By: Nick Jarvis
Submitted: 2008-06-26 21:01:24 | Word Count: 531
If your desire is to lose inches and shape up your body, then you should work on both decreasing body fat and increasing muscle mass. Development of more muscles does increase your metabolism and assists in burning more calories. Doing exercises that help build muscle is made easier when fat is lost. You should reach both goals at the same time if you exercise properly. Using this two step plan will allow you to get optimal results.
Burn Fat
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Interval training is among the quickest ways to burn fat. According to a study by the American College of Sports Medicine, more calories are burned during short, high intensity workouts than in lengthy more slow paced workouts. The main idea behind interval training is a high level of intensity. It uses small cardio bursts mixed between intervals of slower exercises, which allows you to get a full body workout while maximizing your calorie and fat burning abilities.
The anaerobic and aerobic body systems will burn more fat under this type of exercise program. The anaerobic system, triggered by fast aerobic exercise, uses energy stored in the muscles. To begin the aerobic system, you start with slower workouts. These allow your body to take oxygen and change carbohydrates that have been stored into energy. Burning of maximum amount of calories and building of muscle is attributed to changing of systems.
How would I begin my interval training? To warm up your muscles, do some walking in place, followed by stretches, which will loosen your muscles. The warm up and stretching phase is essential to prepare your body for the first slow interval of two minutes. Calisthenics such as sit ups, squats or crunches are particularly useful exercises for the slow intervals. 100 110 beats per minute is the ideal heart rate. Decrease your exercise pace even more if your heart rate is faster than this.
After the two minutes pass, you can start the fast interval. This interval also lasts two minutes, however the focus now is on high impact exercise such as running or jumping rope. To get maximum effect alternate two minutes fast and slow intervals for 30 to 60 minutes.
Gain More Muscle
Interval training certainly does help in gaining some muscle however, using the two fold interval training and weightlifting routine will provide the best overall results in the shortest period of time. Alternating days between interval training and weightlifting is the most effective method. This will give some rest to your weight lifting muscles, yet you are still able to build different muscles and burn calories.
Make sure you exercise slowly when you weight lift so that your muscles can advantage as much as possible from the workout. In addition, be sure to do diverse strength exercises to work many different muscle groups: arms, legs, inner and outer, triceps and biceps, deltoids, gluteus, pectorals and more.
You can train your abs every day, since they are stronger muscles. Therefore, you should do sit ups and crunches during both routines, if at all possible.
Since you are simultaneously burning fat and building muscle, this two step method is ideal. Why wait? You can burn calories and gain muscle all at the same time!
