Inspirational News, Views, and Scientific Facts about Health and Fitness
Body-for-LIFE author Bill Phillips has a New Online Program
Transformation Camp Brings Together People from All Walks of Life to Get Healthy!
This is a message especially for people who have had success with my Body-for-LIFE program in the past, but over the years, have gotten off track and drifted towards ‘before picture’ condition again.
It’s a message for people who want to get back on track but need some extra help to regain the focus, drive, and motivation it takes to succeed.
This is also a message for people who have struggled to lose weight and get fit on their own but who aren’t ready to give up yet. It’s for those who are ready to give themselves a second chance and regain the strong, energetic, confident feeling we enjoy when we lose the fat, build the muscle, and get in great shape.
If that sounds like you, I’m inviting you to join me, in person, at my Transformation Center in Golden, Colorado for a 3-day crash course and motivational rally which I call “Transformation Camp.” This exciting and life-changing event is scheduled for August 9, 10, 11.
In previous Camps, we’ve had participants come from across North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and even Asia to experience this inspirational, educational, and motivational weekend. People from all walks of life — doctors, lawyers, nurses, military officers, firemen, business owners, moms, merchants, and marines — have attended my Transformation Fitness Camp and gone on to make incredible changes in their bodies and lives. You can be the next one to get back on track — to breakout of the rut and truly transform your health and renew your energy for life.
We have room for just 3 more participants in our August 9, 10, 11 Camp and I am hoping you will be one of them. At camp, I’ll work with you personally to develop a nutrition, supplementation, and exercise plan that is designed just for you. I’ll help you regain your focus and empower your mindset. I’ll help you get ‘unstuck’ and back on track. Then, I’ll give you the secrets to stay on track so you can live a healthier, happier, longer life!
If you’re overweight, over age 40, and if you have a family history of heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, you can’t afford not to attend Transformation Camp — it could literally save your life. Your investment in the 3-day Transformation Camp, where you will work with me personally, is only $1,495. This includes over 20 hours of time with me and my Team and 12 weeks of ongoing support to help you stay on track and achieve breakthrough results. We provide all your healthy meals during the Camp, and you’ll be my guest for a delicious, nutritious dinner out both Friday and Saturday night. We’ll get to know each other, have a lot of fun, and also do some serious work over the weekend, both physically and mentally.
This is an investment in YOU and I guarantee you’ll be glad you stopped procrastinating, stopped waiting for ‘someday’ to get healthy again, and finally took the bull by the horns to regain control of your body and life. You CAN get back on track — NOW IS THE TIME. Don’t put it off another day; after all, it’s YOUR LIFE we’re talking about here… how much is that worth to you, your loved ones, and the people who count on you? (It’s worth a heck of a lot more than $1,495 I’ll tell you that much!)
Please, consider my sincere invitation carefully. I really mean it when I say these 3 days, where we focus just on you, your health, and your future, could absolutely change your quality and quantity of life. It’s already done that for many of our past Camp participants and I promise, it will work for you too. You just need to sign up, get here, and let me and my Team take care of you for 3 days. You will head home from Camp already transformed and renewed in your mind… from there, it’s simple… follow the specific plan of action I give you and in 12 weeks, your body will catch up.
Think about it… why wait another moment to make the decision to get back on track and feel great again? Take action now — the moment you do, you’ll already start to feel a little more healthy and a little more excited about your life. Here’s what you do: send me an email at Bill@Transformation.com and let me know YOU’RE IN — that you want to reserve one of these last 3 spots available for the August 9, 10, 11 Transformation Camp here in Golden, Colorado. Please include your phone number so we can contact you to answer any questions you might have and finalize your reservation.
It would be an honor for me to help you get back on track and transform your body and life. I look forward to meeting you in person and getting started.
Sincerely,
Bill Phillips
P.S. Please Click Here to watch the Transformation Camp video and learn more about my 3-day event. Then write to me at Bill@Transformation.com to sign up. (If by chance you can’t make it to our August 9, 10, 11 Camp, please consider joining me for our September 13, 14, 15 event.)
P.P.S. We have had several dozen physicians attend Transformation Camp and go on to transform their own health. Below the video is a special message from one of them — you will enjoy the doctor’s enthusiasm!=)
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Doctor Recommends Transformation Camp
“Friends: If you are on the fence about attending Transformation Camp, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is the single best thing I have ever spent time and money on, both for myself and for the people in my life. I made a spur of the moment decision to attend camp and have not looked back for a second. I have lost over 60 pounds, six sizes, and regained my health. My blood pressure was dangerously high; it’s now 110/75 without medication. I had daily, disabling back pain; I rarely have pain any more. Best of all, I am inspiring friends and family with my transformation to seek a way to recover their own health. I am at the lowest weight and best health since my 20’s- and I am 52 now.”
“Bill and his cast of wonderful staff gave me the tools to get my act together, get my head out of the sand (and other places), and put my mind and body to work. Thank you to all of you at T-camp for giving me the courage to do this. Please do register for camp if you are looking for a path back to health and fitness with the support of an incredible, knowledgeable, motivating team.”
Dr. Louise Thurman, MD, MPH
—-Write to Bill@Transformation.com to make your reservation now—-
—-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 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.
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 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 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 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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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 at www.BillPhillipsNews.com – it’s FREE!
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Here are some of my other blogs that can help you successfully transform:
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).
When 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.
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.
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!
Regarding 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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Here are some of my other blogs that can help you successfully transform:
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)
Bill Phillips Fitness News 