The Truth About Infomercial Gadgets and Your Abs

Ab Exercise Infomercial Gadgets an Expert Review

Anyone who has been up late has had to of seen at least one abdominal exercise infomercial gadget. You see the models and the 6 pack that they have as a result of the incredible gadget. This often leads you to wonder if those products even work. Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne, author of Turbulence Training, recently reviewed a research study on ab exercise gadgets to help you get the truth about abs.

According to Craig, one of his favorite ab exercises includes one of those cheap infomercial gadgets, "the ab wheel". You can pick one up at Walmart for under 20 bucks, and it works your abs hard without crunches.

The ab wheel is one that does work, but do other ab gadgets do what they claim?

Researchers (from the Mayo Clinic, of all places) tested the
"Ab-Slide" device and compared it to the ab crunch, the supine
double leg thrust (seated knee tuck-in), and side plank.

Reference:
J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Nov;22(6):1939-46.

Ten young men and twelve young women did all the exercises.

Tests showed that the Ab-Slide, a contraption fairly similar to the Ab Wheel, worked the abs the hardest.

On the other hand, the seated knee tuck-in required a lot of hip flexion, and the doctors believed it could cause BACK PROBLEMS in people prone to low back injury.

Craig recommends sticking with the Ab Wheel, and of course, keeping crunches out of your program. He also suggests adding the Seated Knee Tuck-in to your list of ab exercises to avoid.

For best results, stick to the exercises in the Turbulence Training
workout program.

Train hard and safe,

Jason, CSCS

PS - Just say NO to crunches.

To get 6 pack abs it is best to stay away from crunches because they are hard on your low back, and they are also useless for helping you get a flat stomach.

Instead, stick to interval training, the ab exercises in Turbulence Training, and the TT nutrition guidelines if you want to transform your body.


Want to burn body fat or build big strong muscles.
Click here to a free Supplement Review Guide:
=>free Supplement Review Guide

10 Unconventional Uses For Your Gym Towel!

10 Ways To Use Your Workout Towel to Exercise!

By Nick Nilsson

The humble gym towel can actually be an extremely effective training tool!
When you get done putting these quick and easy methods to the test,
you'll never look at your towel the same way again.

The towel is your friend...

And to prove it to you, I've got 10 ways you can use your gym towel to get a great workout (not counting mopping up sweat, of course).

1. Towel Chin-Ups

Throw a towel over the chin-up bar and grip the ends. Now pull yourself up! Gripping and holding your entire bodyweight up on a loose towel is GREAT for the grip and will activate a lot of muscle fibers in your lats because of the instability.

2. Towel Calf Stretch

Lay on your back on the floor and loop your towel around the forefoot area of one of your shoes. Now pull HARD towards you, stretching the calf. This technique works extremely well because you can very easily adjust the tension of the stretch. Forget fancy stretch straps - just throw a towel over!

3. Abdominal Sit-Ups

This is a GREAT abdominal exercise...roll up a towel, lay down on the floor and slide it under your lower back. Now do a sit-up. The rolled-up towel braces your lower back so that instead of using hip flexors and putting stress on the lower back, all the tension of the exercise goes directly onto your ABS.

Be sure your not pulling on your head - you can also make it easier by holding your arms across your chest or at your sides.

4. Towel Bodyweight Tricep Extensions

Throw a towel over a railing or something else a few feet off the ground. Now hold onto the ends. Set your feet back a few feet. Now, keeping your body stiff, bend at the elbows ONLY then extend back up. The instability of the towel grip will set your triceps on fire!

These pics show the exercise done on a bar - just loop a towel over the bar and grip the ends. Move your feet closer to make the exercise easier.

5. Towel "Fat" Bar/Handles

Thick bar and thick handle training is GREAT for the forearms and grip strength. You can accomplish this cheaply by simply wrapping a gym around the bar or the dumbell handles and then gripping around THAT as well.

The padding and "squeezability" (I sound like a toilet paper commercial...cripes) of the towel around the bar activates a tremendous amount of muscle fibers in the forearms and hands.

6. Towel Pushdowns and/or Pulldowns

The easiest way to set this up is to attach a single handle to a high pulley then loop a towel through that. Grip on the ends of the towel and do a pushdown or pulldown (depending, of course, on what exercise you want to do)! It's just like using a rope attachment but without the solidness of a rope (or the knots on the end to brace your hands).

7. Towel Pull-Up Rows

This exercise gives you some excellent options for training your back in pretty much any situation you find yourself in. As long as you can loop a towel around a solid object, you can grab the ends and perform a rowing movement...two hands on the ends or even one hand gripping both ends to do one arm at a time rows.

8. Towel Cable Face Pulls

This is a great rear-delt exercise. Attach the single handle to a high pulley and loop the towel through. Use a light weight to start with. Grip the ends of the towel then take a couple of steps back so your arms are directly forward, out in front of you.

Now, pull the cable towards your face, bringing your hands out to the sides of your head, trying to pull the towel ends out to the sides as you do so. This one is excellent for the Rotator Cuff.

9. Towel Cradle Sit-Ups

Lay on the floor with the towel end held in your hand and with the towel itself across your upper back (like you would hold it if you were drying off your back with it).

Now perform a sit-up...instead of trying to pull yourself up using your abs, though, pull yourself up using the TOWEL. Come up and to the right by forcefully pulling on the RIGHT end of the towel, while bracing with your left. You'll be surprised at how strongly this hits the abs.

10. Neck Training

Using a towel is a great way to do isometric training for your neck. Basically, you just put the towel around your head (any direction - front, sides, back) and pull on the ends, resisting that pull with your neck muscles.

---

And that's just the beginning! Take these techniques and try and think of other ways you can take the common gym towel and come up with multiple uses for it.

I told you you'd never look at your gym towel the same way again!

------------------

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 18 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "Muscle Explosion," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

Build Muscle, testosterone Squidoo page

Quick update.

I just made a Squidoo page, go check it out:
Testosterone - Get Strong, Build Muscle

It is still a work in progress but it is up and running. It is talking about supplements and bodybuilding. Getting strong and big with supplements like testosterone and the scams supplement companies like to pull on those looking to get big in the gym.

http://www.squidoo.com/BuildMuscleTestosterone

3 "secret" tips for bigger stronger arms

3 great secret tips to build more muscular arms.

Are you genetically CURSED with "skinny arms"?

Unfortunately, for those people who really struggle with adding more muscle to their biceps, triceps, and forearms, the "same old" exercise approach doen't do very much.

What does?

Well, below is a 3-STEP APPROACH from a buddy of mine, Jeff Anderson (aka - the "Muscle Nerd")

Muscle Specialization Secrets

If you want to see what all the buzz is about, go to:

http://www.musclenerdfitness.com <= Click Now

The article below is a GREAT example of why this training is so very DIFFERENT from anything else you've seen.

You see, a LOT of people are self-conscious about the size of their arms.

Jeff's "micro-targeting" approach helps you overcome your more "challenging" areas by zeroing in on those muscle with a unique training approach.

For example...

The secret to overcoming "Small Arms Syndrome" is to create an illusion of more SIZE and WIDTH by working on 3 specific areas of your arms that will all work toward this one goal.

Here are 3 EXERCISE SECRETS that are guaranteed to bring you
FAST RESULTS:

============================

Arm Training Secret #1: Lateral Triceps

============================

The outer heads of your triceps are the ones that are most
visible both from the FRONT and the SIDE.

By training them specifically, your arms will look DRAMATICALLY
wider from the front and give you that "horseshoe" look from
the side and back.

The best exercise I've found for this is the REVERSE-GRIP CABLE
PRESSDOWNS where your palms are facing UP.

Only bring your arms up until your forearms are parallel to the
floor and at the bottom of the movement, lock out your elbows
and SQUEEZE your outer triceps hard for 1-2 seconds.

High volume sets of 8-12 reps will help you get the "pump"
you're looking for to increase mass.

============================

Arm Training Secret #2: Inner Biceps

============================

The key to using your biceps for this "trick" is to focus more
on the INNER biceps head and go for "width".

You do this by using a WIDER GRIP CURLING MOVEMENT that zeroes
in on the inside area of your bi's.

Here's the best way to do it...

Go to a preacher bench and load up a bar with enough weight to
do 8-12 reps.

Now, go to the OPPOSITE side of the bench as most people go so
that your UPPER BODY is resting on the pad instead of your ARMS.

This means that your arms will be hanging vertically over the
other side where your body would normally be.

This gives you a much better "stretch" in the biceps at the
bottom position.

Next...take a WIDER than shoulder width grip on the bar!

A wider grip is going to hit the INNER area of your biceps much
better...and help with that wider LOOK to your arms we're going for.

============================

Arm Training Secret #3: Pumped Up Forearms

============================

This is a simple...and POWERFUL tactic to hit your forearms HARD!

Grab a few small hand towels (most gyms have these handy for you
to wipe the sweat off of the machines).

Fold them lengthwise and wrap them around the bars you're using
for exercises #1 & #2 above so that it add about another 2-3 inches
to the width of your grip area.

Essentially, you're making a "fat bar" to grip on to and this
GREATLY activates your forearms in these movements!

Using this for exercise #1 above will work more of the "top" or
"outside" of your forearms while on execise #2, it will work more
of the "underside" of your forearms.

(Note: After 2-3 sets with the "towel method", remove them to do
one more set of each exercise WITHOUT the towel so you can get in
one last targeted set to focus on your tri's and bi's)

Give these arm training secrets a try and watch your arms balloon
up in no time!

Muscle Specialization Secrets
============================

Jason, CSCS

3 Stranges Exercises to build muscle on your chest

One of the most troublesome areas for guys looking to develop a lean, muscular body is their CHEST!

Some struggle with adding ANY mass to their pecs while OTHERS find certain AREAS of
their chest are "underdeveloped" more than others.

In some cases, this is a matter of GENETICS...

In OTHER cases, it could be that you're simply not training with the correct EXERCISES
to "micro-target" these lagging sections of your chest.

So here are 3 "strange but POWERFUL" exercises for the most common CHEST CHALLENGES:

============================

Target:  Upper Chest

============================

Forget boring old inclines!  Do this instead...

...Smith Machine Presses To The NECK!

Lie flat on a bench with the Smith Machine bar right at your NECK instead of your chest.

Grab the bar slightly wider than shoulder width and press as normal (2 seconds up; slow
4-count on the way down).

Keep your elbows flared OUT and really concentrate on feeling a good stretch in your
upper pecs at the bottom of the movement!

Go for a good "pump" at 8-12 reps!

============================

Target:  Inner Chest ("Cleavage")

============================

This one comes from the underground iron pit of max security PRISON YARDS.

(Don't ask how I got this.)

Lie flat on a bench and grab ONE SINGLE DUMBBELL that's slightly LESS than the combined
weight you would normally use for 2 dumbbells.
(So if you normally press 60lbs in each hand, grab a 90 or 100.)

Maneuver your hands so you can wrap both around the handle
(tricky, but you'll figure out how to overlap).

Now, holding the weight so it's facing up and down your body (lengthwise),
press the weight as normal.

At the TOP of the movement, press your pec muscles together HARD and squeeze (HARDER!)
for a 2 second count.

============================

Target:  Lower Chest

============================

Dips...Dips...Dips...* BUT *...

Rather than keeping your feet BEHIND you...

...stick them out in FRONT of you!

On the dip bar, keeping your legs straight, bring your feet out in front so your body
is in a "V" shape.

Keep your elbows flared OUT away from your body as you lower yourself down and focus on
LEANING FORWARD.

Come down far enought that you feel a good stretch in your pecs.

Bringing your feet to the FRONT actually places more emphasis on your lower chest
muscles instead of your triceps that tend to give our the earliest.

Also, don't "lock out" at the top of the dip movement!

Stop about 6 inches short of the top to keep the stress on your chest!

============================

Want MORE TIPS on how to "micro-target" your chest?

Why not get an ENTIRE "Specialization Program" for every single area of your body?!

Jeff Anderson has just released his "Muscle Specialization MEGA-PACKAGE" that includes:

==> Printed Manual

==> Workout DVD

==> 6 Audio CD's on "Muscle Specialization Secrets"

==> 12 Bonus "Best Exercises" Videos

==> Complete "Resources Disc" With 3-, 4-, and 5-Day Workout Routines

==> Tracking Software

...but there's a CATCH!

This package closes its doors for GOOD this Saturday (or when the boxes all sell out).

Jeff's only released this "big box" version to celebrate this being his LAST
bodybuilding program he's ever going to produce (he has 5!)

So check it out NOW while the program is still available at:

http://www.musclenerdfitness.com <= Click To Get Access  Jason, CSCS 

the "REAL" real truth about ABS

Ok, I know what you're thinking...

You're expecting me to say that the real "truth" to getting a lean, sexy 6-pack is to "burn off the fat", right?

You want to tell me that you "already HAVE a 6-pack" but it's just covered with a layer of blubber, eh?

Sure, that's what EVERYONE says, and it's TRUE...

...SORT OF!

You see, too many people have put in all the "hard work" to get to single digit body fat levels only to find that when the fat is
gone...

...their abs are still FLAT AS A PANCAKE!

================================

So here's the REAL "truth" about ABS...

================================

You actually have to HAVE "muscle" on your abs in order to achieve that lean, "ripped" look!

Plus, here's one more little "unknown" that will make getting a 6-pack EASIER...

You see, the amount of muscle you have on your abs will determine whether you start seeing your "pack" poke through at 10% body fat or 6% body fat.

And TRUST ME...there's a WORLD of difference in that 4% gap, as anyone who's ever tried to "diet down" to single digit body fat levels will tell you!

As far as I'm concerned, if I can look great at 10% body fat because my abs have more muscle and are more defined, then all the better...easier abs!

So you see, the key is to TRAIN your abs hard in the gym, just like ANY other muscle...with RESISTANCE!

Sure, there are a lot of machines you can find at your local gym that will target your midsection, but...

================================

Here's a "Quick Bodyweight Tip" For Training ABS...

================================

Most people are especially challenged with hitting their LOWER ABS.

This'll do the trick...

Find yourself a DECLINE BENCH and a bath-sized TOWEL.

Roll the towel up into about a cylinder, about 6 inches high.

Lay on the decline bench with your head toward the top and your legs straight with feet on the floor.

Place the towel from left to right under your lower back and grab the bench behind your head with both hands to gain leverage.

The towel increases the range of motion in your abs and ALSO gives you incredible lower ab activation.

Now, keeping your legs STRAIGHT, raise them in the air until you're in the shape of a "V" and breathe out forcefully at the peak contraction point.

Lower your legs SLOWLY but don't give them a break at the bottom.

Raise them back up in the air and continue back and forth until exhaustion.

When you're abs are toast, finish them off by bending your legs at the knees and doing "reverse crunches" in the same fashion, bringing your knees up toward your chest.

================================

Want even MORE "abs advice" + advanced training tips for EVERY MUSCLE?

Check this out:

==> http://www.musclenerdfitness.com

================================

Jason, CSCS

My Workout, Pull - 10/06/09

Yesterday was back and biceps. Nothing too ground breaking but lots of volume to build mass and get stronger. I am doing more of a bodybuilding style workout. I have some heavy days to build up strength and lots of volume to get bigger and gain weight.

Back
Pull up - 5x6
Pull Dn Close Grip - 3x8
Hammer Row - 3x8
One Arm Row - 3x8

Biceps
Curls - 4x10
Preacher curls - 3x10
Hammer curls - 3x10

That did it bor back and bicep training. Legs come next.

Do you have a muscle is giving YOU "the finger"?

http://www.musclenerdfitness.com/go.php?offer=atltrainer&pid=5

It's pretty damned embarrassing, isn't it?

No matter WHAT you do...

...no matter how HARD you train

...no matter what SUPPLEMENTS you take

...there always seems to be ONE SINGLE MUSCLE GROUP that absolutely
REFUSES to grow!


================================

Which one is it for YOU?

================================

Upper chest?

Lower abs?

Maybe your shoulders look more like "tennis balls" than "softballs"?

Biceps not keeping up with the REST of your gains in the gym?

Don't worry, you're certainly NOT alone!

Fact is, GENETICS are going to play a role in not only how EASY it
is for you to build muscle...

...but also the SIZE and SHAPE of every muscle on your body!

Now you'd think that this was a good excuse for you to just throw
your hands up in the air and give up, right?

WRONG!

================================

It's time to show even the
most STUBBORN muscles who's the BOSS!

http://www.musclenerdfitness.com

================================

Here's the deal...

My friend, Jeff Anderson (you may know him as the "Muscle Nerd"),
has just released his latest muscle-building program...

...and it may just be his crowning achievement!

Jeff is a fitness consultant and former U.S. Army Master Fitness
Trainer who is a die-hard researcher and "tester" (hence the
nickname "Nerd")

Well, he's spent the last 4 years fine-tuning a unique training
method that ZEROES IN on your "lagging" body parts" and literally
FORCES them to kickstart new growth.

And I'm NOT talking about the same old "muscle mag" or forum B.S.
that tells you to simply go into the gym and train a muscle like a
madman until appendages start falling on the floor.

Jeff's developed a complete, scientifically-engineered, muscle
specialization "system" he calls...

..."Micro-Burst Training"!

================================

It's CRAZY - And Here's Why It WORKS...

==> http://www.musclenerdfitness.com

================================

Most "specialization programs" that attempt to target specific
muscle groups DON'T take into account ALL of the body's "anabolic
factors".

They try to reduce "plateau busting" to simply "training HARDER".

Some even tell you to "train LESS" to avoid OVERTRAINING.

Problem is...all of these are pretty much just a shot in the dark.

I mean, how do you KNOW whether you're actually training too
hard...or not enough?

Well, being a former "grunt" in the military, Jeff's belief is that
the best DEFENSE...is a kick ass OFFENSE!

"Micro-Burst" training puts YOU in command of your muscles by
unleashing a programmed "attack" on dormant muscle fibers while
simultaneously igniting certain "hyper-growth" factors your body
uses for mass-building.

Only Jeff's method actually FOCUSES (with "sniper-like" precision)
your body's mass-building efforts...

...into ONE SINGLE MUSCLE GROUP!

==> http://www.musclenerdfitness.com

================================

But there's one more little "SURPRISE"
I need to tell you about...

================================

You see, Jeff's "Micro-Burst Training System" is actually...

...a "Mega-Box" that gets delivered to your DOOR!

I know you're used to me mostly sending you notices about
downloadable programs, but Jeff's pulling out all the stops on this
one!

Not only is he shipping out the entire "Training Manual", but
ALSO...

...full length INSTRUCTIONAL DVD!

...3-, 4-, and 5- Day Workout Guides (for EVERY muscle group)!

...complete Exercise Manual of proven "mass-builders"!

...a software program!

...AND 6 AUDIO CD's!

This is a freaking HUGE package...and a killer deal too!

But you have to go and check it out NOW because he's only had 500
boxes made up and this email is going out to over 200,000
newsletter subscribers across the internet!

So go NOW to...

==> http://www.musclenerdfitness.com

Trust me...you're not going to want to wait around on this one!

Jason, CSCS

My workout - Push 10/05/09

Today was the first day of my new program. Lots of pushing today. Day 1 is more of a strength day so the reps were low and the weight was a little heavier.

started of with bench
Bench Press - 5x5
DB Incline - 4x5
Standing shoulder press - 5x5
Close grip bench - 4x5
Shrugs - 5x5
Shoulder combo - 2 sets of 50 reps
Triceps push downs - 3x15