Power, or speed strength (how fast your muscles can produce force) is one of the best ways to improve your workout efficiency (do more work in less time). To do this, you need to workout faster to retrain your neuromuscular system.
High intensity interval cardio training (HIIT) will:
a) significantly boost your metabolism--during and after exercise,
b) give you less muscle mass loss,
c) give you a faster rate of body fat-to-energy conversion and
d) significantly increase your VO2 Max capacity.
Medicine ball cardio can also help you break through a weight loss plateau. All of the early success associated with starting an exercise program can send you into a tailspin when you reach a plateau. You become frustrated and wonder "what am I doing wrong?" You probably just need to change up your exercise routine and you'll be okay.
Long, slow cardio sessions wastes time and your precious muscle mass also wastes away! Anaerobic cardio sessions, like medicine ball cardio and sprint interval cardio, have been proven to give superior heart-health and fat-burn. So, stop wasting your time and start building your lean, mean fat-burning machine! Devote more time to strength training and less time to cardio. That way, you will build more muscle mass and speed up your metabolism.
There are many ways to change up an exercise routine----do new exercises, adjust the intensity, adjust the amount of weight, adjust the repetitions/sets, etc. One of the best ways to get you "out of your exercise funk" is to add some power exercises to your cardio routine. Shorter, more intense workouts (weight training or cardio) will give you more fat loss gains.
If you're having trouble getting motivated, here are 2 tips for you:
1. Get your overall motivation right. These types of motivations will work: a) exercise and eat right because its good for YOU and YOU CARE ABOUT YOU and b) exercise because you enjoy it (find exercise types that you enjoy).
2. Set short-term and long-term goals. A good short-term goal would be to burn 1% of body fat and lose 3-5 pounds this week. A long-term goal could be to burn 5% of body fat and lose 10-15 pounds in a month.
If you can't do medicine ball or sprint interval cardio intervals just yet, start with fast-walking cardio intervals, work up to jogging intervals and then fast paced cardio intervals.
Here's an example: instead of doing cardio on the elliptical machine, do your medicine ball cardio with a pair of power exercises. All it takes is 20 intense minutes. It can go something like this:
--Full speed medicine ball diagonal chops (pictured above), 1 minute
--Walk for 2 minutes
--Full speed medicine ball front chops, 1 minute
--Walk for 2 minutes
Just do this rotation for 20 minutes and you have a very intense medicine ball cardio workout! And, on your weight training days, you could mix in some power medicine ball exercises.
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"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"
Check out my other great blogs:
Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!
Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!
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