A common complaint from people who workout regularly is that they reach a plateau of diminishing returns from their routines. Advances in weight loss or fat loss seem to lessen as time goes on. According to Craig Ballantyne, a well-known Canadian trainer, this deficiency is due to your body’s ability to adapt to the same exercise routine so that whatever structured, regular workout you use will lose its effectiveness over the course of a few weeks. His answer is to vary your routine and create a “shock” to your system by upsetting the equilibrium you have established in sticking to the same set of exercises.

The only regular aspect of Craig’s program is that you change you routine with a goal in mind. The stated goal is to create a “disturbance” in your muscles by using intense, varied exercises in his program. The theory states that your body gets used to certain reps and exercises and you need to vary your workout to get your muscles to work harder.

His e-book is available online for $39.95 and includes some bonus nutrition guidance material. The information presented is clear, detailed, and presented in a logical progression.  Here is an example of the clarity and logic of his program:

1) Train 3 days per week and alternate between Workouts A & B (Craig specifies the details of each workout routine)

2) Resistance training is always followed by interval training.

3) Perform 2-4 sets per exercise and 6-8 repetitions per set depending on your stage of development.

4) Pair “non-competing” exercises in supersets.

5) Rest 1 minute between exercises.

6) Warm-up sets are very important.

7) Finish each workout with interval training.

Switch out the exercises in the workout every 3 weeks.

9) Change your eating habits by decreasing your calorie intake and by eliminating processed carbohydrates and some saturated fat from your diet.

Craig’s approach makes a great deal of sense but only when you make a commitment to the program and combine it with proper eating habits.

The amount of detail in this new e-book can be overwhelming at times but the committed muscle builder will not shy away from Sean Nalewanyj’s proven methods to improve your physique. The Truth About Building Muscle shows the correct form and techniques through diagrams and pictures that are quite different than the plain text-filled PDF books available on the Internet. Sean covers everything from nutrition to workouts to motivational philosophy. 

The 249-page book comes with a price of $67, not cheap by any means. However, many bonus features come with the package including a half year blueprint for your workouts, a journal format to track your progress, access to online lessons, downloadable audio, free updates, and most unusual, access to Sean for three months for e-mail support.

Sean explains clearly how and why muscle builds that will help the process of bringing your body to where you want it to be. He rightly emphasizes the role of rest and recovery as an aid to your workout. The workouts he advocates are intense so be prepared to sweat and push yourself. As with all serious muscle building programs, the commitment to long term activity is emphasized and not sugarcoated. One particular key to effective workouts is concentrating on each rep and not hurrying through, as you might be prone to do. Use your muscles to lower the weights rather than allowing gravity to do the work for you. Many people tend to cheat on this by rushing through the routine instead of using slow, controlled repetitions. Sean advocates maximizing the time spent in the gym by this focus on each movement.

The Truth About Building Muscle is an effective and thorough program that must be taken seriously and adhered to over the long haul.

A little known nutritional fact specifies that most foods actually require the body to expend calories to break down and digest the food. With this nugget comes the information that certain foods use up more calories in digestion than they supply to the body. This classification of foods is called negative calorie foods. So, logically if you ingest negative calorie foods, you can lose fat as your body works hard to process the food. 

This, of course, is not foolproof, as certain nutritional needs are not met by adhering solely to a diet of negative calorie foods.

The Negative Calorie Foods and Recipes e-book does have many tasty recipes made up of negative calorie foods. The outstanding part of this program, though, is the incorporation of these foods into a diet program that possesses a balanced approach to weight loss. The program does not advocate a diet of strictly raw foods but rather uses the rather lengthy list of negative calorie foods as parts of recipes for everyday living.

Some simple exercises show you how to juice your metabolism so that you will burn what other foods you eat more readily. Some of the negative calorie foods are:

asparagus                        apple                                    beet                                    berries

broccoli                        cabbage                        carrot                                    cauliflower

celery                                    chili                                    cucumber                        garlic

lettuce                                    grapefruit                        lemon                                    mango

onion                                    orange                                    papaya                                    pineapple

spinach                        turnip                                    zucchini

None of these foods are news to anyone but the beauty of Negative Calorie Foods and Recipes is the concentration on good, solid recipes where you can use these foods in tasty combinations. And the book only costs $18.95.

For all of the misguided diet plans out there, the one that stands out for its longevity and rationality is the Medifast program. Medifast is a meal delivery system that works for all types of health issues, ranging from age-specific issues to joint health to diabetes.

The underlying philosophy of Medifast consists in a firm adherence to the proper balance of protein and carbohydrates with sufficient vitamins and minerals, all delivered to your door. 

You will not have to count calories or worry about portion sizes as everything fits your particular situation.

Results occur immediately as you see the benefits of this established program within a few weeks. A common complaint of diet systems is that you feel hungry a great deal of the time. With Medifast, you can eat frequently but keep the total calorie count at a low level. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the Medifast plan is the overall knowledge that you are using a time-tested and successful method to lose weight.

Some of the health issues that other plans do not address are high blood pressure and cholesterol as well as adult-onset diabetes. Medifast delineates detailed procedures to deal with each of these problematic situations. The program does repeatedly suggest that you consult with your doctor before commencing on any type of restrictive diet.

Exercise recommendations can be seen at the Medifast web site. For the thoroughness and success of its plan, Medifast is a steal at $140.50 for 70 meals.

Although the title of this e-book is a little too cute, the true benefits of Holly Rigsby’s program to get women back to their pre-baby shape are present in the words. Yes, fitness is the goal but along the way, eating habits are addressed for mothers who want to rid themselves of the pouchy look after giving birth.

Ms. Rigsby explains in detail the routines you need to perform to tighten up your stomach and butt as well as condition the rest of your body. 

First, she motivates you with some morale boosting speech about staying the course to burn that maternal fat. Then, the nutritional plans lay out an effective blueprint of eating habits including what you should keep around the house. Temptation is a difficult issue when you live such a busy, crowded lifestyle so you should limit what you have available.

Then the (excuse the expression) meat of the program delineates efficient, effective workout routines that anyone can do regardless of your athleticism of conditioning. Here is the part of the Fit Yummy Mummy program that makes it stand out from the other garden-variety weight loss programs. Four differentiated exercise routines give you the options to choose what level of fitness expertise you can apply to your circumstances. The attractive feature of all workouts is the brevity—only about ninety minutes a week needed to regain your shape.

Included in the e-book are printable workout sheets, menu suggestions, goal setting forms, and a fitness journal. Ms. Rigsby bundles bonus materials such as an online menu planner, “Twelve Weeks to an Amazing Butt,” and a nutrition guide for mother and child.

Fit Yummy Mummy gives you more than your money’s worth ($39.95.)

Everyone wants to have a trim midsection but not very many of those want to do the strenuous work involved. With this second e-book edition of Firm And Flatten Your Abs by David Grisaffi, a credible exercise guru, you will find not a sit-up in the whole volume. Instead, he presents a series of innovative routines that address the whole of the midsection rather than merely the superficial muscles as do the majority of these programs. In this way, he makes you understand that the cosmetic look of a superb set of abdominal muscles might lead to neck and back pain issues, possible ruptured discs, and ligament damage. Grisaffi’s main difference from other proponents of ab work is that he insists on working the whole core of the body. 

The book has 125 photos demonstrating the correct positioning for 42 different exercises. Using correct technique not only increases the effectiveness of your workout but also decreases the likelihood of injury.

In Firm And Flatten Your Abs, the author concentrates of nutrition nearly as much as he does on the actual exercises. He elucidates the physiological underpinnings of his theories and exercises with clear language (although some people may be put off by the muscle group names.)

He spends time dispelling false ideas about abdominal exercise and talks about form versus function as a way to clarify his ideas about remaining free from injury. Firm And Flatten Your Abs gives a very clear, detailed, and balanced look at the myths surrounding abdominal exercise as well as laying out a complete set of routines to give you an injury-free run at midsection health.