[ Note: This article was written by my friend Jon Benson the author of the only diet and nutrition plan i will ever use or promote. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

A few years ago I released a book whose title was more reminiscent of a line out of “There’s Something About Mary” than a serious work on fitness. “7 Minute Muscle” — yep, it’s getting more and more difficult to distinguish fact from parody.

Since that time its kissing cousin, “7 Minute Body”, has been released, featuring a complete in-home version of the same workout principles covered in 7 Minute Muscle, as found below:

7 Minute Workout Solution <--61%Off

Here’s the real irony: Of the 127 testimonials I’ve received so far that I deem worthy of publishing on the web, over forty were from fitness professionals. I’m not talking about “doctors” with a gut as large as their paycheck. I’m speaking of men and women with both academic and real-world experience in the fitness and bodybuilding world.

There were exceptions of course. My friend John Berardi, while saying some nice things about the work, couldn’t endorse it due to the emphasis on shorter training sessions. That’s cool. Everyone has a different approach. But the overwhelming number of folks with consonants behind their names — those who read the book and applied the principles — had wonderful things to say.

There’s a reason for that: The workout protocol is based on the science of hypertrophy as well as psychophysiology, the study of the mind/body connection.

I will delve into the mental aspects of the protocols in a later article. For now, since most of you are experienced, educated and (dare I say it) hard-core, let’s delve into the meat.

7 Minute Muscle (and 7 Minute Body) is primarily a density-based training system. It demands varying rep ranges done within specific time periods. The protocol factors six of the primary variables of hypertrophy, or muscle growth: Intensity, Load, Volume, Density, Time and Force. (Time includes rest intervals as well as the time required to perform a given task.)

A layman’s take on one of the basic laws of physics states that time and energy are interrelated. Doing the same amount of work in less time demands more energy, which translates into more power. While power is a factor in training, our interest is focused on forcing muscle growth and adaptation. This is also an element of time and energy. More energy expended in less time = more power.

If you break down the typical 3-4 set bench press routine, with reps starting at 12 and ending in the 4-6 range, with longer rest intervals between heavier sets, you’ll find that the aggregate weight lifted is “less” than a protocol like 7 Minute Muscle, which uses ‘less’ weight (easier on the joints) but demands more work in less time. In other words, X amount of repetitions done with Y amount of weight in just 5 minutes (phase 1 of our two-phase protocol) ends up being greater than your typical 3-4 set protocol, despite the fact that more weight is used in the latter.

Other routines, of course, utilize this factor of density. Vince Gironda’s infamous 8 sets of 8, EDT and so-forth. 7 Minute Muscle goes a bit further by varying rest, load factors and repetition range. Reps will vary from as low as one rep to as much as ten, and all of this is at the trainee’s discretion.

They have only one real objective: Increase the aggregate repetition count from one training session to the next. Since time is limited (broken down into two phases: A Power Phase of no more than 5 repetitions and a Mass Phase of no more than 10 repetitions) the trainee is given a system that more accurately measure the seventh and most crucial factor of hypertrophy: Progression.

More work in less time. Variable repetition ranges. Variable rest intervals. And all in seven minutes (for beginners.) Intermediate and advanced-level trainees are given 14 and 21-minute protocols if they wish to implement them. I myself rarely go beyond 14 minutes, as that is all that’s required to stimulate muscle growth.

I will cover health factors, cardiovascular work, ab training, and the science of mind and body in future articles. For now, give 7 Minute Muscle a shot. There’s nothing funny about it, except for the fact that you’ll be laughing all the way home from the gym as you finished your killer workout while your buddies were still warming up.

And, for this week only, you can get it at a 61% discount. You’ll get everything: 7 Minute Muscle (the gym-based workout) and 7 Minute Body (the in-home workout) plus the six training videos today for less than the cost of a cheap dinner.

It’s a system and a price that’s impossible to beat.

Go here now:

7 Minute Workout Solution <--61%Off

P.S. You’ll thank me later for the months of time I’ve given back to your life… not to mention that new body in the mirror.

Remember:

Train Hard. Train Smart. And Train Cheap…

7 Minute Workout Solution <--61%Off

Hi, it’s Paul here, after last nights teaser post, i thought you might like a bit more meat, read on….

How To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time

“How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” That’s right up there with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the most frequently asked fitness questions of all time. The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of conflicting answers – even from experts who are supposed to know these things. So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously?

Short answer: Yes, you can gain muscle and lose fat at the “same time.”

Long answer: It’s difficult and it’s complicated. Allow me to explain….

First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain muscle at the “same time.”

Well, yes, if your definition of the “same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks. But in that case, you’re probably not gaining muscle at the “same time” literally speaking, as in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for months in a row.

The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate between periods of caloric surplus (anabolism) and caloric deficit (catabolism) and the net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body fat.

You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you stay in a calorie deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go down together.

There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is very difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time – the mechanisms are mostly antagonistic to one another. When it does happen, it’s almost always the result of “unusual conditions” – I call them X factors.

The 4 X-Factors

The first X-factor is “training age” . Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The less trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic potential, the easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true – an advanced bodybuilder with 20 years experience would be thrilled just to gain a few pounds of solid dry muscle in a year!

The second x factor is muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle you’ve lost than it is to gain new muscle in the first place (ergo, the fat out of shape semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and blows up and gets ripped “overnight”).

The third X factor is genetics (or somatotype). Ever heard of the “genetic freak?” That’s the dude who sprouts muscle like weeds even when he’s on the “50-50 diet” (50% McDonald’s and 50% pizza)… and he never gets fat. (That dude chose the right parents!)

The fourth X factor is drugs. It would stun (or sadden) you if you knew how many people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not just talking about pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in the gym – not to mention those fitness models you idolize in the magazines. How did they get large muscle gains with concurrent fat loss? Chemicals.

I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll place a wager on this any day: I’ll bet that in 99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat losses, one or more of these x factors were present.

That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body composition and diet status (the X2 factors). But I’ll have to talk about those later.

So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic freak and you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L? Well, I do want you to be realistic about your goals, but…

There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

The Secret: You have to change your “temporal perspective!”

Traditionally nutritionists and fitness pros have only looked at calorie balance in terms of 24 hour periods. At midnight, you could tally up the calories like a shopkeeper closing out his register, and if the balance were positive, you’d say you were in a surplus for the day. If the balance were negative, you’d say you were in a deficit for the day.

But it’s entirely possible that you might pass through periods of “within-day” surplus where you were in a highly anabolic state (for example, you eat the biggest, highest carb meal of the day after your workout), and you were in a deficit the rest of the day.

If you did intense weight training, and you timed your nutrient intake appropriately, Isn’t it possible that you could gain a small amount of muscle during those anabolic hours, while losing fat the rest of the day? Granted it might only be grams or ounces – but what if you kept that up for a week? A month? Three months?

As you pan out and look at the bigger picture, what if most days of the week you were in a deficit for the entire day, and on some days you were in a surplus? If so, then isn’t it possible that over the course of the week, you’d have a small net gain of muscle and loss of body fat a a result of the caloric fluctuation?

These within-day and within-week phases are called microcycles and mesocycles. If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several months, say 12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a macrocycle.

What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call it cyclical dieting. it’s where you manipulate your calories (primarily by fluctuating carbohydrate intake, hence “carb cycling”) in order to intentionally zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit and create specific hormonal responses.

The end result: muscle gain and fat loss during the same time period!

I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only talked about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories matter but there’s more to it than calories – most importantly, hormones and “nutrient partitioning.”

If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your body.The question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack and you’re eating crap, you could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat, not muscle, in a surplus!

But WHAT IF you could manipulate within day energy balance, use nutritional periodization AND control your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?

Make no mistake – concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult goal to achieve. The good news: difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George Santayana said, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately, the impossible, that which takes a little longer.”

The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program: How to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat at The Same Time

You can learn more about gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time in Tom Venuto’s new e-book called, “The Holy Grail Body Transformation System.”

You’ll learn all about nutritional periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal manipulation, within day energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the X factors, including the 5 “X2-Factors” – which are the keys to gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.

You’ll also get Tom’s new “TNB” training system, as seen in Men’s Fitness magazine (the complete, expanded version that Men’s Fitness didn’t have room to print).

At the moment, The Holy Grail ebook is not for sale separately and there are only two ways you can get it.

From now until Midnight (PST), March 5th, 2010, you can get a copy of the Holy Grail Body Transformation program ebook for FREE when you purchase the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle e-book from this web page:
www.BurnTheFat.com

The other way you can a a copy is by joining the Burn the Fat Inner Circle at:
www.BurnTheFat.com/innercircle

After March 5th, 2010 at midnight PST The Holy Grail will be taken off the market for a period of time while Tom is collecting case studies and getting feedback from users, to include in the final edition – which WILL be released for sale separately later this year.

Visit the Burn The Fat website now and jump on this deal while you still can.

Ok guys this is your last chance if you seriously want to invest in your body, buy BFFM now and get The Holy Grail free while you can, offeer ends tonight!

Paul x

Wow – I’ve got a real powerful post today, I hope you like it. What are your thoughts on the whole ‘You can’t burn fat AND build muscle at the same time….’ debate? Read on and don’t be surprised if you have a change of view….

This past January the guys at over at the Burn the Fat websites completed their first ever body transformation challenge contest. But their contest was NOTHING like the biggest loser.

In fact, Josh Ketter, the overall men’s winner, and Ryan Cochrane, one of the finalists, only lost a pound.

Now, you must be thinking, “what the heck kind of weird body transformation contest were they running where the winner and the finalists only drop a pound?”

Well, it would seem weird if you thought that success at body transformation meant dropping weight on the scale, but did you ever stop to think about the difference
between fat weight and muscle weight?

Think about it – if those contestants on the biggest loser gain muscle – they get penalized, right? Penalize someone for gaining muscle?

Shouldn’t contestants be REWARDED for gaining muscle as well as burning fat?

That’s the problem with weight loss contests today and with a lot of people in the industry in general – they are obsessed with scale weight but they don’t pay any attention to body composition (the fat-to-lean muscle ratio).

Of course, some of the contestants in that contest did drop a lot of fat – 15, 20, even 25 lbs in only 50 days. But the person who dropped the most pounds was NOT necessarily voted as the winner.

That explains how the judging was done – some of the winners were rewarded because they made tremendous improvements in their body composition, even though their scale weight didn’t change that much.

Josh lost 8 pounds of fat and gained 7 pounds of muscle in just 50 days.  He only lost a pound on the scale because the muscle weight replaced the fat weight.

Ryan Cochrane lost 8 pounds of fat while gaining 7.7 lbs of muscle in 50 days. His weight hardly changed.

Sarah kensington actually GAINED a pound, from 119 to 120 but her body fat decreased from 19% to a ripped 12.6%. Thats a 7.9 pound GAIN in lean body mass and a 7 pound loss of body fat – remarkable for a MAN, almost unheard of for
a woman!

When you look at their before and after pictures, you can see that even though their weight changed by less than a pound, they TOTALLY TRANSFORMED THEIR BODIES!

How?

They gained muscle and lost fat at the same time!

Maybe you’re thinking, “wait a minute, I thought it was impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time? Don’t you need a calorie deficit to burn fat and
a calorie surplus to build muscle?”

Well, yes and no. Calories do matter, but according to fat loss expert Tom Venuto, the guy who sponsored the recent body composition fitness contest, it’s much
more complicated than that because of things like within-day energy balance, hormonal fluctuations and “energy partitioning.”

It was these unusual contest results that prompted Tom to dig into the scientific research on concurrent muscle gain and fat loss and create a new program that he calls:

“THE HOLY GRAIL BODY TRANSFORMATION SYSTEM:
How to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time”

This is not an easy goal to achieve – So I’m sorry, but I have no miracle for you. If you’re looking for magic bullets, go elsewhere. This is a serious and very
strategic program.

Concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is the most difficult goal to achieve.

That’s why people call it the “holy grail”; because it’s so elusive.

BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE: IT IS POSSIBLE.

I’m sure you’ve heard this subject debated ad nauseum on discussion forums. Those debates probably left you confused and not sure what to believe either.

This new ebook sets the record straight in such a way that you could say it’s the LAST WORD on gaining muscle and burning fat at the same time; it’s impressively referenced with peer-reviewed research and frankly, it just makes sense.

Tom Venuto’s previous best selling ebook, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle (BFFM) has become known to many as a “fat loss bible”

Check out the ‘Fat Loss Bible’ here…

But BFFM is designed specifically for fat loss, what if you want to lose fat AND gain muscle?

That’s exactly why this new program was created.

It’s the first course of it’s kind that builds on the techniques of BFFM and teaches a system for gaining muscle and burning fat simultaneously, and explains the process scientifically.

If you’re skeptical, I don’t blame you. Even I was skeptical when I heard about it.

But when you see BOTH; real-world case studies AND the scientific proof, it makes you want to stop and take a look.

Right now the 1st edition of Tom’s new HOLY GRAIL body transformation ebook is available for just the next 2 days in limited release.

It’s actually not even for sale separately yet.

What Tom decided to do was offer the holy grail ebook as bonus with the purchase of his Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle ebook.

The Holy Grail ebook is available only for the next 2 days at:

Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

(offer expires on Friday march 5th, 2010)

On March 6th, he’s going to take the holy grail course off the market for a while, to correspond with some of his new customers and collect feedback and case studies to incorporate in the 2nd edition.

Then the grail ebook will be officially re-released later this year at the regular retail price.

So, this is a great opportunity to pick up Tom’s fat loss bible AND get the holy grail ebook for free at the same time.

If you’d like to be in this first wave of people to try this new combined muscle-building and fatburning system, this is the ONLY wayto order at the moment;

Purchase a copy of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle ebook, and the HOLY GRAIL body transformation ebook comes along with BFFM for free.

Now what do you think, leave a comment and let me know!

All the best, Paul x My Health And Fitness Today

PS. You may have already heard of Tom’s Burn the Fat, Feed the
Muscle book before, so if you already have it, the other way you
can get his new Holy Grail program is by joining the Burn the Fat
Inner Circle – all members there are also getting access to it
this week up until Friday the 5th. More info on Tom’s inner circle at:

http://myhealthandfitnesstoday.com/inner-circle

Hi and welcome back to My Health And Fitness Today.

Firstly i want to apologise for the scarcity of posts of late. My excuse is the same as my lack of workout training too, let me explain; Last August my partner Zoe became ill, and after a month of her doctors arsing about and generally doing bugger all, i lost my temper and took her straight to the Accident & Emergency Department of the local hospital.

She was admitted immediately with a temperature of 40deg and a very low blood pressure, they told us that it was probable Colitis and that after 2-3 days of intravenous steroids, she’d be fine and able to return home.

5 days later and still no improvement, it was found that her body was rejecting her bowel and would need to be put on immuno-suppressants. This in turn had other implications and required further drug treatment to counteract the I-S’, finally after 12 days in hospital Zoe was allowed home. Sadly she was told that she would no longer be able to breast-feed our baby girl Isabelle, due to the massive dose of steroids she was on which upset her terribly. Unfortunately she was unable to breast-feed our first daughter Olivia, now 3yrs past the first week, as she really chomped down and caused major problems, so when she had got to 3 months with Isabelle she was really loving it and wanted to carry on till 6 months, this was not to be.

Anyhow, at home she had to take a whole raft of different drugs, steroids, I-S’, magnesium, and god knows what else, 29 pills a day, 19 for breakfast and the rest throughout the day and night, but even with all these, by the 7th day you could see she was beginning to go downhill, by the time her first checkup at the hospital at 10 days came around, she was really ill again.

As she was already on the strongest drugs they could give her, the only option left was to remove her large intestine. When the day of her operation came around, i spent an hour with her before she was taken to the operating room, she as gravely ill.

They told me she would be out within 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours and they would ring me, 5 hours later still no call, i’m going out of my mind with worry, fearing the worst, ‘How would i cope without her? What would i tell Olivia? All of this flew through my mind, finally after many frantic calls to the hospital, 5 1/2 hours later she was out and safe, though apparently it was a close call, and they admitted that they should’ve operated sooner!

So after a week she finally came home again, this time she managed two weeks at home before being rushed back in by ambulance, she had a massive abscess on the stump of her colon which was leaking back into her body, making her ill again, another operation, another week in hospital, another few weeks at home and…. her index finger blows up black and blue, another abscess, all related.

While she’s going through all this, i’ve been taking time off to look after the girls, run her to hospital appointments, pick up drugs etc etc… and with all the stress and worry, something had to give, and yes you’ve guessed it, twas my workouts!

Just when we thought she was getting stronger, last week she spent in hospital, again, fortunately this time it was only viral, something caught from a home help, but due to her reduced immune system, it hit her like a tone of bricks, hence the lack of posts.

Anyway, to get to the point (yaay at last…) i’ve just started training again going right back to basics using Craig Ballantynes Turbulence Training and to be sensible i’ve gone right back to the beginners workout schedule, which quite honestly still hit me like a freight train!

Before all the problems started, i was at a steady 13st 6lbs (188lbs) with around 15% body fat, not fantastic, i would never have graced the pages of Mens Health et al, but it was ok, i was fairly solid, reasonably muscly, and felt healthy. Now, well see my stats below, doesn’t take long to lose it, just five months;

Weight: 13st 9lbs (191lbs)

Body Fat: 25.4% (dear god)

Visceral fat:14 (1-12 healthy level, 13-29 needs adjustment)

Muscle mass: 39.2%

So i’m 44 yrs old, have an underactive-thyroid, am pre-diabetic (due to my weight gain years ago, i was 16st or 224lbs) have lost a lot of muscle and gained a lot of fat, so am i worried?

No, because i have the tools and the knowledge to sort this out, and quickly, how quickly, well we’ll see, and if anyone wants to join me on this, then please leave a comment below.

I will be using Turbulence Training mostly throughout for the workouts and Jon Bensons Every Other Day Diet 2.0 for my nutrition program, why these two programs particularly? Simple they both work! They are what are i used to burn my fat the first time, and successfully maintain that weight-loss too

I will be posting some pics, and maybe some video if i can snag a camcorder.

Sorry it was such a long post, but it had to be explained, please stay in touch, and leave a comment if you will, thanks from Paul and My Health And Fitness Today!