GenXXLSports for the Real World Athlete (and Weekend Warrior)
Boost your Weight Training Workout
Weight training, bodybuilding, or body weight training is difficult in itself. A positive mindset is required to help to push through the pain. Whether you work on pyramid or reverse pyramid sets, plyometric training, or simple lifting of weights, it is important to know your own mind to achieve your aims.
Many people may hit a plateau stage in weight training and need something to push them toward the next stage. A great method to help with this is short, sharp one-minute drill sessions in skipping, sprinting, high jumps, or other exercise of your choice. As long as it works the heart and pushes you to your limits in a short space of this, it will improve your fitness tremendously over a few sessions.
Both aerobic (skipping, running, cycling etc) and anaerobic exercise (plyometrics, weight training, bodyweight training) work well together and help to burn off excess fat in the body. In order for lean muscle tissue to be visible, the body fat percentage must be low. Weight training alone will not burn off fat. Cardiovascular exercise is also required to burn off excess fat. Anaerobic exercise is effective to build lean muscle tissue and give an increase in the basal metabolic rate (BMR) but aerobic will burn off fat and expose the lean, sexy body underneath.
A perfect intensive training plan would be to perform a set of your weight training exercises and then skip or perform squat thrusts for one minute to keep the heart rate high. This will torch calories and more than likely boost the metabolism for several hours afterward. Put together with aerobic exercise, which helps to burn fat for up to forty-eight hours, these short sharp minute drills will invigorate your body and work your heart and muscles to the max.
That last thing you want to do when you desire to build a stronger body is to reach a plateau stage where your fitness cannot improve or you struggle to push through the pain barrier. Short intensive one-minute aerobic sessions will get the blood pumping, strengthen the heart, and burn off stored fat.
Running and skipping are also weight-bearing exercises that strengthen the skeletal system and prevent age degenerative diseases like osteoporosis. What is also important when linking both aerobic and anaerobic exercise together is eating a protein rich diet with complex carbohydrates.
A perfect snack to have before hitting the gym would be wholemeal bread with peanut butter and sliced banana. The bread contains complex carbohydrates that fuel the muscles for energy, the peanut butter contains a useful amount of protein, which keeps the body fuller for longer and helps to repair the microscopic tears to the muscles when weight training is performed. Bananas are an instant energy food and are low on the glycaemic index. It fuels the muscles. Together, this quick snack gives sufficient energy to complete an intensive workout. Try to stick to foods low on the GI scale. Fibre rich products are wonderful foods that sustain energy and so too are fruits and vegetables.
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