Post-Holiday Fitness

Print
01/10/2012
Exercise Program Design
It’s January. The gyms are packed. People are groaning about what they ate and drank in the last two months of the year, and everyone wants to get back on track for 2012. Here are three key concepts you should embrace to burn the most holiday calories

It’s January. The gyms are packed. People are groaning about what they ate and drank in the last two months of the year, and everyone wants to get back on track for 2012. Here are three key concepts you should embrace to burn the most holiday calories!

1.  Establish a cardio routine.  

One key to shedding body fat is to burn calories through cardio. Aim for 150 minutes of heart pumping exercise each week according to the ACSM guidelines.  If you are juggling a long work day and kids, feel empowered knowing that you can divide up those 150 minutes a week however you want.  Ten minutes one day, 45 minutes the next.  The bottom line is fit it in.

2. Incorporate Interval training.  

 Shake it up and burn big calories with interval training, a type of cardiovascular workout that offers numerous advantages over steady state training. Doing intervals strengthens your heart and lungs, increases your endurance and helps burn calories at a faster rate. After a warm-up, take your exercise level up to a high intensity, like a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. You can use any ratio of time, but it’s best to start out with easy or moderate paces being longer than high intensity intervals. Consider downloading a free app, like the Life Fitness Virtual Trainer App, to create an interval workout before you get to the gym.

3. Focus on multi muscle group exercises to burn more calories and strengthen in the shortest amount of time. 

While cardio is essential to get your heart rate up and burn calories, you also need to build and maintain your muscles, which will help you increase your metabolism and burn more calories at rest. Working several muscle groups at a time is more efficient and very effective in increasing calorie burn.  Do lunges with overhead shoulder presses.  Try squats with bicep curls.  Add in some balance challenges on one foot. Pick the multi-muscle group exercises that are fun, functional and time efficient. 

Incorporate these three guidelines to blast calories and shed weight this year.

 

Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide. For more information on Fit Tips and other fitness advice and expertise visit www.lifefitness.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lifefitness or join our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/lifefitness.

Back to Fit Tips listing