When lifting weights, don't forget about the 'negative' phase of the movement. This is where you have contracted your muscle to lift a certain weight and are now returning that weight back to the starting point, or 'lengthening' the muscle. Most people will contract and then return the weight far too quickly and then contract again. You are missing out on vital muscle building potential. 

You know that sore feeling the day after a workout? This is mainly due to the 'eccentric' phase of the exercises you did. When you put force on stretched or lengthened muscles, you are damaging and stressing the fibers of that muscle. This leads to a higher resting metabolic rate following the workout due to recovery and repair of those muscle fibers. 

 The energy cost of eccentric training is very low while the magnitude of the force produced is unusually high. Therefore, muscles respond to eccentric training with meaningful changes in strength, size and power (Lindstedt, LaStayo, and Reich, 2001).

So next time you're at the gym, don't just drop your weights and focus on the lifting phase only. Try contracting for one count and then lower for three counts. For example, during a bicep curl, count to one as you curl the dumbbell up, and then count to three as you lower the dumbbell back down to your sides or hips.  For a barbell squat, count to three as you lower your body towards the ground, then count to one as you pop and squeeze back to standing. 

Do you have over-ripe bananas lying around that you plan on chucking out? DON'T! Cut them up and put them in little zip-lock baggies and put them in the freezer. Next time you make a pre or post-workout smoothie, throw half a frozen banana in there and blend it up. Makes for a tasty, delicious, nutritious, and creamy shake.

HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING

You have probably heard this term before but if not, in short it means short bursts of all out effort followed by a recovery period and then repeat. For instance, sprint on a treadmill for 30 seconds, then walk for 30 seconds and repeat for several rounds. 

If your goal is to lose body fat, then 'HIIT' is the way to go. When you're working in the 'fat burning' zone, which is lower intensity for a longer duration, then yes, the majority of the total calories burned comes from fat. However, if you burn more total calories as you would with high intense training, the percentage of those calories burned from fat is lower but the grand total of calories burned from fat is actually higher because you burned more TOTAL calories in your session.

For example; 20 minutes of jogging on the treadmill with heart rate around 70% effort may burn 200 calories with which 50% of those came from fat giving you a total of 100 calories burned from fat.
Now, if you do 20 minutes of HIIT you may burn 400 calories with which only 30% came from fat giving you a total of 120 calories burned from fat. Lower percentage, but higher grand total.

As an added bonus, high intensity interval training has been proven to continue to burn calories in the 24 hours prior to finishing your workout. Steady state cardio will stop burning calories when you stop working out.

So work out smarter and get results faster by using your time more efficiently.