Whatever you do, DO NOT make the common mistake of doing these 3 things while trying to lose weight with exercising:

  1. Isolate muscle groups and work on those alone
  2. Alternate different muscles and train on different days
  3. Watch someone else and try the same thing

This is complete fat loss sabotage.  You want to know why?

NEVER Isolate Muscle Groups

Working on isolated muscle groups for fat loss often leads to severe muscle imbalances, thereby arresting your fat loss over time. Once your body becomes imbalanced by working on muscle groups one at at time, it is like telling your nervous system which controls that muscle that you no longer want it to send a signal to contract that muscle.  If the nervous system did signal that muscle and contract, you would then injure yourself by pulling your joint out of place.

Here is an example.  Imagine large biceps (front of your arm) and small triceps (back of your arm).  This imbalance of muscle distribution causes you to constantly pull your shoulders forward, or towards your biceps when you use your arm.  By doing this, your triceps are then overpowered and at risk of strain because they are the “weaker” muscle.  As a result, your shoulder girdle is out of place, and you put your rotator cuff muscles at risk of being overstretched.  Your trap is tense, and it’s pulling on your neck. In fact, your neck probably aches on a daily basis.

All this is a recipe for disaster.  Wouldn’t you rather speed up your metabolism by balancing your muscles?   Muscle isolation exercises make this nearly impossible.

But by mixing weight-bearing exercises, you can balance your muscles and return to your natural alignment and strength.  In order to increase your overall global metabolism, the goal should be to use as many joints as possible in a given exercise, creating an additive metabolism effect.

When you practice compound, weight-bearing exercises, your body responds by padding your joints with fluid, which creates a co-contraction where all the muscles around the join contract to hold it in place and prevent injury while practicing weight bearing exercises.

Smart system, huh?

You can use this knowledge to your advantage.  Muscle balancing + Increased safety = Increased metabolism. What a wonderful equation to believe in!

CAUTION: There is one exception to this perfect equation.  That is burnout sets. By pushing muscle groups to tire out after a workout you can create an increased metabolism effect.  Consider a squat and press.  If you haven’t entirely tired out the triceps with presses, it is okay to end your workout with a superset to fatigue them. Just know that you don’t burn the most fat with this push at the end.  Most of the fat loss effect comes from last 5-10%.

NEVER Alternative Different Muscles To Train On Different Days:

Let me just state that by building intensity-based exercise, we are building a plan to lose fat. Simply put, this is the fastest way to lose weight.

By building muscles, we build metabolism, which really shifts your muscle:fat ration upward.  The long term plan is to burn fat as much fast as possible in the fastest way possible.

Here is one tip: Build muscle by doing strength sets (6-8 reps or less). But, please be sure to rest 48-72 hours before repeating.

However, if you are doing interval-based training, you do not need to wait 48-72 hours before working out again.  With time-based training, you try for as many reps possible in a give period of time, like 55 reps in 50 seconds. But, the truth is you may not need to wait as long to rest after interval-based training because it would be sacrificing A TON of results.

Remember, the goal is to get as many joints and muscle groups involved as possible, so you’d be forcing complete rest from exercise after every workout by having to wait 48-72 hours. We’re not going to miss a muscle when we want to see you burn fat at record speed.  Every workout is going to push your body to a new level, which is relative to your intensity level today.

Let’s dominate your body fat.  Let’s work every muscle we can, keep our rep ranges high, and our intensity and speed high to lose weight.  As a trade, we’ll keep our workout duration low… 10 minutes is all you need.

Repeat tomorrow. If you do this 5 days/week, then your results will skyrocket and your metabolism will light on fire.

NEVER Watch Someone Else and Try the Same Thing

Believe, this is the worst mistake you could make.

If you see someone else exercising, then there is possibly 3 problems:

1.    They may not really know what they are doing.
2.    They may be brutalizing an exercise passed down the line.
3.    By simply watching someone else, you are not sure which muscles groups are really being exercised

There are a lot of copycats at the gym. It is great to want to learn and try something new, but who is your teacher?

It would be safe to say that a very small percentage of gym goers actually know what they are doing, trainers included. The problem here is that they may be getting results, but they also become a patient in physical therapy from muscle imbalances, tendonitis, joint pain, etc. Without the right teacher, it is only a matter of time before an injury happens.

In this case, learning by example is not a good exercise.  By simply repeating what someone else is doing, the exercise becomes distorted and the original exercise is lost.  Remember the children’s game of “passing it down the line?” What is started is rarely what is finished, but a distorted version of what began.

We can look at your body like a car, but it is even more complex. What to do, where to feel and how to move it is simple education. You can gain results and do it safely, but if you don’t seek a professional then it would be like trying to take your car apart on your own. You may not be able to put your body back together again!

The lesson is simple. Learn from a professional! You will learn proper form, muscle identification and carryover from every exercise. What you do is very important. Learn from the best.

I’d love to show you the way.  In fact, I’ve prepared a video presentation that will teach you what I look for in an exercise, how to choose them properly, and how to maximize both your short and long-term results with your fat loss goals.  It’s my gift to you:

3 Things You NEED To Do While Exercising <— {Fat Loss

 

by Dr. Kareem F. Samhouri, CSCS, HFS
Neuro Metabolic Fat Loss & Fitness Expert

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