Our bodies constantly seek to find homeostasis so to continue to make progress with our workout routines, we need to continue to challenge our bodies. Think of our metabolism as a thermostat. If you turn it down to 72, the AC will come on to lower the room to 72. Anytime it gets above 72 the AC will come back on, again lowering the temp of the room to 72. The metabolism does this job for our bodies.
Adding more cardio to your workout plans doesn’t help. Let’s say you walk for an hour three times a week and for the first month you lost 10 pounds, then your fat loss stalled. You add in a fourth day of walking for an hour and maybe you lose 2 more pounds, then you stall again. So you add in 15 minutes to each walk and now you are at 75 minutes four days a week. Then you add in a spin class to your workout routine and you lose 3 more pounds, and stall again. When will you get to a point where you can’t keep adding in more minutes to keep from stalling? Either you are going to run out of time, drive yourself insane and eventually give up or your body is going to break down with injuries.
Trust me, I used to do this with running. I got to a point where I ran five days a week, took two spin classes, yoga, then started adding in 15- 20 minutes on the elliptical and doing ab workout routines every morning. All that did was cause me to lose sleep and if I had kept going, I would have eventually ended up with adrenal fatigue. Thankfully right around then is when I learned about the following…
The number one thing we can do to support our metabolism and make physical change happen in our body is to build muscle. To build muscle you must lift weights, and again, to continue to challenge our body with the heaviest weights possible.
The volume range for this is 3 – 4 sets of 8 – 12 reps for each exercise; doing about 5-10 exercises in a day, 3 – 4 days a week. (Keep in mind, this will differ based on your personal fitness goals and your day to day schedule, what your time allows for.) Going as heavy as possible for 8 – 12 reps puts you into hypertrophy training, which is proven as being the best for building muscle, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM.)
So for a workout schedule, I suggest.. legs and shoulders; chest and tris; legs and abs; back and bis.
A sample leg and shoulder workout routine may look like..
barbell deadlifts 4×8 (4 sets of 8 reps)
barbell overhead press 4 x8
barbell step ups 3 x 10 superset with lateral db raises 3×10
lateral lunges 3 x 10 superset with upright row 3 x10
And use the heaviest weights possible for the given number of sets and reps.
If you are unsure of what to do for your workout routines or you are struggling to break through a fat loss plateau, let me help you!
My online personal training plans include three days of strength training workouts routines each week and three high intensity interval training workouts too!
Go to KyraWilliamsFitness.com/signup to join for just $7 a month!
Your Coach,
Kyra