Jogging on a treadmill in gym while watching Tv is not the best of use of your time when trying to burn the most calories in your allotted hour or so at the gym. Here are some things you can do to maximize your calorie burning potential.
For some people, exercise is all about gaining muscle. For others, it’s about losing weight and getting fit. Exercise of any type is always good but if you want to burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time, traditional bodybuilding exercises are not the best way to go.
Are you ready for some fat-loss tips? Are you serious about making those calories burn? Well okay! I wrote this article for people like you.
Content Table
15 Ways to Burn More Calories and Get the Most from Your Workout
1. Use a Fat-Burning Weight Loss product
Do you know why exercise is so good for helping you burn extra calories and lose weight? It’s because it increases metabolism. Exercise increases thermogenesis too.
The faster your metabolism becomes, the more calories you burn. When thermogenesis increases, you lose extra calories as heat.
Certain foods can increase metabolism and thermogenesis. We have a list of them elsewhere on this site. There are many good weight loss supplements that can do it too.
Even if you continue training in the same old way, incorporating fat burning foods into your diet or using a good fat burning supplement may help you burn extra calories while doing the same things.
2. Get a Good Warm-Up
Warm-ups are important. It’s impossible to stress this enough. Too many people jump into their training without adequately warming up. I’ve even met people who don’t do warm-ups at all. That’s crazy.
Warm-ups help you prep-your muscles for a good training session. It doesn’t matter if you are hitting the track or hitting the gym, a warm-up should come first.
Your warm-up is a form of exercise too. While you are warming up you’ll be burning calories at the same time as you are prepping your body. It will also prevent stiff muscles from slowing you down and could save you from injuries.
If you pull a muscle you will have to stop and you may not be able to train again for several days at least. It could even be weeks. Where’s the sense in that?
A few gentle exercises to begin with like sit ups are recommended.
3. Find a Like-minded Training Partner
Some people prefer to train alone. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s a lot to be said for finding a good training partner.
Your training partner can offer encouragement that will help spur you on. It’s also possible the two of you will develop and competitive edge that will cause each of you to push that bit harder.
4. Get With the Beat!
Lots of people like to train wearing headphones and it’s not surprising. The right choice of music can be very invigorating. One of my personal favorites is Eye of the Tiger.
Do you want me to back this idea up with some science? Okay, I will.
During a study at the University of Wisconsin, the stationary bike users burned 7% more calories when they were listening to tunes.
5. Focus and Train with Intensity
It doesn’t matter whether you are running, lifting weights, or spending time on a stationary bike, you need to focus. If you allow your mind to wander, you may get into a state where you are training on auto-pilot.
If your mind is not fully on the job in hand you won’t be able to train with intensity. Allowing your eyes to glaze over will only make you burn less calories instead of more.
6. Strap on Some Extra Weight
They may not look good, but there’s a lot to be said for those weights you can strap to your wrists and ankles. They make everything you do that bit more hard work.
When things are harder to do, it takes more energy to do them. Every time you use more energy it’s more calories burned.
7. March to the Beat of Your Own Drum
When you are using a running machine, forget the pre-set fat-loss programs. They may not be the best way to get your heart-rate where it needs to be.
A typical fat loss program may push your heart rate up 55% of your max. The cardio program might take it up to 75%.
If you feel up to it, forget the programs and just aim to push yourself as hard as you can. The faster your heart rate gets, the more calories you will burn.
8. Go off the Rails
It doesn’t matter if you are using a running machine or a stair-stepper, you won’t be doing yourself any favors if you keep your hands on the rails. It takes the pressure off your legs and makes the exercise easier.
If you want to use the rails, do so with a bend in your elbows and only allow your fingertips to touch the rails, not your palms, and try not to apply any pressure. You need to work those legs as hard as you can.
9. Get Those Arms Moving
Swinging your arms is another good way to burn extra calories. Racewalkers do it all of the time. Swinging them engages your upper-body muscles and moving them faster will likely quicken your pace.
And don’t forget to work your arms during your elliptical machines sessions. You see plenty of gym-goers using the machines while their arms dangle at their sides. If you want to maximize your calorie burn you need to bring your arms into it too.
10. Get on Your Feet and Cycle
Want a good tip for the next time you use a stationary bike? Don’t just sit and peddle, stand up and do it instead. Doing so will bring more of your body into the exercise. It will help you use more muscles and increase the amount of calories you burn.
When your bum is on the seat, your quads do most of the work. Standing up brings your calves into it to and will allow you to work your core as well.
11. Be an Ice-Man (Or Woman)
If it’s available, make ice-cold water your hydration fluid of choice. If you prefer to use a sports drink, do so but try to make it nice and cold.
Swallowing a couple of cups of really cold fluid can increase your metabolism. When the liquid hits your stomach, your body starts to warm it up. Like any other process in the body, it requires energy.
12. Forget About Isolation
Unless your primary goal is muscle growth, it’s best to forget about curls, presses, and other exercises that help you isolate certain muscles. You will be burning calories while doing them, but a well-thought-out cardio routine will help you to burn more.
It’s also worth remembering typical bodybuilding exercises require you to take a rest between each set. Your cardio session can keep you working on burning calories for much longer periods of time.
13. Be Hard on Yourself
Forget about taking rests. If you can, try and keep training for a full hour. Slow things down when you absolutely need to but keep things going. Don’t stop and rest. That’s taking the easy way out. The more work you do, the more calories you will burn.
14. Keep on Pushing Away
When you train regularly and keep doing so for long periods of time, it stands to reason you are going to get fitter. What may have once been incredibly hard, can later become very easy to do.
Don’t let your newfound fitness cause you to ease off on the gas. If you want to burn the maximum amount of calories while training you need to keep get your heart-rate up and work up a sweat.
If you are no longer sweating you are not working hard enough. All that sweat is tangible proof you have increased thermogenesis. That’s what you want. It shows you are doing things right.
15. Have a Healthy Lifestyle 24/7
The fact that you’ve read this far suggests you are interested in burning more calories. After all, that is what this article is about. That means, there’s a good chance what you are really trying to do is lose weight – even if you are stuck at home.
Losing weight takes more than just a few hours of training each week. You need to eat and think healthy 24/7. If your diet is wrong, it doesn’t matter how hard you train, you could still be bombarding yourself with more calories than you need. That means you could continue to gain weight.
A healthy lifestyle is important in other ways too. Apart from eating right, and training, you need to sleep right as well.
Too many late nights and burning the candle at both ends may make you feel tired and rob you of energy and focus. You won’t be able to train with intensity if lack of sleep is making you feel burned out.
Other poor lifestyle choices such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption can hold you back as well. Alcohol also provides a lot of useless calories that can help keep you fat.
This article provides tips on how you can burn the most calories in an hour. What you do with the other 23 hours of the day is entirely up to you but attaining a healthy mind and body is a 24-hour process.
