Friday, November 28 Workout

Well, it was the day after Thanksgiving and Black Friday so our normal morning workout was pushed back to Friday evening. Even with some of the participants having gone shopping at 4am we got in a good 20 minute XCELERATED FAT BLASTING workout.

We started with a 50s-10s round followed by 2 rounds of 20s-10s. The first round kicked our butts and we pushed through the last 2 rounds. The exercises were as follows: Squats, Push-ups, Bulgarian Squat (1 leg), Pillar Hold, Bulgarian Squat (1 leg).

We all left puddles of sweat on the floor and were feeling this workout. I can report that I felt great this morning with no soreness. I contribute that to my post-workout recovery shakes with some lean protein.

I look forward to reading some comments about the workout. Have a great weekend and we'll be ripping it again on Sunday at 4pm.

Coach Brad


"That was a great exercise the other night. Everything felt pretty solid after we were done. I didn't think the work-out would really phase me because I work out alot on my own but, I was pleasantly suprised as this seemed to challenge my endurance alot more with only the 10 second pauses in between sets. I was constantly having to push it!"

Curtis Clements

Tuesday, Nov. 25 - Destrehan FitFunCamp

Today was a BONUS workout for our group since Thanksgiving is a day off. Very good workout that got the heartrate up and worked some major muscle groups. We hade several circuits: bicep curls on Powerbase, lunges, side shuffle with squat & jump, crunches and pillar holds alternating leg lifts.

Everyone was reminded to load up on turkey and veggies for Thanksgiving.

See you Sunday!!

Xcelerate Your Game!!

Coach Brad

Sun, Nov 23 - Metairie

Hey folks,
Sorry for the delay in posting this one. But a solid workout on Sunday, despite the unusual circumstances (namely, the overwhelming amount of people and cars crowding that playground for the football tournament that was taking place there). So instead of taking to the track as usual, we stayed on grass lot across the parking lot. Gorgeous weather yet again on that afternoon. The air still warm from the daytime sun, yet it was cooling off as the sun was setting. Perfect conditions. The workout consisted of combination sets again, but this time instead of a timed active recovery we did dynamic drills between static strength drills. For instance, one combo consisted of a set of overhead presses on the Powerbase and a set of crunches, with side hops for about 30 meters after each of those. Each combo was repeated three times, with a minute recovery after each repeat. All in all, it was a very diversified workout: we worked out arms, legs, abs, shoulders, and cardio of course. Very much in spirit of Coach Brad's recent advice (see his earlier blog if you haven't yet) about short-duration high-intensity training, except we had the luxury of 45 minutes. Yet the idea was the same. Short high-intensity sets with just enough rest to catch the breath and go again! Xcellent :)
~Phil

Use Thanksgiving Turkey to Xcelerate Fat Loss

It’s that time of year again, when the golden brown juicy bird comes out of the oven for Thanksgiving. People relate holiday weight gain and the Thanksgiving feast. We can blame the sweet potatoes, oyster dressing, mashed potatoes with loads of butter and gravy, and pumpkin pie for that, but leave the poor bird out of it! After all, turkey is jam-packed with lean protein that Xcelerates metabolism and boost fat burning and lean muscle growth. But, remember to remove the skin because turkey is a lean protein with very little fat.

Did you know that protein is the sole macronutrient responsible for building and mending your body’s tissue supplies (fat and carbs only provide energy). More specifically, frequent protein consumption is vital in Xcelerating the repair of muscle damage from high-intensity activities like strength training and cardio interval training. Also, sufficient protein intake every two to four hours is crucial in maintaining current levels of lean muscle mass. This is significant because the more muscle you have the larger your metabolic engine, thus the more calories (and fat) you burn on a daily basis. Muscle tissue requires lots of energy to maintain itself. Protein is also the least likely macronutrient to be stored as body fat. The body requires more than 2 times the amount of energy to digest protein than to digest carbs and dietary fat. So, if you are going to overeat this holiday season turkey is the bird for you.

Turkey is easy to prepare in bulk which makes it a great ingredient to work with this holiday season. One big bird will give you quite a meal variety, for several days, after Thanksgiving. Just think of what you can do with all those Thanksgiving leftovers! Here are some great recipes which provide a great source of lean protein. Enjoy! So remember, load up on turkey this Thanksgiving and help your cause.

Turkey Recipes to Xcelerate Fat Loss


Xcelerate Your Game!

Coach Brad Taliancich

Friday, Nov. 21, 6am FitFunCamp

Another good workout this morning. The wind made it pretty cold but we survived. Today's workout was 20-10, 20 seconds intense - 10 seconds rest for (4) 5 minute rounds. Each round included squats, woodchoppers w/ med ball, lunge w/ overhead press (med ball), med ball overhead throws, squat to med ball push pass, jumping jacks, rows and finished with running in place which made up our 8 exercises.

Done by 6:45am and everyone off to get the kids ready for school and head to work.

Have a great weekend!!

Thursday, Destrehan, 3:15pm FitFunCamp

What a great FitFunCamp workout. The group of women that worked out today did an awesome job. We did a pretty rough 50-10 routine. 50 seconds intense exercise, 10 seconds rest consisting of 5 exercises per round for 4 rounds. They performed squats, pushups, hip extensions, jumping jacks and pillar holds. They worked up a good sweat on a beautiful day in St. Charles Parish.

Keep up the good work and post those comments by clicking on the title of this post.

Xcelerate Your Game today!!!

Coach Brad Taliancich

Wed., Nov. 19 - 6am Workout

Just finished a great 6am FitFunCamp workout in Destrehan. Small group but intense. We started off with a dynamic warm-up (high knees, butt kicks, A-skips, backpedal, carioca) to get the blood flowing and the eyes open.

Started 30-10 tabatas (30 seconds intense exercise, 10 second recovery) for 4 rounds. Round included alternating lunges, pushups, hip extensions, squats, pillar holds, squat thrusts, jumping jacks and running in place.

We Xcelerated our fat loss with this routine in 30 minutes. You can feel it in your muscles as they start to tire in the later rounds. What a good feeling.

Followed that with a post-workout recovery shake (chocolate) to help those muscles recover quicker. At this age, 37, my body tends to feel the effects a bit more but the shake helps shorten the recovery time and my muscles are ready to go the following day.

Possible follow-up workout later this evening. Time to get the kids up and off to school.

Best Exercises for Xcelerating Fat Loss and Building Lean Muscle

As a high school/college athlete and a current trainer and coach, I know a thing or two about exercise selection. I am constantly asked what the best exercises are to burn fat AND build muscle quickly.

I’m going to keep this as simple as possible. The best exercises for fat loss also happen to be the best ones for muscle gain. These exercises all have one common thread: they provide a UNIQUE challenge to your body AND involve as many muscles in your body as possible.

Scientific research and real world case studies have shown that total body workouts are incredible for maximum fat loss and muscle gain. But let’s take this one step further…

Let’s dramatically Xcelerate results by selecting TOTAL BODY EXERCISES within each TOTAL BODY WORKOUT! Look at this example: squats are one of the best muscle-builders with serious fat-burning effect. However, the squat goes from great to UNBEATABLE for changing your body for the better when you combine it with another movement by adding a row or press to each squat rep. By combining an additional exercise with the squat you just Xcelerated your workout.

It’s as simple as the Xcelerate Fat Loss Equation below:

Performing Total Body Exercises Within Each Total Body Workout --

More Muscles Involved = More Calories Burnt + Greater Muscle-Building Stimulus =

Greater Fat Lost + Greater Muscle Gain

I'll be honest and say there is a true love-hate relationship with the following movements I am about to share with you. Love because of the Xcelerated fat-melting, muscle-building results they provide to help maximize my results. Hate because they break me every single workout. In other words, these are not for the weak of mind, body, or soul!

Team Xcelerate presents the official top 10 list of exercises for fat loss and lean muscle gain:

Exercise#1- Any Squatting Combination Exercise- Squat Thrust/Burpee Variations, Squat to Overhead Press, Squat to Row, Squat to Chest Press, Single-Leg Squat plus Curl to Press, etc.

Exercise#2- The Swing- Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, or Sandbags

Exercise#3- Any Lunge Combination Exercise- Alternating Lunge plus Curl to Press, Alternating Lunge plus Twist, Alternating Lunge plus Chest Press, Alternating Reverse Lunge plus Row, Split Jump plus Jerk, Split Jump plus Curl etc.

Exercise#4- Any Push-Up Combination Exercise- Push-ups plus Knee-Ins, Push-up Rows, T-Push-Ups, Spiderman Push-ups, Squat Thrust Push-Ups, etc.

Exercise#5- The Chop- Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, Bands, or Sandbags

Exercise#6- Olympic Lifting Variations: Dumbbell or Kettlebell Cleans, Snatches, High Pulls

Exercise#7- Dynamic Back Pillar plus 1-Arm Dumbbell Chest Press

Exercise#8- Rear Foot Elevated Deadlift plus Curl to Press

Exercise#9- Med Ball Snatch-Slam Combo

Exercise#10- Dumbbell or Kettlebell Single-Leg RDL plus Row

Look for a great highlight reel, of the above exercises, later in the week. You can add them to your own training routines for better results:

If you take our advice, and add some of these 10 deadly total body combination exercises, you'll be Xcelerating your results in no time. We guarantee you better results in less time by regularly employing these movements into your workouts. Of course it’s now up to you to take your workouts, and your body, to the next level.

If you want to get this type of workout, with group support, check our FitFunCamp program.

We'll be sharing more great exercises for specific trouble spots (e.g. legs, butt, abs, etc.) that may be holding you back in the days to come ;)

Xcelerate Your Game!

Coach Brad Taliancich & Coach Phillip Glotser

http://www.teamxyg.com

Build the Ultimate Circuit Workout for Xcelerated Fat Loss

In the past, most resistance training workouts have been performed by doing certain exercises in a straight set format. Basically, you would perform a specified number of reps for a given exercise or perform as many reps as possible of the given exercise and then rest between 30 seconds and five minutes based on your training goals. Then you would repeat this set a certain number of times. So with this theory you would take shorter rest periods to achieve more fat loss and gain lean muscle. Strength or power gains would have longer rest periods.

So, what’s the problem with this format? Well, though straight sets are quite easy to understand for people new to fitness, they are also an highly inefficient way to arrange your exercises. In most commercial gyms you’ll typically see someone perform three sets of 10 reps for something like a bench press or bicep curl. You'll see them blast out a set of 10 reps, stop, grab a drink, look at the tv or themselves in the mirror and then slowly walk back to start the second set. Well, most people, especially guys, will take s 3-5 minute break in between sets. So, if they are doing 3 sets with 10 reps they'll take 15 minutes to complete that one movement pattern. Wow! You'd need at least an hour to do just 4 different movement patterns. (Starting to feel jipped yet?)


A more potent and proficient approach to organizing your exercises is utilizing the alternating set format. You will perfom an exercise, take a short rest, then perform another non-competing exercise, with another brief period of rest, and so on. Alternating sets allow you to work different areas of your body when you would normally be resting with the straight set format. Plus, your body will recover from one exercise while performing the next exercise with a different emphasis. The result is improved training economy and density: Xcelerated work accomplished in less time, the building blocks of any sound fat loss program. There are several ways to perform alternating sets outlined below:

1.) Supersets: Alternate between two different non-competing exercises (e.g. upper body and lower body such as push-ups and lunges)

2.) Trisets: Alternate between three different exercises (e.g. push, pull, and lower body such as push-ups, rows, and lunges)

3.) Circuits: Alternate between four or more different exercises

Though supersets and trisets are excellent alternating set options, I believe circuit training is the best option over and over. Let's look at my favorite circuit training template which demonstrates using timed set intervals:

The 50-10 Five Exercise Circuit: You will alternate between 50 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for all five exercises in the following 5-minute circuit:

Exercise#1- Squats

Exercise#2- Dips

Exercise#3- Single-Leg Hip Extensions

Exercise#4- Pull-ups

Exercise#5- Leg Raises

Perform this circuit up to four times for a 20-minute total body fat burning workout.

You now see, in the same 15 minutes that it took to get three sets on the bench you can get three sets of five different exercises for an amazing total of 15 work sets! Plus, the intensity which you perform each exercise will be just as high as in the straight set format because in the five exercise circuit you will get full recovery for four minutes before you return to any given exercise (just as you did with the straight set format described earlier).

The fundamental key to creating the Xcelerated hormonal environment for fat loss is to perform each exercise with maximal intensity while taking the brief 4-minute rest period. This will help you accomplish a high volume of total body work in the shortest amount of time possible. Circuit training provides the best of both worlds and is simply unmatched for simultaneously Xcelerating fat loss and lean muscle gain. Try this template we use with our FitFunCamp clients for some killer, yet simple Xcelerated fat loss circuits:

Exercise#1- Double-Leg

Exercise#2- Push

Exercise#3- Single-Leg

Exercise#4- Pull

Exercise#5- Core

We'll be sharing a workout video, showing you a circuit you can perform anywhere, in our upcoming blog post later this week.


I’ll be sharing some more great circuit training workouts from our FitFunCamps in the weeks to come ;)

Xcelerate Your Game!


Coach Brad Taliancich & Coach Phillip Glotser

http://www.teamxyg.com/