Beginners Guide to the Gym- What to do Part II

In this post Im going to talk about ways to increase energy expenditure(burn more calories) which leads to greater weight loss. There are a variety of different ways to achieve weight loss through exercise although the very best way is through changing your eating habits. Notice I didnt say dieting but dieting doesnt work. But if you make permanant changes to your eating then you will get better, more sustained losses and your weight wont yo-yo like it does on diets. But back to the exercise aspect. Increasing the intensity of your workouts will lead to the best weight loss for individuals. Keeping your heart rate up and working hard. You can get a great workout in in 30 minutes if you work hard enough so lets get to it.

Exercising for Weight Loss

1. I like to use a time frame and not a rep range. When you use a rep range you stop at a given point but that point might not be enough to stimulate the metabolic responses you want. Pick a time period, say 30 sec and perform as many reps as possible in the time period, then rest. This makes your body work as hard as it can and keeps heart rate and intensities up.
2. Keep your rest periods short. As important as rest is after your workouts and in between sets to let the body regenerate energy, keeping your rest intervals short increases the amount of work your doing and keeps your body moving and the more you move the more energy you expend leading to weight loss.
3. Be explosive. Although this might be hard to do consistently through your entire workout, the hard you contract your muscles the more energy your body has to expend to allow you to be explosive. Also, the use of explosive contractions triggers the body to promote the growth of Type IIa and IIx fibers which are larger, and require more energy for them to be maintained in the body. But dont worry ladies triggering these muscles wont give you a body building huge muscle look. Be careful if you plan to implement explosice contractions and lower the weight slowly. For example if your doing a chest press, lower the weight to your chest slowly(~2 sec) and under control, let it touch your chest then explode and push the weight up as hard as you can, then catch the weight at the top and repeat as many times as you can in 30 sec. This type of training takes time to work up to, but give it your best and if you have an injury stay away from lifting explosively when using that muscle or bone.
4. Break up your workouts. One big problem with traditional workouts is that they have you perform one set of an exercise then rest and it gives you too much down time. I break up my clients workouts into different periods ranging from 5-10 minutes each period and I have them do something different in each period. Say one period they do one whole body exercise for 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest for 5 minutes. Then switch to a 5 intervals on the cardio row machine with a 15s on and 45s rest. Then go back to another whole body exercise. Find different ways to keep your body moving and keep your workouts interesting. Youll be more likely to stick with your workouts if you enjoy doing them and dont find them dull and boring.
5. Use Intervals. An interval is performed by performing one exercise at a very high intensity for a short amount of time followed by a breif rest period and then repeated. For example using a treadmill you would run as fast as you can for 20 seconds and then jog or walk for 40 seconds. Thats one interval, you would perform 5-10 in any given day. To get more intervals worked into your workout, dont do them all at once, break them down. Since one interval lasts about a minute, you could perform 5 intervals totaling 5 minutes and then go do another part of your workout, then after you finish that period, go do another 5 intervals, then switch again, and then do another set of 5. Keeping them short helps you save your energy, and if you repeat the 5 minutes worth of intervals 3 times then you got 15 total intervals in instead of 5-10 and you get more work done with more calories burned.

Summing it Up
To keep your weight loss up, keep your intensity up. The more you keep working the more calories your goign to expend. Break down your workouts into smaller periods. This allows you to keep moving and making your workouts more interesting. Be explosive if you can. Remember slow when your muscle is lengthening, explosive when contracting. Use whole body exercises or perform smaller single joint exercises without rest(super setting) to get the most out of it. Keep rest periods short to allow your body to keep working and not wasting time sitting around. Using one or all of these tips will keep your body in motion and help you increase energy expenditure meaning more weight loss. Bundle these tips with proper changes to your daily diet(used in the sense that what you eat makes up your diet, not that you should be on a specific diet) and you will see marked differences in a shorter period of time.