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To get lean and shredded, you need to concentrate on both tearing down and building up muscle tissue while increasing your heart rate. Adding as much lean muscle to your body will allow you to burn fat and calories more efficiently while your aerobic workouts burns calories during the exercises and lead to strengthening your lung and heart capacity.
Maximize your weight loss benefits by working out approximately 45 minutes to one hour per day for five or six days. Start with either cardio or strength on one day, then switch to the other workout the next day to allow your muscles to "rest." On your day off, do no exercise and allow your total body to rest. -
Some of the best cardio exercises are the obvious -- running, swimming, biking, rowing and elliptical training. The old school way was the slow, steady burn. This does not maximize your calorie-burning benefits. To increase the caloric burn raise the intensity of your exercise. For example, if you are running, run for two minutes at a steady pace but then sprint for one minute and then take it down to a steady run for another two minutes. Raise the pace intensity throughout your workout so that you are working so hard that you cannot carry a conversation.
On your strength day, be sure you fit in two to three sets that include eight to 12 reps. Try to hit all the muscle groups which include biceps, shoulders, chest, abs, thighs, gluts and calves.
For example, you can do 12 military style push ups (which is a regular, standard push up) 12 times. Rest 30 seconds, then do another set which would be 12 more push ups.
When you are using weights, you should lift enough weight so that you can lift it for most of the set but may struggle toward the end while maintaining perfect form.
Some good weight workouts include bicep curls, lunges and squats with the weights, weighted crunches, military presses and tricep kickbacks. -
Remember that even though you are alternating cardio and strength workouts your body can become accustomed to your workout and your weight loss efforts may be compromised. Your body depends upon muscle confusion so mixing up your workout every two to three weeks will help keep the scale dropping.
One way to mix it up is to try a new sport. If you are a runner, try biking or swimming. Introduce yoga or Pilates for a few weeks instead of lifting weights.
You can also do both cardio and strength together. For example, incorporate a weighted jump squat into your routine. A jump squat begins like a regular squat but you explode out of the move and jump up and then back down into squatting position. You will want to perform the jump squat 15 times and then rest before your next set. To make the move harder, add a hand weight to your jump squat. You can also add hand weights to standing punches, running in place and jumping jacks.
