The Ultimate Fat Burning Workout
April 13th, 2010
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the incredible number of people I see at the gym who work themselves to the bone on the cardio machines. They slave away for hours every week on the stair stepper, treadmill, elliptical and exercise bike hoping to shed the extra pounds. Yet, as hard as they work, day after day and month after month they continue to look the same.
Having been stuck in their situation myself for over two years, I know how frustrated they feel. After all the time I wasted, I finally figured out that the endless bouts of cardio weren’t working for me and were actually becoming unsustainable. The more cardio exercise I did, the more I had to do to continue to see meager results.
Finally, after my muscles shriveled up and my body refused to burn any more fat, I reached the point where I couldn’t work out for more than two hours a day because I was burning out. Every day I felt tired and fatigued, and I was severely lacking energy. Although I was determined to get the six-pack I’d always wanted, I finally accepted the fact that all the excessive exercise was doing me more harm than good.
After taking a week off for mental sanity, I decided to try something new. Instead of slaving away for hours on end doing more and more cardio, I would work out with weights for 40 minutes and then do 20 minutes of cardio exercise 5 days a week.
At first I felt guilty because I was working out less than half the time I had been exercising previously. But, once I started to feel better and see results a lot faster, I realized that this approach was allowing me to have the energy to push myself harder and work out for shorter periods of time.
The end result?
I was able to work out more intensely, move faster and burn more calories in far less time without wearing my body out – no more survival mode. Not only that, but I also wasn’t experiencing uncontrollable eating binges either, which had been a problem when I was working out for two hours at a time because of the massive calorie deficit I was creating with all of the excessive exercise.
Today my workouts are basically the same. I still hit the weights for 40 minutes a day 5 days a week, and then I follow it up with cardio on the elliptical machine for a medium to fast paced 20 minutes. This workout is absolutely perfect for three simple reasons:
1) Every week I can see more lines in my midsection, which is an indication that I’m getting leaner.
2) My strength is remaining constant, which is allowing me to push heavier weights and maintain my muscle.
3) I feel good every day – no more suffering or feeling like I’m falling down!
If you’ve been hesitant to lift weights, women especially, due to the fear of getting “bigger”, I can assure you that doing dumbbell workouts (like the ones in the members’ area) will not give you huge muscles. If anything, it will help you to become leaner, firmer and fitter – which are basically the things we all would like to be more of.
Categories: Get Back on Track, Weight Loss
