While your diet is probably the most important part of the formula for lean look, weight lifting also has a great role in getting that shredded physique. How you lift can have a huge impact on your physique. Last time we listed the 8 nutrition tips for a simply shredded physique and this time we are going to see some of the best training tips to get lean.
6 Training Tips For a Shredded Physique
These are the main rules to follow if you want to burn more calories through resistance exercise :
1. More reps
Similar to a cardio workout, higher reps training burns more calories than lower reps training during the workout. This was concluded also by the researchers of the college of Ewing in New Jersey at a 2007 meeting of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. However heavy training carries its own benefits, and for the best results you should combine both low rep and high rep training.
2. Heavy Weights
High reps maybe help you burn more calories while you work out, but training with heavy weights speeds up your metabolism and helps you burn more calories even 24 hours after your workout is done. The researchers at the Norwegian Sports university in Oslo, found out that training with heavy weights increases the post exercise oxygen consumption, which on the other hand refers to increased metabolism. As we mentioned before, it’s best that you build your workout around big and heavy movements in the range of 4-6 reps, and then add some supplemental exercise, performed with lighter weights and higher reps.
3. Free weights against machines
It’s been proven that training with free weights burns more calories than training with machines or cables. The explanation lies in the use of greater amount of stabilizer muscles used during the execution of big compound movements.
4. Short rest periods
Again, the researchers of the college of Ewing, New Jersey found out that about 50% more calories were burned when the rest periods between sets lasted about 30 seconds, opposed to 1 minute rest periods and longer. These is one of the reasons why circuit workouts are great for fat loss and conditioning.
5. Explosive reps
Explosive repetitions burn more calories than slow and controlled reps – say researchers from Ball State University, Indiana. They believe that fast twitch muscle fibers are less energy-efficient than the slow twitch ones and burn more energy during workouts. Try doing a few explosive sets on the big movements such as bench press, leg press, dumbbell rows, but use relatively light wight – about 40% of your 1RM.
6. Negative reps
Growth hormone is one of the most powerful hormones in the body. It has the ability to burn fat and slow down aging. In a recent study, scientists discovered that subjects doing a negative repetitions workout, managed to increase their growth hormone levels up to 40 times higher than their HGH levels before the workout. A negative reps workout requires that you load the bar with a weight that is about 10-20% heavier than your 1RM weight. With a help from a spotter slowly lower the weight, stretch at the bottom of the movement and get the weight back up.