How to Burn Fat and Build Muscle in Two Easy Steps
By: Nick Jarvis
Submitted: 2008-06-26 20:41:46 | Word Count: 633
You can get fit, lose inches and be healthier and happier with your body. Losing fat and gaining muscle should be an easy process when getting into shape. Gaining more muscle mass will rev up your metabolism and help you to burn up more calories. When you lose fat it will be easier for you to do the exercises that will help you gain muscle. With the right kind of activity you will be able to do both at the same time. This is a plan that consists of two steps, which will give you the best results.
2. Burn Fat
[ advertisement ]
Do you want fast results? You can burn fat faster with interval training than you can with most any other exercise routine. High intensity exercises burn more calories than in longer, slower workouts. This is according to results from a study conducted by the American College of Sports and Medicine. Whenever you hear of someone speaking about interval training, they are referring to a high intensity type of workout. This combines short spurts of cardiovascular exercise with intervals of slower exercise. The results? You get a complete workout over your entire body and you burn the maximum amount of calories and fat.
Performing this style of exercise causes the body to use both aerobic and anaerobic pathways to burn excess body fat. Doing the fast aerobic exercises and the anaerobic system uses energy that is stored in the muscle. A slower paced workout will start the aerobic system in which the body uses oxygen to oxidize stored carbohydrates into useable energy. When you go from one system to the next, you maximize the amount of calories burned and increase your ability to gain muscles.
If you would like to begin interval training you should first, walk in place to warm and strengthen the muscles, then stretch to loosen up the muscles. After you have finished stretching, you can begin the initial slow interval for two minutes. Recommended exercises for slow intervals are calisthenics such as crunches, squats or sit ups. You should aim for a heart rate of around 100 110 beats per minute. Slow down the exercise if your heart is beating faster than your goal rate.
Fast intervals can begin after the two minutes are done. The fast interval is only two minutes in duration, but uses a high impact exercise like jumping rope or running. To maximize your results, it is recommended that your workout routine be no less than thirty minutes. Your results are increased if you extend your workout to one hour.
2. Gain More Muscle
Interval training will help to build muscle, but if you want results in a short amount of time, you should combine interval training with a weightlifting regimen. The most effective method for this is to do your interval and weightlifting workouts on an alternating schedule. Doing so rests your weight lifting muscles, however you body continues to carry the ability to burn calories and to gain muscles mass.
It is important when weightlifting to do all of the exercises as slowly as possible as to maximize the use of each muscle. It is vital to also do a variety of exercises that target the inner and outer thighs, triceps and biceps, delts, gluts, pecs, etc.
Your abdominal muscles are tougher than other muscles and, because of this, you can exercise them every day without taking a day off to rest. You will see the best results on your abs if you include crunches and sit ups into both of your workout routines.
Using this two part strategy, you will obtain optimum results because you are burning fat and increasing muscle at the same time. To burn calories there is no need to be muscular, and to build muscle you don’t have to be slender.
