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How many calories can you burn?

Our Christmas party is coming up tomorrow (FYI the gym is closing at 7pm folks) and it made me think that it might be a good idea to try and burn off some of those calories before I put them on.

I don’t know if anyone’s ever shared this with you before, but we actually burn most of our calories at rest…. What? What am I even doing in the gym then? You are probably asking yourself now. Muscles do burn calories though, and fat is just a storage facility. So if you build a nice bit of lean muscle, you’ll burn more calories even when you’re resting. But the Christmas party’s tomorrow night, I might have left it a bit late to start building me some muscle – what am I going to do?

I heard slow steady state exercise, like walking on the treadmill is the best way to burn fat… This may well be the case, you will burn fat during the 40mins you’re on the treadmill, but as soon as you get off – that’s it. Training at a high intensity means that your heart will stay elevated even after you finish your workout and you get the effect of something called EPOC. I love EPOC, it stands for Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. It is basically the increased rate of oxygen required after strenuous exercise and the effects can go on for hours!

Best Pre-Christmas Drinks Calorie Burner

Your best calorie burner is going to be a High Instensity Interval Training type workout with a mixture of weights and bodyweight exercises.

SET 1

  • 8 squat tuck jumps
  • 8 narrow  push-ups
  • 16 jumping lunges
  • 8 pull-ups
  • 8 v-up sit-ups

As many times as you can in 8 mins, then:

SET 2

tabata timerSet a timer for 20:10, 20 seconds of effort, 10 seconds rest

Perform 8 rounds of kettlebell swings then 8 rounds of burpees

And to finish, grab a barbell (or two kettlebells) and work with a partner,

 

SET 3

Perform 10 bent-over row, 10 push-press, rest while your partner does the exercises and then it’s back over to you. Do this as many times as you can in 5 mins.

GOOD LUCK!