If you’re going to sweat it out at the gym, you might as well make it totally worth it. There are ways you can pimp up your regular exercises and routines to give them more oomph and burn extra calories.
1. Listen to Music for Subliminal Will Power
Studies have shown that those who listen to music while they exercise are more likely to continue working out for much longer periods of time.
2. Create Instability to Make Your Body Work Harder
Try doing a few of your normal exercises, but take your left or right leg out of the situation. Creating a lack of balance like this will encourage the rest of your body to work even harder to keep you upright and stable.
3. Start Doing Supersets to Get the Most of Your Workout
Get into the habit of moving quickly from one set of exercises to the other. This fast paced workout will test your body to the limit and result in much more calorie burning than taking it slow.
4. Mix Cardio and Strength Training for a Metabolism Boost
Create a workout that involves both strength training and periods of cardio. It is the best way to get your metabolism running at its maximum, which will lead to more calories being burned.
5. Utilize Your Own Bodyweight for Greater Success
It has been proven that you burn way more calories if you do exercises that utilize your own bodyweight. So instead of lifting dumbbells, get down on the floor and do some pushups.
6. Add a Period of HIIT into Your Workout
Increase your calorie burning by adding a period of high intensity interval training into your normal workout. The change of pace can shock your body into calorie burning overdrive!
7. Focus on Multitasking Moves That Use Multiple Body Parts
Pack your workout full of different plank variations and add holding weights while doing your cardio to make sure that you are always using several different body parts at the same time.
8. Swing Your Arms for Maximum Effect
Whenever you are power walking or jogging, make the effort to swing your arms out in an extended pose. Not only will it increase your pace but it will also help you to burn up to 15% more calories.
9. Add More Weights to Your Routine for Improved Burn
It’s more about the amount of weight that you lift rather than the amount of times that you lift it. Lifting heavier weights in fewer reps will burn more calories than the reverse.
10. Always Go for Cold Water over Room Temp
A recent study suggested that those who drank refrigerated water before a workout were able to exercise for 25% longer than those who drank warmer, room temperature water.
11. Do Circuit Training to Keep Your Heart Rate up
Doing circuit training, going from one set of exercises to the other, has been proven to burn more calories post workout because it keeps your heart rate more elevated.
12. Increase That Incline for Extra Calorie Burn
If you have no choice but to use the treadmill, then make sure to crank up that incline for as much as a 60% increase in calorie burn!
13. Always Aim for a Minimum of 12 Minutes
The general consensus is that any period of exercise is most effective when performed for a minimum of 12 minutes. This is the magic number for calories to really start burning, but obviously, the longer the better!
14. Never Forget to Incorporate Stretching in to Your Exercise
Stretching keeps all of your muscles flexible and makes them more effective at fast recovery, which in turn will help you to work out more often.
15. Always Exercise on a Well Filled Stomach
To put it simply, food is fuel, and the more fuel you have inside you, the longer your internal engine is going to be able to run!
16. Work out in a Group for Extra Motivation
If you can, work out with others, as being in group setting always spurs people on to do more than they would if they were alone.
17. Switch It up in Terms of What Exercise You do
Don’t let your body get used to one type of exercise, do lots of different types of activities to work out different parts every day.
18. Have a Healthy Post WorkOut Snack
Have a nutritious snack after you have worked out. This encourages and aids the speed of muscle recovery, and will also help to burn calories quicker.
19. Work out in the Morning for a Better Routine
Working out in the morning always leads to a better sleeping pattern at night, and regular sleep is vitally important to healthy weight loss and calorie burning.
20. Don’t Forget to do Lower Body WorkOuts Too
The bigger the muscles you work out, the more calories you are going to burn, and your leg and lower half muscles are the biggest in your entire body!
21. Exercise outside Rather than in the Gym
Apparently, a person who works out in the fresh air of the great outdoors has propensity to exercise for longer than somebody on a treadmill, and can burn up to 10% more calories each session.