An in this month’s Men’s Health magazine was talking about lifting heavy weights to increase fat loss. While I was searching for that article, I came across this article from Men’s Health that echoes my thoughts on workouts. The biggest things that hit home for me in this article are how I’d summarize my workouts:

Keep it random

Random exercises, random muscle groups, random routine. From what I’ve seen of the CrossFit workouts, this seems to be a key to their success. Max weights with little reps, max reps with little weight, endurance exercises, long cardio sessions, short interval cardio sessions, cardio sessions mixed with intense lifting, cardio sessions mixed with endurance exercises, you get the idea. By keeping it random, you’re keeping your body on edge. You’re still allowing appropriate recovery time, but your body does not build up a resistance to that same flat bench press all the time. I find you are less likely to see that plateau.

Power lift for fat loss, and cardio increase

Power lifts (which I also call olympic lifts) are the old school lifts that typically incorporate a lof different muscle groups in one lift. Exercises like squats, dead lifts, power cleans, thrusters are just some that you can do that will actual expand your lung capacity. You can tell because your lungs are practically bleeding when you’ve finished.

For my money – power lifts are the most fun you can have at the gym. There’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishment you get while doing shoulder thrusters with a 175lb barbell over your head. They also come in handy when you just can’t get that barbell back on the rack.

Use intervals

I’ve spoke to the benefits of interval training before. Either specifically to cardio, lifting, or to your workout as a whole – mixing intensity keeps your heart on edge as well. You’ll sweat like mad if you’re doing them properly.

Anyway – just a quickie that I came across, but hope you can apply it within your own workouts.

Go hard!

Shendy.