Rapid Fat Loss

Are you looking for that “jump start” to rev your metabolism
and get you bathing suit ready? The following ten tips will
improve your workouts and ignite your metabolism. Try some
or all of these tips, but beware, the result may be a number
of admiring second glances and stares when you don that
bikini or pair of trunks.

1. The majority of your workouts should be composed of free-
weight or cable exercises.

Compared to machines, free-weight and cable movements often
require more skill, create muscular balance, and have a
greater metabolic cost. For example, it is more difficult to
balance the weights, and to coordinate muscles when
performing free-weight exercises. Although this may sound
like a disadvantage, it is actually a benefit. By balancing
and stabilizing free-weights or cables you are working more
muscles through a greater range of motion resulting in more
muscles developed and more calories burned.

2. Use mostly compound (multi-joint and multi-muscle)
exercises.

When focusing on improving body composition, you can't worry
about “detail” exercises, so you should use exercises
that'll get you the biggest bang for your buck. Isolation
exercises can be used at the end of a workout to work on a
specific weakness, but only do the bare minimum.

Virtually every savvy fitness professional is privy to the
fact that compound exercises recruit the most muscle groups
for any given body part.

If you seek lean muscle and the increase in metabolism that
comes with it, you must choose exercises that allow for the
greatest load. One of the main reasons why squats are
superior to leg extensions for quadriceps development
relates to the fact that the load you can expose the
quadriceps to is much greater with squats. That’s why
presses and dips will give you great triceps development,
while triceps kickbacks will do little for triceps
development and even less for the metabolism.

A good rule of thumb is to use lifts that will allow you to
use the most weight. These will have a systemic effect on
your body that'll help maintain or increase your muscle
mass, and in turn ignite your metabolism.

3. Super-set or group exercises.

Perform either non-competing muscle group training or
antagonist training. Non-competing muscle group training
would involve doing a set of a lower body exercise, and
following it up with an upper body exercise Antagonist
training is executed by alternating exercises that target
opposing muscle groups (e.g. chest and back). The list of
benefits includes: quicker recovery, greater strength levels
and shorter workout times.

This design can be a huge advantage in your mission to burn
fat. If you alternate exercises for opposing or non-
competing muscle groups, you’ll be able to keep your heart
rate elevated and burn calories like a blast furnace!

4. Keep rep ranges, in general, between 8 and 12.

Through research, it has been determined that the best range
for hypertrophy (muscle gain) is roughly between 8-12 reps.
Since the main focus of your resistance training efforts is
to gain lean body mass and stimulate your metabolism, this
rep range fills the bill perfectly. “High reps for tone and
fat loss” is the “big kahuna” of all training myths! Somehow
the aerobics, yoga and Pilate’s community have convinced us
that when we perform bodyweight exercises or light
resistance training for high reps, our muscles magically
take on a beautiful shape without growing or bulging. On the
other hand, if you challenge yourself with moderately heavy
weights, your body will take on a bulky, unflattering
appearance. If you believe this, you probably still believe
in the Tooth Fairy!

5. Rest only 30 to 60 seconds between sets.

When you keep the rest periods under one minute, it’s easier
to stay focused on the task at hand and keeps your heart
rate elevated. In addition, it forces your muscles to
recover more quickly between sets, along with keeping your
nervous system revved up.

If your first movement in an upper/lower body superset is
squats, you might want to rest 60 seconds before attempting
your second movement. However, if your first exercise is a
fairly "easy" exercise, like lat pull downs, you might only
wish to wait 30 seconds before doing the second part of the
superset.

6. Every session should consist of approximately six to
eight exercises. Why? Because empirical evidence has shown
that normal trainees can consistently maintain six to eight
exercises per session without burning out.

It’s imperative to base your exercise selection around
compound, multi-joint exercises. Seventy-five percent (75%)
of your exercises for each session must be compound
exercises. Six single-joint isolation exercises are not
going do the trick. Sure, you can perform a few isolation
exercises, but the majority of your exercise choices should
be multi-joint.

7. Perform Total Body Workouts

First and foremost, you must drop the notion that a muscle
group can only be trained once or twice a week. Fitness
enthusiasts from the past didn't train that way and you
shouldn't either. The more frequent muscle producing / fat
burning sessions you can have, the better.

8. Cardio is not the cure-all for Obesity

Cardiovascular exercise aids in the creation of a caloric
deficit, but the caloric expenditure during cardio is
temporary. Strength training addresses the core of the
problem by permanently increasing the rate at which the body
burns calories by adding muscle. The best programs will
include both strength training and cardiovascular training,
but the core or the programs effectiveness is resistance
training.

9. When you do cardio, do it first thing in the morning.

Do your cardiovascular training first thing in the morning
on an empty stomach. You’ve gone 8 or more hours without
eating, so your blood sugar levels are at their lowest when
you first wake up. After about 10-15 minutes of cardio
training on an empty stomach, you’ll have burned up all your
remaining blood sugar.

Once your blood sugar is used up, the only remaining source
of fuel your body has to continue with your cardio exercise
is your stored body fat.

10. Vary your pace during your cardio training sessions.

Don’t maintain a constant steady pace while you’re on the
treadmill or elliptical machine. Numerous studies have
shown you’ll burn more calories and more fat if you train in
intervals.

Start out by going for 1 minute at your normal walking pace.
Then, for the next 30 seconds, speed it up to a run. After
the 30 seconds at an increased pace, slow back down to your
original pace for 1 more minute. This is known as an
interval. Repeat this interval style cardio for 10-20
minutes.

Performing your cardio in this “interval” fashion will allow
you to burn more fat and calories in less time than just
keeping a nice steady pace. This will increase the results
you see while reducing your time on the treadmill,
stationary bike, or whatever form of cardiovascular training
you do.


RESOURCE BOX: Pat Rigsby is the owner of Fit Systems
Personal Training and Wellness. He is also a published
author of several fitness related books and articles. You
can learn even more about how to accomplish your fitness and
weight loss goals in less time at his website
http://www.full-schedule-fitness.com , where he explains
several highly effective workout routines that can help you
reshape your body in as little as 4 minutes per day.