Trade Slow Cardio for Interval Training
The road to a leaner
body isn't a long, slow march. It's bursts of high-intensity effort paired with
slower, recovery efforts. Fifteen to 20 minutes of interval training performed
like this can burn as many calories as an hour of traditional, steady-state cardio.
And unlike the slow stuff, intervals can keep your body burning long after the
workout ends.
Brace Your Core Before Every Exercise
Your core's much more
than a six-pack of muscles hiding beneath your gut -- it's a system of muscles
that wraps around your entire torso, stabilizing your body, protecting your
spine from injury and keeping you upright. Fire these muscles before every
exercise to keep your back healthy, steady your balance and maintain a rigid
body position. You'll get the added bonus of isometric exercise for your
middle, which could reveal the muscles in your core you'd like everyone to see.
Trade Machine Exercises for Free Weights
Machines are built with
a specific path the weight has to travel -- one that wasn't designed for you.
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,
barbells and medicine balls to build strength in ways more specific to your
body, while also working all the smaller stabilizing muscles that machines
miss.
Tuck Your Shoulder Blades Down and Back
This tip is great for
chinups, but it's more than that. By sliding your shoulder blades down and back
before an exercise -- like you're tucking them into your back pockets -- can
improve your results and protect from injury. It helps activate your lats for
pulling exercises, work your pecs more completely in pushing exercises, keeps your
chest up during a squat, and can reduce painful impingement on your rotator
cuff during biceps curls.
Increase Your Range of Motion
Add more work to each
rep and increase the efficiency of your workout by increasing the range of
motion -- the distance the main motion of the exercise travels to complete the
rep. Squat deeper. Drop the weight until it's an inch or two above your chest.
Raise the step for stepups. Elevate your front or back foot on lunges. Get more
from each move and your body will thank you.
Explode Through Every Rep
The "slow
lifting" trend should be confined to the eccentric or "lowering"
portion of any exercise. During the concentric portion, where you push, pull,
press or jump, move the weight (or your body) as quickly as possible. Even if
the weight doesn't move that fast, the intention of moving the weight quickly
will turn on your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which will make your body more
athletic and train it to use more fat as fuel.
Lift Heavier Weights
Packing more weight on
the bar won't make you "bulky." 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.
Drink Chocolate Milk 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 out again sooner. If you are rushed for time or
normally skip eating after your workout, a tall glass of chocolate milk has the
ideal mix of nutrients you're looking for.
Lift, then Run
If you perform your
strength training before your cardio work, you'll burn more fat while you pound
the pavement. In a Japanese study, men who did the workout in this order burned
twice as much fat as those who didn't lift at all.
Don't Stretch; Warm Up
Static stretching done
just before activity can reduce your power output and increase your risk of
certain injuries. Instead, perform an active warmup that gets your body ready
for exercise with exercise, increasing your heart rate, firing up your nervous
system, and getting your muscles used to moving. For an easy routine, perform a
5-minute warmup of basic, body weight moves -- lateral slides, pushups, squats
and lunges.
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