Burn 450% More Calories Without Cardio

Did you know that with just a few small tweaks to your routine, you could be torching fat without losing muscle and without doing hours of extra cardio? Yes, you read that right. One study compared the effects of 20 weeks of HIIT (high intensity interval training) with 20 weeks of ET (endurance training) on young adults. They found the HIIT group lost nine times more fat than the ET group! Yet, another study compared the effects of a traditional weight training program with a high intensity resistance training (HIRT) program. The traditional program involved eight exercises each for four sets of 8-12 reps, the last one taken to failure. This program took 62 minutes to complete and the session volume was around 17,000 pounds. The HIRT program consisted of three exercises for 3 sets of 6 reps, while an additional set was performed in a rest-pause fashion. While this program took only 32 minutes to complete and the volume was significantly less at 8,500 pounds, it showed a greater boost in post-caloric burn. In fact, the post-caloric burn the next day was 450% greater than the traditional lifting group. As T-Nation explains, "What these two studies confirm, gloriously, is that taking your last sets to failure through the use of finishers results in dramatic fat loss. And it can be done without necessarily adding more work, just by optimizing your final sets." Here is one way you can apply this to your workout:

Rest-Pause

This technique was used in the HIRT study and has been a go-to move in the body building community for some time. Go to technical failure in your last set. That is, go until you cannot complete another rep without breaking form. Take a 15 second break, or 10 breaths, then pick up the weight and go again until technical failure. Put the weight down and take another 15 second break then start your final set. If you normally do 10 reps in a regular set, aim for five reps in your first rest-pause set followed by three reps in your second set. For more tips on how to make this work for you, go here. Do you perform finisher sets with winning results? Tell us your story.