Well 2008 is nearly at a close, and it is that time of year where many people start to think about their health and well being. Most people start writing (or mentally writing) there resolutions for 2009 about now.

Well I have found in the past that there is really 2 main elements that make up the ability to make changes in the body – Consistency & Accountability, I’ll talk more of these later.

Since I developed the idea of these 2 elements being important, more and more ‘keys’ start to become apparent for greater and greater success.

Thus was born BEPCA – stupid acronym which I made up – which stands for:

Belief

You have to believe you can change. A lot of people think that just because they go through the motions of training that they will get the results. The problem is that unless you really ‘buy in’ to the belief that you can and will change you will keep throwing up barriers to change (not all consciously) that will stop any progress in its tracks.

Execution

This links on nicely from the key above. You may wish to lose more body fat but unless you do the right exercises in the right way you will not get the results you desire. I know it sounds a little melodramatic and you will surely get some results. However, if you believe you are able to change and then execute the training precisely you will get the best results you deserve.

I am fanatical about executing exercise with the correct weight training technique and why I created my Weight Training Technique Program.

In it I teach you how and why using the correct technique is not only the safest way to train but the way to get the greatest results – execute correctly and develop quickly.

Plan

You know the old saying – ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’

The same is always true and never so true as when you desire to make a physical transformation. There are two main areas I think people fail to plan in.

1. They fail to plan their training sessions in a manner that is designed to get them the results they are looking for. Fitness and training is more scientific than most people believe and going to the gym each day and asking yourself ‘what do I fancy doing today’ is a sure fire way of not getting many results.

If you are unsure of how to write or design a program that works then I suggest you check out these programs -or mine if you prefer

TurbulenceTrainingManual.com I know Craig Ballantyne personally and have checked out his whole training ethos and programs. I have to say he gives you some very detailed plans, excellent for those people who are short on time and/or don’t have access to a gym.

CoachCosgrove.com Another US based trainer I know is Alwyn Cosgrove (a Scot now living in LA) and I have personally followed his Afterburn I program and got some fabulous results

(believe it or not following someone elses plan is sometimes easier than following your own, that is why I recommend that you try these programs for yourself, especially if you usually write your own).

2. Also in my experience unless you actually plan what you are going to eat at each meal (I use mini meals of 5-6 per day) you are not going to eat the right things. you need to have the right things with you in order to succeed. Unfortunately in today’s market it is too easy to buy rubbish junk food and actually can be surprisingly hard to find healthy wholesome food.

So fail to plan both your training and food usually leads to sub standard results.

Consistency

This was one of my initial keys for success and one that is still very important. You won’t get any results unless you are consistently consistent (bit of a mouthful that). You need to be doing at least 3 to 4 sessions a week to get decent results.

If you are good for 6 weeks, bad for 2, good for 4 etc you will find your results will be slow. If you are consistent and make every session an absolute in your diary then you will get a compound sort of effect where 6 months down the line you will look very different.

Accountability

This is one of those keys not many people think about.

You really need some level of accountability if you are trying to succeed. Very few individuals have the will power to push themselves to every single session.

Accountability can take many different forms. You can be accountable to a gym, a personal trainer, a website community, a training buddy, your partner, your children or anything that is actually going to make you do what you should.

My private coaching business works because many of my clients are busy professional business people and when they put a meeting in their diary they keep it. If that meting was with themselves to go tot the gym, they would in all probability cancel it and stay at work, but because they know I am waiting for them they keep the appointment.

The same can be said for why diet groups (such as weight watchers) are so successful – I might not agree with their advice – but they certainly get results and at the end of the day that’s what people are after – results.

So find some one, some group or something to be accountable too and you will have greater success.

So there we are, 5 keys to fitness success in 2009.

Don’t forget to place your comments below and I look forward to you reporting your results.

Remember train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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I was talking to a client the other day about there training and the need to increase the amount of work they are doing if they are going to continue to get the results they were looking for at the start.

Now there is a lot of really good things this person should be doing to there nutrition and eating plan in order to stimulate the body to burn fat all day but he likes his alcohol.

Now I’ve given him a ‘talking to’ about his drinking and hopefully some of it will have stuck. I only had to mention the ex client of mine who unfortunately died a couple of months ago due to kidney and liver failure – he really did ‘work hard, play hard’ – and unfortunately left a wife and two young children behind.

So to increase this clients metabolism so that he burns through fat for longer periods of time I have introduced some new, extra, training sessions that only last around 20 minutes.

I know a lot of you will be aghast, sat at your PCs and wondering whether or not I’ve just made a typo, but I assure you that in 20 mins you can do a lot to increase your fat loss potential.

Yes you don’t start burning fat for 15-25 mins after starting exercise, but the important distinction here is that you don’t ’start’ burning fat until you have moved it from the fat sites into the blood and too the muscles. However, you do continue burning fat after you finish the exercise and it is not the amount of fat you burn during the exercise that’s important but the amount you continue to burn afterwards.

This is the beauty of using short intense cardio interval sessions for fat loss.

You burn more in the 24 hours after than you would if you’d done slow cardio for an hour.

This well known, but misunderstood, phenomenon is called EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption) and what it means is that if you cause a metabolic disturbance in your muscles (as you do during interval training) you will continue to burn up fat for at least the next 24 hours sometimes longer.

Lot’s of smart trainers use these tactic when writing and designing workout programs that get people results. Alwyn Cosgrove of www.coachcosgrove.com calls if ‘Afterburn Training’ and Craig Ballantyne refers to it as Turbulence Training . These are both great examples of how to use EPOC to benefit you the most.

I am currently using these exact techniques and tactics to try and shift some excess body fat I have accumulated recently. I am also using my new ‘Fat Burn In 30′ system because I am struggling with time and really want to get the best all day fat burn that I can.

Stay tuned for more of my ‘Fat Burn In 30′ workouts.

Remember, train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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I’m asked by a lot of people exactly what I do in my weight training sessions, so in the interests of full disclosure I’m prepared to post my workouts that I do from time to time.
So today was.

A1 Kettlebell Swings (4×10)
A2 Bench Press (1x 10, 2x 4, 1x 3 eccentrics)
A3 Lat Pulldown –wide overhand (1x 10, 2x 6, 1x 4

B1 Cleans from blocks (1×10, 2x 4)
B2 Bent over Row – from dead (1x 10, 2x 6)
B3 Mixed Core – rotation and rotation control (some video clips of these to follow another day)

C1 Cable Biceps Curl – rope (2x 10)
C2 Cable Triceps Press down – rope (2x 10)
C3 Single Leg Eccentric Calf Work (2x 10 eccentrics)

On another day I’ll explain exactly what some of these weight training exercises are and how I use different resistance training techniques for different parts of my body, depending on if I’m weak point weak training or general conditioning training.

I got through this session in 35 minutes (that’s all the time I had).

Until next time, train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

P.S. If you would like someone to walk you through the process of fat loss and training that you can do from the comfort of you own home then you should look no further than Craig Ballantynes Turbulence Training. He is having a special new launch with 10 new ebooks to help you get where you’ve always wanted to be.

It ends today so don’t hang around or else you’ll miss out.

Just **click here ** to see what he’s offering.

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