What is Metabolic Training?
The short definition
of metabolic training is completing structural and compound exercises with
little rest in between exercises in an effort to maximize calorie burn and
increase metabolic rate during and after the workout.
FYI, your metabolism
(aka metabolic rate) is how many calories your body burns at rest. For more on
calorie burn, check out How to Calculate Your
Calorie Burn.
So that’s the short
definition, but here’s a deeper look at metabolic training:
1) Metabolic Training
Uses Large Muscle Groups
“Structural and
compound exercises” are types of exercises that require a maximum amount of
energy because multiple joints are involved like a Squat with a Press. Sitting
down and doing a biceps curl is like the exact opposite of hard core metabolic
training.
A metabolic training
purist may tell you almost all exercises should be structural, which means the
spine is loaded and the legs are engaged to some degree during the exercise. I
think you can still make a workout metabolic without engaging the legs every
exercise as long as the weight lifted is heavy enough, or the intensity of the
exercise is very high. For example, doing a bench press then a chin up back to
back can be quite metabolically intense.
2) Metabolic Training
is High Intensity
Metabolic training is high intensity
anaerobic exercise that makes you breathless. If you are completing a metabolic
workout and you are not breathing hard and sweating, something is wrong.
Ideally you should be lifting as heavy as you can and resting as little as
possible between sets.
The downside in my
mind of some metabolic training is that it can be so intense so that your lips
turn white and you want to puke. Personally, I like workouts that are tough,
but not so tough that I never want to work out again. From a 1 to 10 scale, the
workouts that I do and those I designed for Princeton BootCamps
are around 5 to 8 in terms of their metabolic intensity. If you are doing very
metabolic workouts all the time, your body may not be able to recover properly.
The extreme of
metabolic training is CrossFit,
where a few intense exercises will be repeated in a circuit with little to no
rest to push the body to its absolute limit. This training is usually reserved
for seasoned athletes and the military, but more recently has been taken up by
average fitness enthusiasts for better, or worse.
3) Metabolic Training
Makes You Feel The Burn
A metabolic workout
should help create a burning sensation in your muscles as you are working out.
So by your last rep of a given exercise, you should be feeling a burn in your
muscles. While the depth of the muscle stimulation from metabolic training is
not as deep as a bodybuilding program where you hit one muscle the entire
workout, it’s still significant.
It’s not clear exactly
what causes muscle burn (the old theory of lactic acid build up has since been
debunked . We do know that with an increase in muscle burn comes a
favorable hormonal response to help the body burn fat and/or build muscle. I’m
a big believer in working muscles intensely and going for that muscle burn.
Metabolic Training Benefits
Below are just a few
of the benefits of a metabolic style of training:
Metabolic Training
Benefit #1: Improved cardiovascular capacity
While metabolic
training is not “aerobic” like going for a jog, some studies have shown
anaerobic exercise such as HIIT can
increase in V02 max beyond that experienced by exercisers following an aerobic
program.
Metabolic Training
Benefit #2: Improved hormonal profile
Several studies have
shown that hormones that promote “lipolysis” (the technical term for fat loss)
increase as a results of high intensity strength training. I don’t want to bore
you with all the studies, but strength training in general has been shown to
help improve hormonal profile, and metabolic training is debatably the best
type of strength training to elicit the most powerful hormonal response.
Metabolic Training
Benefit #3: Serious calorie burn
While calorie burn
studies come to different conclusions as to the total calorie burn of metabolic
training, it certainly burns a ton of calories. The calorie burn during a
workout is easily around 500 calories for a 30 minute workout, but it also
increases metabolic rate from anywhere between 10% to 25% for up to 48 hours,
with some studies showing an increase in metabolic rate for up to even 72
hours. This equates to hundreds of extra calories, which over the course of a
few workouts can become significant.
Intuitively I think
the “afterburn effect”
as it’s called makes sense, because you are shocking your body, creating an
oxygen debt (i.e. excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), and causing muscle
damage (in a good way), which the body needs to repair to become fitter and
stronger. This extra repair to get your body back to homeostasis requires a lot
of extra energy, it’s just difficult for researchers to measure perfectly,
especially after exercise. From my practical experience, the metabolic effect
of intense strength training is real and it’s powerful.
Example Metabolic Training Exercises
Here are just a few
examples of what would be considered “metabolic exercises”.
· Hang
Clean & Press
· Push
Press
· Snatch
· Squats
· Jump
Squats holding dumbbells
· Jump
Lunges holding dumbbells
·
Deadlift
I think making your
workout more metabolic is worth a try and I find simply categorizing a workout
based on its metabolic intensity can be useful.
Hope this was helpfUL
WANT MORE INFO ON HOW THIS TYPE OF WORKOUT WILL GET YOU IN THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE. GO TO WWW.Princetonbootcamps.com and register for the the bootcamp and be amazed what this type of workout will do for you. See you in Camp.
Dave
www.Princetonbootcamps.com
princetonbootcamps@yahoo.com
888-402-2267
health and wellness,diet and exercise,fitness bootcamp,personal training, cardio fitness,strength training.
WANT MORE INFO ON HOW THIS TYPE OF WORKOUT WILL GET YOU IN THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE. GO TO WWW.Princetonbootcamps.com and register for the the bootcamp and be amazed what this type of workout will do for you. See you in Camp.
Dave
www.Princetonbootcamps.com
princetonbootcamps@yahoo.com
888-402-2267
health and wellness,diet and exercise,fitness bootcamp,personal training, cardio fitness,strength training.