Trade Slow Cardio for Interval Training
The road to a lean and toned body isn’t a long, slow march. It’s bursts of high-intensity effort followed by slow, recovery efforts. Twenty minutes of interval training performed like this can burn as many calories as an hour of traditional, steady-state cardio. Intervals can keep your body burning calories long after the workout ends, as opposed to slower paced cardio.
Trade Machine Exercises for Free Weights
Machines are built with a specific path the weight has to travel and most likely you will not match that path. If you’re too tall, too short, or your arms or legs aren’t the same length, that fixed path won’t match your physiology and you’ll increase the likelihood of injury and develop weaknesses. Trade your machine exercises for dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, resistance bands, and the handy TRX to build strength in ways to match your body. Free weights will also train the smaller stabilizing muscles that machines miss.
Use Multiple Joints with Every Move
Single-joint exercises like biceps curls and triceps push-downs will build your muscles, but at a much slower pace. Unless you’re a bodybuilder with hours to spend in the gym, maximize your time by getting more done. Start by combining simple exercises like a squat and a bicep curl and make them one…squat with a bicep curl, or a push up with an alternating row. Instead of just working your chest and triceps you are increasing strength in your core and in your mid back.
Load One Side to Work Your Core
Since your core stabilizes your body, creating instability means it has to work that much harder. This means you can work your abs without ever doing a crunch. Here’s how: Load one side of your body. Hold a weight on one shoulder during a lunge, press just one dumbbell overhead during a shoulder press, or perform a standing, single-arm cable chest press.
Lift Heavier Weights
Listen up ladies – lifting heavier weights will NOT make you bulky! I repeat…you will not bulk up by lifting weights!!! It will make you stronger and protect you from osteoporosis by increasing bone density. To get the greatest benefits, lift at least 60 to 70 percent of your one-rep maximum for each exercise. Instead of going for complicated calculations, choose a weight with which you can perform 8 to 12 reps, with the last rep being a struggle, but no impossible.
Intake Protein After Your Workout
A post-workout mix of carbs, fat, and protein will help your body build muscle, reduce soreness, and recover faster so you can work those muscles again sooner. If you are rushed for time or normally skip eating after your workout, grab a low fat protein shake with sugar or a glass of non fat milk.
Lift, then Run
If you perform your strength training before your cardio work, you’ll burn more fat. Studies have shown people who lifted before cardio burned twice as much fat as those who didn’t lift at all.
Run Hills to Burn Fat Faster and Reduce Injury
Uphill running at a 3 percent incline or above activates 9 percent more muscle per stride than trotting at the same pace on level ground. It can also save your knees: increasing the grade to just a couple percents can reduce the shock on your legs by up to 24 percent.
Get Explosive to Add More Strength
Explosive exercises such as a med ball throw uses more energy and burns more calories. These moves also increase strength significantly. Studies have shown men who included explosive chest exercises benched 5 percent more than those who performed a similar routine without the ballistic moves.
Reduce Soreness with Active Recovery
After a hard workout that leaves your muscles tight and sore a bit of light activity will help you recover faster. Metabolites in your sore areas that cause pain are dispersed and diffused by activity, and blood flow is increased to the muscle tissue, speeding recovery by up to 40 percent. Go for a light jog or brisk walk, foam roll, or play a sport.
-By Shannon Flanagan CPT