Don’t settle for a body you don’t like and a life you don’t love!

October 27, 2016 by 2 Comments

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From: Bill Phillips
October 27, 2016

Are you happy with the way your body looks and feels?

Are you worried about the direction of your health?

Did you know that more than two thousand people in America will die of a heart attack today? And did you know more women than men die of a heart attack?

Do you almost feel trapped in a body that hurts and a body that you can’t seem to get control of?

For more than 30 years I have helped people from all walks of life transform… to change their body, to change their life. I have been out of shape myself and I know it can happen to anyone. But I also KNOW you don’t have to give up or give in to poor health.

You don’t have to settle for a body you don’t like and a life you don’t love!

You CAN Transform your health and fitness and you can rebuild and renew your LIFE. It happens one day at a time. Here are the 6 Key steps I help people learn and implement through my LIVE Video Coaching Program:

1) Exercise most days. Lift weights. Do interval aerobics. A half hour a day with intense effort is better than longer workouts with low effort. My methods are safe, sustainable, effective and efficient. Consistency and intensity are the keys that make workouts work.

2) Plan your meals ahead of time and follow your plan. You can’t go wrong with eating a balance of healthy foods, smaller meals more frequently throughout the day and an occasional off day or free day gives flexibility and practicality which are key for long-term results. Take vitamins and supplement with quality proteins if you can’t get in enough healthy whole-food meals each day.

3) Connect with a support group to give and receive encouragement and accountability. Transformation is a Team sport so to speak. Connect with a community of other people who are also trying to make healthy changes and you more than double your results in the short and long term.

4) Think it through! We get out of shape by not paying attention to what we are doing. We get in shape by taking the opposite approach which is to pay attention to our health! Don’t take your eyes off the road! Take a few minutes each evening to review how you did that day, give yourself feedback, make note of several things you did right that day and identify one thing you can do even better the following day. THINK, plan, prepare as a daily habit.

5) MINDSET is key! Set your mind in the right direction–cultivate a positive, healthy mindset by seeing your progress as success. Heck just making an effort to improve your health is success! Be proud of even trying because most people don’t! Success must be measured by the completion of key daily action steps and not just by the scale. Measure your success by what you have accomplished, not by what you haven’t. Focus on progress, not perfection! Progress = Success.

6) Develop a long-term Vision for your Health (your vision is guided by your values). Set mid and short term, measurable, specific GOALS which are aligned with your Vision and Values… goals can be behavior or performance based (I Will Workout at least 60 times over the next 12 weeks) as well as result based (I Will be 30 lbs. Lighter within 6 months). Use your goals to answer the question, “What can I do between now and this time tomorrow to take a step in the direction of my goals and vision?” Remember that human beings are motivated by the prize more than the penalty… reward yourself in some personally meaningful way for the achievement of goals and you will get inspiration to set new goals and work to achieve them too. Momentum is a powerful force.

You CAN Change — There is Living Proof

I have seen so many people lose fat and gain muscle, transform their health, and change their lives over the long term with the approach I just described. Now, is that the only way? No. There is more than one right way. But when you decide to change your health and improve your life, how many proven effective ways do you need? One! So pick one that works and stick with it for goodness sake!

Accept the fact that you CAN change; YOU have the ability; and with that ability comes the RESPONSIBILITY. It is up to YOU to own that responsibility. No one is going to do this for you. You are the one your new body and life is waiting on! Make the decision to transform and doors will start opening for you!

When you change your health and life for the better you inspire others to do it too. Your change makes a difference. And Lord don’t we need it now in this country more than ever before! You can change the world around you by changing yourself. It’s true. And with the right method, it is pretty simple… I didn’t say EASY, I said simple.

++ Join my LIVE video workout club and I will be your personal trainer and nutrition coach for 28 straight days. I will show you exactly what exercises to do and I will do them with you, LIVE. I will show you the right foods and meals to eat, everyday. No guess work! You will lose fat, gain muscle strength and energy. You will transform your health and develop the key habits you need to be successful in the long term.

I CAN HELP YOU SUCCEED!! Learn more and sign up with me today: www.BillPhillipsLIVE.com

The deadline to enroll is 5:00 pm MT on October 28th, 2016.

Filed Under: Bill Phillips, Mindset, Tips, Workout Programs

Transform your Bench Press with Mark Bell and Bill Phillips

July 20, 2015 by 3 Comments

In this brand new 25 minute video Bill Phillips trains with Mark Bell, one of the best strength coaches and strongest men in the world. Bill Phillips is traveling around the country this summer learning from experts like Mark Bell and others; always looking to improve, even at age 50 and with over 30 years of experience teaching transformation and Body-for-LIFE. Watch the video to get some new insight about what workouts produce strong results and also get some motivational insight along the way!

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Don’t Believe This Lie Going Around about Exercise

March 23, 2015 by 1 Comment

beach-running-gett_2642708kI have been teaching people the benefits of weight lifting and of intense interval aerobics for more than 20 years. Six million Body-for-LIFE books were picked up by readers around the world and many of them put my quick, effective workouts to work with good results.

Now even though I am an advocate for interval workouts, I find the attached article absurd and borderline offensive. In the write up, a person who claims to be an expert on fitness, makes the claim that ‘cardio’ causes cancer, heart attacks, and increases in bodyfat.

The FACTS clearly show (facts backed up by thousands of published studies) that virtually ANY exercise is better than no exercise. Brisk walking, jogging, swimming, can all be safe forms of cardio-vascular and cardio-respiratory exercise. I want everyone to enjoy the benefits of physical activity–it is the best medicine there is for living longer and living better.

One meta-analysis published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Rehab looked at 33 studies with 883,372 total test subjects… researches determined that people who do cardiovascular exercise (‘cardio’) live much longer than people who don’t. “All-cause mortality was reduced 33%.”

If the topic is ‘over-training’ or doing extreme amounts of exercise, you can do that with weights, with intervals, or excessive jogging or running. Over-training is NOT the same as ‘cardio.’

Just because I am a lifter and sprinter, I would NEVER claim that it is ‘my way or the highway.’ Minute for minute, my intense workouts probably give you the best return on your investment of time in the gym… but that does not mean there aren’t many other healthy ways to get active! If you’ve read the attached article or heard other so-called experts claim that cardio causes obesity, cancer, illness, don’t believe it!! Common sense and science tell us this writer is dead wrong!

Click Here to Read The Controversial Article Titled, “Does Cardio Make You Fat?”

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Body-for-LIFE Bill Phillips’ New Fitness Program

February 5, 2015 by 2 Comments

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Body-for-LIFE author Bill Phillips has a New Online Program

Bill Phillips has a new, FREE program available online right now that gives you specific instruction for how to get back on track with your health and fitness. Discover how to get better results faster from exercise; learn how to eat for healthy weight loss and renew your energy for life! You can learn all about this program called Back to FIT for FREE when you visit:
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A New Look at Bill Phillips’ Lower Body Workout

January 7, 2015 by 39 Comments

Lifting free-weight dumbbells is an incredibly effective and efficient way to work the major muscles of your body. The lower body workout I teach at my Transformation Center is all done with dumbbells. The exercises which make up this routine blast the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. When we use the proper form it also strengthens the core, improves flexibility and builds stabilizer muscles which support the knees, ankles, and hips. This lower body workout includes three variations of squats — it is absolutely the best exercise for lower body work and it also is incredibly good for calorie burning and cardiovascular health improvements. This workout is the exact approach that I have followed to rebuild my leg muscles after a brutal injury I suffered a few years ago. This workout works and it’s simple (not easy) to do.

I used this Lower Body Workout to rebuild my leg muscles, at age 50, after an injury which ruptured the quadriceps tendons on both legs.

I used this Lower Body Workout to rebuild my leg muscles, at age 50, after an injury which ruptured the quadriceps tendons on both legs.

With this ‘5-25 Intense Interval Strength Training’ workout I can stick with the same weight for all 5 sets (as opposed to ‘pyramiding’ or increasing weight for each set as we did with Body-for-LIFE). The way 5-25 is designed we reach ‘progressive resistance overload’ (needed for positive muscle adaptations) through fatiguing the muscles more with each set. By your 5th set of 10 reps for each muscle group your muscles will be thoroughly cooked, and that is good!

Lower Body Workout

1. Dumbbell Squats — 10 Reps 2. Straight-Leg Deadlift — 10 Reps 3. Dumbbell Sumo Squats — 10 Reps 4. Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises — 10 Reps 5. Narrow Stance Dumbbell Front Squat — 10 Reps Complete all 5 exercises, 10 reps of each, with no rest between. After you’ve completed all 5 exercises, rest 2 minutes and then repeat the cycle. Aim for the completion of 5 times through the cycle in approximately 25 minutes. ++This workout can be done with a number of different exercise combinations. For example: 10 reps of barbell squats, followed by 10 reps on the leg extension machine, 10 reps of leg curls, 10 seated calf raises,  and 10 reps on the leg press machine. There are many different combinations we can put together to get an excellent high intensity strength training workout for the lower body. ++Never sacrifice good form to lift more weight. Doing the exercises with proper form and lifting the weights slowly and under control is even more important for those of us over 40. The great results from working out consistently come over time. Injuries are setbacks that throw us off track. Good form is one of the keys to keeping your exercise program going and producing great results. lbwo

Dumbbell SquatsphotocatSquatJan-7

Starting Position: Hold two dumbbells at your sides, with your palms facing in. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. The Exercise: While keeping your chin up, bend your legs at the knees and lower your hips until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Then, pushing from your heels, lift yourself back up to the starting position. Breathe out on exertion. Take your time — go lower and slower to fully work the leg muscles.

Straight-Leg Deadlift

DeadliftFinalFinal12-18 Starting Position: Stand up straight, with your feet shoulder width apart and a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing towards the front of your legs. This is a terrific exercise for the hamstrings, and it helps strengthen the lower back. The Exercise: Bend forward at your hips, and slowly lower the dumbbells in front of you, keeping the weights very close to your legs, until the weights almost tough the floor. Then, while concentrating on the muscles in the back of your legs, raise your upper body and the weights to the starting position. Roll your shoulders back, keep your chin up, take a deep breath and then repeat the exercise.

Dumbbell Sumo Squat

SumoFinal Starting Position: Hold a single dumbbell or ‘kettle bell’ in front of you. Your feet should be pointed out diagonally at about a 45 degree angle. Stand with your feet double shoulder width apart. The Exercise: While keeping your shoulders, back, and head upright, bend your legs at the knees and lower your hips until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Then, pushing from your heels, lift yourself back up to the starting position. Keep your back as straight as possible throughout this exercise.

Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises

photocatFinalCalfRaise12-18 Starting Position: Start by holding a dumbbell in each hand, with your palms facing the sides of your hips. Stand with your feet half shoulder width apart. Keep your feet parallel with each other. The Exercise: Keeping your legs straight, raise up on the ball of your feet. When you get to the top hold it for a count of one, then slowly lower to the starting position.

Narrow Stance Dumbbell Front Squat

finalNarrowSquatJan-7 Starting Position: Hold two dumbbells at your sides, with your palms facing in. Stand with your feet half shoulder width apart. The narrow stance will make the quadriceps muscle groups work even harder than regular squats. The Exercise: While keeping your shoulders, back, and head upright, bend your legs at the knees and lower your hips until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Then, pushing from your heels, lift yourself back up to the starting position. Keep your back as straight as possible throughout this exercise. Breathe out on exertion.

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A New Look at Bill Phillips’ Upper Body Workout

January 5, 2015 by 48 Comments

At my fitness center in Golden, Colorado we have numerous exercise machines, and even though we have been open for years, they’re all virtually brand new. That’s because they’re hardly ever used. We have dozens of dumbbells and they’ve each been lifted over 10,000 times. Free weight dumbbells are a very smart choice, especially for those of us over 40 who need to be careful not to put unnecessary stress on tendons and ligaments during the workout. Dumbbells give us the leeway to find the right groove, where the muscles work hard and the connective tissue isn’t damaged in the process of getting stronger. Dumbbells also work more stabilizer muscles than machines, and you can find them at virtually any fitness center – even while traveling. My home gym is a workout bench and dumbbells.

Once you learn the basic free-weight exercises for the major muscles of the upper and lower body, you can use these for life. The whole idea that muscles need a novel stimulus to adapt has been misinterpreted over the years to think that muscles need completely different exercise. It doesn’t need variety as much as they need intensity. The adaptations are caused by overload. If you have a habit of working out in a comfort zone, you can go from one workout to the next; one set of exercises to the next and still not create any novel stimulus. The important thing is to learn how to workout hard and push yourself out of your comfort zone. In Body-for-LIFE I called this the High Point Training Technique — in a nutshell it means pushing yourself during the workout — giving it your very best effort and then reaching down deep inside and giving it even more.

Following my recommended workout will make your muscles get stronger, help you burn fat faster because your metabolism goes up (for as much as 30 to 40 hours after your workout), improve your cardio-pulmonary health, help your heart get stronger, and even give your brain more energy!

The keys to tapping into all these benefits and more is to do weight lifting in intense intervals where we work hard for a couple minutes then rest two minutes, then work, rest, work, rest, and work, rest again. We want to get our heart rate up to 90% to 95% of our estimated cardiac maximum (220 minus our age: for me that means I am aiming for about 160 heart beats per minutes at the end of my work sets–then I rest for a couple minutes until my pulse comes down to about 120).

On my 5-25 Upper Body Workout I do the 5 exercises shown in this blog. I do 10 reps of each set. I do one set right after the other, with no rest. After I complete 10 repetitions of all 5 exercises, I wait a couple minutes (this is just enough time for a training partner to go through their 5 sets if you’re working out with somebody) and then I repeat all 5 exercises for a total of 5 times.

With this ‘5-25 Intense Interval Strength Training’ workout I can stick with the same weight for all 5 sets (as opposed to ‘pyramiding’ or increasing weight for each set as we did with Body-for-LIFE). The way 5-25 is designed we reach ‘progressive resistance overload’ (needed for positive muscle adaptations) through fatiguing the muscles more with each set. By your 5th set of 10 reps for each muscle group your muscles will be thoroughly cooked, and that is good!

Upper Body Workout

1. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press — 10 Reps
 2. Iron-Cross Raise — 10 Reps
 3. Dumbbell Rowing — 10 Reps
 4. Standing Dumbbell Curls — 10 Reps
 5. Dumbbell Triceps Extension — 10 Reps

+ This upper body workout can be done with alternate exercises for each muscle group. For example: barbell bench press, followed by dumbbell shoulder press, then wide grip lat pull downs, preacher bicep curls, triceps push downs. At my Transformation Center I like to teach people how to do the whole routine with just dumbbells and a bench as many of them workout at home after leaving my Transformation Camp. For those who workout at a commercial gym, they can choose different exercises as shown above. Some people like to change the exercises up every 4 to 6 weeks and that can help them stay mentally stimulated by the workouts and perhaps offer some physiological benefit as well. I stick with the same exercises shown in this blog month after month, and I continue to get excellent results. I keep my workouts very simple — the key for me is hitting a high level of intensity during the lifts.

+ People who have been successful with my 12-week programs over the years are those who take the time to think through and plan their workouts ahead of time. Below is an example exercise worksheet that I give people at my fitness center — it allows them to plan and record information about their workouts. They make notes before and after each workout. When their records show that they can consistently complete 10 reps of a certain weight with good form, I recommend they increase the weight approximately 5 lbs. for their next workout. Make a note of anything you can think of which you can do better for your next workout, and you’ll be constantly improving.

UBWO

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Bench Press

Starting Position: Sit on the edge of an incline bench. Pick up a dumbbell with each hand, place them on your thighs, and then one at a time position them at the base of your shoulders. Lean back, get firmly situated on the bench and you’re ready to go.

The Exercise: Press the weights up to a point over your upper chest and hold them there for a count of one. Then, inhale deeply as you lower the weights to the starting position. Hold the weights in the bottom position for a quick count of one, and then exhale as you drive them back up. Lock your elbows in the top position.

Tip 1: Don’t set your bench at too steep of an incline, or you’ll work your shoulders more than your chest. The incline should be about a 35 to 45 degree angle.

 Iron Cross Side Raise

FinalSide

Starting Position: Stand upright, with your feet about shoulder width apart and your arms at your sides. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing your hips.

The Exercise: Keeping your arms straight, lift the weights out and up to the sides until they are about level with your chin, and hold them there for a count of one. From this position, lower them slowly back to your sides. It’s important to keep your palms turned downward as you lift the dumbbells so your shoulders, rather than your biceps, do the work.

Tip 1: Don’t lean back and “swing” the weights up. Lift them straight out to your sides until they are almost directly out from your shoulders. In the top position it looks almost like a gymnast doing an iron cross on the rings.

Tip 2: Don’t lean your torso forward and bring the dumbbells down in front of your body. Instead let the weights down at your sides.

Dumbbell Rowing

Bent over row

Starting Position: With a dumbbell in each hand and your feet shoulder width apart, bend forward at the waist so your upper body is parallel with the floor. Let your arms hang straight down, palms facing each other. This is a great exercise for the latissimus dorsi muscles of the back as well as the rhomboid, trapezius, and rear deltoid. All the muscles in the legs have to work on this one as well.

The Exercise: Pull the dumbbells up, concentrating on getting the elbows as high as they can go. After you’ve rowed the dumbbells up as far as you can, slowly lower them to the starting position.

Tip 1: Resist the temptation to lift your torso up as you raise the dumbbells — try to keep your back flat and your torso parallel to the ground.

Standing Dumbbell Curls

Facetune-5

Starting Position: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, and your arms extended down at your sides. Hold the dumbbells with your palms facing forward, keep your chin up, chest out, and shoulders back.

The Exercise: Take a deep breath, then curl the weights up towards the shoulders in an  arc. Exhale as you lift the weights (on exertion). During the curl, keep your upper arms and torso still — there will be some movement but avoid swinging the weights up (a very common mistake). Let your biceps do the work. Then, lower the dumbbells slowly to the starting point.

Tip 1: Don’t lean back or forward as you lower the weights. This reduces the amount of work the biceps are getting.

Dumbbell Triceps Extensions

Facetune-4

Starting Point: Stand with your feet shoulder with apart and your knees slightly bent. Grasp one end of a dumbbell with both hands (palms up), and raise it above your head.

The Exercise: Bend your arms and slowly lower the dumbbell behind your head. Keep your elbows relatively close to your head and pointed straight up throughout the exercise to keep the focus on your triceps. Lower the weight until you feel a stretch in your triceps, hold for a count of one, then press the weight back up, following an arc so you don’t bonk the back of your head. Keep lifting until your arms are locked out and the dumbbell is again directly over your head.

Tip 1: Don’t hold the dumbbell like a sandwich. Place your palms so they face the inside end plate of the dumbbell, with your index fingers and thumbs touching.

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Notice: I’ll give detailed instruction on how to do the lower body workout this week here on my blog at http://www.BillPhillipsNews.com

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The 25-Minute Workout Which Burns Fat for 40 Hours!

August 5, 2014 by 8 Comments

40hr

Why Does High-Intensity-Interval-Training work so much better than old-fashioned cardio?

Forget about how many calories the cardio machines tell you that you are burning from your workout. The real measure of the exercise benefit is in how many calories your body burns AFTER the training is done!

In this chart, you see the results of a scientific study which measured the energy expenditure (calorie burning) during and after a HIIT workout vs. a regular effort workout (like jogging at a steady pace).

HIIT causes your body to burn more calories for 40 Hours After your workout. HIIT has been shown to help people lose twice as much bodyfat over 6 weeks of training (twice as much as people who did longer but average intensity workouts).

It was 15 years ago that I wrote Body-for-LIFE and taught people the ‘High-Point Training Method’ which is a form of HIIT. Today, more than a thousand scientific studies show it works best. Back then there were only a handful of studies and my suggestions of 20 to 30-minute workouts was criticized by the less informed ‘experts.’

HIIT is the BEST workout method for burning fat and also for improving heart health… and c’mon… EVERYONE can make time for 5-25 HIIT workouts!!

+++ See my specific High-Intensity-Interval Strength Training Workout video by clicking the link here: Bill Phillips 5-25 Upper Body Strength Training Workout

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Exercise is the Most Potent yet Underutilized Medicine

July 24, 2013 by 6 Comments

Exercise is Medicine—-As I See it… If exercise is medicine (and it is) then Personal Trainers are akin to Medical Practitioners in a way. I see a day not far into the future where the good work Personal Trainers do will be seen just as important as what most doctors do. In the future, we have to recognize that exercise is the prescription that millions of people need and Personal Trainers should become a legitimate part of our official Health-Care System. Exercise coaches, trainers, and motivators will be a big part of the overall solution to America’s health crisis. This Special Report/Blog explains why. ~Bill—-

Exercise is Medicine

Exercise is Medicine is the name of a program organized by a group of doctors and health care professionals which calls on physicians to assess and review each patient’s physical activity levels at every visit. Their mission, which I endorse and support 100%, is to make exercise a standard part of disease prevention and treatment in the United States. The group believes that doctors should prescribe exercise to their patients just as they would a life-saving medicine. Ultimately they see this leading to a paradigm shift in modern medicine, one that will lead to tremendous overall improvement in the public’s well-being and substantial long-term reductions in health care costs. Their recommendations support a growing body of evidence that working out does much more than burn calories and strengthen muscles.

A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (2005) revealed that consistent exercise can double survival rates of breast cancer patients. Researchers followed 3,000 women being treated for the disease and found that for those with hormone-responsive tumors, walking the equivalent of 3-5 hours per week at a moderate pace, cut the risk of dying from the disease in half compared to the sedentary women in the study. These findings confirm and extend previous scientific studies which show that exercise significantly strengthens the body’s immune system. Harvard Medical School reports that more than 60 studies in recent years make clear that women who exercise regularly can expect a 30% reduction in their chances of developing breast cancer to begin with.

Exercise is the best Medicine Researchers at Duke University studied people suffering from depression for 4 months and found that 60% of those who exercised for 30 minutes, 3 times a week, overcame the condition without using antidepressants which is about the same percentage rate as those who use medication only in their treatment of depression. And of course, exercise is not only a mood brightener, it produces dozens of other positive effects which antidepressant drugs simply do not.

There is now considerable evidence derived from hundreds of studies, with thousands of subjects, which prove that exercise is remarkably effective in relieving symptoms of depression and anxiety. The best results were shown to occur in vigorous (intense) exercise performed consistently. And the benefits continue as long as someone continues to work out.

Exercise not only helps resolve symptoms of depression and anxiety, but it also enhances self-esteem, produces more restful sleep, and helps people recover more quickly from adversity and better cope with social stress. I’m not basing these claims on a single study. They are supported by what’s called a ‘meta-analysis’ which is a report that essentially combines the findings of most, if not all, of the available research on this topic in the English language. The overall positive patterns of these studies make it remarkably clear that exercise plays an important role in promoting sound mental health and emotional well-being. It works for men and women, adolescents, adults, and senior citizens too.

A study by the California Department of Education, involving 954,000 students grades 5, 7 and 9, showed that the most healthy kids (the ones who scored highest on fitness tests and had lower levels of bodyfat) did twice as well on aptitude exams in reading and mathematics compared to the least fit kids. Harvard professor, John Ratey, M.D., writes, in his latest book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, that more physical fitness for students is a cure for not only unhealthy weight gain, but also the kids’ academic performance.

Additional research shows that consistent exercise protects us from the common cold, flu, and bacterial infections by elevating the body’s production and circulation of immune cells. Exercise has even been shown to strengthen people’s response to the influenza vaccine, making it more effective at keeping deadly viruses at bay. In addition, exercise boosts blood flow to the brain which helps it receive more oxygen and nutrients and it increases the energy of brain waves that are responsible for quick thinking, focus, creativity, and problem solving.

German researchers recently compared a group of athletes to others who were healthy non-smokers but not regular exercisers. The athletes had significantly less degradation in the strands of DNA at the tips of chromosomes called ‘telomeres.’

When telomeres begin to shorten, cells can no longer divide and they become inactive, a process associated with aging, cancer, and heart disease. The German study was published in the November 2009 edition of the Journal of The American Heart Association where it concluded physical activity has a profound anti-aging effect at the cellular mitochondria level.

Studies at Tufts University in Boston have demonstrated that even at age 92, moderate-resistance exercise, performed 3 times a week for 8 weeks, increases muscle strength by an average of 174%. This translates into a 48% increase in mobility and a significant reduction in fall risk.

Jack Lalanne at 71

Jack Lalanne worked out intensely most every day and lived 96 years! Exercise was his best medicine!

Another study, published in the journal Neurology, looked at 3,298 folks with an approximate average age of 70 years. Over a 9-year span, those who participated regularly in vigorous exercise (tennis, jogging, biking, swimming, weight lifting) were discovered to be 63% less likely to suffer a stroke compared with inactive senior citizens.

Exercise has been shown to both prevent and treat osteoporosis, help manage diabetes, reduce the risk of addiction relapse, slow premature aging of the skin, promote healthier digestion, reduce aches and pains, contribute to optimism and a positive mindset. What all this information points to is that exercise is not a silver bullet—it’s platinum.

The Price of Inactivity

The fact that such remarkable benefits come from simply adding a few hours of exercise to our weekly schedules begins to make clear how devastating the effects of inactivity actually are. You see, what exercise does is simply reverse the damage done by living a sedentary life. If exercise is a vaccine, as Dr. Sallis puts it, inactivity is akin to a deadly virus.

Medical experts now say inactivity poses as great a health risk as smoking. Let’s pause here for a moment to process that. Okay, what that means is if parents let their kids play video games and sit at the computer all day, it’s akin to handing them a pack of cigarettes. Yes or no… would you do that to your kids? And what about yourself?

Please realize that every week you don’t get up and move for a few hours (walking, weight lifting, jogging) takes you another step closer to heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, depression, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Again, I’m asking you to pause, take a deep breath and consider what this means in your life and the lives of those you know and care about. This next statistic is both stunning and sad: According to the Archives of Internal Medicine, more than 80 million U.S. adults don’t do any voluntary exercise at all. And we wonder why America, this great nation with an abundance of resources, technology, and scientific know-how, is dead last on the list of the health of modern countries.

Bill and Transformation Camp participant, Carolyn having fun working out! Carolyn lost 22 lbs of unhealthy weight in the 12 weeks following this photo! Good Job

Bill Phillips and Transformation Camp participant Carolyn Bray. She became 22 lbs lighter in the 12 weeks following this photo! Good Job Carolyn!

Making people aware of the reality of this situation can literally save lives. It’s true! It’s also true that if we can get this message out and get people moving, we can transform the nation from worst to first in health and fitness. We start by setting a positive example for our families and friends. We can ask them to participate with us—invite a buddy to the gym, take the kids to a park and kick off a friendly game of soccer, shoot baskets, go swimming or race in the backyard. Do something, anything, that gets the blood and oxygen pumping, lights up the brain and works the muscles!

On the one hand it seems too simple; how could working out or walking help change the nation? Yet when we look at the bigger picture and consider all the scientific evidence that we’ve reviewed so far, the impact of your leading by example and helping to spread the message makes a very real difference in the future of our society.

Add to this the devastating financial consequences: Last year it cost our country over $147 billion to take care of citizens who didn’t take care of themselves. How can there be true health care or financial reform without getting every man, woman and child that can participate in a few hours of weekly physical activity to do so? I think the only way that’s possible is to individually and collectively get up, get moving, exercise, be active and bring as many people with us as we possibly can!

Conclusion: Exercise is incredible medicine. I recommend you fill your Rx of it today! =)

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Bill Phillips Answers Your Health and Fitness Questions

July 22, 2013 by 17 Comments

QUESTION: I’m just making sure the deadline to start the challenge was extended to today. I hope so. I put my email in to follow this Bill Phillips Fitness News Blog to officially enter and I’m ready to start transforming my body and life! I’m in it to win it this time… for me finishing the 12 weeks and achieving my health goal is winning. I wouldn’t mind getting the $10,000 top prize also! =)

ANSWER: How exciting! You made it in just in time! Yes, by following this blog you are officially signed up and eligible to win the $10,000 top prize! Just get started today by taking your before photo (which I want you to hang onto for 12 weeks before you send it in — Click Here to see the Rules and Regulations for all the details).

Winners CertificateWhen you do complete all 12 weeks, I guarantee you will feel healthier and happier. And who knows… somebody’s going to get that $10,000 top prize… it really could be you! Don’t forget, everyone who finishes the Summer Challenge and sends in their before and after photos will receive an Official Certificate of Achievement, a Transformation-blue workout shirt, and a Challenge Finishers Honor Medal. (I always say that the best prize Challenge Finishers will get is a renewed healthy body! =)

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QUESTION: Bill, I have a lot of body fat to lose, is it ok to do cardio everyday along with the resistance training every other day?

ANSWER: Thank you for your question. You can do more cardio of course but I usually don’t recommend it. Over the past couple decades, what I have found works best is to keep the workouts brief but intense and most of all, CONSISTENT. I like to see people alternating days of weight training with days of cardio. For example, weight training on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and cardio on Tuesday, and Thursday with the Saturday cardio workout being optional.

Intense Interval Exercise stimulates the metabolism by positively affecting cellular mitochondria energy production. This means that your body is burning more stored fat all day long and not just during the workout. Intense Exercise is powerful medicine and too much is akin to overdose — it can actually backfire and slow the metabolism. However, even the best exercise methods won’t make up for bad nutrition. It is imperative that we exercise AND eat right.

I have a friend, George, who has become 135 pounds lighter over the last year. He works out at my Transformation Center in Colorado and follows my 5/25 program to the T — he gets in 25 minutes of intense exercise, 5 days a week. He has 3 Right Light nutrition shakes a day and 2 or 3 portion-controlled Eating for Life meals.

Incredible before to after photos

George is 135 pounds lighter — he works out 25 minutes a day!

George’s body and life transformation is stunning because he did the right things very consistently for an entire year. He is stronger and healthier and has burned off 135 pounds, as I mentioned above. It seems like so much weight but when you get down to it, it’s just about 11 pounds per month. You don’t have to starve yourself or exercise for hours a day to trim off 11 pounds of unhealthy weight each month. I’m a big proponent of a balanced, practical approach.

Big progress is simply little progress compounded over time. It’s more important that your workouts are consistent than long. Whatever you do, just promise me you’ll combine exercise and eating right, and you’ll stick with it long enough to reach your goals and then some. You can do it!

~Bill Phillips

P.S. You can read my blog about George’s stunning transformation by clicking here.

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QUESTION: Which is better… the Body-for-Life weight-lifting routine, or your new 5/25 workout? I’m 46 years old and I want to lose 30 to 40 pounds of fat while getting my muscle definition back.

ANSWER: Both routines will give you a great workout. Both will help build muscle.

My newer version of the Body-For-LIFE free-weight workout is called 5/25 and it is the first program I’ve developed which is completely based on the science of High-Intensity Interval Strength Training.

Intense Interval Training has been proven in scientific studies to be the most effective exercise method when it comes to preventing heart disease, preventing stroke, accelerating the burning of bodyfat, and most important of all (in my opinion), increasing the size, number, and energy production of cellular mitochondria which is THE key to longevity. At age 48, my big reasons for working out are to prevent disease and keep my body as young, strong, and lean as possible — 5/25 High-Intensity Interval Strength Training helps me accomplish all that in one workout.

Bill Working Out

At Age 48, 5/25 Training Works Great for Me! ~Bill

Also, 5/25 works for me because I need a training method that hits the muscles hard but is easy on my tendons and ligaments. With 5/25 I can use less weight and still blast the muscles without injury. With BFL workouts I can lift quite a bit more weight  (because of the rest between sets) and that’s not necessarily a good thing for me because I’m just strong enough to damage some nagging shoulder and knee tendon injuries that I’ve recovered from.

Learn more about 5/25 Training by reading my blog about it here on Bill Phillips Fitness News — just Click Here to go there! =)

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QUESTION: Hi Bill, I started the challenge Monday and am super excited. I read your nutrition blog that showed your meal plans for a day and that helped me a lot. What are your thoughts on diet soda and alcohol? Complete no-no’s or moderation? Thanks for everything!

ANSWER: With nutrition, it is what we do most of the time, not some of the time, that shapes us. So drinking a diet soda from time to time (like I do) isn’t going to make or break your fitness.

Regarding alcohol, I use to drink on the weekends when I was in my 30’s and I stayed in really good shape virtually all decade. But once I got in my 40’s, my body’s response to alcohol changed — I felt awful the next day and drinking totally threw off my appetite for healthy foods. I stopped drinking alcohol  6 years ago and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Nowadays, I just don’t crave it or want it. I’ve tried drinking beer and wine again a handful of times over the years and each time it just made me feel unhealthy. I can’t figure out how I ever enjoyed it, but back when I was younger, I could get away with it somehow.

Anyways, there are some people who can have a beer or a glass of wine somewhat regularly, and do just great with their fitness transformations. More often than not, what I see is people who have a group of unhealthy habits which are often triggered by drinking and so I suggest that people who want to lose weight and get in shape at least consider giving up beer and alcohol for a few weeks and see how they feel. You can always go back to it if it doesn’t feel right for you, or just enjoy your drinks on Free Day (that one day a week you don’t have to workout or follow any rules).

All that being said, ultimately, what we’re trying to create here is a healthy, realistic, enjoyable new lifestyle for YOU. The key to long-term success is to like your new, healthy habits better than the old ones; in fact, if you don’t like them better, odds are, you’ll go back to your old patterns and way of living. ~Bill

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QUESTION:  Hey Bill, quick question about STRONGEVITY Rx. I’m a woman who is on the way to becoming 50 pounds lighter and healthier. I’ve been taking 1 serving a day for a week now and I’m experiencing crazy amounts of energy during my workouts. Since I saw you at Transformation Camp, I am 30 pounds lighter. Now I’ve set a new 12-week goal of losing 20 more pounds of unhealthy weight. This past week though, my scale hasn’t moved. I’m eating 4 Right Light nutrition shakes, 1 serving of STRONGEVITY Rx, and 2 Eating for Life meals each day. I’m also following your 5/25 workouts and drinking 10+ glasses of water per day. I heard someone say that STRONGEVITY Rx might interfere with my weight loss. Does that make sense? Should I be using STRONGEVITY Rx while I’m trying to get rid of this next 20 pounds?

ANSWER: First thing’s first — You are doing incredibly well — 30 pounds lighter in just three and a half months is excellent progress! You’re losing the bodyfat, strengthening the muscles, and literally re-sculpting your body — not just losing weight. Congratulations!

STRONGEVITY RxRegarding STRONGEVITY Rx, we know it is a scientific truth that it will absolutely not cause a gain of bodyfat; in fact, studies show that biologically active cholecalciferol (Vit-D3) which is in STRONGEVITY Rx, increases the rate at which the body will burn stored fat as fuel.

The Creatine and CoQ10 combination in STRONGEVITY Rx , after the 4 to 6 week mark, will noticeably increase your metabolism (an increase in metabolism is caused by increased energy production by the cellular mitochondria). The ingredients I mentioned here, as well as L-Glutamine, do initially create a cell hydrating/cell-volumizing effect, and that’s a good thing! It means that there is more energy within the cell and even a slight increase in cytoplasm which, when we multiply times 75 trillion cells in the body, can add up to an initial kilogram increase in lean body mass for women (and up to 3 kg for men because of our higher number of mitochondria-rich muscle cells).

The increase in cellular hydration plateaus after the STRONGEVITY Rx nutrients have reached saturation levels within each cell. That typically happens within 2 weeks. So, this may be some of what you’re feeling. Keep in mind that it is a healthy process even though you might not see the scale go down for a week or two. The increase in lean body mass and cellular energy will kick your metabolism up a notch and allow you to train with even more intensity during your interval workouts, this will even further increase your metabolic rate, which of course, is also a good thing!

One thing I do want to suggest though… let’s try cutting back to three nutrition shakes a day for the next week and see how that feels. I’d like to see your daily meal plan consist of 3 nutrition shakes, 1 serving of STRONGEVITY Rx, and 2 protein and carbohydrate balanced, portion controlled meals. I think this might be just right for you at this point in your transformation.

Lastly, make sure you’re giving yourself credit for the incredible progress you’ve made so far. I guarantee that if you keep working hard and remain consistent, you WILL reach your next 12 week goal in championship style!

~Bill Phillips

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If you like the information in this blog and want to receive, by email, my daily updates, tips, and news about fitness, please sign up to follow my blog right here at www.BillPhillipsNews.com — it’s completely FREE!

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This is the Exact Workout I did Today!

June 5, 2013 by 109 Comments

New Method: High-Intensity Interval Strength Training

Exercise is the most incredible medicine that I know of. It not only helps us get rid of unhealthy body weight and build more shapely muscles, it significantly decreases our risk of most all preventable diseases including: diabetes, depression, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people in America don’t do any ‘voluntary’ exercise at all (by voluntary, I mean they don’t do any extra physical activity outside of what they have to do for work or what’s required in just completing everyday activities). And of course, this is one of the big reasons why nearly 7 out of 10 people in our country are suffering from overweight/obesity and the preventable ailments which come along with it.

What I’ve discovered is that many people who have considered adding exercise to their lifestyle haven’t primarily because they believe the myth that to get good results, you have to exercise for hours a day. This is a big barrier for millions of people and it shouldn’t be, because the fact is we can all experience incredible benefits from working out for just 25 minutes a day; that is, if we follow the scientifically proven Intense Interval methods which dictate that QUALITY matters more than QUANTITY when it comes to exercise.

Show Me Don’t Tell Me (I will, I will! =)

Today I did the exact workout shown in this video below. It works, big time! Your muscles get stronger, you burn fat faster because your metabolism goes up (for as much as 30 to 40 hours after your workout), your cardio-pulmonary health improves, your heart gets healthier, your brain gets more energy, and your natural growth hormone (GH) levels go up 10 fold (for hours after your intense workout).

The keys to tapping into all these benefits and more is to do weight lifting in intense intervals where we work hard for a couple minutes then rest two minutes, then work, rest, work, rest, and work, rest again. We want to get our heart rate up to 90% to 95% of our estimated cardiac maximum (220 minus our age: for me that means I am aiming for about 160 heart beats per minutes at the end of my work sets–then I rest for a couple minutes until my pulse comes down to about 120).

You’ll notice in this exercise demonstration video that I do one set right after the other, with only maybe 10-15 seconds between each. After I complete 10 repetitions of all 5 exercises, I wait a couple minutes as I mentioned above (this is just enough time for a training partner to go through their 5 sets if you’re working out with somebody) and then I repeat all 5 exercises for a total of 5 times. I finished this workout in less than a half hour today and I was toast!

With this ‘5-25 Intense Interval Strength Training’ workout I can stick with the same weight for all 5 sets (as opposed to ‘pyramiding’ or increasing weight for each set as we did with Body-for-LIFE). The way 5-25 is designed we reach ‘progressive resistance overload’ (needed for positive muscle adaptations) through fatiguing the muscles more with each set. By your 5th set of 10 reps for each muscle group you will be toast too and that is good. =)  Give it a try and let me know how you like it! In my next blog I’ll show you how I work lower body and then I’ll discuss what’s new with High Intensity Interval Aerobic Training.

 

Upper Body Workout (as shown in video)

  1. Incline Chest Press — 10 Reps
  2. Iron-Cross Shoulder Raises — 10 Reps
  3. Dumbbell Lat Rows — 10 Reps
  4. Biceps Curls — 10 Reps
  5. Triceps Extension — 10 Reps
    * Rest two minutes then repeat all 5 exercises, a total of 5 times
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