Be fit for summer

RM Trainer give three suggestions that can help you lose fat and maintain a good physical condition.

1-Boost your metabolism by training with more intensity

To lose fat mass your body needs stimuli that cause a certain physiological stress in order to create adaptations and expend energy, both during and after each workout.

What to do? You should progress in training throughout the year until you can do several sets, with short breaks, in exercises that involve large muscle groups with repetitions between 70 and 85% of your maximum strength (6 to 12 repetitions roughly).

Performing exercises such as squats, dead lift, lunges, steps, press and pulls with short pauses (30 seconds to 1 minute) will help you to create lactic acid concentrations in a short time, creating the stress that the your body needs not to stagnate.

2- Increase time that the muscle is under tension

In order to stimulate your metabolism, in addition to the number of sets, repetitions and adequate rest time, you also need to take into account the time under tension to which the muscles are subjected during training. Performing each repetition slowly, controlling above all the braking phase of them, will enhance the contraction time that the muscles are subjected to during training.

What to do? Count the contraction time the muscles are subjected to in each repetition. For example, in the case of the squat, count 1 second in the ascent phase and 4 seconds in the descent phase, giving greater emphasis to the eccentric phase.

3- Add sprints to your cardio training

To prevent your body from adapting too much to cardio training, preventing it from continuing to lose fat, include some sprints in your workouts. This option will create a boost to your metabolism similar to weight training with short breaks.

What to do? Try starting by including 10-second sprints (on the bike or elliptical) with 50 seconds active recovery for 10 minutes. As you progress through training, try to follow these steps:

- extend this type of training up to 20 minutes;

- reduce recovery time;

- increase the sprint time.

When, for example, you reach 10 seconds of sprint and 10 seconds of recovery (1: 1) you can be sure that you will significantly increase your post-workout calorie expenditure.

Intermediate practitioners more used to running can apply a similar methodology by alternating sprints with jogging. The most advanced ones may include protocols that handle sprints from different distances 100, 200, 300 and 400 meters depending on your objective.

An healthy lifestyle combined with the support of an experienced and qualified trainer who adapts the intensity and training methodology to your physical condition will allow you to train more safely and enhance your results.

Good training, the summer is arriving!