10-Minute Strength Training Workout To Boost Your Metabolism

How can you possibly work out hard enough in 10 minutes to see any effects? Say it with us: Afterburn.

Exercise boosts your metabolism during your workout, but it can also help you burn extra calories for hours, even days, afterwards — if you do it right.

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When your heart rate spikes, and your circulation increases due to exercise, your body produces neurochemicals that boost your metabolism, elevating the rate at which you burn fat and calories. How long this elevated burn lasts depends on what type of workout you do. Cardio burns the least amount of calories both during and after a workout, (sorry, cardio-holics) while strength training burns the most; especially if done in a high-intensity fashion. Plus, the more lean muscle you have on your body, the higher your metabolism is around the clock, making strength training the training technique of choice for taking your metabolism to the next level.

High-intensity interval training (or HIIT) is one of the best ways to burn fat after you leave the gym. HIIT simply alternates intense, all-out intervals of work with relatively lower-intensity intervals for recovery (not to be confused with resting in between sets). High-intensity intervals are a broad term, and can be used for any type of workout: cardio, strength training or a combo of the two. Intense intervals stimulate growth hormones, which put you in the perfect state to build lean mass. So, if those intervals include heavy load strength training, which builds the most lean muscle mass, you’ll be a fat-burning machine around the clock.

Most gym-goers think the longer the workout, the better, but long training sessions usually imply long periods of rest spent resting. These are fine for you if you’re a powerlifter who is focused on single body part hypertrophy, and who needs those long rest periods to completely recover between sets; but long periods of rest also drop the intensity of the workout. This is counterproductive to most people’s goals: to lose weight while they gain muscle, and to look, well, super toned and lean. For this, we want an overall, total-body, hormonal effect, which we can get through metabolic strength training.

Metabolic strength training alternates heavy compound exercises with explosive plyometric movements for an insanely intense, quick workout. Going from a heavy compound movement to a ballistic, explosive movement will allow your muscles enough time to recover without allowing your heart rate to drop, so your lifting form isn’t compromised. Cardio alone metabolizes muscles, but adding heavy load lifting to your intervals creates an anabolic effect, so you can burn fat and build muscle at the same time. It’s the best of both worlds.

Just like pizza, the ideal workout should be 30 minutes or less. And because your body will burn more calories regardless of whether your metabolism is elevated during your work out or if it’s elevated while you’re sitting on the couch, we prefer less.

10-Minute Metabolism Boosting Workout:

Pick one heavy compound exercise and one plyometric move below. Complete 5 reps of each heavy exercise, and then 10 reps of the explosive/plyo exercise. Alternate for 10 minutes, resting as little as possible in between sets. You should be able to make it through the circuit at least 4 times. The faster and more explosive your movements, the better your afterburn.

Heavy Compound Exercises

Set your weight for around 80 per cent of your 1 rep max.

Deadlifts:

  1. Stand in front of a loaded barbell. Position yourself so that your feet are shoulder width apart, toes directly under the bar
  2. Keep your back straight, bend at the hips and knees to lower yourself and grasp the bar, shoulder width apart.
  3. This is your starting position. Begin the lift by simultaneously pushing through your heels and extending through the knees and waist, being careful to keep your back straight.
  4. Extend completely through the hips and knees, driving your hips forward against the bar.
  5. Pause, then slowly lower the barbell back to the ground, keeping the back straight, bending at the hips and then the knees.
  6. Rest the weight on the ground to get rid of elastic energy in between reps.
  7. The movement should be explosive but controlled.

Squat:

  1. Stand with a loaded barbell on your shoulders. Your feet should be shoulder width apart- women: turn out your toes slightly because our pelvises are shaped differently.
  2. Keeping your chest up and your weight on your heels, flex through the knees to lower your hips toward the ground.
  3. Lower at east to 90 degrees, but if you can, drop your butt to the ground until your hamstrings are resting your calves.
  4. Pause, then drive through the heels to return to standing.

Clean And Press:

  1. Stand in front of a loaded barbell, feet shoulder width apart, knees inside of your arms.
  2. Bend at the knees and lower your hips, grabbing the bar with a pronated grip and your arms fully extended.
  3. The bar should be close to the shins. Flatten your back and keep your chest up.
  4. This will be your starting position.
  5. To begin: pull upward on the bar by extending your knees.
  6. As the bar passes your knees, forcefully extend through the legs, creating momentum, similar to a jumping motion.
  7. As you do so, continue to guide the bar with your hands, shrugging your shoulders and using the momentum to pull the bar as high as you can.
  8. The bar should stay close to your body. When the bar reaches weightlessness, pull your body under the bar.
  9. You should lower slightly into a squatting position as you do so and rotate your elbows around and under the bar.
  10. The barbell should rest across the front of your shoulders, bending the legs to absorb the weight.
  11. Stand to full height and reset. Keeping your feet stationary, extend the bar overhead to perform the press.
  12. Slowly lower the bar back to the ground and repeat.

Explosive/Plyometric Exercises

Burpees:

  1. Begin in a standing position, feet shoulder width apart. Keeping your chest up, drop into a squat as low as you can, placing both hands in front of you on the ground, about shoulder width apart.
  2. Pop your feet back into pushup position. Keep your belly button pulled in and don’t let your hips sag: Your body should be a straight line from your head to your heels.
  3. Lower down and return to plank to perform a pushup.
  4. Jump your feet back in to squat position, then swing your arms, jumping as high as you can in to the air.
  5. Land with soft feet and immediately lower down to repeat.

Kettlebell Swing:

  1. Begin with a kettlebell in both hands, knees slightly bent. Your arms should be tight against your body with the kettlebell hanging between your legs.
  2. To begin: Keeping your back straight and your arms tight to your body, move your hips as far backward as you can.
  3. This is where you should feel that pull in your hamstrings.
  4. Once you have maximum tension, snap your hips forward and squeeze your glutes to drive the kettlebell away from your hips.
  5. The kettlebell should swing close to chest height. You may be able to swing higher, but be extra careful to make sure you aren’t using your shoulders to get the extra height.
  6. Allow the kettlebell to swing back, returning it close to your hips and rock your hip backwards to absorb the momentum.
  7. Move directly into the next swing, snapping the hips.

Medicine Ball Slams:

  1. Hold a medicine ball in both hands above your head with your feet shoulder-width apart.
  2. Slam the ball on the floor as hard as you can.
  3. Catch it on the rebound or squat down and pick it up (some bounce better than others) and repeat 10 times.

 

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