The Body You Want - Washington DC Personal Trainer : Georgetown, DC

Check-out my FULL TWO PAGE spread in the Brookland Heartbeat in their May/June issue. Click here to read it.

”You've got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it.”

- Lee Iacocca

Do you like candy bars? Me too, but I don’t eat them often. However, there is a new protein bar that both tastes like a candy bar, and has good nutritional stats, called Supreme Protein that I think you should check-out. You can click here, or your can pick them up at 7-11.

Caveat: Most of what you eat should be real food, NOT bars or shakes. They are helpful to make life more convenient by filling in the gaps in one or two of your meals/snacks, but no more. Unless, you are in the midst of a heavy travel day and your only other option is McDonald’s.

My girlfriend, Natillie (the Tillinator), came up with this 5min recipe – no matter how tired or busy you are, you have the time to make this. It is just about the simplest, easiest and best tasting healthy, fat-burning recipe I have ever used. Click here to try it.

Memorial Day has come and gone, so summer is officially here. That means less clothes, so almost everyone needs less fat on their bodies too. With that in mind, I am giving you all an absolutely FREE 4 wk fat-loss workout that you can customized based on the time you have available to train (yes, I really am that nice). And, depending on how much you can train and how cleanly you eat, you can actually drop 10lbs of body-fat by the time July 4th rolls around.

#1. We’re going to get you burning more fat 24hrs-a-day. Research has shown that high-intensity exercise, especially resistance training, will cause your body to burn more fat all day long vs. lower-intensity exercise like aerobics. In addition to burning more calories from fat, every single bout of high intensity exercise (like resistance training and interval training) will speed up your metabolism for the next 24-36hrs. Workout for 1hr, reap the benefits for 23hrs – that’s a good deal.

#2. We’re going to get more done in less time. Using traditional gym logic, a total lower body workout would take up your entire evening. This is because you would have to do two to three sets of one to two exercises for each of the following: inner thigh, outer thigh, calfs, hamstrings (back of thigh), quadriceps (front of thigh), and butt. You would then have to work your abs – one exercise for the upper abs, one for the lower abs, one for the sides, and then one for your lower back. After all of this, you would still have to do 30-45 min of jogging on the treadmill (aerobic exercise) to keep your heart healthy, and burn some fat. Who has the time or patience for all of this? Not me!

With my plan you can a) work your entire body, b) get your heart and lungs super healthy and fit, and c) burn a lot of body-fat in about 45min, all in about 45min. Here’s how: Instead of doing leg curls (photo) for your hamstring, leg extensions (see photo) for your quadriceps, etc., we’re going to get your entire lower body in one movement.

Jennifer is training for her upcoming seated ass-kicking contest:-)

For example, in the split squat (it looks easy, but will kick your butt - see photo), you get your butt, hamstrings, top of thigh, and calfs working to lift and lower yourself. In addition, your outer thigh and hip keeps your knee from collapsing in as you go up and down, while your inner thigh keeps you knee from bowing out as you move. Your lower leg and feet have to work very hard to keep your ankles from rolling in and out, and to keep your feet flat on the floor.

Split squat

Then after resting for 60sec. we go into a push-up. A push-up will hit your mid-section, arms, shoulders, chest, and some back muscles. Plus while you do the push-up your legs are recovering, so you can do the next set of split squats with more intensity. Your muscles get to rest, but your heart and lungs do not – this is how we keep your metabolism elevated for the next 24-36hrs. And all of the exercises were selected to work as much muscle at once as possible.

The men will get bigger and leaner, and the women will get smaller and more toned.

    #1. Follow the plan as written

    #2. Eat better. You cannot out-train a crappy diet.

    #3. Pick how much time you want to invest from the list below.

    #4. FAQ’s :

    A typical woman’s Q: Won’t I turn into a man if I lift all these weights? I don’t want to get bulky, just toned.

    A: No, becoming a man requires surgery and drugs:-). Becoming bulky is actually quite difficult even if you are a man. For example, look at the men at your gym who lift weights. I’ll bet you that only10% of them even have enough muscle to look like they workout, yet they lift frequently and have at least 10x the testosterone that you do.

    Finally, how is this for bulky? Female power-lifter Stephanie Kubik (photo below) can dead-lift over 320lbs at a body-weight of a little under 105. All she does is lift really heavy weights and she weighs 105. Weightlifting + women ≠ big.

The men at your gym would kill to be as strong as this 105lbs lady.

    A typical man’s Q: Hey, I’m a man and I know everything. How come there aren’t any arm exercises? My guns are going to shrink!

    A: I know how you feel. I was afraid I’d lose my arm size doing workouts like this too back when I was a fatty. This is essentially the same exercise format, and the same types of exercises that I did to drop my 45lbs of fat, AND while I was dropping all that fat, I also gained about 5lbs of muscle. That’s not much, but a) its more than most men gain in a year trying to get bigger, and b) my arms got bigger (a little), not smaller.

    Any time you push or pull, or dead-lift your arms get worked. You don’t need to isolate them unless you want to be a competitive bodybuilder. Who would you rather look like?

The athlete? or...

The body builder

    Below are the different recommendations for different levels of time commitment. Next to them are what you can expect in terms of fat-loss (results are heavily dependent on nutrition, when in doubt, eat less starch). IMPORTANT: fat-loss may not show up on the scale. You may weigh the same, but have a smaller waist and/or hips. That’s good, NOT bad. That means that you have both lost fat and gained muscle – you are leaner and have more metabolically active muscle, so your metabolism will be slowly speeding up. So, everyone should weigh and measure themselves, and record this information once-a-week, so that you actually know how you are doing. Do it at approximately the same time on the same day to ensure consistency.

    Men: measure weight and your waist at your naval.

    Women: measure weight, plus your waist at naval, and hips at the largest part of your butt.

    GROUP A: 2.5hrs per week – Expect ½ to 1lb of fat-loss per week

    Do the metabolic resistance work, the 30min. routine below on 3 non-consecutive days per week – i.e. M, W, F -or- T, Th, Sat. Stick to 2 sets per exercise to keep it under 30min, and follow your session with a 15min. interval session (warm-up for 3min., interval #1: go extremely hard for 1min (9 on a scale of 1-10), followed by 2min. at recovery pace (6 on a scale of 1-10), repeat for INT #2 and 3, cool down for 3min.) To read more about intervals (INT’s) click here.

    Total time = 2.5hrs/week (1.4% of your available time in a week)

Week 1: Mon – workout A (28min) + 3 INT’s (15min), Wed – workout B (26min) + 3 INT’s (15min), Fri – workout A (28min) + 3 INT’s (15min)

Week 2: Mon – workout B, Wed – workout A, Fri – workout B… and so on

GROUP B: 3hrs per week – Expect 1 to 1.5lbs of fat-loss per week

    The same as group A, except, you are going to lift and do intervals 4 days per week, but NEVER train more than two days in a row! Also, after week 1, you can go up to 3 sets for each exercise to improve your results. That would be:

Mon – workout A (28-37min) + 3 INT’s (15min.)
Tue – workout B (26-35min)+ 3 INT’s (15min.)
Thur – workout A + 3 INT’s
Fri – workout B + 3 INT’s

Total time = 3hrs/week (1.8% of your available time in a week)

GROUP C: 4hrs per week – Expect up to 2.5lbs of fat-loss per week (you really can drop 10lbs of fat in a month with consistency in eating and training)

    You are on the same lifting schedule as group B, but you get some extra intervals on extra days (you do not need to go to the gym to do intervals).

Mon – workout A + 3 INT’s (43-52min)
Tue – workout B + 3 INT’s (41-50min)
Wed – 6 INT’s (23min)
Thur – workout A + 3 INT’s
Fri – workout B + 3 INT’s
Sat – 6 INT’s
Sun – REST

Total time = 4hrs and 2min/week (2.4% of your available time in a week)

    Following this schedule you will crank your metabolism sky high and keep it there for the entire week. In addition you will cause your body to burn MUCH more fat during the 23hrs per day when you are not exercising than you would it you had wasted your time doing aerobics, or watching TV. In short you will turn yourself into a fat-burning machine.

    Again, the projected results assume that you do not skip workouts, that you do them with full intensity, and that you stick to your meal plan for all but 2-3 meals per week (preferably 1-2).

Workout A                                                      Sets                  Reps                Rest
1a) Bulgarian Split Squat (Q)                            2to3                 12to15/leg        60sec
1b) PERFECT Push-up (H-push)                     2to3                 12to15             60sec

2a) Step-up (H)                                                2to3                 12to15/leg        60sec
2b) Inverted Row (H-pull)                                2to3                 12to15             60sec

3a) Front Plank (C)                                          2to3     30-90sec hold             0sec (NO rest)
3b) I-T-Y (H-pull)                                            2to3                 12to15             60sec

Workout B
1a) Stiff legged dead-lift (H)                              2to3                 12to15             60sec
1b) Assisted pull-up (V-pull)                             2to3                 12to15             60sec

2a) Split squat (Q)                                           2to3                 12to15/leg        60sec
2b) Single-arm overhead press (V-push)           2to3                 12to15/arm      60sec

3a) Side plank (C)                                            2to3     30-45sec hold/side       0sec (NO rest)
3b) SHE (supine hip extension) (H)                   2to3                 12to15             60sec

I have photos and instructions that I will email to you in MS Word, for free if you send an email to josef@thebodyyouwant.com with “exercise” as the subject line. The company that hosts my web site is terrible (that’s aplus.net), their software crashed at least 12 times while I was trying to get the photos onto my site.

Example – in workout A, start with exercise 1a, do 12-15 repetitions with good form. Then rest for 60sec, then do exercise 1b for 12-15 repetitions. Rest for 60sec, then do 1a. Rest for 60sec, then do 1b – alternate with full rest in-between. The same goes from 2a and 2b, 3a and 3b, and for all exercise pairs. The only exception will be for 3a and 3b in both workouts, there is no rest in-between 3a and 3b, only after you have completed both exercises do you get your 60sec of rest.

The DC Basket Brigade, a local charity that I work with, needs your help. After several years of working as part of other non-profits, we need to branch off on our own to avoid the hassle, and time and money-drain of having to go through the red tape of doing our projects through other organizations – it discourages donors, and often keeps us from being able to access our funds to run our projects (that means we can’t serve as many people). We need our own non-profit status with the IRS for fundraising, and we need your help to afford that.

Can you please make a donation to help our cause? Our goal is to raise $600 this summer to cover the expenses we will incur by going off on our own. $5 would be very helpful, and $25 would be great. Please make checks payable to “DC Basket Brigade” and mail them to:

DC Basket Brigade
c/o Josef Brandenburg
1316 Randolph St., NE
Washington, DC 20017

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at josef@thebodyyouwant.com. Thank you for your help.

Josef Brandenburg is an award-winning Washington, DC based personal trainer. He focuses on helping regular, busy people create rapid and sustainable fat-loss in the time that they actually have. He is also the author of the book The Body You Want. Click here to find out more.