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Health & Fitness

3 Ways to Maximize Your Workout

Follow these 3 training principles to add a new found intensity to your workout program and boost to your overall metabolism.

3 Training Principles Your Workout is Missing   

1) R.A.M.P.

Metabolic Ramping or R.A.M.P. is a combination of movements that stress Range of Motion, Activation (of muscles) and Movement Preparation. It’s the term we use at Tyler English Fitness for our “warm-up” in our Metabolic Group Coaching Program, that we do following our tissue quality or foam rolling work.

Most warm-ups target your cardiovascular system, your lower body and in the all so common sagittal plane. Just think about this for a second – what do most people “warm-up” on during their gym workout? I bet you answered bike, elliptical or treadmill. When performing a RAMP we use the entire body, all three planes of motion, firing up muscles that need to be activated and lengthening muscles that are usually short and tight.

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A Metabolic Ramping style warm-up is not just to a warm-up, it’s preparing you for the activity in your workout to follow.

The design of a RAMP is based on your needs for stability and mobility.

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The below movements will address most of the common needs of a client.

  • Basic Hip Flexor Stretch
  • Hip Bridge
  • Glute Medius Activation Exercise
  • Thoracic Spine Mobility Exercise
  • Ankle Mobility Exercise
  • Squat Mobility Exercise
  • Scapular Stability Exercise
  • Hip Separation Exercise
  • Sagittal Plane Lunge Variation
  • Front or Transverse Plane Lunge Variation

 

2) M.R.T.

Metabolic Resistance Training or MRT has grown in use and popularity in the fitness industry over the last decade. Yet, many daily gym goers still don’t use these style programs. Metabolic Resistance Training adds more bang for your buck and will increase the intensity of your normal strength training program.

An MRT program can help you increase calories burned while forcing your body to have a concern for muscle. Simply put when your body is in a caloric deficit (because your monitoring your daily caloric intake to lose body fat) it won’t burn up muscle, it will burn fat stores during this style of strength training.

An effective MRT program will create an increase in Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) or metabolic disturbance following the workout.  As the metabolic rate recovers to return back to pre-exercise levels it continues to burn calories. Light exercise (like most workouts you see performed in your gym) only takes several minutes to return to these levels, where hard intervals (see below) and MRT have been shown to take several hours to return to these levels. This leads to EPOC and a greater overall caloric burn, hours after the workout is complete.  

A Metabolic Resistance Training Program can vary from one client or one program to the next. Below you’ll find a simple format with a few sample movements, that you can follow to design your own MRT workout.

A)   Core Movement – Anti Extension

  1. Plank
  2. TRX Fall out

B)   Total Body Movement – Knee or Hip Dominant

  1. Dumbbell Squat and Press
  2. Goblet Squat
  3. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

C)   Horizontal or Vertical Pull Movement

  1. Bodyweight Inverted Row
  2. Assisted Chin Up

D)   Horizontal or Vertical Push Movement

  1. Push-up
  2. Overhead Press

E)   Single Leg or Split Stance Movement

  1. Split Squat
  2. Lateral Lunge
  3. Reverse Lunge

F)    Rotational Movement

  1. MB Side Toss to Wall
  2. 1/2 Kneeling Med Ball Toss to Wall

G)   Core Movement – Anti Rotation

  1. Barbell Rainbow
  2. Band Pallof Press

 

3) H.I.I.T.

High Intensity Interval Training (Anaerobic) based fat loss cardio training will burn calories and elevate metabolism to greater measures than high intensity aerobic intervals or low intensity aerobic training. 

For most avid exercisers a typical cardio session consists of 30 to 60 minutes of low intensity aerobic training that allows them to burn “X” calories but doesn’t necessarily allow them to maintain muscle or elevate metabolism.

Then there are those who take a slightly more intense approach to their cardio training. They engage in what they consider to be “intervals” during their cardio training by using high intensity aerobic intervals like those incorporated in spinning type group classes. Although these can be effective, HIIT (anaerobic) based intervals have been shown through research to promote greater fat loss by burning calories during the workout and elevating metabolism following the workout, to promote an ongoing increased fat burning process in the body, your EPOC or “afterburn.”

Think about that spinning session for a second - if you were to sprint 60 seconds on a bike, do you think you are still at 100% intensity throughout that entire minute?

You may start at 100% intensity but as the time goes on your intensity lowers as you pace yourself to finish and your aerobic system takes over.

True HIIT training you will perform 100% throughout the work period and remain in the anaerobic system. Greater for fat loss but down right HARD, probably the reason most people avoid it!

A sample HIIT program would follow the below protocol.

Use a Bike, Treadmill or get outside to a track or my personal favorite a hill.

Perform ALL OUT WORK for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of recovery. Now repeat this sequence for 10 minutes.

Most effective anaerobic protocols are best performed for 10 to 45 seconds with equal or slightly greater rest periods. Anaerobic work is never performed for longer than 45 seconds for the simple fact you will fall into your aerobic element.

 

Now Implement These 3 Training Principles

Next time you step into the gym, ditch your old low intensity program and give your program a change of intensity. Add in the 3 training principles Metabolic Ramping, Metabolic Resistance Training and High Intensity Interval Training will add a metabolic disturbance on your body to burn more overall calories, maintain lean muscle mass and truly maximize your workout.

Work Hard, Train Hard, Get Better,

 

Tyler English is owner of Tyler English Fitness in Canton and Tyler English’s Fitness Revolution in West Hartford. Learn more at www.TylerEnglishBlog.com 

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