0 (1s):
Hello, and welcome to the get lean and eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin. I'm a certified health coach, trainer and author. This podcast is for middle-aged men and women looking to optimize their health and get their bodies back to what it once was 10 to 15 years ago. I will give you simple, actionable items to get long-term sustainable results. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
1 (33s):
All right. Welcome to the get lean eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin, and thanks for joining me today. I'm back from sunny, Florida. It was a much needed reboot, got some vitamin D and some great sun, and, but I'm excited to be back and home. I'm going to discuss today a common question that I get from a lot of people. They say, well, how do I get abs, should I do cardio? You know, should I lift weights or is it all just have to do with how you eat? And so I'm going to discuss those topics today and give you some tips here at the end as well that you can take with you. So I would say that most people think that, you know, to get abs they must do sit-ups and crunches, not so much.
1 (1m 19s):
I mean, that will help build muscle in that area, but there's better ways to get abs than just doing crunches. I can tell you that and people ask, well, how about cardio? Well, there's sort of a ma I have a mixed answer on that. Chronic cardio steady state, long distance, not so much. There are some studies, a six months study showed subjects did about 50 minutes of cardio, five days a week, and they lost no more weight than those who died at only another month. Another study, I got three of them here. A three months study women exercised at 78% of their max heart rate for 45 minutes.
1 (2m 2s):
So another steady state cardio five days a week. And again, they lost no more weight than those who died at only so contrary to what many people believe you won't burn an appreciable amount of fat from doing chronic cardio exercisers in 2009, conducted a study in Queensland university of technology in Australia, and they did steady state cardio five days a week for 12 weeks lost only seven pounds on average, and nearly half of them lost less than two pounds. Also, if you think about it long chronic cardio steady state, cardio is also, it can be tough on the joints it's cause it's so repetitive.
1 (2m 48s):
So I don't find it the best and most effective way if people want for fat loss. Also, I think people justify they'll go for a long run and then they'll just overeat. If they do want to do cardio, I would say try sprinting. I keep hearing more and more about, you know, we, I talk about my other episodes about these micro workouts, but, you know, so you can get a sprint workout done in 15 to 20 minutes. You don't have to be on a treadmill for an hour, and it's much more effective than jogging or even biking. So you burn fat, build lean muscle, improve your cardiovascular system all in one. So sprints can be very effective.
1 (3m 29s):
I think that you don't need to spend a lot of time with them. It's an anaerobic exercise, which will trigger muscle building increased size and strength of your fast Twitch muscle fibers also helps with protein since synthesis pathways, which obviously helps grow muscle as well. So you're probably thinking, well, how can I do sprinting? Well, if you have a treadmill, obviously that's one way of doing it where you can, let's say sprint as fast as you can in a safe manner, obviously for 20 to 30 seconds. And then you can rest for a minute and you can do that four to eight times, I would
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Say, do it. You only really need to do it once or twice a week.
1 (4m 9s):
And let's just say, if you're outside, which would be the best way to do it in some sun, you know, you could do like a a hundred meter dash and do that four to eight times, and then rest, like I said, about a minute between each set. So give that a go. And I think you'll find a difference. I think it's like, you know, I'm sure you've heard, you know, look up, you know, who's got better body sprinters or marathon runners and it's pretty obvious sprinters do so give that a go. If you really want to do some cardio, you know, another thing is, well, should I just exercise to get abs well, exercise has a lot of benefits. I'm a big fan of strength building, obviously building muscle tone, increasing the insulin sensitivity of your muscles is another benefit.
1 (4m 56s):
Obviously, having more strength as you age is so important, stronger bone density, and obviously all of this can help improve mental health as well, but really the best way that I've seen through the years to help get that six pack and build those abs is pretty much about 80 to 85%, what you eat and when you eat and we've talked about this, I've had plenty of guys talking about certain foods that you should eat, and I'll go through a little bit of that today, but you really want to try to keep with foods that don't raise your insulin so much. There's nothing wrong with having spikes every once in a while, but you just don't want that chronic, that chronic insulin that is always, always at a high level.
1 (5m 41s):
Okay. So I'll talk about what you eat, right? And then when you eat and this, when you eat is sort of a topic that, you know, it's been talked about more, you've been hearing about like eating with your circadian rhythm. And I think a good, a good rule of thumb is if you can do it is pick a time to start and stop and don't start too early and don't stop too late if you can eat when it's light out. That's great. I know, like in Chicago it gets dark pretty early. So, but you know, I like to be done eating by six, six 30. It gives you plenty of time to digest. And also also if you eat later in the evening, it could, it could impact the, you know, the quality of your sleep, but also, you know, your body's going to be digesting that food overnight while you're laying there, which is not the best way to sleep as well.
1 (6m 31s):
And also acute. It could also be more of insulins spike that then if you had that same food during the day. So I think a good rule of thumb is pick a time to start and stop. And I talked about that a lot with intermittent fasting. So here are some other food excuse foods. Here are some other tips that can really help you sort of get going on. Okay. I want to build that six pack. It's 2021 here, here are my tips eat whole and processed foods. All right. So this is, you know, meats, things that don't, you know, things that aren't in packages.
1 (7m 12s):
I think that's a great way to go and things that expire, I would say expire within a few days or within a week. You know, if you want to have some veggies, fruit in moderation and make, make protein, mainly the staple of your meals stay away from obviously refined foods and sugars, pastry sodas, desserts cereals, things like that. Avoid artificial sweeteners, which are coming up, obviously in a lot of different things, ask pertain, okay, saccharin, so on and so forth sleep, excuse me, stress less. Okay. So I talk about having less stress. Obviously some stress is fine, but you know, finding some type of meditation practice or yoga, even if it's just again, 20, 30 minutes a day or every other day sleeping more.
1 (8m 1s):
Okay. And I've had plenty of episodes regarding sleep. You can check out some of my other episodes where I give some great tips, but the main thing is, is, you know, you want to really focus in on your sleep, use intermittent fasting as a tool. Okay. Like I mentioned before, I think it's a great way to start to say, you know what, I'm going to stop eating at a certain time. And you know, whether that's five, six, I'd probably say seven at the latest avoid alcohol. Obviously every once in a while is fine, but every night is too much. And so I would say avoid alcohol, drink water instead of soda. That's a great replacement. And, and then don't snack between meals.
1 (8m 43s):
So if you're not all into fasting and having a meal or two a day, and you want to have, let's say three whole meals, which is fine, just don't snack between those meals. So those are my tips when it comes to getting abs. If, if you're going to do cardio, do some sprints, keep lifting weights and you know, focus on, you know, what you're eating. Like I mentioned whole and processed foods. And when you're eating, okay, we talk about intermittent fasting. Let's pick a window. And as you go along in this journey, you can always shrink that window. There's no, you know, re you know, golden rule when it comes to, Oh, do I have to eat at these certain times there isn't eat what fits in your schedule.
1 (9m 27s):
And that way you can do consistently day in and day out. And that makes you feel the best. So that's my list for you go out, get a six pack this year, or just put on some abs, not just for vanity, but you know, you feel good. You have, you have confidence, you have more energy. And I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Do you have questions about, or you want to get started with like intermittent fasting, check out my 21 day fasting challenge. I'll leave a link for that and please rate and review if you can. I would love it if you're enjoying the get lean equally and podcast. Thanks so much for listening and have a great rest of the day.
0 (10m 11s):
Thanks for listening to the get lean, eat clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there, and you've chosen to listen to mine. And I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member who looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
