Try This Crazy Fat-Burning Workout…
A uniquely different style of cardio-combo-weight-training workout
by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
I just have a couple quick, yet cool tricks for you today for workout modifications that can help you break training plateaus and show you how to get that six pack abs look.
Idea #1 - The weights / cardio high intensity combo workout…
This is a totally different way to structure your workouts and is great for breaking a plateau and getting new results.
Most people either do a session of “cardio exercise” before or after their workout or on different days altogether.
You already know my opinion on boring slow pace cardio so I won’t go into that today… BUT, try this workout for really interesting variety!
How you do this workout is to alternate short 1-minute bursts of high intensity cardio work in between weight training sets.
So for example, let’s say that you’re doing 4 sets of pullups or 4 sets of bench press…. well, in between the weight training sets, you do any type of cardio at a high intensity for 1 minute.
This 1 minute burst of cardio could be a 1 min blast at high speed on the treadmill, could be sprinting around a track if you have a track at your gym, or could be grabbing a jump rope and banging out a super high speed 1 min of jump roping between sets or try a minute of Kettlebell swings.
So your exercises are broken down like this:
weight training set #1
60 seconds high intensity cardio
weight training set #2
60 seconds high intensity cardio
weight training set #3
60 seconds high intensity cardio
etc, etc
new exercise weight training set #1
60 seconds high intensity cardio
new exercise weight training set #2
60 seconds high intensity cardio
etc, etc
This a tough style of workout and burns a TON of calories. If you find your workouts need a new boost, give this a try, and you’ll be shocked how hard this works you.
Idea #2: the “weird pullup”…
I’ve tried this on occasion to mix up my pullups and give me a harder variation as a challenge.
This type of pullup is only for advanced trainees that can already do at least 8-10 normal pullups or more per set.
What you do on this challenging style of pullup is use 2 small towels and wrap them around the bar at about shoulder width for each towel. The small “hand towel” size towels work best, as a large towel will make too large of a gripping surface for grabbing onto for pullups.
Then grip the towels as hard as you can and start doing pullups. You won’t be able to do as many pullups as normal because of the tough grip, so do a few extra sets.
I can tell you… these are HARD pullups and challenge your grip immensely! Only try these if you are already very strong on pullups. Great variation though.
I hope you enjoyed these tips today and they help you get better workout results!
Thanks to Mike Geary for this article. I can tell you from experience that the weight training/cardio workout is a killer but in a great way.
