Labor Less, Burn More This Holiday Weekend

By Laurel House

 

Does it sometimes seem like no matter how hard you work out, you just can’t work off the weight? And worse than that- you have to work even harder just to maintain your same 5lbs too heavy state? As you age, your metabolism slows down, forcing you to labor more while you get less out of your workouts. But don’t let that annoying reality get you down because we’ve found a few ways to labor less and get more. That’s right, this Labor Day, lay off a little and still lose weight (at least burn off the extra BBQ and booze).

Cindy Whitmarsh, an ExerciseTV trainer, has a few calorie singeing secrets that will up your exercise intensity without adding any extra time to your workout.

Try Cindy’s Less Is More Cardio Workout with a calorie monitoring pedometer to see just how many calories you can burn in the least amount of time.

Cindy's Top 3 Tips for Increased Burn

1. Multitasking Movements: Every step you take you are engaging more than one muscle group and tendon. You can maximize every exercise minute by multitasking your movements, pulling in as many muscles into each exercise as possible. Like, for example, a plie squat into a biceps curl and then overhead shoulder press= burn in your lower body, biceps and shoulders. Or practicing your punching while jogging on the treadmill= burn in your lower body, shoulders, abs and back. Love it!

2. Up your Heart Rate. When you elevate your heart rate to at least 75-85 percent of your heart rate max during your cardio or intervals workout, you are intensifying your exercise by increasing your exertion. Sure, you may be working harder, but the great thing is that you can do it for a shorter period, so you can get it over with faster. To figure out your max heart rate, take 220 minus your age. That’s your max. Then you take 75 to 85 percent of the number and try to stay at that heart rate for your cardio!

3. Focus on your Large Muscles (legs) then throw in some Smaller Muscles (arms). Concentrating your workout on your lower body makes your big power house muscles work to burn even more calories. Couple that with some upper body work for extra burn and toning. Try a burpee with a pushup at the bottom of the movement.

The great thing about engaging multiple muscle groups while focusing your attention on the big ones- like your legs and butt, is that the more calories you are able to squeeze out, the shorter you have to sweat it up. Just be sure to workout for at least 10 minutes. If you really want to see results, give yourself a good 20-40 minute sweat session. The key to maintaining, or better yet- increasing, calorie burn as you age is that you keep your muscles guessing. Don’t just stick to the old walking routine. Add a punch or pause for a set of jumping jacks. Yes, you can multi-task your fat away.  

Burn fat and calories in less time with Jillian Michaels! You'll engage multiple muscles groups and increase your heartrate with interval work. Shine readers, get your DVDs on sale and shipped for free at ExerciseTV now!