How To Take Your Workout To The Next Level

By Author: Tom Kalka
Total Articles: 1
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Are you already in pretty good shape and now need to take your workout to the next level?

Here are some tips and suggestions about taking it up a notch. Some of these are fairly obvious but some others you might not have thought of.

Do more (in order of effectiveness)

-Time - spend an extra 15-30 minutes at the end of your current workout doing a cardiovascular exercise like jogging/ running, spinning or the elliptical machine. Do this about 2-3 times per week and you'll burn tons extra fat calories. Cardiovascular exercises at the end of a workout will utilize more of the energy (calories) stored inside the body's fat cells and will therefore produce quicker results.

-Days/week - It's safe to say that for most people an hour long strength building workout with some cardiovascular exercises mixed in will burn anywhere from 350-600 calories in an hour. By increasing the number of these types of workouts you get in a week you'll obviously burn more calories and start seeing more results!

-Weight - don't opt for the lighter resistance; increase the amount of resistance you usually use, even ...
... if it's just 10%. Increasing the resistance will make your body work harder and will burn a few extra calories. This doesn't mean you have to stack on the weight, just add more than you are use to. You can always go back to the easier resistance between sets.

-Repetitions - Instead of doing 10-15 reps of an exercise, increase it to 20-25 reps. The best way to tone muscle is to use it over and over again. 10-15 reps is a good start, but once you get use to doing something, it's time to change it up and adding additional reps should do the trick.

-Use Training Variables - Training variables are things you can do to change how an exercise is preformed. A couple examples include: change the speed at which you perform the exercise (go faster or slower), change the grip you normally use to perform an exercise, or do a mega set (this is where you do three exercises back to back to back then start over again).

Eat less

-Eating less isn't the same as skipping meals. The goal should be to eat smaller meals more often. Skipping meals slows down your natural metabolism while eating on a schedule will keep your metabolism working at a higher rate. Stop trying to lose weight by skipping meals, it is a horribly ineffective technique.

-Cut some of the carbohydrates. FACT: one ounce of carbs (bread, pasta, rice) has about three times as many calories as one ounce of protein. So, cutting the amount of carbs in your diet will cut many of the calories in your diet as well. (This is NOT an endorsement for a low or no carbohydrate diet, just a reminder that you do not need to eat bread at every meal).

Tom Kalka is the President and CEO of Custom Fitness Concepts in Virginia which offers a wide range of personal fitness training programs. If you are serious about ramping up your workouts, try a fitness boot camp for free and see what a difference it can make.