Avoid Too Much Endurance Exercise
Even for my Ironman triathletes, most of the training is based around exercise that gives you the most bang for your buck while depleting the body of as few hormones and energy as possible. Sprints and heavy lifting are the two best ways to accomplished this. Here's how:
Sprints:
One of the fastest ways to strip fat off your body fast is to sprint. So how can you implement the strategy of sprinting? Try performing several sprints on the treadmill after you've lifted weights at the gym, or just head out into the backyard, park, or your neighborhood street and do a few sprint repeats.
You can even do your sprints on a bicycle or elliptical trainer. Try to include 5 to 10 short sprints when you do a sprint workout, sprint no longer than 15 seconds, and get full recovery after each sprint (generally 3 to 4 times longer than you actually sprinted). Do a sprint workout 2 to 3 times a week for optimal results.
Lift Heavy:
While you can certainly get fit by lifting high reps with low weights or low reps with high weights, if you actually want to get a nice body, it works best to burn your fat with metabolic conditioning like the sprinting described earlier, combined with heavier lifting, which will result on a fat-burning hormone release that exceeds what you'll get from lighter lifting with lots of repetitions.
Full body, heavy exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and Olympic lifts should ideally be used, at 85 to 95 percent of your 1RM (or one repetition maximum). You need to do 2 to 3 full body weight lifting workouts per week, combined with a few sprint or interval workouts per week to get the best ripped results. If you're a beginner or new to weight training, don't let this concept of heavy lifting scare you away. You can simulate many of these exercises on weight training machines until you're strong and skilled enough to perform the free weight barbell or dumbbell versions.
