No time, no gym access, no problem

Here, I will give you a workout routine I call “Metabolic Boost Workout”. I designed this exercise routine to be equipment free, meaning you can do it anywhere and anytime. All you need is space 3 meters wide and time at least 15 minutes long. That is not too much to ask, is it?

Therefore, this is the workout for you when you are traveling or when you are EXTREMELY busy until you don’t have time to go to gym. You can do it in your own hotel room. Or in situation where you don’t have access to gym, you can always do this in your own home. So now, there is no more excuse not to workout, isn’t there?

WAIT! It gets even simpler and more convenient for you.

To make it even more flexible, the duration of the workout can be adjusted according to your preference. But I personally recommend at least 15 minutes to really make this workout effective.

Unlike weight training, which places great demand on your muscle and thus, requires complete recovery before doing it again, this workout does not place such demand on your muscle. BUT this workout is promised to be as intense as weight training if you really follow it closely. So, you can include this workout on your non-weight training day or in between your weight training days.

Here is the structure of the Metabolic Boost Workout:

Stationary running with your thigh lifted high (30 counts each leg)
Basketball step slide with hand touches the ground on each side (15 counts each side)
Mountain climbers (15 counts each side)
Jumping Jack (15 counts)
Y-squat (15 counts)
Push-up (15 counts)

Just keep doing these 6 exercises as quickly as possible and repeatedly without rest (or as little rest as possible) in between for your designated workout duration. I usually can do this for 7 times in 20 minutes and at the end, I find myself gasping for air and catching my breath.

When you do this workout correctly without any rest in between, you should find this workout very intense. You will find your heart pumping crazily and your lungs insanely demanding for air. Consequently, this will boost up your metabolism that might have dropped due to calorie deficit in your diet.

So, not only this workout will burn fat during the actual workout, it will also promote fat burning after the workout. All this is achieved without any equipment or trouble (can do it anywhere, anytime for FREE) in as quickly as 15 minutes.

Even more, this workout is good to increase your fitness and conditioning level after some time off from gym or weight training, after or during long holiday, or even after sickness. I personally always do this workout 3-5 times during the first week after my long absence from gym to regain my conditioning level and prepare me for the weight training. And it NEVER FAILS to do so.

Go ahead and give it a shot. Let me know how it turns out. If it does not make you gasping for air at the end of 15 minutes, it is either you take too much rests in between exercises, you don’t do it full speed, or you are a robot.

Final words before you start doing this: drink a lot of water and good luck. You’re definitely gonna need them both.

Tobias Kananggar Ganda
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

EFA Balance and its effects

So now you know why you should NEVER choose eggs high in omega-6, but instead choose those high in omega-3 such as kampong chicken eggs (see “Confused about eggs? This might be the answer”). The reason is because we generally, or I can say certainly, have had MORE than enough omega-6 fatty acids and lack of omega-3 fatty acids. The ratio between the two, which should be balance 1:1, can go as crazy as 1:20 with omega-6 is the big 2 0, thanks mostly to processed foods and hydrogenated oils.

Now, why do we have to maintain balance between those 2 essential fatty acids? What are the consequences if it is imbalance and what are the benefits if it is balance? OK slow down. Let us start with, what is omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid?

Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are actually considered as polyunsaturated fats. They are commonly called essential fatty acids (EFA). The reason they are called “essential” is because our bodies need them SO BADLY up to the point that we can’t function well without them but in the same time, our bodies can’t produce them internally. Therefore, the only source of these essential nutrients is through our diet.

But how much can your diet provide them? How balance is your diet as the source of omega-3 and omega-6? Is your diet more into omega-3? Less likely if you really live in modern world. Is your diet more into omega-6 instead? ALMOST CERTAINLY YES.

What happen when these 2 EFA are not in balance? To be specific, what happen if the omega-6 and omega-3 ratio is too high (10:1 to 20:1)? A LOT OF HEALTH PROBLEM!!

Too much of omega-6 causes inflammation in our bodies, specifically arteries. This arterial inflammation is associated with construction of arterial clots. What happen when your arteries are full with clots? HEART ATTACK AND STROKE!! (to know how these arterial clots are formed, see ”Cholesterol, villain or friend?”)

Not just that, too much omega-6 intake for long period of time will cause insulin resistance. Consequently, your insulin is less effective in controlling the blood sugar level. So, your body needs to produce more insulin to perform at the same level of effectiveness. And here is the worst part. Insulin, of course, has fat storage nature in your body. Guess what happen next? BELLY FAT STARTS TO PILE UP and OBESITY IS COMING.

On the other hand, balance ratio of these 2 will protect you from heart problem, hypertension, and cancer. It will also increase the strength of your immune system as in such balance, your internal inflammation is greatly reduced and as a result, less demand on your immune system. WAIT IT GETS BETTER, the balance ratio also helps you to LOSE FAT and BE LEAN because in such condition, your metabolism will be at its best and thus, your body is less likely to store fat.

I guess those reasons above should have made you aware and motivated to balance the 2 EFAs. But how do you increase the intake of omega-3 and reduce the intake of omega-6?

To reduce the intake of omega-6 is simple. Just avoid processed food as well as hydrogenated oils. For cooking, use extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil instead.

To increase omega-3 content in your diet, you can increase you fatty fish intake such as mackerel, tuna, and salmon but be careful about the mercury content though. Nuts, beans, and flaxseed are also good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Other seafood such as shrimp, clams, and oyster also offers decent amount of omega-3, but again, be careful about the mercury content.

Final question, do you think it is better to balance the ratio NOW OR LATER after you have a problem with heart, hypertension, or obesity? It is your call. I think both you and I know the answer.

Till then, balance it and stay away from road to obesity, but instead, stay on the road to six pack.

Tobias Kananggar Ganda
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

Confused about eggs? This might be the answer

Have you ever wondered why there are many kinds of eggs at grocery stores? Have you ever been confused on which egg brand to choose? Well, I am not surprised.

With so many egg brands nowadays claiming that theirs is superior among the others, it’s not hard to see why so many people are confused now. One brand claims theirs has higher omega-3. Another one claims theirs has higher omega-6. Another claims less cholesterol level. To make things more complicated, there are regular chicken eggs and kampong chicken eggs, which are usually brighter in color and smaller. Basically, you are faced by choices you do not know how to choose. It is not your fault though.

The food industry has gone wild that everyone can make claims on his own without any proof. Even worse, these claims, not only complicate things, but also allow them to increase the price. Just compare normal eggs without any special claim with the one that has lower cholesterol and you will know how big the price difference is.

So let me try to ease you burden in choosing your food, in this case eggs. Here we go. Lower cholesterol egg? Do you need it? NOPE. You don’t really need it UNLESS you have health history related to hypertension, heart attack, and stroke. If you don’t have any of those and you eat healthy, you don’t need to worry so much about cholesterol (see “Cholesterol, FRIEND or VILLAIN?”)

Egg with higher omega-6? HELL NO. It’s a big NO for this. Obviously, people who make this claim for their eggs really want to ruin their business or simply, they really don’t know anything about food, nutrition, and what people nowadays need from their food. If I happened to meet the people making this claim, I would say, “C’mon people. Don’t you know anything at all?? WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE OMEGA-6 FROM EGGS OK??”. Yes I am being very emotional now talking about this because it is just SO DUMB (probably the DUMBEST THING TO DO) to offer people more omega-6, while actually, our modern diet has already offered MUCH MORE, I mean MUCH MUCH MORE OF THAT (can be as much as 6 TIMES THE AMOUNT WE NEED). So next time you come across with this kind of eggs, you know what to do.

It leaves us with kampong chicken egg and higher omega-3 eggs. These are the type of eggs you want to put in your grocery basket. As I said, we don’t need anymore omega-6, but WE DO NEED A LOT OF OMEGA-3 to balance out our omega-6 intake. Ideally, the ratio between omega-3 and omega-6 in our diet should be 1:1 or 1:3 the most (see “EFA Balance and the Consequences” for more on the omega-3:omega-6 balance). But thanks to processed foods and hydrogenated oils, the ratio has now become as crazy as 1:20 in extreme cases according to Dr. Gabe Mirkin, no exaggerating here. So, you know what to do, increase intake of omega-3 and reduce intake of omega-6 from processed food/oil.

I generally prefer kampong chicken eggs than higher omega-3 eggs. Higher omega-3 eggs are produced by a carefully constructed diet on the chicken. However, kampong chicken eggs are produced by a natural diet on the chicken. In this case, the chicken is let to roam free and eat its own natural diet, including worms and bugs that are seldom in the chicken farm diet. So, the best choice for eggs is kampong chicken eggs and if this is not available, the second best choice is higher omega-3 eggs.

So, there you go. You should have better idea now how to choose your eggs to increase you omega-3 intake and balance your omega-3:omega-6 ratio. More on why this ratio has to be balance on another article.

Till then, don’t get lost in your grocery store because when it comes to eggs, you know what to do.

Tobias Kananggar Ganda
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

Still can't lose the belly fat? This might be the reason

We all have stressful lives. We know that. But at the same times, we need some amount of stress in our lives. Otherwise, our lives will be boring as hell. Also, we will have low motivation in lives and thus, cannot fulfill our true potential completely.

However, too much stress in your life can be detrimental to your health. I believe you should know this. I cannot be wrong about this. BUT, what most people don’t know is how stress degrades their health. Even more people don’t know that stress can be the reason your body keeps holding to that stubborn belly fat.

I strongly believe you know that stress contributes to high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease. AND THIS IS TRUE. Here is what actually happens. When your stress level goes up, more free radical compounds are formed in your body. Just as I said in “Cholesterol, VILLAIN or FRIEND?”, these compounds create inflammation within your body, particularly on arterial blood vessels. Consequently, this will require the cholesterol to action as a “band-aid” or a healing substance to cover and heal the inflammation (which also means it gets deposited on arterial blood vessel walls). Finally, this will cause a heart problem and hypertension. Again, don’t blame the cholesterol here, it just does what it does best, healing the inflamed arterial blood vessels.

The one thing to blame here is the formation of free-radical compound, which is caused by many factors, such as STRESS. So, that is one reason why you should limit your stress level. If one reason is not enough you, here is another one. STRESS MAKES YOU FAT, or at least, STRESS PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING LEAN AND/OR MUSCULAR.

Here is what happens when you have a high level of stress (and this is what most people don’t know, so your are privileged to discover this). High level of stress increases the production of, so called, “fat-storing” hormone, Cortisol, in our bodies. This hormone promotes fat storing in the body (which is not what we want to get lean and lose fat, right?).

There is a scientific explanation regarding this “behavior”. In the past, most stress our ancestors had was due to lack of food. Therefore, when they got stressed, their bodies naturally stored more fat by producing more Cortisol hormone, just in case they could not find any more food for a long time. Since we are their descendants and we belong to the same evolution line as them, we have inherited this behavior, although in our case, lacking of food is not the source of our stress for most of the time.

Even worse, not only this hormone promotes fat storing, it also creates “catabolic” environment in your body. Catabolic environment promotes muscle break down and prevents muscle building. Again, there is logic behind this.

Like I said in “How many crunches/sit ups per day is the best -> NOT IMPORTANT”, muscles are the most energy-inefficient to maintain. They require A LOT of energy to maintain. Since Cortisol is produced primarily because the body thinks there is a scarcity of energy (food), it promotes “Catabolic” environment in the body which will cause more muscles to be broken down and make the body more “energy-efficient”.

So, not only that stress causes us to store more fat, it also causes us to lose muscles. Since we lose muscles, we will store even more fat because we lose our fat-burning/calorie-burning machine in our bodies. This will soon become sick cycle.

Therefore, control your stress level. If you feel your work has already given you enough stress or you are stuck somewhere in your work, just stop for a while. Take a walk and relax, do something else for a while. Keep your mind off the work. Then after some time, go back to your desk and start working again with fresh and clear mind. And even better, sometimes, you can actually work more productively when you are relaxed and out of stress and more often than not, once your mind is fresh and clear, you can find that the problem you were stuck with before is actually simple and easy to solve. The key here is just to KNOW WHEN TO STOP, when things already get “TOO HOT TO HANDLE”

That is what often happens to me. Aside from working as a Personal Trainer and Sport Nutritionist, I also work as a full-time software engineer. As a software engineer, the primary task involves programming, which can be VERY VERY stressful when you find some problems in your code/script/program and you don’t know where the problems are (even one single problem is STRESSFUL ENOUGH). You have done everything you can think of but the problems are still there. You are stuck with them. But here is what I do. I say to myself, “OK. It’s time to stop now. This is getting out of hand. Probably, I just should not solve it now. Let’s stop, and do something else.” After that, I take walk (to the toilet most of the time), take some water, go back, try to do other office works (Quite hectic, isn’t it? I have more than one project to deal with sometimes). Once I feel ready, I go back to the “problematic” code and somehow, everything looks clearer and now I can see the problems and solve it.

So, are you stressed out right now? If you are, have courage to say, “OK. It’s time to stop. Let’s do something else.” That is where most people have trouble with, they can’t stop, they don’t know how to stop, and they don’t know when to stop.

Till next newsletter, keep working hard (at office and gym), BUT DON’T GET STRESSED OUT, instead, ENJOY LIFE.

TobiasKG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

My Dirty Little Secret -> I CHEAT in my DIET

Many people think of diet as a misery or as equal to living in starvation. Even “BETTER”, many people think, to be successful in diet, you have to suffer. The more you suffer the more you will gain from your diet. After all, no pain no gain right? Yeah, right (You should see the smirk on my face when I am writing, “Yeah, right”)

To begin with, diet means “controlled food intake/eating”. It does not mean “eating very little/less than enough” until you starve all the time.

Here is another fact. The wrong conception and mindset I mentioned above is the number one reason why most people give up their controlled diet within the first 3 months. After 3 months enduring starvation and suffering, finally they have had enough pain and decided to quit. Once they quit, their body weights and fats will skyrocket since their bodies are in starvation mode. In starvation mode, your body thinks that food is scarce. Therefore, it will always break down muscles since muscle requires a lot of energy (from food of course) to maintain. Even worse, it will store everything you eat into fat to make sure it has enough stored energy in case “no food is available anymore”. That is what your body thinks if you live in starvation for too long. So, I hope I make it clear here that diet is not equal to be starving all the time, NOT EVEN CLOSE.

That is about “diet is not equal to living in starvation”. How about diet is a misery? Of course when you implement “diet” as “eating very little/less than enough or live in starvation”, diet is a misery. But if your diet is implemented as controlled food intake/eating, it is not as miserable. I have been dieting for more than half a year and I enjoy every second of it. I don’t feel miserable. I don’t think of it as a burden, pain, suffering, or anything like that. I enjoy it. BUT I do feel bored sometimes. I do want to eat food that is different from the one I have in my diet schedule/list. I want to go “wild” sometimes and eat whatever I want without any restrictions. Sometimes, I just want to go away from all the restrictions from my diet and eat “freely”

You might ask, “You feel bored and you continue doing it every day. You deny yourself every day. That is misery right?” This one, I would have to say yes. Just imagine yourself doing a very boring thing everyday again and again for the rest of your life or restricting yourself from doing what you love for the rest of your life. That is misery. BUT, I DO HAVE THE SOLUTION.

Here is my dirty little secret. I CHEAT in my diet. Even “WORSE”, I cheat regularly, once every week. How do I cheat? For one day every week, I allow myself to eat whatever I want in any amount I want as long as it is still healthy food (Junk foods and trans-fat loaded foods are not included here). During my cheat days, I usually overload myself on Carbs such as bread, ice cream, pure chocolate, and rice. I can eat them in any amount I want.

Let me tell you. This is better than just satisfying your cravings and hunger. This also boosts your metabolism, which means more fat will be burned in the subsequent days. When you control your food intake, your body will adjust its metabolism. Cheat day is there to keep your metabolism high. By overloading once in a while, your body metabolism will be maintained at high level. This is what you want to lose fat and improve muscle-building process. But the best part is, it satisfies your cravings for food you don’t normally take during normal days. So, it is a win-win situation, for your cravings and your body-building effort.

So don’t worry, go and cheat once in a while, but remember, stick to the whole and healthy food, and stay away from that junk food corner filled with trans fats.

Till next newsletter, enjoy your diet.

Tobias KG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

HARD is not ENOUGH. You've GOT TO BE SMART

Every time I go to any gym or fitness centre, I can always find someone who is working hard. Every time I go there at the same time, definitely I find the same guy busting his butt. Sometimes even I can find two or three guys working hard in there every time I go to the gym. Every time here does NOT MEAN everyday. I DO NOT go to the gym everyday. Probably, those guys do, that is why I will always meet them every time I am there (which is not everyday).

Those guys are working hard. I admire their determinations and willingness. I always find them pumping BIG and HUGE iron plates up and down. But one thing in common from those guys. THEIR BODIES DO NOT SHOW RESULTS. Quite sad isn’t it? They work hard, probably everyday, but they do not get the results (be it muscle growth or fat loss) they “deserve”. Yes, it is sad, but here is the fact. When it comes to build muscle or lose fat, WORKING HARD is NOT ENOUGH. You have got to be WORKING SMART TOO. That is the fact.

I worked hard for one a half years at the school’s gym but yet I was just still a skinny guy. Nobody believed that I worked hard at the gym EVERYDAY, nobody believed that I was strong, because my body did not show it. Finally, I decided to WORK HARD AND SMART.

Then I realized that I MUST NOT workout EVERYDAY. This will DEFINITELY lead to OVERTRAINING, unless you are Kryptonian like Clark Kent, the SUPERMAN. In overtrained state, your body WILL NOT BUILD MUSCLE. Even worse, your body will lose its ability to build muscle optimally, which means your muscle growth will be slower than ever. That means, your body will not be able to replace the muscles broken down during your EVERYDAY workout (which means your muscle mass will decrease EVERYDAY). This will affect your strength growth but more importantly, you lose your fat burning machine (see my previous notes, “How many crunches/sit-ups per day is the best?? -> NOT IMPORTANT”) and as a result, you will gain fat more easily. Also, tons and tons of other problems. I think that’s enough to say that OVERTRAIN is bad and must be avoided. Therefore, WORK SMART is needed in addition to WORK HARD.

So now, how to work smart in building muscle and lose fat? First, before you go back to the gym and start breaking down your muscle, you have to make sure that you have recovered from the last workout. How do you know that? Pay attention to your intensity (exercise tempo, resting/workout duration, weights you use). If your resting/workout duration is longer than the previous workout while in fact you do the same movement with same number of sets and reps and same weights, then you might be on the brink of overtraining. If you can’t increase your workout intensity two times in a row, you might want to take a 3-4 days off. The rule here is simple. Try to improve your intensity in each workout. If you fail twice in a row, then take an additional day off.

Generally, for most people, 48-hour recovery time is enough to recover from 45-60 mins high-intensity weight exercise (For workout with duration 2 hours and above, do not need to worry about this standard. You definitely will experience OVERTRAIN, unless you are using STEROID) This recovery time can be longer/shorter depends on your fitness level, nutrition/diet, and sleep. If you don’t have enough sleep (7-8 hours) during your recovery time, it might be good to add another day off. If you do not eat enough or your diet quality is not high enough, your recovery pace will be slower.

This way, your body will start showing results and people will start asking you if you workout everyday. Only this time, the answer is, HELL NO.

So now, let’s go to the gym fully recovered and start pumping up those iron plates. Only this time, do it smartly.

Till the next newsletter, BE HARD, AND BE SMART.

Tobias KG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

Stronger OR Quicker? How about BOTH???

I find that most people have phobia regarding building muscle because they think it will make them bigger and bulkier, but also slower and less athletic. The first question in their minds usually is, “Is getting bigger going to make me slow and less athletic?” Well, I don’t blame you if you have the same question in your mind. I too had such question before I started bulking up myself. I can say the answer to THE QUESTION is “YES” and “NO”

Here is my story. I play basketball and volleyball. You know how much these 2 sports require jumping ability. Also, in volleyball/ basketball court, I am not a tall guy. I am an average joe (172cm, 5 ft. 7 in.). My “disability” plus the nature of the sports require me to be quicker and be able to jump higher than those taller than me. Otherwise, I won’t be a factor at all. So, I shape my playing style according to my “disability”. I play not with power and strength. I play with speed, agility, and finesse.



BUT around 2 months ago, I reached the crossroad. At that time, I weighted 61.5 kgs with 9% body fat (See picture above). I can say I was muscular enough that I can see my six-pack abs. However, my body frame was just small, slim, and skinny that I could be easily harassed/overshadowed by stronger and bigger players. Also, my game depended too much on my quickness, which might not be there once I got tired. My game was simply limited to “small guys region”. I could not play within “big guys region”. So, in my mind, THE QUESTION came up. “I want to build muscle to be stronger, bigger, but won’t it make me slower?” I came up with this answer, “I think it is OK to be bigger and stronger but a little bit slower and jump a little bit shorter” Later you will know that my answer WAS WRONG.



So, with my mindset ready to sacrifice my speed and jumping ability (WHICH IS NOT NECESSARY), I bulked up myself (see picture above). I went from 61.5kgs to 66kgs in 4 weeks (That’s right. I did it the hard way). My body fat went up a little bit, from 9% to 11% (That is why I am in cutting process now). At the same time, I gained 3kgs of muscles (Wet muscle of course), which means I became bigger and stronger.

Then, came the time for try out. I played my first volleyball game as someone weighted 66kgs. First thing I did was jumping in front of the net to see how much my arms could go above the net. Guess what? My arms went 5 centimeters higher. Here is more, the next week, my first basketball game after bulking up. AGAIN, I did not lose my explosiveness A BIT. I was as quick as before, I did not feel slower or heavier at all. MORE IMPORTANTLY, I could compete in STRENGTH and POWER against “used-to-be stronger” guys, but I still had an edge in SPEED and ATHLETICISM against them.

Now, my game just has expanded tremendously. I can play with speed, athleticism, and finesse like I have always been. ALSO, I can play with strength and power. Now, I play “main spiker” position more often in volleyball (In the past, I was never regarded as “main spiker”). In basketball, I used to be guard, but now, I play forward and a lot of times, I am assigned to guard a center player (which is usually the biggest in any team) more often without being BULLIED or OVERPOWERED.

Here is the reason why I can keep my speed and athleticism in much heavier body frame. During my bulking up process, I did not only keep doing weight training regularly. BUT I also made sure that I TRAINED ALL THE MUSCLES in my body. This is what most people miss when they try to become stronger while maintaining their speed and athleticism. In my bulking up days, I trained my core musculature as well. I trained my lower body as much as my upper body. As a result, YES MY BODY IS HEAVIER (which means my lower body must push harder to jump as high as before), BUT NOW MY LOWER BODY IS ALSO STRONGER. This compensates my heavier body. While now my body is heavier, MY CORE MUSCULATURE strength is also higher, which enables me to move as quick as before during my “harassed-by-big-guy” days. That is why, when you are heavier, you can either maintain your speed or athleticism (by keep training your entire body musculature of course) or lose them (by being obsessed to having broader shoulders and bigger biceps).

So now, for those quick and skinny guys living in big-guys world, don’t be afraid to gain muscle and become bigger. It’s time to make those big-guys think twice before trying to overpower you.

Till next newsletter, be strong, be POWERFUL but also be QUICK and ATHLETIC.

Tobias KG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com