I am always skeptical when I read about new exercises or new equipment that promise to chisel your physique and burn fat in exchange for just a few minutes a day. I think most of us know that if there was a secret to reach our fitness goals in a fraction of the time we would have found it by now. Just like if there was a secret to becoming rich by working only a few hours a week from the comfort of our own home, everybody would be doing it.

This post is not about some short cut or another empty promise that leads to fitness nirvana. This is about a great add-on to a workout that will supercharge your metabolism and exhaust your muscles. Let me start by saying it’s not as easy as it sounds. The days you feel a little less energetic will be the days you don’t look forward to doing this routine. It reminds me of “suicides” in basketball. Those crazy quick sprints you did at the end of practice. But here’s the thing, this routine is perfect for closing out a workout by ensuring that you exhaust all your muscles and kick your metabolism into overdrive. It’s also a great substitute to use if you are travelling or on vacation and stuck in a hotel room. No weights are needed. And not much space either. Here’s the routine:

* You must try to complete this as quickly as possible. Proper form is still important, but focus on quick bursts and rapid progression from exercise to exercise. This is all about activating those fast twitch muscle fibers. Think explosion. Power. Bursting out of the gate. I recommend starting with one giant set to close out your workout. Here it is:

1) Perform 25 push-ups (good form, as fast as you can. Don’t forget to contract your stomach and glutes so the core is isolated. Explode up from the ground.)

2) Immediately pop up and do 20 standing squats. No weights are needed until you have been doing this for a while. Contract the stomach and go all the way down. Quick bursts are needed.

3) No rest…Immediately bang out 25 jumping jacks. No explanation is really needed here. Just move quickly.

4) Final set…jumping lunges alternating legs. 20 reps. Start with hands behind your head and perform these in place alternating legs. Get a good stretch, but don’t overextend and put pressure on the knees. This is all about quickness. You will be sucking wind and legs will start to burn during this last set.

And that is it. If you try this after your normal workout, I will take a guess that your body will be burning and you will be gasping for air as though you just out ran a pack of wild dogs. If you want to try this as a solo exercise, do 3 giant sets of the above. Try with only 3 minutes rest in between. Each set should take the same amount of time, don’t slow down.

It looks very easy when you read it on paper. Trust me, it’s not that easy. Try it for yourself. Let me know what you think. And most importantly – experiment! Your body will adjust as it gets use to this. That’s when you push yourself harder and change things up. Maybe add some additional reps. Try to go faster. Decrease rest intervals. Or make small changes to your stance (hands closer for push-ups, adjust leg placement for squats and lunges). Have fun and make this your own. It doesn’t take long, but it does produce results.

I was beginning to think I had a tapeworm or was just embarking on another winter cold. I would guess that I’m like most people in that I do eat breakfast in the morning, but it’s a quick and very light meal. I workout on an empty stomach as soon as I get up and then down a quick bowl of cereal and some fruit before starting my day (oh, forgot to mention a quart of coffee…I know – not good). Fast forward 2 hours and I am literally starving. No surprise really. The breakfast I just ate was healthy, but barely replenished the energy I used during my workout. I’m always ready with at least one or two snacks in between meals. Why am I not hitting that hunger wall any more? If I’m busy I completely forget to even eat my snack.

I didn’t take me long to figure this out. And it was just 2 small changes I made that had a huge impact. First I started throwing some almonds in my cereal to bump up the protein content of my breakfast. I always have these as a snack, but thought expanding this healthy addition to my breakfast would be a wise decision. My wife also makes a protein smoothie every morning for her and our boys. It’s a simple blend of frozen fruit, banana, frozen spinach, protein powder and rice milk (one of our sons is allergic to dairy). This helps them start off the day right with a full spectrum of vitamins and protein. So I would sneak a small glass of this as I realize straight coffee is not the best beverage of choice to re-hydrate. That’s it. A handful of almonds and probably 6-8 ounces of smoothie. Yet I feel like I’m eating a steak omelet that is lasting me until lunch.

Our bodies are pretty amazing. They also become victims of routine which is why making small changes often has big results. This time of year so many people make drastic changes to their diet so they can live up to their New Year’s resolutions. And making a huge change is often very hard to maintain. It’s the small changes that have a lasting impact. Regardless of your ultimate goal. And the best part? It’s not that hard to get started. Pretty easy to keep the momentum going. And a ton of fun experimenting to see what results you achieve. What small changes have you made that has made a difference?

I am sure there are many people can relate to this scenario.  For those who run, think of the days you woke up and just felt great.  Legs were full of energy.  Body completely rested.  You get out on the road or track and you feel lighter than ever as though you are cutting through the air like a sharp knife.  You make it through your route with complete ease and wish you had extra time to keep going so that you don’t waste this surge of energy.

Whenever I have runs like this, especially if I have a few in a row, I always think it’s time to kick it up a notch.  I know I can’t extend my run as my time in the morning is limited, so I try to bump up my pace a little to see if I can get that heart rate going.  The funny thing is it can be just trying to shave off 10-20 seconds, and even with that small amount I feel it tremendously.  Suddenly my abundant energy is sucked right out of me.  Legs start to tire quickly.  Breathing is more rapid than it has been in quite some time.  What happened to reaching the next level? Where did my energy reserves go?

To me, I think it’s a great example of how little changes you make in your workout can go a long, long way. We often want to make huge gains in our fitness program to get to our desired level as quickly as possible. And when these giant leaps prove to be too much to handle, we can get frustrated and lose our ambition. It’s important to know that even small changes will have a tremendous impact on your workout.  The running example is just a start, as you can look at increasing your pace slightly or try to transition to an interval training run where you do small bursts at a faster pace and then slow back down to your normal pace.  If weight training, instead of adding more weight to the exercise like most people do, try decreasing the amount of rest in between sets.  Or incorporate a giant set where you string two exercises together such as dumbbell flies and dumbbell press to exhaust the chest muscles.

This is America.  We like to go all in every chance we get.  We want to go from our studio apartment, right to our dream house.  Forget the small starter home in between.  We want to remodel our entire kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite counters, not upgrade one piece at a time.  But when it comes to our workout, small steady changes really do the trick. While we can appreciate the ambition to make a giant leap of faith in your fitness routine, sometimes the turtle really does win the race.

What would your ideal body look like?  Go ahead and ask this to someone who incorporates weight training into their fitness routine.  More often than not you’ll get a response about wanting a completely toned, defined and muscular body from head to toe. Makes sense. In our mind we envision our ideal body to look somewhere in between a perfectly toned specimen to a freakishly ripped & cut mass of muscle.  We all have our own idea of just how muscular we want to be.

The only problem is that many people don’t truly structure their workout so that they can reach this total body level of harmony.  That is why it’s so important to concentrate on oppositional muscles to make sure you maintain balance in your workout, while striving to prevent injuries that could happen down the road.

Oppositional muscles are those that work together to give you stability and range of motion.  Each muscle is equally as important as its opposing muscle group, however we often tend to favor one over the other.

Let’s look at the oppositional muscles in the leg for example. – the quadriceps and hamstrings. Although there are exercises that work both muscles, many people tend to go above and beyond to try and get that nice teardrop look in the quad through some sets of leg extensions without balancing this out with leg curls. But in order for the quads to be strengthened, the hamstring muscles must also be strong and flexible.

Why?  Take running for example.  When you run up a hill, your hamstrings work to strengthen the leg while the quads are lengthening to balance them out in helping create movement at your knee.  Running down the hill has the opposite effect – your quads now do the work and your hamstrings are lengthening and relaxing. Have you ever gone on a run that was mostly downhill thinking it was easy and then wonder why your quads were so sore later in the day? If you don’t work both these muscles to compensate for each other, that’s when injuries can occur.

Other opposing muscle groups include the pectorals and upper back, biceps and triceps, and what I think are the set that are the most unbalanced in most people – the abs and lower back.  How many sets of ab exercises do you do compared to lower back exercises?  I’m guilty of this myself. We’re always in the mindset that we need to blast our abs to exhaust and strengthen them, but forget that to truly get the abdominal section we desire the key is in the lower back.

We all have our favorite muscle groups. But whether it is to help prevent injury or optimize your workout – Balance is everything.  

It feels so good to get that off my chest.  It’s like a weight has been lifted.  After all, I’m writing a blog for eFitnessbuzz which is all about fitness, exercise, motivation and healthy eating.  I rarely miss a workout, so how could I go on eating dessert every single day.  Simple. In moderation, you have to reward yourself in order to harness your motivation to reach your ultimate goal.

Picture it this way – let’s say you want to save up for a nice plasma TV.  You figure it will drop you back about $2,000, so you decide to save about $300 per month so you can get this in a little over 6 months. There are many ways I’m sure you can think of to get on a savings plan to reach your goal.  But let’s pick two that are almost as opposite as can be.

The first is hard nose, no excuses, just do it plan.  You decide to revamp all your spending habits.  There will be no eating out for 6 months and you will buy all your food at a discount superstore.  No shopping for clothes in this 6 month time span as what you have in your closet for now will do.  Entertainment expenses will be cut to zero. We’ll also be dropping to basic cable, canceling our landline phone, opening windows and keeping the A/C off, and anything that breaks will be fixed with duct tape.

Then we have the short-term stimulus plan which consists of finding a Part-Time job close to home.  You just want to work an extra 10-12 hours a week to make about $100 per week after taxes. It’s going to be tough carving out this extra time in your schedule, but you figure you will put $300 away each month for your TV, and then use any extra for a special meal out with your wife, or to take the kids to a movie.  Maybe you’ll even buy some accessories for the TV now so you can enjoy some purchases while you wait.

I think both plans will work.  Which would you rather follow?  Don’t get me wrong, I know there are many people who follow a very strict and rigorous fitness plan. I do the same thing when I’m training for a race or competition. But during a standard week, a little cup of pudding with a sprinkle of dark chocolate chips and raisins hits the spot after a grueling day – both physically and mentally. Being committed and sticking to a plan is hard work. Many people fail if not motivated to continue.  That’s why I choose to have my cake and eat it too.

If I had to give you the best fitness advice I could ever think of, I can do it in one word – Move!

That’s really all there is to it.  It’s that simple. I can end this article right now and let you chew on that for a while to formulate your own opinion. However, since there aren’t any good sports on at the moment and the Football draft doesn’t start up again for a few hours, I can expand a little further.

Moving (a.k.a. exercising) is at the core of every fitness routine.  Sometimes complicated questions do have simple answers.  How do I become rich?  Easy – save more than you spend.  How can I lose weight?  Simple – Burn more calories than you consume.

The reason I bring up the point of “moving” being the best fitness advice ever, is because if we look around we still see all the shortcuts out there that people hope will work for them.  Supplements that burn fat.  Cream you rub on your body to reduce cellulite.  Exercise contraptions you can do from your couch while watching TV.

Maybe if I hook myself up to an electric shock machine with connections to my stomach, wallet and head, I’ll get smarter, richer and a six-pack all at the same time.

I’m sorry, but there are no shortcuts.  Actually there are, but they are also probably illegal and/or very dangerous for you.  You have to move. How much and how fast will determine the end result, but for now, just move.

It can be as simple as a nice, casual walk after dinner. Go dancing with your significant other.  Take the stairs instead of the escalator. Take the last parking spot in the lot and walk a little further to the store.  These are just a few ways to start slow when building a fitness routine that works for you.  You can expand that walk after dinner to a slow jog. Increase your speed or distance if you want to advance further.  The key is to reach the level that you are comfortable with, motivated to repeat, and that gives you the results you seek.

Fitness routines do not need to be grueling, punishing programs that you force yourself to complete a few times a week. Have fun…start slow…and just move!

It really should be “A banana a day keeps the doctor away”.  Not that I have anything against apples, as I think they are a very nutritious, vitamin-packed fruit. It’s just that the banana to me is the ultimate energy-packed snack, and it has nearly four times the protein and twice the carbohydrates as an apple.

Let’s take a look at what make bananas so great:

• They do not contain sodium, fat or cholesterol. (Very important for a healthy lifestyle, but I know you can make the same claim for many fruits and vegetables.)

What else?

• Bananas are also loaded with potassium.  And for those out there that are into weight training, you know that potassium is the mineral that helps in the building of muscles and protein synthesis.  That’s why it is always recommended to get enough potassium after a workout.

• Energy, Energy, Energy! Bananas contain three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose along with fiber. This combination ensures an instant and substantial boost of energy, some experts claim that 2 bananas would provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout.  Didn’t you ever wonder why there is usually a table of bananas for participants at marathons and other long races?

• Bananas contain Vitamin B6, which helps in the synthesis of antibodies in the immune systems.

• Bananas have more digestible carbohydrates than all other fruit.

• Bananas are high in resistant starch which is a type of fiber that is suppose to promote fullness and increase fat burning.

OK…you convinced me I should eat them as part of my healthy diet. What else are they good for?

I’m glad you asked. Let me leave you with a few other interesting uses for bananas:

• You can polish leather shoes with a banana peel and then buff with a soft cloth.

•  Rumor has it you can remove warts by rubbing them with the inside of a banana peel every night for several weeks.

•  Rub scraped knees or cuts with the inside of a banana peel to promote healing.

Best part yet is that bananas are ridiculously inexpensive.  I’m talking around $.19 each on average. There really isn’t an excuse you can have (unless an allergy of course) to not incorporate this miraculous fruit into your diet. Just try to convince me.

I actually mean this in a positive way. I don’t think many people truly understand what strength training (weight lifting in particular) accomplishes. Any type of weight lifting exercise you perform, from the standard bench press to the clean & jerk, will break down those specific muscles you are targeting. So again, congratulations, you are getting weaker from weight training.

The reason this is a good thing is because you actually want to break down as many of these small muscle fibers as possible. That should be the goal of your weight-training workout.  It also goes to show you how important it is to follow a well thought out weight lifting program. There are 3 critical components that comprise an effective weight training program:

1)    Weight lifting routine

2)    Rest and Recovery

3)    Nutrition for repair

I believe each of these components is equally important, although I know many people believe the weight lifting component is the most important.  When I first started weight training I was under the same delusion thinking I could just work my chest 5 times a week to build it up that much faster. I underestimated how important rest and nutrition was, thinking I was just being lazy.

After you complete your weight lifting routine, you have essentially broken down the muscle fibers that you worked. So as you enter the “rest and recovery” stage, your body is now repairing these broken down muscle fibers, which helps strengthen and grow the muscle.  The nutrition component is critical because your body will use the nutrients you have consumed to aid in the repair process.  That’s why it is important to have a diet that is high in protein and amino acids, while limiting the foods high in fat, sugar and empty calories.

Let’s not forget just how smart and powerful our brain is.  As we continue our weight training program, our body recognizes the intense stress and demand we are putting on our muscles, and will compensate by increasing the muscle mass and strength while in the rebuilding process. Another reason it’s important to train regularly and not give up if you don’t see results right away.  It’s a comforting motivation knowing your body is going to reward you for all your hard work.

So go ahead, weaken your chest with some bench press.  Tear down those bicep muscles with some dumbbell curls. And break down those washboard abs with repetitive crunches. You’ll be a stronger person for it in the end.

I have to admit, even I would describe myself as a frugal person.  I always shop for a deal and will spend less money where I can if I don’t think it is worth paying a premium for luxury. I have also learned the hard way that this mindset should not apply to purchasing running shoes.  If there is one thing now that I am always willing to pay a premium for, it is a quality pair of running shoes designed for me.

Why the focus on running shoes?

There are certain things in life we seem to compromise on to save a little money.  Take for example maintenance on your car.  Do you change your oil every 3,000 miles?  I average 4K-5K.  Flush that coolant every 30K?  I push an extra 5 or 10K if everything is running OK.  But one thing my father always taught me is you never push the limits when it comes to tires or brakes.  Tires are the only thing between you and the road. And being able to stop one second sooner may be the difference between a major accident and near miss.  These are items you don’t want to put off maintaining – and you definitely do not want to buy cheap tires or brakes to save a buck.

I believe the same holds true for running shoes.  So often we make our decision based on color, brand or price when it comes to running shoes.  Many people do not even know what type of runner they are, and that’s critical before making a decision.

Do you have high arches? 

Are you a heavy heel striker?

Do you overpronate or underpronate?  

Resources & Tools to utilize

If you don’t know – it’s time to find out. Runnersworld has an outstanding section of their site to help you uncover your ideal running shoe. There you will learn if you need to be looking at a high stability shoe or if you’re better suited for a motion control shoe. By choosing the right shoe, you will be getting the optimum cushioning and support you need to help protect your knees, hips and joints from unnecessary wear and tear.

If you already did your homework and know the shoe you need, it’s also important to watch for the warning signs of when it’s time to replace them.  General rule of thumb is that shoes should be replaced between 300-500 miles – that averages about 8 months – 1 year for most runners who run about 10-15 miles per week.

This should not be your only guide.  We all run differently – some of us are very hard heel strikers. Others prefer to run outside on the road instead of a treadmill.  In both cases, your shoes will wear down even faster.  What are some of the other physical warning signs to look for?

• Shin splints

• Knee or hip pain

• Lower back pain

• Tired/dead legs

It’s true any of these symptoms can be a sign of injury that you need to treat, but the first place you should always look is your shoes.

I started off only wanting to lift weights like most teenage boys when I began working out.  I then came to value the importance of endurance training and learned to love incorporating running into my workouts. Running is one of the easiest and least expensive workouts you can start right away.  There are no classes you need to register for. No expensive equipment you need to purchase. Except for that quality pair of shoes designed for your feet. And motivation to keep on using them.

I get a kick out of trying to figure out what the next big health trend will be.  It amazes me how these trends just seem to explode overnight – it’s the epitome of viral marketing at its finest. 

The health kicks I’m talking about are the parts of our diet we need to watch.  These trends could end up lasting a few years, but it takes no time at all for all major products to adapt their marketing around these fads.  Don’t get me wrong, most of these trends accomplish one very important goal – they make us pay attention to what we eat. And when trends like this catch on, we get the benefit of healthy options to choose from.  They also tend to stick around even when the buzz dies down.

In today’s digital age, there are also online resources to help you reach your goals Calorie Counter at MyFoodDiary.com. So in essence, we really do have a lot of support to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Let’s take a look at some of the past trends:

1980’s – Calories

Counting calories was the name of the game.  This is when we really started to pay attention to the amount of calories in food and how much exercise we needed to do to burn them.

1990’s – Fat

This decade we learned that burning calories may be important, but burning fat was critical to get that ripped body you desire.  We learned that your body doesn’t start to burn fat until you’re already exercising for 15-20 minutes. And now we start to see all the delicious “fat-free” food items come out – most with a laundry list of artificial ingredients we’ve never heard of.  Or that we can even pronounce for that matter.

2000’s – Carbs

It’s OK to eat a 64 oz. steak, just skip the potatoes. Now we learn of diets like “Atkins” or “Southbeach” that are big on protein and low on carbs. We also get educated and learn new terms like “net carbs”.

2010’s – ???

So what is your best guess for our next trend? Are we going to focus on cholesterol? Or maybe low sodium diets will be the wave to help us kick our salt habit. Maybe it’s finally time for us to stop the sugar binge and rescue our kids from childhood obesity. I’m on the edge of my seat with anticipation.