Andi and I keep hearing a lot about these Metabolic workouts. It’s all over the internet as well as in health and fitness magazines. You might remember my quest to 10 minutes of The Burpee Chain Row? Well I still have to complete 9 minutes and then it’s on to 10!
We both decided to do metabolic workouts in our classes tonight to see how our participants like them. I chose to do a “Metabolic Finisher” and Andi chose to do the bulk of her class as a metabolic workout.
Metabolic Finishers: are intense exercises performed at the end of the workout that’s designed to ensure that you’ve burnt every last drop of gas from the tank. Research has found that this type of training will keep you burning calories up to 38 hours after you finish exercising. They will test your mental toughness and always provide a challenge.
Marcia’s class- Cardio Mix which is a mix of cardio and weight training. I will say that today’s class was one of the toughest they have done in this 8 week session. They are on week 7, so that’s how it should be! ;-) They did a lot of stair running, jumping jacks with a body bar, lunges, and tons of weighted shoulder work. Not to forget the many reps of biceps and triceps. Oh, and the push ups! They totally kicked butt today! Before class officially started I let them know about the metabolic finisher to be done after the real workout. I told them it would help to bust through plateaus. I gave them a choice between 5 minutes of the Burpee Chain Row or 5 minutes of a different metabolic finisher( that had squat thrusts, mountain climbers, squats and speed skips). They chose the Burpee Chain Row because they thought it would be easier. ( ha!). Off they went!
Burpee Chain Row
They survived barely, but they loved the challenge once it was over. They felt they accomplished something big, and I felt that way too. They did so well!! They don’t know it yet, but we will do another one next week! ;-)
Metabolic workout- The short definition of metabolic training is completing structural and compound exercises with little rest in between exercises in an effort to maximize calorie burn and increase metabolic rate during and after the workout.
Andi’s class-My class was a TRX class. I had a long warm up with some dynamic stretching to start getting the heart rates up and to get the muscles all warmed up for a quick, intense TRX circuit.
The warm-up went as follows…
Walking lunges with rotation (length of the gym floor)
Walking knee lifts w/ arm swings (swinging arms forward for one floor length, then swinging arms backwards on the return trip)
Hip cross over
Scorpions
Lateral lunges
The workout circuit went as follows (30sec ea w/ little to no rest between sets and most everything done w/ TRX. They were pushed to get heart rates up and then move through it with more intensity)…
speed squats, atomic push-ups, bicep clutch, cross body mt climbers, low rows, speed squats w/ side leg lifts, power jacks, chest press, glute table, plank to pike, and quick feet
They moved through it quickly and their heart rates stayed nice and high as they moved from one exercise to the next. I explained the entire circuit before having them actually do it so there was little need to take breaks while I explained what to do next. I did a little cueing and gave reminders to keep good form. They were able to complete the circuit two times and we finished with some static stretching.
Added benefit to metabolic training: Numerous studies have also shown that metabolic training better increases your hormonal profile than aerobic exercise. In particular, hormones that accelerate fat loss respond very well via this type of strength training program.
TRX Pike
I need the pay check, which means I have to teach the classes. Even scaling back a bit in the classes (which is hard for me) doesn’t seem to help.
