5 Somewhat Uncommon Fat Burning Foods

By Kyle Leon

One of the worst things that commonly occurs when trying to burn fat is getting bored with the food. So, I’ve made a list of 5 somewhat uncommon foods that all bring something unique and effective to a fat burning diet.

 1.     Quinoa

When people think about fat burning foods, they usually think of fruits and vegetables, but you need to get plenty of protein when you’re trying to lose fat. You also want to cut back on the starches. Quinoa accomplishes both of those things.

Quinoa is a seed, but it’s a great stand-in for pasta, rice, oats or potatoes. You can eat it as a cereal or dessert or you can use it like you would rice or pasta for dinner. Quinoa is loaded with protein and fiber, which will keep you full and help you preserve muscle and it’s virtually fat free.

 2.     Greek yogurt

A lot of people shy away from commercial yogurts because they are usually loaded with sugar and have very little protein. Greek yogurt is different. Greek yoghurt has as much as 14g of protein per serving and if you stick to flavors like vanilla, plain or lemon and avoid the ones with fruit on the bottom you can limit the sugars.

 3.     Lentils

A lot of people utilize beans in their diets for their protein and fiber content, but they forget about lentils. Lentils have just as much protein and fiber, are loaded with iron and other important nutrients and are also dirt cheap. They cook up faster than dried beans, so you can make dinner quickly. They’re great in salads, soups or on their own.

 4.     Sweet potatoes

White potatoes are nothing but starch and can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and insulin levels. Sweet potatoes are a different matter. Even though they taste sweet, they have far less starch in them than white potatoes. They’re also loaded with fiber, beta carotene and Vitamin C and high in protein. Try one for breakfast, as a snack, or with your dinner. They’re awesome with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, or you can eat one with a little cinnamon for a sweet snack.

 5.     Hot peppers

You wouldn’t want to make a meal out of hot peppers, but adding them to a meal can have some real benefits when you’re on a fat burning diet. Hot peppers contain a compound called capsaicin. There’s more capsaicin in habaneros and other really hot peppers, but it’s also in jalapeños. This compound can help to curb your appetite and it also speeds up your metabolism for a short period. The other benefit is that most people eat less of something that’s really spicy, so adding hot peppers to some of your meals can help keep you from overeating.

When you’re focused on burning fat, you need to make sure that you’re keeping things interesting and keeping your motivation high. Adding some of these foods into your diet can help you do that.

Want to see some other surprising foods you can add to your diet to burn more fat? My friend and top nutritionist Joel Marion shares some here:

Surprising Foods That Burn Fat

To your results,

Kyle

Rest Periods

In this video Aaron Giberson and I have a lesson about rest periods and clarifying some of the information that is out there. 

There are different rest times for each person, muscle that you are working on and your goal. You MUST determine your own internal clock, do not go by the clock on the wall.

Is your rest period right for you? Some things to keep in mind are:

1. You should NOT be huffing and puffing.
2. If your second set is less reps then your first… you are not giving yourself the proper rest time.

Lemon Water

In this video, I explain the strategy of incorporating lemon into your daily water intake.

Benefits associated with lemon water include:

 1)   High content of vitamin C and antioxidants.

2)   Detoxifying effect in everything from the liver, the kidneys and skin impurity (it will make your skin look healthier.

3)   Helps with sore throats.

4)   Assists with digestion.

5)   Water with lemon has an alkalizing effect on the body when consumed.

The Problem Of Overtraining Exposed

By Kyle Leon

One of the biggest processes that present a problem during overtraining is the upset of your hormone balances. When you work out too hard for too long, your body releases too much cortisol into your bloodstream. Cortisol is a stress hormone that signals your body to store more fat, specifically around your abs.

Two hormones that need to be carefully balanced in order to be lean and muscular are cortisol and testosterone. When your cortisol levels get too high, the ratios between testosterone and cortisol get smaller. This can result in your performance, strength and ability to gain lean mass go down while your body’s instructions to add fat go up.

This means a few things and none of them are good. Because of the lower testosterone level compared to cortisol, your strength is going to suffer. Also, because of the higher cortisol level, your post workout nutrition is much more likely to result in fat storage. Unless gaining body fat is your goal, you just shot yourself in the foot.

There’s also another problem with training too long. Once you have worked past your energy reserves and into overtraining, you’re going to go into a catabolic state. That means that your body is going to start robbing your muscle tissues of amino acids to get what it needs to keep doing what you’re asking of it. In short, it’s going to start feeding on your muscles- Not good if gaining lean muscle is your goal!

So what are the signs that you may be training too long? Here are five common ones:

1. Decreased strength and power. Because you don’t have the testosterone levels and energy reserves to perform the workout properly, your strength is going to drop. You’ll notice that weight you could handle yesterday is now too much for you and you’ll either drop out in the middle of a set or start dropping your weights instead of controlling them all the way down.
2. Poor form. That decreased strength is also going to affect your form. You may start dropping the weight back too far, using momentum rather than muscle or a hundred other technical mistakes.
3. Longer recovery time. You may see that you need longer rest periods between sets and that your recovery time after your workout is much longer than usual.
4. Greater signs of exertion. One sure sign of overtraining is that you are breathing much harder even if you’re not working to your maximum intensity. This is your body’s attempt to catch up with the work you are doing and to get the oxygen to your muscles that they need.
5. Post-workout physical issues. If you are training too long, you won’t just feel it during or right after your workout. You may feel it all day or all week. Some of the signs are sleep problems, fatigue, headaches, decrease in sex drive, increased soreness or even pain, especially in the joints, and even digestive problems.

If you see these signs and you suspect that you’re training too long, examine your nutrition first. A very large percentage of the time symptoms of overtraining can be a result of poor nutritional habits.

Also make sure you get some extra rest, take a few days off, and then come back to your training with a better understanding of your body’s limits.

Overtraining is definitely a major mistake you’ll want to avoid-And in the video below I talk about 24 of the other worst workout mistakes I see holding guys back from the results they deserve. Check it out.

The Worst Workout Mistakes

To your results,

Kyle

Important Tips for Training Large Muscle Groups

By Kyle Leon

One of the most common mistakes I see in the gym, with many different guys at all fitness levels, is failing to give their large muscle groups the volume they need to gain real size. Your bigger muscle groups can handle and NEED more volume to grow.

If you’re doing the same volume for your legs as you are for your triceps, your workout is way out of balance and I venture to say your physique probably is too.

Why You Need More Volume

These large muscle groups need more volume in order to maximize results as they’re capable of more work and the key to gains is challenging your muscles.

There are two main reasons for needing this higher volume with the large muscle groups. Large muscle groups are made up of several small muscle groups and the only way to challenge each one is to do several different moves in each of your workouts. When you do your back, for instance, you have to engage your teres major, your teres minor, your rhomboids and so on.

Another reason is that increased volume stimulates increased release of the hormones that are responsible for real gains, such as testosterone and IGF-1. If you’re not working those large muscle groups enough to stimulate those hormone levels, your results will suffer. It’s like doing cardio without hitting anywhere near your target heart rate. Don’t expect to see great results.

How to Fix the Problem

First of all, for the major muscle groups like your chest, back and legs, you should be doing at least five sets for 4-5 exercises during your workout. Secondly, you need to make sure that the sets you’re doing engage and challenge every smaller muscle involved in that group.

For example, if you’re working legs, you can’t just do five sets of squats. You want to incorporate moves that challenge that muscle group from every angle, so you would want to do some squats, some leg curls, some extensions and so on. This ensures that you’re stimulating all of the smaller muscles in that group instead of just one or two.

Take a close look at your training program and make sure that you are throwing enough volume at the large muscle groups and that you are varying your moves so that each muscle is targeted and worked to capacity. This is when you will start seeing the great gains that you’re working so hard to achieve.

If you have been cutting yourself short on volume until now, remember that we all go through a learning process when starting out in bodybuilding. Those who are really serious about building their best bodies know that they need to keep learning (continuously), trying new things, and changing up the routine.

To develop a symmetrical, well-balanced body you must understand the importance of volume and working the large muscles groups and apply this principle to your training regimen.

For another very important tip to creating well-balanced, perfectly symmetrical body, check out the video lesson below.

Important Video Tip for Creating a Perfectly Symmetrical Body

To your results,

Kyle

Training Logs- Valuable Weapon or Waste of Time?

By Kyle Leon

Some people think that a training log is a waste of time. In reality, it only takes a few seconds to review your log before you start working out and a few minutes to make some notes after your workout. Those few minutes can mean the difference between lackluster results and measurable, desired improvement week after week.

Here’s why:

     1.      You have a plan to work from.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Fail to plan; plan to fail?” It’s incredibly true. Multiple studies have shown that planning and having a definite plan to follow will dramatically affect success.

     2.      You have additional accountability.

Let’s face it. When you’re having an off-day it’s easy to cut yourself some slack especially if nobody else is looking.

Keeping a log will help hold you accountable. It’s a little harder to slack off when you’re keeping a log because you can see if you’ve wasted your time or not by your recorded results. The log doesn’t lie and it holds you accountable.

     3.      You can track your progress.

If you’re not tracking your progress, you’re essentially “flying blind”- And when you’re flying blind, reaching your desired destination isn’t very likely. Tracking your progress closely allows you to intelligently identify wrong turns, mistakes, along with what is and isn’t working.

Tracking your progress allows you to test individual variables in your training and nutrition regimen and ultimately measure exactly how each of them affect your results. This alone in my estimation is the single biggest advantage you possess when using a training log to ensure progress.

So in summary, my verdict is a training log can be a powerful, cheap tool requiring just a few minutes a day to ensure you’re on a consistent, clear and progressive path to the physique you deserve and desire.

To your results,

Kyle

P.S. Discipline and commitment to following a plan is often the difference between real results and looking the same week after week. My buddy, occasional training partner and Pro fitness model Vince Delmonte will show you the step by step plan he used and teaches for gaining the most muscle possible naturally in this free video below:

Vince Delmonte’s Step by Step Muscle-Building Plan  

3 Biggest Mistakes on Chest Day

By Kyle Leon

Guys like working their chests. Chest is one of the key areas for most bodybuilders and many guys measure their success by the results they see in the chest. However, I see a lot of guys making the same few common mistakes on chest day and I want to make you aware of them so you can avoid or correct them.

Always bench pressing and always doing it first.

I see a lot of guys doing the bench press first. I understand that most want to attack this one when they feel strongest, but they’re tapping into their strength early on in their routine and later exercises are suffering for it week after week. You must create balance no matter what training program you’re following. Give yourself the gift of lifting for results, not for ego. Ego doesn’t build muscle.

Not bringing the bar down far enough.

This chest day mistake is another one that’s often due to ego. Yes, most guys lift more by not bringing the bar down to the chest. Well I ask you, don’t you want to look good all of the time rather than just the minute you’re pushing up a ton of weight? Well if so, bring the bar down and get full range of motion.

Locking the arms at the top.

 This one is bad for a couple of reasons;

Any chest movement you’re doing, whether it’s the bench press, dumbbells or what have you, should be a continuous movement. You need continuous tension on the muscle being trained throughout the entire movement because time under tension is what builds muscle.

When you lock your arms at the top of the movement you immediately reduce the tension for that muscle. At that point, you’re relying on your joints to support the weight rather than on your muscles. That brings us to the second downfall of doing this.

When you’re doing a chest move and lock your elbows at the top of the movement, you’re putting tremendous stress on your elbow joints, which are already prone to injury. This is especially dangerous if you’re toward the end of a set and fatigued or close to it.

I know bench press might be your favorite exercise that you want to be as strong as possible on, and that’s fair enough. If you have that desire, I’d encourage you to check out this special page dedicated strictly to maximizing your bench press correctly.

How To Maximize Your Bench Correctly  

Avoiding or correcting these mistakes will go a long way in helping you get a head-turning,  full barreled, muscular chest more quickly and more safely so keep them in mind the next time chest day rolls around.

To your results,

Kyle

Don’t Make the Mistake of Letting Your Rest Periods Stall Your Results

By Kyle Leon

Your rest periods can be just as important as your time under tension or the number of sets and reps you do. Don’t let improper rest periods undo all the work you’re doing to build muscle.

If you look at most of the instructions for workouts, you’ll see that they’re a lot more specific about sets and reps than they are about rest periods. Rest periods tend to be extremely generic.

No One Can Tell You How Long to Rest

The reason that recommended rest periods are kept so generic is that determining the proper rest period for your individual goals and body type can be tricky. For the purpose of today’s article, we’re assuming building lean muscle mass without the blubber is the goal.

Two guys doing the exact same movements, the same number of reps, the same number of sets and even with the same weight will require different rest periods. One may be fine with resting for 45 seconds, while the other one needs a full minute and a half.

As you advance, you’ll be able to learn how to use your internal clock to determine how much rest your body needs between sets for maximum lean muscle-building results and keeping the following in mind will accelerate this process.

Signs of Too Little Rest between Sets

Here are some ways to help tell if you’re getting enough rest in between sets:

First of all, you shouldn’t be breathing heavily or huffing and puffing when you start your next set. That’s a sure sign that you haven’t rested long enough and that you’re results will suffer.

Another way to tell is if your subsequent sets aren’t what they should be.

For example; let’s say in your chest workout you’re to do bench press for four working sets of 10-12 reps. If the number of reps you can do drops more than 1 rep in sets 2-4 this is a sign you probably didn’t rest long enough.

In this case, increase your rest by 15 seconds and see what happens. If you’re able to power through the rest of your sets just fine, you know you did the right thing.

Different Muscle Groups Need Different Rest Periods

The last tip I’d like to leave you with is that different muscle groups will require different rest periods for maximum results. You may not know how your rest requirements differ between your arms and your legs or your back and your arms. However, when training with proper intensity, you’ll find you’ll need different rest times for one group versus another so listen to your body to figure this out.

Just remember that your rest periods have to work for your body and your goal and one size never fits all in this game…..Including rest periods.

To your results,

Kyle

P.S. Small tips add up to big results when you apply them consistently. In the video below you’ll see 3 BIG tips that add up to what the most well respected fitness publication in the world has called The Perfect Body Formula.

The Perfect Body Formula

Is Your Warm-Up Hurting Your Gains?

By Kyle Leon

I can walk into the gym at any given time and see guys doing the treadmill or the stationary bike, thinking they’re warming up for a weight training workout. Unfortunately, this is far from ideal and doesn’t do much at all to prepare the muscle group you’re about to hit for it’s workout and if anything it can also slow your gains.

Why Cardio Isn’t Preparing Your Muscles for Anything

First of all, let me assure you that there’s nothing wrong with cardio. Cardio has a valuable place in your training program but that place is the cardio workout, it is not an effective way to prepare your muscles for your weight training sets.

If you watch Olympic sprinters warming up for training, do you know what they’ll be doing? Sprinting. They are doing exactly what they’ll be doing in their workout but at a lesser degree of intensity. The best way to warm up a specific muscle or group of muscles is to work them.

Physical Rehearsal Sets are The Best Way to Warm Up

When you’re getting ready to train your chest muscles for example, you need to do a warm-up that gets the blood flowing to your chest muscles and gets them stimulated, but not tired. You do that by doing physical rehearsal sets. The name is pretty self-explanatory; you’re allowing your muscles to rehearse for the intense workout you’re about to put them through and this stimulates those muscles, loosens them up and gets blood flowing specifically in that area.

How To Do Physical Rehearsal Sets

Let me explain exactly how I do physical rehearsal sets myself to warm up for a chest workout.

Let’s say I’m going to be doing four working sets of 120-pound flat dumbbell presses for 10-12 reps for my first chest exercise. In this case, here is how my physical rehearsal sets would work:

I start with dumbbells that are half my working set weight. In this case, it’ll be 60-pound dumbbells. This first set I hammer out between 6-9 reps to get the blood flowing without creating any fatigue.

For my second set, I do 80-pound dumbbells, but I’ll do no more than 5 reps so that I don’t risk creating any fatigue. For the next set, I’ll go 100-pounds and again, no more than 5 reps for the same reason.  At this point, I may go right into my working sets. If I don’t feel fully loose and ready to rock, I’ll do 110-pound weights at no more than 5 reps before my first working set of 10-12 reps.

Notice how you not want to do more than five reps in most of your physical rehearsal sets so that you don’t start tapping in to your strength. This is an advanced way for you to get the MOST out of your working sets. Doing physical rehearsal sets can enhance your workout and your gains because your muscles are properly prepared for an intense workout.

Keep this muscle maximizing strategy in mind the next time you’re ready to hit the gym for a killer workout!

To your results,

Kyle.

P.S Improper warm ups is one of many training mistakes that when corrected can make an immediate impact on your results. In the video below I talk about the 25 worst workout mistakes I see guys making that are holding them back from the gains they deserve.

Are You Making Any Of These Workout Mistakes?

Don’t Make the Mistake of Focusing Only Bilateral Movements

By Kyle Leon

Bilateral moves are an integral part of any strength training program. But if you focus only on bilateral movements, you’re missing out on serious development.

There are a lot of really effective bilateral movements that we can use to build and develop the various muscle groups, but too often I see guys who focus solely on bilateral exercises in their split routines. Maybe it’s because they feel like it’s the most efficient use of time or maybe it’s just that they don’t know what unilateral moves can do for them over and above the results they’re seeing with their split routines. They’re missing out on the really fine-tuned development that you can get from using unilateral exercises as well.

Most guys are pretty good at mixing up bilateral and unilateral movements in certain splits, such as when they’re doing their arms. Most guys will do standard bilateral movements such as standing barbell curls, but also mix in plenty of unilateral movements such as concentration curls or a one-arm pushdown. These guys know that they’re going to get faster and better results if they combine both unilateral and bilateral movements and the arms are an almost natural muscle group for doing that. Unfortunately, a lot of guys leave the unilateral movements there and never incorporate them into legs or chest or anywhere else.

The Benefit of Unilateral Movements

When you use a bilateral movement such as a standing barbell curl, your central nervous system is dividing its attention and your body’s muscle building resources between two different muscles; in this case your left and your right biceps.

When you use a unilateral movement such as a concentration curl however, your central nervous system is completely focused on that one bicep and all of your resources go there.

It’s like a sculptor switching chisel sizes from a pretty broad chisel, which he would use to start creating a shape or figure, and a finer-tipped one, which he would use to really etch in that fine detail.

It’s also a lot easier to focus on and build your weaker side with unilateral movements. Most of us know that our left tricep is stronger than our right or that we tend to hold back with our left quad because our right is less developed. What that does is reduce the challenge to the stronger side. Because that side isn’t being challenged as much as it should be, its development will slow. In unilateral exercises, you can ask more of the stronger side and keep the challenge level high for that muscle because you’re not worried about the other side.

Be Sure to Strike a Balance

There’s no hard and fast ratio between unilateral and bilateral movements that should be etched in stone. It will depend on your goals, your current fitness level and your individual body’s design. You’ll need to do some trial and error to see what works best for you, but if you incorporate some unilateral moves into your split routines, you will definitely be taking a step in the right direction to maximizing your lean muscle building results.

Talk soon,

Kyle.