14 DAY TRIAL // Say you’re working out regularly, while also eating healthier but you’re still not getting the results you want, or they just take longer to appear. You needn’t worry or resort to desperate measures to cut corners, Shape magazine says in a piece included in its latest issue: all you have to do is focus on several things that will help you burn more calories with each workout.
The good news is that you don’t even have to spend more time than you already do in the gym: you just have to be more focused. For instance, if you do strength training (and you should, by all means), try not to stop for breaks. This means that, instead of reps with small breaks in between them, you should try to perform all the moves as a circuit. Not only will this help you burn more calories, but it will also keep your metabolism going strong for as long as 16 hours after the workout, Shape says.
‘Don’t tune out when you run. You push harder and move quicker (read: burn more calories) when you know how much farther you have to go, researchers say. So map your route and look for mile markers to cue you to sprint to the finish. Make it feel easier: Research shows that a workout session feels easier to people who are listening to music. […] Get in the game during cardio. A Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise study found that people who rode stationary bikes with interactive programs torched more calories than those who used game-free bikes,” the publication further recommends.
“Use intervals to your advantage. Amp up your heart rate by using intervals – that’s when you alternate spurts of high-intensity exercise (for instance, increase your speed or incline for a minute) with moderate-intensity exercise (decrease your speed or incline for a minute) and repeat. Working at a higher intensity allows you to burn more calories both during your workout and for several hours afterward,” Shape goes on to say. This will allow your body to rest (without you actually stopping), and burn more calories as well.
One last tip from the aforementioned publication is to concentrate more while on the elliptical machine. According to Shape, many people believe they’re actually working the muscles harder than they are with the machine because of how much they move. In order to burn more calories, one should focus on the kind of work they’re doing, so that they’re literally having problems uttering more than a couple of words in conversation while they’re on it.