You can get in twice as effective a workout in half the time if you just fine tune your workouts. Check out these quick tips to help you get more from your workouts.

Weight-Lifting

A proper weight training session should be cardio-intensive. You can maximize the cardio and intensity of your weigh-lifting regimen by using these 2 techniques.

1. Multi-Joint Exercises

Incorporate as many “multi-joint” exercises in your work-out as possible. For instance, instead of doing a bicep curl by itself, try doing a bicep curl followed by an overhead shoulder press in two stable movements. Or instead of doing a standing shoulder press try doing a squat press. Combining the movements maximizes the muscles you use in a single workout while promoting stabilization and core strength. It should be more intensive, so don’t be afraid to lower the weights. Check out CorePerformance.com for more examples.

2. SuperSets

Supersets are key. Instead of going through your workouts 1 at a time (for instance doing 10 reps on a bench press, resting for a minute, and then doing 10 more reps and repeating), you can group multiple workouts in a superset by doing them one after another before resting. For example: Do 10 bench press reps, followed by 10 split-legged squats, followed by 10 reverse sit-ups, then take a few minutes rest, and repeat. Be sure to choose workouts that utilize different muscles in each superset. You’ll find that your workouts feel a lot shorter when you use supersets.

Cardio

Forget “jogging”! When you run for long distances your body does everything possible to minimize energy spent, which means your body attempts to find a rhythm and a pace at which it uses the least amount of energy possible to keep going. That’s fine when you’re a marathon runner, but when your trying to use your cardio workout to burn fat, it is the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Instead of running for 40 minutes at a medium pace, try running for 12 to 20 minutes while sprinting for 30 seconds and resting for a minute the entire time. By using this technique your body never gets a chance to settle into a rhythm, and is constantly using as much energy as it can (same goes for bikes, elliptical, row-machines). You can burn twice the fat in a quarter of the time, so why not try it?  Combing an intensive cardio workout with your weight lifting regiment is a fat burning cocktail.

Alternatively, if you have the space, sprints are your most effective fat burning cardio workouts. Try running 10-20 minutes of 10 meter shuttles at 1 minute intervals, or 100 yard sprints followed by 1 minute rests. I’ll post more advanced workouts in the near future.