The Exercise Tricks That Whipped Michael Into Shape

By Yarixa Ferrao

Listen, we all fall off the wagon sometimes. Especially when it comes to our fitness goals. Even Michael Masterson slips up. As I explained yesterday, he was 19 pounds over his ideal weight in February [2008].

If you want to lose weight... or just increase your level of fitness... I've got a high-intensity workout regimen that can slim you down. In fact, it helped Michael lose over 13 pounds of pure body fat in just six weeks.

Michael had already been training pretty intensely with me. (He's been known to call me the "Pain Mistress.") A normal 45-minute exercise regimen for Michael included a proper 10-minute warm-up, three to four sets of full-body training circuits (six to seven minutes each), and a 10-minute cool-down.

But because Michael wanted to get back his ideal weight quickly, we needed to "kick it up a notch." So, in addition to his normal routine, we added two simple exercise tricks that worked like a charm.

Trick # 1: A 10-minute Dr. Sears PACE program before the cool-down. Michael did 100-yard sprints four or five times in a row. In between each sprint, he would rest for 30 seconds to three minutes. This allowed his heart rate to come down close to his resting heart rate. Then he'd raise it again with the next sprint.

Trick # 2: More compound and callisthenic movements. These exercises take less time than isolation movements (exercises that focus on one muscle at a time). You get a bigger bang for your buck, while, at the same time, burning more calories, developing more muscle, and burning more fat. And these "side effects" can last for up to 48 hours after the workout!

Here is one compound exercise to try: The Squat to Shoulder Press...

Start by grabbing either soup cans or dumbbells. Stand with your feet a little wider than hip-width apart. Hold the weights at shoulder level, bending your arms. Squat down. Press up from the squat, simultaneously straightening your arms above your head.

The above exercise regimen is only part of what helped Michael get down to his ideal weight. Check back next week to discover the changes he made to his diet to lose fat.

It's Fun to Know: Cloning Spot

If you can't bear to live without your pet dog, two competing South Korean labs might be able to help you out when he passes away. For a fee ranging from $50,000 to $100,000, either one will clone the little fella.

So far, the labs' best customer has been the South Korean government, which has commissioned several dogs cloned from a renowned drug-sniffing dog in hopes that the clones will be easier to train. The labs hope to expand into the international pet-cloning market within the next several months.

(Source: Reuters)

Word to the Wise: Assiduous

"Assiduous" (uh-SIJ-oo-us) - from the Latin for "to attend to" - means tireless and unremitting.

Example (as used by Jacob Heilbrunn in a New York Times review of One Man's America by George F. Will): "When William F. Buckley Jr. died, George F. Will... became, perhaps, the right's most enduring elder statesman. It's a distinction he's worked assiduously to earn."

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2422, 07-31-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.