Get More Benefits From Burst Training Workouts

 

Chad Cannon, CPT, President and CEO of SC Wellness & Fitness

If you’re looking to build muscle, lose fat, and increase strength and power in minimal time, burst training is the workout for you. What is burst training? It’s high intensity-short duration resistance training that produces results like nothing else. Most people look to build fitness through weight machine exercises and low-intensity aerobics. While this approach has some benefits it develops little power, strength, speed or functional fitness for optimal performance.

The biggest benefit of burst training is it will convert you from a fat-storer to a fat-burner. If you want to lose fat while building lean muscle you must create the correct hormonal balances. Burst training is the most effective routine for turning on your fat-burning switches and there’s scientific evidence to prove it.

A University of Colorado study found that the hormonal and central nervous system responses were lower in people exercising at low-moderate intensities. Increasing growth hormone and adrenaline release is the secret to reducing body fat. The best way to do this is with short-duration, high-intensity weight training, and cardio interval training.

Burst training includes high intensity weight training, bodyweight movements, and explosive exercises. You can use a wide variety of exercises but the key element is working the large muscle groups with an overload stimulus. Traditional free weight exercises like the ones listed below simply work best:

• Barbell or Dumbbell Chest Presses
• Barbell or Dumbbell Bent-Over Rows
• Barbell or Dumbbell Squats
• Barbell or Dumbbell Shrugs
• Barbell or Dumbbell Overhead Shoulder Press
• Barbell or Dumbbell Hang Cleans
• Barbell or Dumbbell Power-Cleans
• Barbell or Dumbbell Dead-Lifts
• Barbell or Dumbbell Upright Rows
• Barbell or Dumbbell Lunges

Of course many of the above exercises can be done with your own body weight as well. Examples of the bodyweight exercises commonly used in burst training include:

• Push-Up’s
• Pull-Up’s
• Mountain Climbers
• Mountain Jumpers
• Back Bridges
• Bear Crawls
• Table Makers
• Torso Lifts
• Leg Lifts
• Plyo-box jumps
• Jump Rope
• Jump Squats
• Core/Abdominal exercises

Shown below is an example of burst training workout.

Exercises (Sets x Repetitions)
Do The Following Circuit 1-3 Times

Dumbbell Squats: 1 x 10-25 reps
Jump Rope: 30 seconds to 1 minute
Rest: 1-2 minutes then proceed to next group of exercises

Barbell Overhead Shoulder Press: 1 x 10-25 reps
Plyo-Box Jumps: 10 jumps
Rest: 1-2 minutes then proceed to next group of exercises

Pull-Up’s: 1 x 6-10 reps
Mountain Climbers: 30 count
Rest: 1-2 minutes then proceed to next group of exercises

Bench Press: 1 x 10-25 reps
Jump Squats: 15 reps
Rest: 1-2 minutes then proceed back to first group of exercises.

There are endless ways you can put together a burst training workout. The whole idea is working the muscles with high-intensity, explosive movements, then rest briefly and repeat.

At the Shaping Concepts Wellness & Fitness Center we specialize in burst training workouts to help our clients create amazing body transformations. The results of our clients who use this workout method speak for the overall effectiveness. We’ve simply found no better way to develop total body fitness, health, and human performance.

People often question the effectiveness of a thirty minute fitness routine but one time through a burst training workout and you’ll be a believer. Understand that if you’re new to exercise there will be a period of progression with functional exercise before you go “all out” with burst training. You must be able to work with your own bodyweight as resistance before progressing to weight training for example.

It’s also important to build what’s called an “aerobic base” with low-moderate intensity cardio routines before progressing to the cardio equivalent of burst training used for resistance, which is called interval training.

The progression of healthy individuals to burst training for resistance training and interval training for cardio is the one-two punch for maximum fat burning and lean muscle development.

If you’d like to learn more you can receive a free, no-obligations consultation of our SC Wellness & Fitness programs and experience the difference for yourself.

Chad Cannon is the president and CEO of Shaping Concepts Wellness & Fitness Center.