Give it a  try and let us how you did in the comment section below!

*Remember, there is an inherent risk performing physical activity. If you are unsure about your ability to tolerate any of the exercises shown below, please consult with your local fitness professional before giving them a try.

Ab Circuit

Metabolic Conditioning Circuit

Complete as fast as possible:

• 10 push-ups, 10 broad jumps, 10 band pull aparts
• 9 push-ups, 9 broad jumps, 9 band pull aparts
• 8 push-ups, 8 broad jumps, 8 band pull aparts
• 7 push-ups, 7 broad jumps, 7 band pull aparts
• 6 push-ups, 6 broad jumps, 6 band pull aparts
• 5 push-ups, 5 broad jumps, 5 band pull aparts
• 4 push-ups, 4 broad jumps, 4 band pull aparts
• 3 push-ups, 3 broad jumps, 3 band pull aparts
• 2 push-ups, 2 broad jumps, 2 band pull aparts
• 1 push-ups, 1 broad jumps, 1 band pull aparts

I encourage you to check out her MFIT Challenge blog to read about her original experience with the program. Here is an excerpt:

Wow- I’ve been following the MFit program for way longer than I ever thought I would be able to keep it up. My workout buddy Raechel and I have been killing it the past month going in the a.m. and p.m. So obsessed could be a word, but I like to think of it as committed. We work hard and our bodies are the proven results. Raechel and I have become quite a team, she seems to always push me when I’m done and vise versa.

My biggest weakness still is diet. I’m a foodie and a binge eater for sure. I’ll go two weeks sticking to my food plan and logging, then the following week go crazy and undo all my hard work. It’s a give and take, you can’t be perfect 100% of the time or we all would have super model bodies, but I aspire to be the best me.

I am happy with my progress and continue to push for higher goals  to take my body to new limits.

Goal: 3 sets of 9 reps fully extended arms pull ups. (current 3X9,7,5)

Join the 100 KG hip thrust club. (long way to go)

P.S. Jake my fiancée started coming to the workouts too. You know you are in love if you do pull ups together.

Come again?

Aren’t a poor diet or improper exercise habits more to blame?

Well, they obviously part of the issue, but success comes from believing you’ll be successful no matter what… and committing to building a lifestyle that allows you to crush your goals.

As a former personal trainer and now into my time as a nutrition coach, I’ve heard countless excuses as to why people can’t exercise, can’t eat healthy, don’t sleep properly… you get the idea.

Frankly, if you’ve spent more than 5 minutes working in the health and fitness industry, you’ve likely already encountered a lifetime’s worth of excuses.

And I am continually amazed by the number of people who seek my expertise, yet after chatting with them for 20 seconds it’s readily apparent that they only want me to affirm what they already believe.

Newsflash – if your current way of doing things worked so well, you wouldn’t be seeking out an expert in the first place!

Making a significant transformation is tough enough to begin with. Compounding the difficulty by starting the process with entirely the wrong attitude is sheer lunacy.

So if you are here looking to kick your physique into high gear, do yourself a favour and avoid these transformation killing diet excuses.

Remember, transformation starts between the ears!

1.   I don’t have time to prepare healthy meals.

Really? You can’t take 30 minutes out of your busy schedule to grill 7 chicken breasts for the week while cutting up a week’s worth of vegetables and putting them in grab-and-go Ziploc baggies?

It must really suck to have a full 168 hours booked solid every week.

Oh wait – you’ve somehow found the time to read this article, which means you have free time.

2.   I don’t eat vegetables.

This is akin to saying, “I don’t like sunlight” or “I don’t enjoy breathing”. Good luck achieving optimal health by forsaking either of those and see how you do.

Vegetables should be the foundation of every healthy person’s diet. Low in calories, packed with vitamins and minerals, high in fibre, they help you manage your blood sugar, are loaded with chronic-disease preventing phytochemicals, they help improve both your sodium-potassium and acid-base balance… stop me when I stumble upon something that wouldn’t help you look or feel better.

Maybe it’s time you started moving away from having the taste bud sophistication of a 4-year old? On that note…

3.   My kids/spouse/invisible friend won’t eat __. So I just eat what they eat.

That’s some mighty sound logic. I’m sure your kids don’t like going to school either and your spouse isn’t overjoyed about having to work every day, but somehow they manage. Besides, since when was it appropriate to let the food preferences of a 3-year old dictate the foods we put into our bodies?

Come to think of it I’ve never heard of someone in a  3^rd-world country suggest that the prospect of going through life without chocolate, ice cream, chips or soft drinks would seriously compromise their quality of life. Nor do they endorse Pop Tarts or Eggo Waffles as appropriate breakfast foods.

Something about food scarcity that brings out common sense…

4.   Everything is ok in moderation.

Moderation?

If there has been a single word that has done more damage to people’s health than ‘moderation’, I have yet to find it.

Seriously, what does moderation even mean? Once a day? Once a week? Once a month?!?

How can fruit, dessert, saturated fats and coffee all be ok in moderation?!?!?

Simple answer – they aren’t. Depending on your physiology and health/aesthetic goals, there are pretty clear amounts of each of these substances that should be in your diet.

Do yourself a service, screw “moderation”.

Do things properly; moderation is just an excuse for bad habits.

5.   Eating healthy is expensive.

Compared to what? Eating nothing but macaroni and cheese and Walmart Cola?

Personally, I find the idea of managing chronic disease by cramming myself full of prescription medications expensive.

Last I checked spending $2/day on a cholesterol lowering drugs, $4.50/day on diabetes medication or an additional $3/day on anti-hypertensives is not a cheap way to live.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather spend an extra dollar or two buying healthier foods, than get stuck footing a prescription drug bill.

6.   I have bad genetics

So what? Many people do.

In fact, many of the top nutrition and fitness coaches in the business have pretty crappy genetics. But instead of resigning themselves to a lifetime as the “fat kid” they’ve figured out strategies that help themselves and those they work with develop a lean, healthy physique.

Does looking and feeling great mean you have to forgo nightly desserts, unlimited beer and horrors of all horrors, actually set aside time to work out? Your damn right it does! However, it’s a small price to pay to actually feel great about yourself.

Remember, everyone has a million reasons for why they aren’t successful. However nothing of significance is ever accomplished by dwelling on the reasons for why “you can’t” do something.

Instead of falling prey to the same old destructive thinking that is sabotaging your efforts, try focusing on figuring out how “you will” accomplish something. It’s amazing how this one tiny change in mindset can make even the biggest obstacles seem manageable.

No one ever said that getting in great shape was easy. But with the right mindset, guidance and support, taking control of your health is well within your reach.

What are your thoughts? Have you heard any excuse that you think deserves to make this list? I’d love to hear it.

1. Is it OK to eat AFTER a certain hour (i.e. 8 pm)?

While I recommend this article which outlines the ins and outs of this topic in detail, the short answer is weight loss, fat gain, etc all depends whether you are taking in more total calories than you manage to burn off. By this, I mean if you have already exceeded your caloric limit for the day, eating at 8 PM or 2 AM will both result in food being stored as adipose tissue (better known as fat).

By the same token, those who are attempting to stave off cravings during a diet would be very well served to eat a meal before saying good night. My advice on this topic would be to set a regular time to consume a small pre-bed snack 60-90 minutes before bed to stave off cravings during the night. A good pre-bed choice would be a snack comprised primarily of slow digesting proteins or fats.

Some examples include:

• Small servings of fish or chicken
• Egg white omelet (personal favorite)
• CASEIN (slow digesting protein) shake
• String or cottage cheese

2. Isometrics for Muscle Tone

One of the core principals of training is that the more frequently we attempt a movement or exercise, the faster the improvement. For example, I have seen trainees go from push ups on the wall to the floor with perfect form in a month simply by doing several sets of push up practice every day.

Based upon my observation (versus scientific claims), the same can be said of improving muscle tone in certain areas. The problem we see here is that doing too much stuff for one area of the body overwhelms our ability to recover. If you are currently performing several days of weight training, this would mean that even more body weight exercises (push ups, squats, etc) could push soreness over the limit.

A solution Ive been utilizing to get around this barrier are body weight isometrics. The set up is fairly simple, pick an area of the body which lacks physical develop or is prone to weakness and plug in the corresponding body weight skill:

• L-sit (Back of arms/shoulder hyperextension)
• Front levers (Upper back/shoulder abduction)
• Hand stands (shoulders/shoulder flexion)

Simply practice each drill with proper form for sets of 6-8 seconds and attempt to accumulate 45-60 seconds in total. The beauty of these exercises is they teach the body to maximally tense under load and activate the sort of muscle fibers that improve muscle tone. I like these drills because they allow me to train the same area of my body without affecting soreness and can be performed easily as part of my off-day routine.

3. Core Training Confusion

Much like any area of our body, the key to defining the core is progressive overload (making things a bit harder/more challenging with each session). While this can be done with either high load exercises (think rollout, hanging leg raises, pikes, etc) or volume (plank circuits or deadbug circuits), these elements must be varied to some degree to prevent injury and avoid stagnation.

In plain English, this means we need to change the exercises and intensity level at which we train to allow for overload to occur in different ways. Say we train our core three times per week, here is an example:

• Heavy Intensity Day (4 X 8 reps of heavy rollouts)
• Heavy Volume Day (4 x 40 seconds of plank circuit)
• Combine Day (3 x 30 seconds of high load exercise + plank or deadbug circuit)

By training different types of overload throughout the week, we can allow for a systematic overload of the core with a lesser risk of injury or stagnation.

Wrap up

While I touched upon some of the things overheard in my gym this week, what are some of your training discoveries this week?

What questions do you have about your own program or training? Drop some comments below and lets learn together.

The easy answer and the one which seems to frustrate people most is: it depends on you.

By this, I mean how quickly we can wrap our heads around changes to our diet, setting regular times to exercise and the fact that this stuff must become habit (versus just a passing trend) for long term success.

I am under no illusions that breaking former vices will be easy, but what has always helped those that I train are small, digestible changes which build each week until you have climbed a mountain.

Here are a few tricks to consider:

1. The Power of One

In the spirit of “knowing is half the battle” (though the goal is not to look like GI-Joe), this refers to listing the habits which will bring you success and may be lacking in your situation and working on one thing at a time. Some to consider include:

• Setting 5 regular times per day to eat
• Cutting out liquid calories
• Including a source of protein (meat, eggs, protein powder, vegan sources of protein, etc)
• Setting aside 10 minutes per day to stretch/foam roll

The key is to avoid trying to adopt a million behaviors all at once. Rather, success comes from identifying one new behavior at a time and try to master this habit for two weeks.

“The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step…”

Once your new habit can be performed consistently, move down your list until your plate is full (or empty!)

2. YouTube it

Whether it be beautiful badasses lifting ridiculous amounts of weight, a well defined beach body or inspirational testimonials, the images and videos of what we hope to achieve can be a powerful motivator.

One thing that I ask all of my clients to do is picture themselves six months from now and google or youtube an example of what you are training to become on a daily basis.

Seeing these images on a daily basis actually patterns their achievement in the mind and helps to pave the way for future success.

3. Tell a Friend

While peer pressure can work either way, telling someone (or better yet, finding a workout buddy) about your goal is probably the best thing you can do in terms of accountability. By declaring your specific goals, you now create positive pressure to actually follow through with your goal.

With this in mind, it is important to check back in with this person regularly to update your progress and ensure things are moving along.

Wrap Up

What motivates you? Who are your inspirations? Do you workout alone or with a partner?

Leave some love below and lets get this party started.