Resistance training is important for building strength and muscle tone, but what about calorie and fat burning? Naturally, you’ll blast more fat sprinting around the track then you will doing biceps curls – but there are some ways to burn significantly more calories during resistance training. Doing this will allow you to spend less time in the gym and give you an advantage when it comes to fat burning. Here’s how to send your metabolism into overdrive during resistance training.

Blast More Fat during Resistance Training: Work Large Muscles

Concentrating on large muscles such as the thighs and back burns more calories than working smaller muscle groups. Focus in on doing squats while holding dumbells to sculpt lean thigh muscles. To burn even more calories, hold a dumbbell in each hand and do lunges while moving around the perimeter of the gym. This works not only the thighs, but the buttocks too – while burning more calories than you would doing them standing still. To work the back muscles, incorporate bent over rows using barbells into your routine. Do a set fast to burn more calories followed by a slow set to build strength. Working large muscle groups builds muscle faster too.

Burn More Calories during Resistance Training: Throw in Some Cardio

One of the most effective ways to burn calories while firming and toning is to mix cardio training into a weight routine. This technique is called circuit training and it blasts more fat than traditional weight training. After each set of resistance exercises, jog or sprint around the track a few times or do two minutes of jumping rope before moving on to the next resistance training set. Keep alternating back and forth between strength training and cardio. This type of workout is more of a challenge, but it burns significantly more calories.

Do Some Push-ups during Resistance Training

Push-ups are one of the best calorie-burning strength exercises there is. Hit the floor for a set after every third strength training set. No exercise is more effective for building upper body strength and burning calories at the same time than is the old-fashioned push-up.

Drink Green Tea before Heading to the Gym

Researchers at the University of Birmingham point out that drinking a few cups of green tea before exercise may help to burn more fat during an exercise session. Some people take a green tea extract, but it’s best to do get the benefits of green tea naturally since the long-term health effects of green tea extracts aren’t known.

You can also burn a few more calories during resistance training by simply reducing the amount of rest between each resistance exercise. Don’t stand around – quickly move from set to set. The more you move the more calories you’ll burn and the faster you’ll see results.

Filed under: Fitness

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