I split up this interview between Tom Venuto of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and David Grisaffi. David Grisaffi is plugging a new, very good abdominal muscle development system and Tom interviewed him to talk about it. David’s new program is called Flatten your Abs. This info is gold, I hope you enjoy reading the rest of the interview and I will try to give you more of these in the future.

TV: Lets talk about six pack abs and flat stomachs, because that?s another one of your specialty areas and that’s what I really wanted to focus on in this interview the most. You wrote a course on abdominal training- it’s called FIRM AND FLATTEN YOUR ABS and you’re now offering it as an e-book download on the Internet and it’s starting to get really popular. What made you decide to write a book about abdominal training when there’s already so much information out there’

DG: Hmmm.’to be honest it was my friend Don Lemmon. He invited me to write a chapter about core conditioning in his book, and I said ’sure’. One thing lead to another and that one chapter developed into an entire e-book of my own. I had never done an entire book before with editing, pictures and so on, but I just took a lot of the information I had learned from experience and from all my mentors, put my head down, went to work and wrote the FIRM AND FLATTEN YOUR ABS e Book. It took me about 3 months. I guess one of my main motivations for writing it was because there is so much bad information and so many bad abdominal machines and devices out there’

TV: I noticed you don’t recommend ANY sit ups in your course. Why is that’

That’s correct. After studying many greats like Vladimir Janda, Diane Lee, Paul Chek, Richardson and Jull, I discovered that the hip flexors (illiopsoas) are frequently overworked and that can lead to muscle imbalances and low back pain. So I said, why continue aggravating the problem with sit ups’ In my e book this is a topic I cover in detail.

TV: So why are sit ups still so popular and why are they still used as a standard exercise in fitness testing and for sports or military conditioning’ Is there ever any reason that anyone would want to do sit ups or in your opinion is that an exercise you should NEVER do’

DG: People are hard to change, Tom. But once you learn what can happen from overusing exercises like sit ups, you’d be doing yourself (and trainers their clients) a disservice by continuing this practice. Many studies have also shown the hip flexors are recruited to do most of the work, so sit ups are not only ineffective but they can also strain your back. Now to be fair, there are correct ways to do a sit up. One is to take the Law of Reciprocal Inhibition into account. That means if one muscle is working, the other must relax. So if you’re doing sit ups, you contract your hamstrings and glutes by pushing your lower legs against someone’s hands, small dumbbells or over a heavy weighted barbell. This will shut off the illiopsoas and your abs will feel it in the morning because they are now doing more of the work.If I prescribe sit ups, I simply have my clients do Janda sit ups. For the e book, I left out sit ups completely because of the overuse and injury potential situation.

TV: Are there any other ab exercises that are really common in the gym but you wouldn’t recommend to your clients’

DG: Unfortunately, many of the abdominal exercise gadgets on the market are ineffective and sometimes even unsafe. I would stay away from the Ab Roller or Torso Track because these machines can create muscle imbalances. I’m also not a fan of machine crunches because these machines – like all machines – stabilize your body and isolate the rectus abdominis, which doesn’t allow for true functional movement. Let’s see, what else’ Russian twists on a roman chair with a plate sound like a good way to ruin your lumbar spine. Torso twists on a machine fall in that category too.

TV: Yeah, those rotary torso machines are always being used in every gym I’ve ever been in. What about the ab machines you see on TV ‘ ANY of them any good’

DG: The infomercial ads on TV try to make the machines and devices seem new, fun and easy. Everyone wants nice abs fast and easy. But nice abs do not come in a machine! The first step is a not a machine, it’s a proper diet based on the individual. I would say your E book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is one of the best on the shelves these days when it comes to nutrition and the motivational techniques to stay on the plan.

TV: So what’s probably on everyone’s mind now is that if sit ups and most machines are out, that must leave crunches as the exercise of choice right’

DG: Yes and No – crunches have become more popular because of the popularity of ab rollers and crunch machines. But like sit ups, crunches are overused and misused – frequently! Floor crunches also limit your range of motion compared to using a Swiss ball.

TV: A lot of people wonder about those giant exercise balls ‘ You call them Swiss balls, some people call them stability balls – I noticed you included quite a few ball exercises in your course. What’s so great about those things’

DG: Simple’it places more demand on the neurological system and that makes the abdominal workout more effective. According to some studies, the recruitment of the abdominals was almost double when the subjects used the Swiss ball. The oblique’s contribution was increased by over 4 times due to the Swiss ball. You also get an extra 15 degrees range of motion doing crunches on a Swiss ball compared to floor crunches. Plus, have you ever done an advanced exercise on a Swiss ball’ You sweat more and breathe more heavily. Why, because your nervous system and entire body are working harder to do all the stabilizing work. For example, the Prone Bridge exercise forces the rest of your body to stabilize you so you don’t fall off the ball. Think of it as a light switch turning on.

TV: So using a Swiss ball ‘flips the switch on your nervous system,’ I’ve never heard anyone put it that way before’ Interesting. So what are a few of your personal favorite exercises for developing a good-looking and strong set of six pack abs’

Well, my system starts with good neurological programming of the core muscles. Build the base and then add layers. Some of the exercises I personally like are:

* Prone Ball Roll
* Lateral Ball Roll
* Prone Jackknife on swiss ball
* Swiss ball Side Flexion
* Forward Ball Roll

It’s easier to see them than to try and describe them, so if you want a visual, you can see the pictures here On This Web Page. You can also see a total of 42 exercises including about a dozen ball exercises in my e-book, Flatten Your Abs and that includes multiple photos of each movement showing start and finish positions.

TV: Alright, next subject: what’s the deal on training abs every day ‘ you hear different opinions on this all the time – are you supposed to work them daily or not’ And why’

DG: There are different opinions on this. Personally, I think they should NOT be trained each day. There are situations where you could train muscle groups on consecutive days, like when you work different sections of the abs. I stand by the philosophy of lower abs first, obliques and then the rectus abdominus. Why’ Each takes a different degree of neurological programming. But in general, I follow a less is more philosophy for abs. I don’t want people getting over trained and injured. A good diet combined with an effective exercise program designed for the individual is the key for fat loss. Add in a good core exercise program such as Firm and Flatten Your Abs and you have the recipe for success.

TV: Okay, here’s another burning question that’s on everyone’s mind: A lot of people do abdominal exercises every day because they think that will burn the fat of the stomach. You and I know that doesn’t work. For the record, would you explain exactly why ab exercises don’t burn fat off your abs’

DG: For one thing, fat is stored all over your body and the distribution of fat stores is mainly genetic. Men tend to store body fat in their mid section first. Women have a hard time losing the hip and leg weight because of child-bearing genetic code. Second, and most important, abdominals come from low body fat and low body fat comes from good nutrition, not specific exercises. I really believe that you are what you eat. If you are “dirty” on the inside, you will be ‘dirty’ on the outside.
Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: athlete, back pain, Ball Roll, chemicals, David Grisaffi, Diane Lee, dollar chair, Don Lemmon, e-book, food intolerance, Forward, genetic code, Golf, knee surgery, machines and devices, muscular systems, orthopedic injuries, Paul Chek, physical therapist, Prone Bridge, roman chair, tom venuto, USD, Vladimir Janda, www.flattenyourabs.net

Everyone wants better abs and here is a bunch of great info on getting better abs now. I have just got this interview that Tom Venuto of Burn the fat feed the muscle fame, did with David Grisaffi. David Grisaffi has just created a kick ass workout system called flatten your abs that is designed to give you much better abs and I thought I would share this with you now to learn more about ab training.

The Abdominal Training Secrets Interview
With Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
And David Grisaffi, CHEK, CFT, PN
www.FlattenYourAbs.net

TV: Hi David, thanks for taking the time for this interview because I know how busy you are and that, among other projects, you run a training studio in Tacoma, you’re a wrestling coach and you keep a full client load. I’ve known you for a couple years now through the Internet and the emails we’ve sent to each other and you’re very well known within the fitness industry – especially in the sports training field. But on the off chance that some of the people listening to this interview don’t know who you are, would you give us a quick introduction and tell us little bit about your background, how you got started in this field and how you spend your time now?

DG: Well I was always a sports enthusiast my entire life. I can remember I was the only 9-year-old watching Monday night football and taking stats. I did all the usual sports – football, soccer, wrestling, swimming, baseball and tennis. Never did much with basketball. Being a genetically “blessed” Italian, I didn’t think the height requirement was going to be on my side. I excelled at wrestling. That sport alone taught me about nutrition, supplements, work ethic etc. I really have to thank wrestling for getting me into this field. I now coach high school wrestling, baseball and youth football. I keep really busy with my 3 children, Addision (13) Garrison (10) and my little man Carson (7). I taught school for a couple of years and then decided to go into personal training.

TV: You have quite a few certifications, one of them is certified personal trainer, one is certified golf trainer  or golf biomechanic to be exact – but what is a Corrective High Performance Exercise Kinesiologist?

DG: That’s an intense certification program where you learn from one of the foremost experts in the conditioning field, Paul Chek, who personally developed and cultivated the program. The certification revolves around the dynamics of kinesiology, physiology, functional anatomy and mind  body – spirit relationships. The program has four levels and I’m currently a level II, where we learn physical assessment, posture analysis, gait analysis, primal movement patterns, length-tension testing and range of motion testing. My Golf biomechanic certification is also from the CHEK institute. This is where we learn how the relationship between muscles and muscle groups affect the golf swing and how to improve it. In the winter of 2002 I also became one of the first Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaches from the CHEK institute. This program was developed to help practitioners deal with nutritional and lifestyle needs of their clients. The certification teaches how symptoms of disease and stress can be prevented through diet, exercise and stress management. I’m currently a level II Nutrition and lifestyle coach.I can’t say enough about how Paul has helped me become a better trainer and person. There is more to this than just exercise.

TV: And I understand that there’s only a small handful of people who have those credentials, is that right?

DG: Yes, I think, at last count about 1000 have received a CHEK certification but there are only about 35 in the world with all three certifications including the level two’s. So it all costs time, energy and brain work Tom, but for someone who wants something different and out of the box thinking, it’s great. Not to take away from any other certification programs; heck, I love the ISSA, Ian King, Charles Poliquin and many others

TV: That’s impressive, congratulations. So if I understand your philosophy correctly, the big difference between you and other trainers and especially trainers who only do bodybuilding and nothing else, is that you help your clients not only look good, but also with functionality, performance and correcting existing injuries or potential problem areas or imbalances that could lead to injuries in the future. Did I miss anything or would you say that’s a pretty good description?

DG: That’s right you have to evaluate your client thoroughly for strengths and weaknesses to get the best results. Sometimes without a good evaluation you can miss something that could help prevent or fix an injury or cause someone not to excel.

TV:I think it’s really important what you’re teaching people because as a bodybuilder myself, when I first started many years ago, the ONLY thing I cared about was looking good and having muscles and abs and low body fat, but true fitness is a lot more than just looking good. For one thing it’s health above all else. In addition to that, if you don’t have strong, flexible and balanced development, then sooner or later, you’re going to get injured or you’re going to find that you can’t enjoy the sports or recreation activities you want to, and ultimately you might even find yourself restricted from normal daily activities like squatting, bending and lifting things around the house, which is exactly what happens to most people when then get older. But still, the fact is, everyone wants to look good, they want the six pack; they want muscle definition. So how do you balance the form aspect  the looking good part  with the function aspect  which is the strength, flexibility, balance and performance part?

DG: I believe we develop from the inside out. If you have good insides, you will have a good outside. What I mean is that diet, nutrition and water intake have a great deal to do with how good you look on the outside. So to look good – the form part – I start with overseeing my client’s dietary intake. I don’t go as far as telling them exactly what to eat, but I give a lot of suggestions. As for the function, I always think of the body as a whole, not as parts. Yes, if you’re a bodybuilder and that is your gig, then heck yes, think in parts. This really depends on the client and their goals, but you always need proper flexibility, strength and balance in the whole body as a unit.

TV: You train regular people and you also train professional athletes, especially boxers and golfers. Is there a big difference in how athletes and regular people should train?

DG: Each of them has distinct differences. So to plop down a canned program for everyone would lead to failure and would reflect poorly on me. I take each client one at a time. In my Flatten Your Abs e-book, I provide many different levels so each individual can pick the level that fits them best when they start out. Everyone is not equal. The boxers in general, are more athletic, so one big difference is that I change their program more often to keep them fresh. Let’s say I have 6 weeks before a tough fight, I may change the workout 3 – 4 times. Their nervous systems are highly adaptable and need the change. Someone who just wants to start a basic weight-training program could stay on the same program for the entire 6 weeks and get results. This is because their nervous systems are not as highly developed.

Read the rest of this interview on my next Ab workout interview post!

Click here to visit David Grisaffi.s Flatten Your Abs Website to see what this great program has to offer you this year.

Tags: Addision, baseball, basketball, Carson, Charles Poliquin, coach, David Grisaffi, David Grisaffi.s Flatten, e-book, energy, existing injuries, football, Golf, Ian King, King, nervous systems, Paul Chek, personal trainer, soccer, sports enthusiast, sports training field, Swimming, Tennis, tom venuto, usual sports, wrestling, wrestling coach, www.burnthefat.com, www.flattenyourabs.net

I was searching through the most popular fitness e-books a little while ago and ran into a book, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle that seemed to be getting a lot of hype from others as the single best fitness book available.

A book by a natural bodybuilder was going to show people how to lose weight and actually gain muscle while losing weight?

Is this book the best fitness book? I had to see this book myself and decided to give it a review.

Burn the fat feed the muscle is an e-book that has been created by bodybuilding champion Tom Venuto that attempts to teach people all aspects of losing weight while gaining muscle. Many people have called Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle the greatest single best fitness book ever put together and with that kind of hype I wanted to go through chapter by chapter to see if this book really lives up to it’s reputation.

What does Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle include?

The Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle sales letter lists six bonuses which total about another 100 pages of information that I would rather not cover as they are bonuses and not the book itself. I would like to say though that these bonus books are a fantastic addition as they do a deep dive into some of the things that are truly important that no one seems to cover.

Just be aware that the book has a complete diet listed within it and these books are supplemental reports dealing with the burning questions that many people have and that is mainly: Why do certain foods make us fat and other foods do not?

Burn the fat feed the muscle book setup

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle weighs in at an impressive 340 pages. The book is really solid and has not a single picture although there are some tables of information so there is a lot of reading to do. You can still print up the book but just as any other book on the internet you are going to have to either read the book on your computer or get it printed up.

I will not review each chapter individually but instead would like to go through an overview of the sections of the book as well as list some points that the author raises.

Introduction
Tom Venuto stresses the importance of some principles such as no quick fixes, weight loss is not the same as fat loss and that the book is not even just about fat loss but more about making people healthier.

Goal setting, strategies and motivation.
As we all know goal setting is very important to reaching what you want with your health and although I have written extensively about this subject in the past Tom Venuto has done an admirable job in really crystallizing the art of goal setting so that it will work much better for almost anyone.

Body types, how to identify what you need
This is the first place in this book where I like the way that Tom Venuto has really broken down how people have different body types. Almost every trainer I have ever seen thinks that every person’s body will react the same way with the same diet and exercise and this book stops that idea dead in its tracks.

Eating, Food, Liquids, and actual meal plans
Tom Venuto covers a couple of very important points that are very often overlooked in most other books and those are proper intake of liquids and foods that you should eat. Tom Venuto uses about 20 pages to cover foods that you should and should not eat including replacements for some of the bad foods that you are already eating.

Supplements
Tom Venuto and I are of essentially the same mind on the use of supplements and how this industry is very good at marketing many overpriced products with very little benefits to almost any user unless they are in a very sickly state. Let’s face it, in North America our prosperity has not lead most people to under eat so the supplementation is not the most important thing.

However, Tom Venuto has included information on the most important supplements and I was a little surprised but happy to see how straightforward he is about many of the supplements in the bodybuilding industry and the effect that magazines advertising has had on the objectiveness if those magazines.

Cardio training
We all know how important exercise is in losing weight and the diet that has been created in Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is definitely geared toward having both cardio and weight training as an essential part of the package. I have never seen a diet that did not at least mention exercise but this book stresses it as very important part of the equation and many other diets would do their followers more justice by stressing a lot more exercise.

Weight training
What would you expect from a natural bodybuilding champion. Tom Venuto covers the exercises that you should do to gain strength and muscle as easily as possible and goes into a lot of detail with tactics that you have never seen before.

Burn the fat feed the muscle price and purchase information

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle sells on the website for $39.00. This price seems to be in line with most ebooks and is a very popular price. Prices for e-books seem to be artificially low probably because of the lack of a hard bound product and some people’s lack of confidence. In purchasing this book there is a secure page in which to make the purchase so credit card information can be trusted across the internet and a third party takes care of the transaction so that there is no one person that has access to your credit card number but instead only secure computer systems do the transaction.

Also Tom Venuto offers the book for only $39.00 plus an eight week money back guarantee. I like the guarantee because if you were to buy this book and decided after a few weeks that it is not something you want to follow then you should really deserve to get a refund.

….Here is a personal review…..

So far I have lost 37 pounds following your “Burn The Fat” guidelines. I was a tight size 18 and am now a loose 12. I weighed 202 pounds and now weigh 165. I feel great and I don’t feel deprived at all. I have changed my lifestyle and am thrilled with the results on every level. I am currently re-evaluating my goals because I BELIEVE I can do more than I ever thought possible.
Nena Nerhan

I have to admit it – I am really impressed by Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

I was initially skeptical of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle as I have seen a hundred “Miracle Diets” come and go over the years and did not expect anything more, even from a competitive bodybuilder. I am now though pleasantly surprised and happy to have found this book.

The real rant that I always have with exercise books is that books tend to be fads that just cover one subject whether it is right or wrong and I have far to many of those books already. At least I know that in 10 years Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle will still be relevant because every page in it makes sense.

On the positive side this book is really packed with a lot of detail on how to eat, what to eat, cardio and weight training plans as well as a easy to read style that definitely does away with the hype and does a very good job of realistically training a person to think, eat and exercise right to drop the weight that the want and need to live a healthier lifestyle.

…..And her is one last personal review

“Hey Tom, I just wanted to let you know that today I got my body fat tested using the Jackson-Pollack formula for skinfold, and ended up hitting 4% bodyfat!!!!!!!! Thank you for your guidance in your Burn The Fat manual, I feel like I owe you far more than I paid for the book. During this whole process, I became an ACE certified personal trainer and I’ve been trying to pass on some of your thoughts and motivation to my clients. Thank you!”
Eric Spring
Melville, NY

In an industry that is full of fads, quick fixes and hype, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, although relying on hype in its sales letter definitely does not fall into this trap in its content. I think that this book just may be the best fitness book around. I highly recommend this book for people that are just starting to improve their health as well as to people that have a last few stubborn pounds to lose.

I feel strongly enough about this book that as a bonus I am offering you four free e-books if you purchase Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle though a link on this page.

The e-books are:
-101 Diet Tips (A great addition to everything else you will learn here)
-Skyrocket Fat Loss (A Tom Venuto Interview that spans 41 pages)
-Training and Nutrition Secrets (65 pages of secrets that almost no one knows)
-Losing weight without starving yourself (61 pages about…well I guess the title says it all)

After you have purchased Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle just email me at bill @ nadraszky . com (just click the link) and I will forward the books to you.

Tags: Author, burn the fat feed the muscle, e books, e-book, fitness book, hard bound product, north America, secure computer systems, tom venuto, USD