Strength-training builds muscle, burns fat, and fires up your metabolism.  So to get even more out of healthy diets, you should amp up the work you’re doing in the gym.

There are a few ways to raise the intensity level of your workouts.  Anyone can incorporate them to burn more calories and build stronger muscles, therefore creating more healthy weight loss.

Many people perform a slow but steady circuit on weight machines, doing a certain number of sets and rests before moving onto the next one.  Why not combine two exercises and complete them in the time it would normally take you to do one?  This high-intensity alternative keeps your heart pumping as you do one set of an exercise, then immediately do one set of another exercise that works the opposite muscle (like hamstrings and quads).  Keep going back and forth until all your sets are done for both exercises.

To get a whole new workout from the exercises you think you’ve mastered, try lifting weights backwards.  This can be used on free weights or weight machines.  What this means is to make the “easiest” part of the exercise the hardest.  After you’ve lifted, pushed, or pulled the weight, going back to the starting position seems easy because that’s when your muscles are the strongest.  So to make this part harder, resist the weight and take a few seconds to get back to the beginning.

If you dream of strength-training exercises that get easier as you do more reps, follow a high-intensity process that almost seems counter-intuitive.  Start your set with the heaviest weight you can handle.  Do only 4 reps.  Next, decrease the weight a little bit and do a couple more reps.  Keep repeating this process until you’re up to 20 reps on a low weight.  What you’ve just done to your muscles is worked them as hard as they could work on every single set.  This extra work burns more fat and creates more muscle than the standard weight-lifting technique.

Keep eating right and focusing on good nutrition before and after your workouts when you increase the intensity.  Healthy meals can be used even more efficiently as fuel for your hard-working muscles.

 

Tags: healthy diets, healthy weight loss

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Quick Weight Loss Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.