That’s how it works with fat loss, too. When all else fails—when your diet and cardio “solutions” aren’t solving a blessed thing—it’s time to break out your own blowtorch and get the lard off once and for all. Summer is coming, which means it’s time, yet again, to either show off the work you’ve been doing all winter or hide the fact that you’ve been slacking. We’re about to show you how to round into the homestretch with a healthy dose of intensity by adding metabolic circuit training to your regimen.
“The EPOC effect does what steadystate cardio can’t do,” says Ryan Whitton, a strength coach in Austin, TX. “You still need some steady-state in your program to enhance recovery and strengthen your heart, but when it comes to stripping fat off your body, nothing works like circuit training to manipulate the speed at which your metabolism burns.”
Research has shown that the EPOC effect increases along with the intensity level of the type of exercise you’re performing. So, while you may burn more calories during a low-impact 45-minute treadmill session, you’ll affect your metabolic rate in a far more profound way if you throw in two or three short-yet-intense ten minute metabolic circuits per week.
HAVE FUN WHILE YOU GAIN
Whether you’re willing to admit it or not, metabolic-style training is fun despite its high degree of difficulty. The workouts move quickly, the exercises are constantly changing, and it forces you to use your entire body as a unit— the way it’s intended to move—instead of performing the same repetitive moves for set periods of time, a la steady-state cardio. You can also train this way anywhere. Whether you’re traveling, pressed for time, or you’d rather wait until you’re home from the gym to receive your metabolic ass kicking, most of the exercises in this set of workouts involve just your body weight—with the rest utilizing dumbbells, the weight of which can remain constant. In other words, you won’t need a ton of time, space, or gear—just the desire to shred those last bits of winter body fat and a plan to complete the job.
