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Are you looking for that “jump start” to rev your metabolism and get you
bathing suit ready? The following ten tips will improve your workouts and
ignite your metabolism. Try some or all of these tips, but beware, the result
may be a number of admiring second glances and stares when you don that
bikini or pair of trunks.

1. The majority of your workouts should be composed of free-weight
or cable exercises.
Compared to machines, free-weight and cable movements often require
more skill, create muscular balance, and have a greater metabolic cost. For
example, it is more difficult to balance the weights, and to coordinate
muscles when performing free-weight exercises. Although this may sound
like a disadvantage, it is actually a benefit. By balancing and stabilizing free weights
or cables you are working more muscles through a greater range of
motion resulting in more muscles developed and more calories burned.

2. Use mostly compound (multi-joint and multi-muscle) exercises.
When focusing on improving body composition, you can't worry about
“detail” exercises, so you should use exercises that'll get you the biggest
bang for your buck. Isolation exercises can be used at the end of a workout
to work on a specific weakness, but only do the bare minimum.
Virtually every savvy fitness professional is privy to the fact that compound
exercises recruit the most muscle groups for any given body part.
If you seek lean muscle and the increase in metabolism that comes with it,
you must choose exercises that allow for the greatest load. One of the main
reasons why squats are superior to leg extensions for quadriceps
development relates to the fact that the load you can expose the quadriceps
to is much greater with squats. That’s why presses and dips will give you
great triceps development, while triceps kickbacks will do little for triceps
development and even less for the metabolism.
A good rule of thumb is to use lifts that will allow you to use the most weight.
These will have a systemic effect on your body that'll help maintain or
increase your muscle mass, and in turn ignite your metabolism.
3. Super-set or group exercises.
Perform either non-competing muscle group training or antagonist training.
Non-competing muscle group training would involve doing a set of a lower
body exercise, and following it up with an upper body exercise Antagonist
training is executed by alternating exercises that target opposing muscle
groups (e.g. chest and back). The list of benefits includes: quicker recovery,
greater strength levels and shorter workout times.
This design can be a huge advantage in your mission to burn fat. If you
alternate exercises for opposing or non-competing muscle groups, you’ll be
able to keep your heart rate elevated and burn calories like a blast furnace!

4. Keep rep ranges, in general, between 8 and 12.
Through research, it has been determined that the best range for
hypertrophy (muscle gain) is roughly between 8-12 reps. Since the main
focus of your resistance training efforts is to gain lean body mass and
stimulate your metabolism, this rep range fills the bill perfectly. “High reps
for tone and fat loss” is the “big kahuna” of all training myths! Somehow the
aerobics, yoga and Pilate’s community have convinced us that when we
perform bodyweight exercises or light resistance training for high reps, our
muscles magically take on a beautiful shape without growing or bulging. On
the other hand, if you challenge yourself with moderately heavy weights,
your body will take on a bulky, unflattering appearance. If you believe this,
you probably still believe in the Tooth Fairy!
5. Rest only 30 to 60 seconds between sets.
When you keep the rest periods under one minute, it’s easier to stay
focused on the task at hand and keeps your heart rate elevated. In addition,
it forces your muscles to recover more quickly between sets, along with
keeping your nervous system revved up. If your first movement in an
upper/lower body superset is squats, you might want to rest 60 seconds
before attempting your second movement. However, if your first exercise is
a fairly "easy" exercise, like lat pull downs, you might only wish to wait 30
seconds before doing the second part of the superset.
6. Every session should consist of approximately six to eight
exercises.
Why? Because empirical evidence has shown that normal trainees can
consistently maintain six to eight exercises per session without burning out.
It’s imperative to base your exercise selection around compound, multi-joint
exercises. Seventy-five percent (75%) of your exercises for each session
must be compound exercises. Six single-joint isolation exercises are not
going do the trick. Sure, you can perform a few isolation exercises, but the
majority of your exercise choices should be multi-joint.
7. Perform Total Body Workouts
First and foremost, you must drop the notion that a muscle group can only
be trained once or twice a week. Fitness enthusiasts from the past didn't
train that way and you shouldn't either. The more frequent muscle
producing / fat burning sessions you can have, the better.
8. Cardio is not the cure-all for Obesity
Cardiovascular exercise aids in the creation of a caloric deficit, but the
caloric expenditure during cardio is temporary. Strength training addresses
the core of the problem by permanently increasing the rate at which the
body burns calories by adding muscle. The best programs will include both
strength training and cardiovascular training, but the core or the programs
effectiveness is resistance training.
9. When you do cardio, do it first thing in the morning.
Do your cardiovascular training first thing in the morning on an empty
stomach. You’ve gone 8 or more hours without eating, so your blood sugar
levels are at their lowest when you first wake up. After about 10-15 minutes
of cardio training on an empty stomach, you’ll have burned up all your
remaining blood sugar.
Once your blood sugar is used up, the only remaining source of fuel your
body has to continue with your cardio exercise is your stored body fat.
10. Vary your pace during your cardio training sessions.
Don’t maintain a constant steady pace while you’re on the treadmill or
elliptical machine. Numerous studies have shown you’ll burn more calories
and more fat if you train in intervals.
Start out by going for 1 minute at your normal walking pace. Then, for the
next 30 seconds, speed it up to a run. After the 30 seconds at an increased
pace, slow back down to your original pace for 1 more minute. This is
known as an interval. Repeat this interval style cardio for 10-20 minutes.