Nuke 1,000 calories: almost as fast as the push of a button-drop your bodyfat with this powerful 90-minute calorie-burning workout

Muscle & Fitness, June, 2004 by Dann Halem

YOU'RE GOING AWAY TO THE GARIBBEAN, BABY!

And the last thing you want to bring is your winter coat. But in the weeks leading up to your trip to a resort, on a cruise, Sin City or anywhere with a sizzling nightlife and the chance to lose your shirt, if you're lucky, you'll want to lighten (or tighten) the load.

While a ride on your gym's recumbent bike will burn a few extra calories, you're going to have to seriously up the ante if your goal is a tighter physique in weeks. That means really sweating. Committing yourself to a cardiovascular and weight-training regimen in which building maximum muscle takes a temporary backseat to burning more calories. Experts say you can definitely burn up to 1,000 calories each day--almost a third of a pound!--if you're already in fairly good cardiovascular condition.

"[Burning that number of calories] isn't realistic for somebody who's just getting started, but it'll work for a well-conditioned athlete looking to sharpen his physique," says David Sandler, MS, an exercise science and strength and conditioning professor at Florida International University (Miami).

Key to becoming such a big loser is upping your intensity. The average 180-pound athlete burns 8-9 calories per minute during a high-intensity bodybuilding workout. Our goal? To see that nine and raise it to 11. Or 11.111 to be exact, a whopping 1,000 calories burned during each 90-minute routine. Sandler and colleague Ed McNeeley (a strength and conditioning coach for 17 Canadian national teams) have developed a cardio and weightlifting program that will test your strength and cardio endurance--not to mention the need to tighten your belt.

CARDIO FIRST

Bodybuilders love saving cardiovascular exercise for last. When the goal is building muscle mass, nothing's better than hitting the iron first when you have the most energy. But when the goal is burning calories, cardio--not weightlifting--must be your top priority. Not only do you need the extra intensity on the treadmill, but your body physiologically burns fat more efficiently when you do cardio before lifting weights. "After an anaerobic workout [like bodybuilding training], your body has built up a store of lactic acid," Sandler explains. "So if you're doing a cardiovascular routine second, your body will burn that lactic acid before it burns the bodyfat." Which means the almost two-to-one calorie-burning advantage you get from running instead of lifting weights is heavily diminished.

Just as important as the order in which you train is the cardiovascular exercise you choose. Though technology has given us a bevy of new machines, the treadmill remains your best bet when it comes to burning calories. Elliptical trainers, stair-steppers and stationary bicycles don't provide the level of intensity you need to get the necessary burn. Plus, treadmills allow you to more accurately monitor your speed, a critical part of meeting the program's core cardiovascular requirements.

In the 90-minute program (see "Cardio"), with an even split between weight training and cardio, 60% of your burned calories will come while on the treadmill. That's 600 calories in 45 minutes, which is why the program is aimed at individuals who are already in good cardiovascular shape. (Those who aren't in good shape will burn fewer calories, but over time and with improved cardiorespiratory fitness, those numbers will climb.) A 180-pound athlete will need to maintain an average 6 mph pace over the 45 minutes. To get the most from your workout, however, incorporate an interval training strategy, alternating between a high-intensity and moderate-intensity routine, which is best for burning more overall calories.

FASTER LIFTING

When you think of burning calories, you probably don't think of weightlifting. Why? Because your average 30-second set, followed by three minutes of rest, doesn't provide the constant level of exertion needed to adequately raise your heart rate, overload your cardiovascular system and burn calories in the process. Yet this doesn't mean that weights can't deliver calorie-burning results. A 180-pound athlete can burn 8-9 calories per minute when actually lifting, so the key here is to maximize activity while reducing the amount of rest between sets.

So you'll need to adjust your philosophy when performing a calorie-burning weightlifting routine. "You can't go to failure on sets in this workout," Sandler says. You also can't train at your maximum poundages. While heavy weights and forced reps are the building blocks of a solid bodybuilding program, both require too much recovery time to meet your goals here. In this 45-minute weight workout, you're aiming to burn 400 calories. That's why you'll include a circuit training program of sorts, performing a total-body workout to increase endurance, minimize rest between movements and maximize caloric burn.

Sandler says full-body workouts are used by many athletes to improve their overall performance. The key is to choose a weight with which you're able to control the tempo and range of motion. Since your reps will usually be eight per set, use a weight with which 10 reps would be nearing failure. If the rep range is higher, adjust accordingly. Choose a resistance/rep combo that lets you finish each set in about 35 seconds. During your reps, keep a controlled, even pace between the top and bottom of the movement and include a full range of motion to completely work the muscle.