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	Powertec Power Rack Workbench Rack holds up to 1,000 pounds; measures 50 x 84 x 51 inches (W x more...		$549.99
	Powertec Power Rack Workbench (Black) Rack holds up to 1,000 pounds; measures 50 x 84 x 51 inches (W x more...		$549.99

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Powertec P PR Power Rack Review

The Powertec P PR Power Rack has been around for awhile and has developed a solid name for itself

Built to Last – Made of high quality gauge steel with quality welding this power rack could quite well be handed down to the grand kids once you’re done with it.

Value for Your Dollar – The PPR Powertec Rack (available in black or yellow) can hold up to 1000 lbs and is designed to support most every major barbell exercise and with its adjustable spotting bars it comes in as the best power rack bang for your buck when compared to the competition.

Powertec P PR Power Rack Features

Standard Attachments - The Powertec Rack comes standard with adjustable power dip bars and a split handle pull up bar.

The chin up bar has excellent grip texture and the split handle allows one the option of doing hammer grip chin ups to help build muscle faster.

The dip bars can be adjusted up or down and can be placed on the outisde or the inside of the cage.

Versatility – The Powertec PPR Racks capabilities can be be expanded with the optional Powertec P-LTO Lat Tower and utility bench options.

Built with Home Gym Owner in Mind - Most commercial power racks would require at least a nine foot ceiling but the makers at Powertec tailored this rack for the average lower height of a basement ceiling.

Nuts and Bolts – Powertec with their sturdy power rack design somehow managed to bring this unit in at only 25 lbs shipping weight meaning you can move this bad-boy around easily even with some weight sitting on it.

A minor shortfall of the Powertec Rack is due the shorter height of its design to accommodate an average basement ceiling height for some they will find they aren’t able to do overhead press or overhead squats while inside the cage. These can still be done outside the cage so the small “con” is more of a slight inconvenience than anything.

Bottom Line – The Powertec PPR Power Rack is a well built rack with terrific functionality and expandability. It will last years with whatever abuse you can throw at it. When you consider the price it is hard to beat.

Click here to view the…

 Powertec P PR Power Rack in Black

 Powertec P PR Power Rack in Yellow

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For years aspiring exercise buffs have been asking “are cardio workouts for abs necessary”?

There are many on either side of this fence but I am wondering if most are asking the wrong question…

The one camp has a hard time spending 30-60 minutes on a treadmill or exercise bike when they could be crunching their abs or doing some dead lifts.

While the other side feel they haven’t burned the bulge unless they work up an adequate lather.

My question is this…

If cardio is simply getting your heart rate to a certain level and keeping it there for a set period of time does it matter what exercises are used to accomplish this?

I argue “how it’s done” is irrelevant so why not use strength building exercises with less weight (so you can do more reps) with shorter rest periods (so the heart rate stays in the target range) and build your strength while working up a sultry sweat?

For some specific exercise that work well with this ab sculpting model check out my Cardio Workouts for Abs Necessary article.

In this article, I have an intriguing discussion about cardio workouts, which will hopefully get you thinking differently, and trying new things.

You may know I’ve been called the anti-cardio guy before, but this week I’m back posing the question to you… Are cardio workouts for abs necessary to get lean and in great shape? By the way, you’ll see in a minute that I’m not really “anti-cardio”, just “anti traditional cardio”.

Most fitness buffs, weekend warriors, or anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a fact that they need “cardio” exercise to accomplish these goals. They would never even question it.

However, I’m not only questioning it, I’m going to refute it! In fact, you may be surprised to know that some of the leanest and meanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. And I’ve spent over 15 years working out in various gyms, and hanging out with athletes of all sorts, so I’ve seen it all.

I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can be more effective methods.

But what exactly is “cardio”?

Most people would consider cardio to be pumping away mindlessly on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or coasting on an elliptical machine, while watching the TV screen at their state of the art gym. This is what I call “traditional cardio”. Hmmm, no wonder the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results.

But if you look closer, “cardio” exercise can be considered any type of exercise or activity that strengthens the cardiovascular system. I’m not going to get into anything technical like increasing your VO2 max or anything like that. To keep it simple, if it gets your heart pumpin, and gets you huffin and puffin, it’s cardio. I don’t care if you’re holding dumbbells or a barbell and everyone calls it a weight training exercise…it’s still conditioning your heart.

Let’s take a look at a couple examples. Take a barbell (or dumbbell, or kettlebell) clean & press for example, which involves lifting a barbell from the floor up to shoulders, then push pressing overhead. And listen up ladies, because even though this is usually seen as a manly exercise, it doesn’t matter if you’re not lifting 250 lbs; if 45 lbs is challenging to you, then you will still benefit just as much.

At first glance, most people think of the barbell C&P only as a weight training exercise or strength exercise. However, I challenge you to do a hard set of around 10-15 reps on the C&P. If you used a challenging enough weight, what you’ll find is that your heart rate is probably up to about 80-90% of your recommended max, and you are huffing and puffing like you just ran a 100-meter sprint (which by the way, sprinting kicks the crap out of jogging any day if you want the easiest way to lose the flab).

Try the same thing for a set of 20 reps of one-arm snatches or swings with each arm with a kettlebell or dumbbell, and tell me your legs aren’t burning, heart racing, and you’re gasping for breath. How about trying 5 minutes straight of bodyweight squats, lunges, and pushups with very little rest. Again, notice your heart pounding, sweat pouring off of you, and chest heaving for breaths!

Try and tell me you’re not conditioning your heart with this style of training! Conventional thinking says that these are weight training or strength training exercises. However, they are fullfilling your cardio workout needs as well (saving you time!).

Not only do you save time, but you strengthen and condition almost every muscle in your entire body with these full body exercises if you do them with enough intensity…something that can’t be said for that boring stationary bike ride or treadmill jaunt while reading or watching TV.

Reading or watching TV while you workout is a joke!

Seriously, if you can read or watch TV while doing any exercise, you’re not concentrating enough on what you’re doing, plus you’re probably not working out hard enough to see any real results.

I challenge you to give the “traditional cardio” a rest for a month or two, and start training the way I explain in my internationally-selling Truth about Six pack Abs Program, and see how you start getting leaner, more defined, and your six pack starting to show through what used to be stubborn stomach fat deposits.

If you’re interested in more reading about the topic of cardio training and better alternatives, here’s an interesting cardio article I wrote previously.

Sit-ups…crucnhes…leg lifts…right?

Do these work?

Yes!

So, why the article?

I would like to offer some more effective options that are metabolism boosting high intensity exercises working your whole body while giving your abs a killer burn.

I’m going to offer you a great ab routine without one direct ab exercise.

It is similar to a super set but it alternates between 3 ab exercises.

1. Is called the renegade dumbbell row

2. Are front squats with a barbell

3. Mountain climber on the floor

(I give full details of the exercises in my article 3 Most Effective Ab Exercises that Aren’t Direct Ab Exercises)

Basically you want to do 3 or 4 sets of 8 repetitions for each exercise or an alternative is to do more sets with less reps.

You will want to rest approximately 30 seconds after each exercise and rest 1 to 2 minutes after each set.

For full details of the exercises click here 3 Most Effective Ab Exercises that Aren’t Direct Ab Exercises

Instead of the typical ab exercise routines that we see so often with crunches, situps, leg lifts, etc… I like to give my readers better options for metabolism-boosting high intensity workouts that work their entire body while also working their abs.

I’m going to show you an example today of  my most effective ab exercises that don’t include any direct ab exercises at all. It’s in a tri-set format (similar to a super-set but alternating between 3 exercises).

Here goes:

1a. Renegade Dumbbell Rows

1b. Front Squats with Barbell

1c. Mountain Climbers on Floor

A good rep scheme to use with this could be 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, or more sets for less reps, such as 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise. Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of “reps”.

Renegade dumbbell rows are done starting in a pushup position with the hands on 2 dumbbells. You then row one dumbbell up while stabilizing your body with the other arm. Bring the dumbbell back to the ground and alternate the rowing arm while stabilizing with the opposite arm. This stabilizing effect during the rows creates incredible work for your entire midsection core area. Trust me… you’ll feel it in the abs!

Front squats are done similar to back squats, however with the barbell in front of your body on the front of your shoulders instead of resting on the upper back as in back squats. You stabilize the barbell on your shoulders by crossing your arms and pushing your fists into the bar against your shoulders while keeping your elbows out in front of the body. This takes a little practice at first, so you will want to seek a professional trainer at your gym to help you with the form. Front squats require extreme stabilization strength from the abs due to the barbell weight being shifted to the front of the body instead of the back. Even though this is mostly a leg exercise, you’ll feel this one in the abs big time!

Mountain climbers are done by starting in a pushup position and then shuffling your feet in and out so that your knees are moving in under your chest and then back out to starting position. It sort of resembles climbing a mountain but flat on the floor. If you want an advanced version, you can also shuffle your hands 8-10 inches forward and backward in addition to the leg movements. This really makes it a full body exercise and MUCH more difficult than standard mountain climbers.

After finishing each exercise, rest about 30 seconds before starting the next exercise. Rest about 1-2 minutes after completing each “tri-set” before repeating.

This will give you one of the best ab workouts you’ve ever had without even doing any direct ab exercises. You’ll see what I mean after you try it!

If you are putting in the time and energy you might as well be doing the most effective exercises to achieve the lean sculpted body of your dreams.

Here are 3 great ways to build muscle faster and get lean and ripped:

1. It is important a high percentage (90-95%) of your regular exercise are big multi-joint compound exercises. (Full details available in the article link below)

2. You want your weight training to be hard and intense, typically 3 or 4 times per week, at least 45 minutes but not longer than 60 minutes to experience fast muscle mass gain.

3.  Make sure your diet consists of quality whole foods.

To keep this post short I just gave you the hi-lites… if you want more details on these 3 important tips see my article 3 Important Ways to Build Muscle Faster – Get Lean and Ripped

Let’s face it… building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even despite regular hard workout schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.

I struggled for years to gain any significant muscle mass, but over the years in my personal training business and with my own experimentation have found some important things that have helped make significant muscle gains possible even for hardgainers.

So, I’m going to give 3 important tips here so you can start building lean muscle mass faster and easier.

1. Make sure that 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym are big multi-joint compound exercises.  It doesn’t matter if your goal is fat loss or building muscle… big multi-joint exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

It’s easiest to think of it in terms of the major movement patterns such as these (focus 95% of your workouts on these):

• upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
• upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
• upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
• upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
• lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
• lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
• lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
• abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements… your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

The other 5% of your exercises can focus on single joint exercises (isolation exercises) such as bicep curls, tricep presses, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc.  However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.

2.  Train hard and intensely 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout.  Keep your workouts to no longer than 60 minutes as training too much beyond this point can trigger excess catabolism.  You want to stay anabolic, but you still need to train your body hard and intensely enough to trigger muscle growth.

Try a super-set style of workout program to maximize the intensity that you can train.  My favorite combinations are opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that don’t interfere with each other, such as squats coupled with pullups as a superset, or bench press coupled with deadlifts as a superset.

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity.  The first time in my life that I experienced significant fast muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly (although still mixing up my training variables).

These are mainstays of almost any effective workout program — caloric intake can simply be adjusted whether your goal is fat burning or gaining muscle mass.

3.  Eat clean with quality whole foods… REAL foods instead of highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc. instead of from processed protein powders, chemical-laden bars, and meal replacements.

Forget about the hyped up workouts in the muscle mags that only work for pro bodybuilders or people on steroids. Forget about the over-hyped supplement “stacks” that pay the bills for almost every muscle mag… Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you’ll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you’ve never seen before!

By now most of us have heard the bad press on artificial trans fats and how they can cause diseases such as obesity, heart conditions and various types of cancer.

However, a little known fact is that a naturally occurring trans fat is available in certain foods and is proven to stimulate fat loss and lean muscle building.

This natural trans fat occurs in the meat and milk of various mammals like cows, goats, sheep, bison, kangaroos amongst others. This trans fat is not only known to prevent cancer but also as a powerful fat burner.

This trans fat is called linoleic acid or CLA and is at it’s highest level when found in grass fed meat or dairy.

Click here to read the full article to learn how to burn belly fat with a trans fat

If you enjoyed this tip about how to burn belly fat with grass fed meats, There are many more Fat Burning Tips here to help you achieve a leaner and more healthy body.

Specific vegetables that actually help to stimulate the burning of stomach fat?  Sounds crazy right?

Well, check this out below and you’ll see why it’s not so far fetched.

First, one fact that you may have not realized is that there are certain chemicals in our food supply and in our environment, such as pesticides, herbicides, and petrochemicals that have an estrogenic effect inside our bodies.  This problem can increase belly fat on both men and women, so pay attention.

These are called xenoestrogens, and exposure to them from these chemicals in our food supply, water supply, and the environment is one factor that can actually stimulate your body to hold onto belly fat.  The problem is that in today’s world, even if you eat organic and live in a relatively low-pollution area, it is almost impossible to not get at least some degree of daily exposure to xenoestrogens.  They are even in household cleaners and cosmetics!

So how can you fight against these xenoestrogens so that they are not forcing your body to hold onto stomach fat?

Well, that’s where these specific types of vegetables that I’m going to show you can help.

There are many classes of vegetables, teas, spices, etc that have compounds which can help to fight against the effects of xenoestrogens.  However, one of the most powerful classes are cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.

These types of cruciferous vegetables contain very unique compounds (phytonutrients) such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that can help to combat the effects of xenoestrogens in your body, and therefore, can help you to burn abdominal fat more effectively.

As if you needed another excuse to eat more broccoli and cauliflower… Now, you can add losing stomach fat to the list!

In a world filled with chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides our bodies are being infiltrated by not only pollution but by the food we eat and the beverages we drink.

One of the negative ways these chemicals affect us is they cause our bodies to hold onto and increase body fat.

GREAT!!! Now what?

Although eating organic is one way to help eliminate invasion into your system we still are subject to these body fat stimulating chemicals through household cleaners, cosmetics and the very air we breathe.

What if I told you there were certain vegetables that help with stimulating the burning of stomach fat?

Interesting isn’t it?

There are specific types of vegetables, tea, and various spices that are “ninja” assault weapons against these body fat increasing chemicals.

I know you’re dying to find out what some of these abdominal fat burning veggies are so click here and Burn Stomach Fat Using These 3 Veggies