visual example of what fascia is, take particular notice next time you pull the fat and skin off a chicken. Look for that transparent, white, filmy tissue underneath the skin. That’s fascia.

Note the white, filmy fascia next time you prepare chicken.

In its healthy state, fascia is very neat and organized, making it incredibly flexible. It’s soft and relaxed and it can stretch and move with little restriction. It runs from the top of your head all the way down to your toes – completely continuous with no beginning or end to be found anywhere in the body.

All parts of the body are connected in some way by fascia.

But It’s continuous nature brings up an interesting property. Problems in one area of the fascial system can have an effect on another distant area. This might explain why so many people are having completely questionable pains. Pain in your neck might be caused by damaged fascia in the back.

A healthy fascial system allows you to move better. It supports and balances your body and helps you breath properly. It helps you maintain good posture and flexibility.

Most importantly, healthy fascia allow you to perform daily activities – completely pain free.

But what happens when your fascia are unhealthy? What happens when you suffer soft tissue damage?

The fact of the matter is, we don’t really take much care of our soft tissues.

Do any of these sound familiar?

You spend too much time sitting
You have poor habitual posture
You’re stressed, either emotionally or physiologically
You don’t stretch
You perform repetitive motions
You’ve experienced trauma (such as a fall or car accident)
You impose a lot of stress on your tissues when you train

If any of these pertain to you, there is a very high likelihood that you have unhealthy, low-quality fascia surrounding your muscles.

Unhealthy fascia is not very pliable. Its movement is restricted. It begins to lack flexibility and introduces areas of tension throughout your body.

Unhealthy fascia tends to stick to the underside of tissue such as skin, blood vessels and nerves. What happens is that these adhesions can restrict blood circulation, nerve transmission and tissue health. They can also create biomechanical inefficiencies which can impact movement, sleep and quality of daily living.

As mentioned earlier, the continuous properties of fascia can create some bizarre pains in unforseen areas. A fall that causes fascia damage in one area of the body can cause pains in a completely different area of the body even years later.

Quite bizarre indeed.

Unhealthy or damaged fascia can cause a number of problems. See if any of these sound familiar.

Muscle pain and spasms
Difficulty breathing
Headaches
Poor flexibility and range of motion in joints
Sensations of numbness
Chronic back pain
Chronic neck pain
Recurring injuries
Poor posture

There is good news, however.

There is a way to reverse the negative effects of unhealthy, tight fascia.

Introducing…

Myofascial Release for a Better Body

“Myofascial Release is a whole body treatment method that recognizes that tightness and restrictions in one area of the body affects the entire body.”

Myofascial release can improve the health of your fascia.

As mentioned, the purpose of myofascial release is to improve the health and quality of the fascial system. This therapy is designed to break down built up scar tissue and relax the muscle and myofascia. It restores the fascia’s flexibility and pliability, allowing it to lengthen and reorganize.

The myofascial release technique can be applied directly on the body. Practitioners who are experienced in this field of work can help restore your fascia to a healthy level by applying varying ranges of pressure. This pressure is what breaks down the scar tissue and relaxes the myofascia.

The only problem is that these treatments can be quite expensive.

There are other options, however. One in particular that we focus on at Bloom to Fit is called…

Self Myofascial Release.

Or what’s more commonly referred to as soft tissue work. I’m a huge believer in this self-therapy because, with only a few inexpensive tools, you can treat your fascia dysfunctions and truly build a better body.

Stay tuned next week where I’ll talk about how you can take advantage of myofascial release and soft tissue work to restore your body to its healthy roots.

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Keeping a Food Journal can Reveal your True Eating Habits – Take the Test

Srdjan Popovic — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:44:25 +0000

You’ve undoubtedly heard of them…

Food journals.

They’re these little notebooks you carry around with you and write down exactly what and when you eat throughout the day.

Every little detail.

Now they even have online versions and smartphone applications that are designed to make the process a little more simplified (some even allow you to upload pictures of the foods you eat).

But what’s the point? What’s the purpose of it all?

Well, here’s something you probably didn’t know…

There was a study done back in 2008 that showed some interesting findings.

People that keep a food journal are likely to double their weight loss results.

That’s right.

Keeping this little journal and recording the foods you eat can have a dramatic impact on your weight loss efforts.

So why does it happen?

It’s simple really. It all comes down to awareness.

The truth is, the majority of us think we are eating healthy. We think we are consuming quality foods and keeping our overall calorie consumption low.

But the truth is there are a lot of calories we forget about. The random cookie here. The latte at lunch. The handful of almonds in the morning. These are all simple things that we don’t consider but have a huge cumulative effect.

So I want you to do a little experiment for me.

A little test.

For three consecutive days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, Monday, Tuesday work best), I want you to keep a food journal.

I want you to record everything you consume.

Everything.

Anything you eat or drink – I want you to write down.

Grab yourself a little notebook or use your smartphone text app to keep track of this. There’s no need to be super detailed here. Just keep it simple. For each of the three days, include the following things in your journal:

What you consumed for that day.

Example 1: Almonds
Example 2: Starbucks Coffee

How much of it you consumed (rough estimate).

Example 1: 10-15 Almonds
Example 2: Large cup

What time you consumed it at.

Example: 2:30 pm

That’s it.

I want you to do this for three consecutive days without holding anything back. I want you to eat and drink like you would normally eat and drink during those days because that’s a true measure of your eating habits. Also, don’t look through your journal to see what you ate the day before. Just use it for recording. We’ll save the examining for later.

Remember, there’s no point of cheating yourself.

This test is for you to learn something about yourself.

Now, once you finish the experiment and you have information for all three days (2 days and 1 weekday), I want you to sit down and take a good long look at your findings.

Does it look like you thought it would? Are there any things that surprise you? That make you shake your head?

Let’s take a quick look at the numbers…

To figure out your overall caloric consumption for each of the days, you can use a cool little online tool called NutritionData. It’s free and it will tell you everything there is to know about your food. You can learn how to use it here. [Note: if you need help with this part, please feel free to contact me. I’d be glad to help you out.]

What most people come to realize is that their overall caloric consumption is much higher than they originally thought. Those side drinks and snacks really add up.

But there is a greater purpose to this test.

As you’ll soon notice, just the process of writing down the foods you eat will bring awareness to what it is you are putting in your mouth. You’ll become more cautious of the foods you are consuming and eventually this will help you make better decisions.

And at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

If you want to learn something about yourself and your habits, try this little experiment. Then come back and let me know how it went. I’m curious to see your findings!

If you liked this post, subscribe to the Bloom to Fit newsletter. It’s free and you’ll get exclusive tips and updates. Plus I’ll throw in a free gift, just for you.

How to get Lean with VI Phase 3: Eating for Fat Loss

Srdjan Popovic — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:03:07 +0000

You are what you eat…

There is some truth to that.

Achieving low levels of body fat (i.e. getting ridiculously lean) comes down to nothing more than what and how much you eat.

As I’m writing this, I’ve already completed Phase 3 of Visual Impact Muscle Building.

And I’ll tell you this: Results speak loud and clear. This shit works!

I showed you guys exactly how I’m training to develop incredible strength and burn serious fat. But today…

Today I want to talk to you about the most important aspect of getting lean – the diet.

When it comes to eating for fat loss, there are tons of strategies out there and a lot of them work for a lot of people. What I’m going to do is give you an overview of my exact eating strategy for this phase.

Note that this strategy is different from what Rusty suggests in his program, but you can decide for yourself which route you’d like to take.

I’m also going to give you a list of supplements I’m taking for Phase 3. It’s nothing extravagant so don’t expect that you’ll have to go out and buy all sorts of crazy supplements. That’s not the objective. We just want to cover all our bases.

With all that being said, let’s get into the meat of the Phase 3 dieting strategy.

How much do I eat?

Everyone knows that to lose weight, you have to drop your calorie intake. Although it’s never as simple as calories in vs. calories out (trust me), for the sake of simplicity let’s just say our aim is to keep our overall calories consumed below our calories expended.

In his program, Rusty recommends to consume 8-10 calories per pound of your target body weight.

So let’s say you’re weighing in at 180 lbs and want to come down to 170 lbs…

Your caloric intake should range from 1,360 to 1,700 calories per day. This may seem low – and it should be.

Our primary macronutrient will be protein. The goal is to aim for 0.5 to 0.6 grams of protein per pound of current body weight.

So, once again, if you are currently at 180lbs you should be aiming for 90 to 100 grams of quality protein every day.

Now what I’ve decided to do is use a diet called the Slow-Carb Diet. It’s a very powerful dieting strategy that I discovered when reading Tim Ferriss’s book The 4 Hour Body. It requires you to follow five simple rules:

Rule 1: Avoid “White” Carbohydrates

Make sure you are avoiding any carbohydrate that is, or can be, white. Avoid the following foods: all bread, rice (including brown), cereal, potatoes, pasta, tortillas, and fried food with breading.

Rule 2: Eat the same few meals over and over again

Apparently there are roughly 50,000 products in the average U.S. grocery store, but only a handful of them won’t make you fat. The idea is to select three to four quality items and repeat them.

The aim is to keep things simple. By choosing a few simple meals to repeat over and over, you’ll make things much easier for yourself.

Rule 3: Don’t Drink your Calories

Do not drink milk (including soy milk), normal soft drinks (you never should), fruit juice or any other high calorie, high fat, or high sugar drinks.

Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened tea or coffee (without milk) as you’d like.

Rule 4: Don’t Eat Fruit

I’ve boggled a lot of minds when I told people that I don’t eat fruit. Fruit has natural sugar – simple carbohydrates. Their principal sugar, fructose, is converted to glycerol phosphate more efficiently than almost all other carbohydrates. This leads to fat storage.

Don’t worry about the vitamins and minerals. We’ll take care of that in a sec.

Rule 5: Take One Day Off Per Week

This is your day off. This is the day you get to go wild. Eat and drink whatever you want. Pizza, bananas, chocolate, beer, ice cream, or whatever else tickles your taste buds – it’s all good. Everything that you’ve craved over those past six days, you can have on the 7th.

This rule serves two purposes:

First, it gives you your fix. Six days of tough dieting are awarded with a 7th day of complete and utter satisfaction. It’s a psychological thing.

The second purpose is killer. It’s where science becomes a thing of beauty. Dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate doesn’t downshift from extended caloric restriction.

Yes, you read that right. Eating like a maniac increases fat loss. What a beautiful world we live in..

I’ll make sure to put up a post later to show you exactly how this process in the body works.

Saturday was my day of satisfaction, but you can choose whichever day of the week works best for you.

So what exactly am I eating?

So here’s a list of the meals I’ve chosen for my week. My meal schedule is based on my sleep schedule (when I get up in the morning and when I go to sleep) so you might want to alter yours to match your sleep schedule.

Breakfast – 7:00 AM

As soon as I wake up I have a protein shake that consists of:

2 scoops of 100% Natural Whey protein powder
1 teaspoon of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of maca powder
250ml of water

This gives me roughly 300 calories, 48g of protein and 8 g of carbohydrates.

Important Note: there is no set amount of carbohydrates that you’re trying to hit – your aim is to keep it low and keep it slow (i.e. no simple carbohydrates).

All of the supplements I’m taking for this phase are taken in the morning so I might as well list them here. Here’s the list:

2 Omega 3 pills
A multi-vitamin
A 1000mg of Vitamin C (every other day)
Protein powder (part of my shake)

The Omega 3s are my source of good fats. The multi-vitamin and the Vitamin C are my source of vitamins and minerals, making up for my lack of fruit consumption. Apart from the protein, those are the only supplements I’m taking for Phase 3.

Lunch – 12:00 PM

For lunch I have a bean salad with mixed vegetables and tuna. It consists of:

Black beans
Red kidney beans
Lentils
Raw spinach
White flaked tuna
Raw red peppers
Raw mushrooms

I’ll have about a cup or a bit more of this mix and add 2 hard boiled eggs to the mix. It comes out to about 600 to 800 calories, 20 to 30g of protein, and 30 to 40g of complex carbohydrates.

Lunch: Bean salad with tuna and raw vegetables

Note: I always completely wash and drain my beans. This gets rid of chemicals that make you gassy. Trust me – you’ll want to do this!

Dinner – 6:00 PM

My dinner is quite simple. I have one chicken or turkey breast with a cup of cooked vegetables. It’s quick and simple to make.

It comes out to about 300 to 400 calories, 15 to 20g of protein and very few carbs.

Dinner: Chicken breast and cooked vegetables

Note: I really don’t keep a top lid on my vegetable consumption. Vegetables are something you can consume in large quantities because they’re so good for you and they’re not calorically dense. So, on the days that I’m feeling the hunger, I’ll have more vegetables than usual during dinner.

Post Workout Meal – 9:00 PM

My post workout shake is a protein shake that is very similar to my morning shake. I throw in one scoop of protein powder and a teaspoon of cocoa and maca powder.

This comes out to about 150 calories, 24 g of protein, and 5 grams of carbohydrates.

On most days of the week I like to have a coffee or green tea. These are great appetite suppressants if you’re feeling hungry in between your meals and you can have them as much as you’d like.

So there you have it…

This is my eating regimen for 6 days of the week. On the 7th day (my cheat day) I like to go a little crazy because my cravings are high throughout the week. All-you-can-eat sushi is always at the top of my list.

I hope this little outline of my eating strategy for Phase 3 is useful. If you’d like to check out Rusty’s dieting strategy, you can check out his program here.

Feel free to leave any comments or questions in the comment section below.

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Is the Pursuit of Perfection Holding you Back from Success?

Srdjan Popovic — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:43:45 +0000

Are you a perfectionist?

Do you find yourself constantly pursuing that 100% percent marker?

The truth is, I think we all have some level of perfection-seeking inside of us.

We can’t help it. We’re just wired that way.

But the pursuit of perfection is a funny thing because it just might be the thing that’s holding you back from achieving great things in life.

Let’s dig in for a bit.

I, myself, am naturally very picky and extremely detail-oriented. In my mind, things need to be done to absolute perfection or there’s no point of doing them at all…

Although I find this pursuit keeps me focused and driven, a lot of the time it also holds me back because, as we all know…

True perfection is unnatainable.

Whether you are looking to lose weight or learn a new language, there are steps you can follow. There is a process. A system.

If you have the dedication and work ethic to follow the steps in the process and if you have the patience to stay within the system for the necessary amount of time, you will succeed (barring some unforeseen circumstances).

But how much effort are you willing to put in?

A better question might be how much effort does it take to stay within the system?

Take the idea of learning a new language as an example and bring in Pareto’s Principle. Pareto’s Principle of 80/20 dictates that 80% of the results in any endeavor come from 20% of the effort.

According to this post by Tim Ferriss,

“To understand 95% of a language and become conversationally fluent may require 3 months of applied learning; to reach the 98% threshold could require 10 years.”

So to get 3% better results, you need to put in 4000% more effort!

Whether that 3% is worth the extra 4000% effort is yours to decide, but I’m leaning towards HELL NO.

What I’ve come to discover is that pursuing perfection is far from ideal.

It actually might be holding you back from achieving any results at all.

Introducing the law of 80% effort.

This little law (which I’ve taken the privilege of naming), states that:

To get acceptable results in the endeavor of your choice, you need to follow the steps in the process at least 80% of the time.

What this means is that to get satisfactory results, it is not necessary to try to stay within the system 100% of the time. There is no need to be perfect.

If you can follow the steps in the system 80% of the time, you will be successful.

Note: When I say system, I’m simply referring to the series of steps or actions that you are required to take consistently to achieve a goal or an objective. There can be numerous systems that may lead you to the same end point, but one can be more efficient than the other.

So how does this apply to building a better body?

Well, let’s take a look at an example.

Take the idea of building muscle. The (really) simplified process (or system) for building muscle looks something like this:

Train 2 days on, one day off with lower weights and lower rest periods to initiate sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (see details),

Consume 3,500 quality calories per day (see details),

Repeat for a set period of time.

Now, depending on your goals, you will be going through the steps in this system for a specific duration of time. It took me 8 weeks to gain 19lbs. The greater the goals, the longer the process should last.

Let’s say you’re going to be in a muscle building phase for six months. The law of 80% effort states that you don’t have to consume 3,500 calories every single day for six months. You don’t have to train 4-5 times per week every week.

All you have to do is stay within the system and follow those steps 80% of the time and you will build muscle. So if life happens and you have a shitty day where you consume only 1,500 calories or you happen to miss a training day in some weeks because you’re busy, don’t fret. Simply get back to following the steps in the process as soon as you can and keep going. Things will happen for you if you just keep going.

The reason this law works is because it plays right along with human psychology. Here are two things to consider…

First we look at humanity’s innate necessity to make mistakes.

My belief is that we are genetically inclined to fail. We’re simply wired to make mistakes. Why? Because mistakes allow us to grow. They allow us to learn, to expand and to adapt to change. Failure is just a sign that you are on the right path to success.

So what happens when you pursue perfection and you fail? You tend to bring out feelings of frustration and doubt. You put your mind in an environment that is not suitable for growth.

But when you follow the law of 80% effort, what you do is you leave some room for error. You leave room for growth and for expansion. You allow mistakes to happen.

Essentially, you give yourself a better chance to succeed.

The second thing we look at is our unfortunate willingness to quit. That’s what we do best. When things are good, we keep going. But as soon as shit hits the fan, we get out. We quit and move onto something else.

When you pursue perfection, you make things really difficult for yourself. By not giving yourself room to breathe, you’re basically setting yourself up to quit. The harder things are – or the harder it is to follow the steps in the system – the more likely it is that you will not stick with it long enough to see progress.

But when you apply the law of 80% effort, you make things easier on yourself. You give yourself some room to breathe. You allow yourself to take days off when things get rough.

Once again, you give yourself a much better chance to succeed.

This law applies to just about anything. Anytime you want to develop a new habit, learn a new skill or make some sort of change, if you put in 80% of the effort that is necessary - if you follow the steps in the process 80% of the time – you will reach substantial levels of success.

If the pursuit of perfection is holding you back from getting the results you want, maybe it’s time to try something new. The law of 80% effort is guaranteed to give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Are you a perfection seeker? What are your thoughts on the law of 80% effort? Do you think it is feasible? I’m curious what you think. Please share your comments below.

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How to get Lean with VI Phase 3: Training Strategy

Srdjan Popovic — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:26:27 +0000

You wanna know how to get lean?

Or how to build ridiculous strength?

Here’s a little hint: you can do both at the same time.

But, if you’re like 95% of the population, you’re trying to achieve these goals using a completely flawed and ineffective approach.

No worries. I’m here to lay down some hard cold truth.

So recently I put up a post introducing the beginnings of Phase 3 for Visual Impact Muscle Building. As I mentioned, the objective of this phase is two fold: build strength and lose fat.

Simple.

Today, I want to take you guys behind the scenes of the Phase 3 training strategy. I’m going to show you exactly how I’m training to simultaneously cut excess fat and build incredible strength.

Let’s get into the details.

What am I doing differently?

Fat loss can be a very confusing thing. When we think of traditional fat loss strategies, we often think of training in high volumes (high reps), low weights and tons of cardio.

Only part of that is true.

Thousands have tried this strategy with very little success. I know because I’ve talked to a lot of them.

I’m going to be doing something a little bit different. I am going to be focusing on a combination of low volume, heavy weight training with strategic cardio.

It all starts with…

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy

I touched a bit on this in an old post, but it’s worth repeating again. There are two types of muscular hypertrophy (muscular growth): sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (SH) and myofibrillar hypertrophy (MH). Back when I was in Phase 1, I focused on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy to help me put on 19lbs of muscle in 8 short weeks.

For Phase 3, I’m going to be shifting focus to myofibrillar hypertrophy.

While SH increases the muscle cell fluid, or sarcoplasm, within the muscle cell (thus making it bigger), MH actually makes the muscle fiber itself grow (but very slightly). Since muscle fibers have the ability to contract, growth of muscle fibers results in dramatic improvements in strength. There is also a big neuromuscular factor here, but we’ll get into that later. Note that MH does not result in sizable muscle gains.

So how do we specifically focus on MH?

It comes down to rep ranges.

To initiate MH, we focus on very low volume (low reps). We’re talking about 1-4 repetitions max. The weights we use are also going to increase dramatically because we’re going to be working in such short rep ranges.

A combination of low volume and heavy weights will create a hard and dense muscle. Heavy weights also increases what we call “true” muscle tone. Rusty Moore, creator of the program, explains:

“In science, the term “muscle tone” actually refers to the electrophysiological phenomenon – of ionic flow across muscle cell membranes. The more toned a muscle is, the greater the electrophysiological activity it displays when it is in a rested state. So a muscle with great tone is hard and partially contracted in a rested state. A really toned muscle is hard to the touch. It takes hard and strong contractions to create this residual tone…and strength training for low reps is the way to do this.”

This is exactly what we want.

Extend your Rest Periods, Never Fail

During Phase 1, we shortened down our rest periods to 45 seconds to initiate the cumulative fatigue effect. Phase 3 is different. Here we are looking to build strength and this requires a whole new mentality of training.

And a lot of people have this concept completely backwards.

When you are training for strength gains, you are really training your neuromuscular system. As much as you are training for growth of individual muscle fibers, you are really training to teach your neuromuscular system to create stronger contractions. Stronger contractions lead to dramatic strength gains.

How do we do this?

Never fail. Never perform a repetition to failure. This is part of the reason we work with such low volumes. At the end of each and every set (no matter what exercise), you should always have one or two reps left in the tank. Never teach your muscles to fail if gaining strength is your desired outcome.

Extend your rest periods. Extending your rest periods to 75-90 seconds between sets allows your muscles and neuromuscular system to come back to equilibrium and be able to lift the same weight. This not only allows you to train harder, but longer as well.

Training in this fashion takes some getting used to and you’ll notice this yourself as you go through Phase 3 of the program. We are so used to working to failure that it seems unnatural to consistently lift without failing. It takes a bit of time to make that adjustment. It took me about two weeks.

Let’s move on…

Having dense, toned, hard-to-the-touch muscle is pointless if it’s all covered by excess fat. This is why we combine MH training with strategic cardio.

Strategic Cardio for Fat Loss

There isn’t much to be said here. Each weight training workout will be followed by a 20-45 minute cardio session.

The cardio session is composed of two parts: Intense HIIT and Prolonged LIT.

HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training – should last anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. There are numerous pieces of equipment you can use here, but I’ll use the treadmill as an example. On the treadmill, you will alternate between 30 second sprints and 60 second jogs. You are to continue alternating between these two intensity levels for the total 10-15 minutes. If you want to adjust the intensity, simply adjust the time you spend in the high or low intensity intervals.

LIT – Low Intensity Training – also known as steady state cardio. This is just a slow jog or a fast walk at a consistent pace. You only need to do this for 15 minutes max.

Always do HIIT first, then move to LIT.

As you progress through Phase 3, the duration of HIIT and LIT will change. There comes a point where HIIT stops being effective (you’re either burnt out or at really low levels of bf) and you have to switch over to prolonged LIT to burn off that last little bit of fat. This all comes down to which energy systems you use but I’ll touch on this in more detail in another post.

The Workout

Like I mentioned in the past, the Visual Impact Program is very customizable. You can make all kinds of tweaks and modifications to suit your needs and desires. This is what I love about it. So what I outline here may not be exactly what’s prescribed in the default program, but it’s close.

Note: We are eliminating leg days because we’re going to need them for all the cardio that we’ll be doing (trust me). Some of you might love this, others might not.

We are also moving to a 2 day split for Phase 3 and we’ll be doing 2 days on, 1 day off. Aim for 4-5 training sessions per week. Remember, since we are not fatiguing our muscles – we don’t train to failure – there won’t be any muscle tears so we can work out more throughout the week than we could in a muscle building phase.

Here’s the workout:

Day 1 – Chest, Back, Abs

Bench Press
Incline Dumbbell Press
One Arm Dumbbell Row
Chin ups/Pull ups
Planks
Renegade Rows

Day 2 – Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps

Military Press
Seated Dumbbell Presses
Alternate Dumbbell Curls
Close Grip Bench Press
Dips

Note: I did one less Biceps exercise because of an injury induced to my forearm. I would typically do two bicep exercises (barbell curl is a good addition).

Remember that we’re working in low rep ranges. For each exercise, I aim for 2-4 repetitions and 5-6 sets. (My repetitions decrease as I increase weight – first set 4 reps, last set 2 reps).

If you’re unsure of any of the exercises above, either Google them or grab a copy of Rusty’s program because the program comes with a cool bonus: a full exercise guide that shows you exactly how each exercise is done. Definitely a useful resource to have.

So that’s the training in a (large) nutshell. I know I threw a lot of information at you here so if you’re interested in losing fat and building incredible strength, I suggest you read through the post a few more times until it sinks in. If you want a step by step guide, you can get it here.

I hope this guide on the training aspect of how to get lean has been somewhat useful. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please leave them in the comment section below. Also, if you enjoyed the post take a second to Like or Tweet the page (see the buttons to the left). It’ll help me out a lot. Thanks!

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8 Wicked Mountain Climber Variations

Srdjan Popovic — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:25:39 +0000

This is a guest post by my good friend Troy Pesola who is the founder of Cube Dweller Fitness. He helps cubicle dwellers learn to live life outside of the box. He has been a long time fan of the fitness bloomer movement and I’m happy to have him share some of his insights here.

Living in Colorado means being surrounded by mountains which is the perfect setting to think about mountain climber variations. When Srdjan published the Mountain Climbers Exercise For Building Core Strength article, I figured I would suggested some variations that I found work well to build endurance and core strength.

Back to Basics

Before we get to explaining the eight mountain climber variations, let’s go back over some basics. Check this video to explain two key form tips for performing the mountain climber exercise variations.

Note: If the videos are not showing, simply refresh the page and they will appear

It’s important to keep these two tips in mind:

Arm Position - Your arms should be fully extended and vertical, with your hands directly below your shoulders.
Straight Core - Your body should be in line. Make sure that your but doesn’t start raising up into the air nor sagging down causing your back to sway.

The mountain climber is the most effective exercise for combining cardiovascular and core training. But doing long series of mountain climbers can become drudgery and we don’t want that, so we want to mix it up. Try one of these mountain climber variations to spice things up.

8 Mountain Climber Variations

Here are the eight mountain climber variations. Each one engages your obliques, your hip flexors, and even your shoulders. All of them will work your cardio and your core.

#1 – Standard Mountain Climber

The standard mountain climber starts from a high plank (the starting pushup position), then alternate driving a knee towards your elbow on the same side. Drive your left knee towards your left elbow, return to starting position, then drive your right knee towards your right elbow.

#2 – Pushup Mountain Climber

The push up mountain climber variation can actually be combined with any form of mountain climber (except the standing mountain climber). To do the push up mountain climber simply perform a pushup every time you return to the starting position.

#3 – Cross-body or Cross-over Mountain Climber

The cross-body, or cross-over, mountain climber variation just changes where you drive your knee. Your knee will cross your body as you drive your knee towards the opposite elbow. For more twist you can even drive far outside your elbow twisting your torso on each repetition.

#4 – Spiderman or Hip-Mobility Mountain Climber

The spiderman, or hip-mobility, mountain climber is a variation where you bring your foot as close to your hand and plant it flat on the ground. This movement will require lots of mobility in your hip. Keep working to move your foot as close as possible to your hand on each repetition. The ideal form is to plant your foot flat on the ground next to your hand so your shin is parallel with your arm and vertical to the ground.

#5 – Jumper or Dual Hip Mobility Mountain Climber

The jumper, or dual hip-mobility, mountain climber is variation on the spiderman mountain climber where you move both feet. You will jump from the starting postion to a wide squat position with your feet just outside of your hands, then return to the starting position by jumping back.

#6 – Grasshopper or Full Cross-Body Mountain Climber

The grasshopper, or full cross-body, mountain climber is like the cross-body mountain climber except you extend your leg. This can be done keeping your leg bent, like in the video, or by fully straightening your leg. Aim to get your foot/leg as close as possible to the opposite hand.

#7 – Dawg Mountain Climber

The dawg mountain climber probably could use a better name, but there you go. This one is named after all the walking dawgs marking everything in site. Lift a leg and go. From the starting position, drive your knee forward, out, and up. The ideal form is to get your thigh parallel to the ground and your knee as far forward as possible. This will work your hips and your external obliques.

#8 – Standing Mountain Climber

The standing mountain climber is a deviant since you are … standing. Still it is a great variation from the basic mountain climber. From a standing position, raise your left hand reaching as high as you can, while driving your right knee up and out in a similar movement to the dawg mountain climber. Switch by pulling down with your left hand and reaching high with your right hand. At the same time, let your right foot fall to the floor, then drive with your left knee up and out.

Tabata Mountain Climber Workout

A great interval combo is combining bodyweight squats and mountain climbers in a tabata workout. Those two exercises combined into a high intensity interval training session will tax your whole body in just eight minutes. A tabata workout is based off the research of Dr Izumi Tabata. The Tabata protocol consists of eight rounds of 20 seconds of high intensity work followed by a 10 second rest period. So for this workout, set a timer for 16 rounds of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. Do 20 seconds of bodyweight squats, rest for 10 seconds, then 20 seconds of mountain climbers, rest for 10 seconds, and keep going for a total of 16 rounds. By the end you will have worked for 8 minutes and done 8 work periods of each exercise. You’ll be toast!

The Mountain Climber - Best Cardio and Core Exercise

There you have it guys! Eight mountain climber variations. Try working these into your workouts or doing the squat/mountain climber tabata workout. Then let me hear from you. My personal favorite is the cross-body mountain climber, followed very closely by the dawg. Both of these really work the core. Which variation do you like best?

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