Burn 30% More Calories

Recently, researchers from Syracuse University studied two types of strength training to see which style burned more calories. Their study, which was published in the April, 2010 Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, compared superset training with traditional strength workouts.

A superset is simply 2 exercises done, one after the other, with no rest in between.

The study participants were 10 recreationally active young men. They completed 2 strength training workouts separated by at least 7 days. Their workout consisted of 4 sets of 6 exercises and they performed 10 repetitions per exercise.

One week they trained using supersets. One week later they did traditional resistance training (straight sets like most people do).

What did the researchers find?

Drumroll, please...
* The superset workouts took less time

* The superset workouts burned almost 30% more calories than the traditional training

When expressed relative to time, the exercise energy expenditure was significantly greater during superset training (34.70 ± 2.97 kJ·min−1) than traditional training (26.28 ± 2.43 kJ·min−1).

* The amount of energy burned in the hour after the training session ended was higher for the superset workouts.

Excess postexercise oxygen consumption was significantly greater after superset training (79.36 ± 7.49 kJ) over traditional training (59.67 ± 8.37 kJ).

Unfortunately, too many fitness centers and trainers are giving people inefficient, ineffective workout routines.

Are you frustrated by poor results? Are you still wasting time on bodybuilding style workouts? If you're in Lancaster, let's talk. Even if you're not, I can still help you. Call me at (717) 509-7777.

Stop Multi-Tasking While Exercising

If you're one of those people who believes that carrying weights while walking will kill two birds with one stone, you're wrong. Walking while carrying weights or while performing Shoulder Presses or Bicep Curls is a bad idea for multiple reasons.

To properly work your muscles and get results, muscles need to be challenged. They will not be sufficiently challenged by the size weights you can carry while walking.

Carrying weights while walking can increase your blood pressure, interfere with your natural walking movement, place strain on tendons and ligaments and increase your risk of injury.

If you carry weights in an effort to increase the calorie burn of your walk, don't bother. The small amount of additional calories you might burn is definitely offset by the increase in injury risk. On top of that, carrying weights may actually cause you to slow down when you get tired, burning fewer calories.

To make your walk more productive, incorporate cardio intervals in to your routine. If you're not sure how to do that, check out my previous blog post here.

Cardio Machine Readout Accuracy

Do you diligently check your calories burned at the end of a treadmill, elliptical, rower or stationary bike workout? If so, you need to know that those calculations can be highly inaccurate.

Some machines determine calories used based only on the resistance level and the amount of time exercised. Although some machines do include your weight and age in the calculation, even those may offer only a rough estimate at best because of other factors not taken into consideration. For example, using a machine incorrectly by leaning on the handrails will result in a reading that is higher than the actual number of calories burned. Another factor is the fitness level of the exerciser, which will also affect the number of calories burned during a workout.

Readouts can be somewhat useful as a measure of progress or as a basis of comparison, if you use the same type of equipment correctly and consistently. For example, if the number of calories burned reads higher now than when you started using a certain machine a month ago, you are obviously working harder and progressing. Or, if today's readout after walking on the treadmill is lower than usual, your workout was probably less intense than it normally is.

Another factor to consider is the type of workout you're doing. Although a vigorous cardio interval session will most likely register as fewer calories burned than a steady state workout, because of the intensity of a challenging interval workout your body's metabolism will remain elevated for hours after you've stopped exercising. This is commonly referred to as "afterburn" and is pretty much non-existent after low intensity exercise.

So, don't get hung up on the calorie readout on the cardio machines; they're most likely inaccurate anyway. However, if you do want to use them as a basis of comparison just make sure you are sizing up exercise on the same machine, performed in a similar manner.

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