Do a Variety of Compound Exercises

Do a Variety of Compound Exercises

Squats may be the biggest calorie burner, but you’ll get more benefits if you include a variety of strength-training exercises in your fitness routine. Most experts recommend doing 75% compound exercises and 25% isolation exercises. Squats are a good exercise because they work the quads and, to a lesser degree, the glutes, two large muscle groups in the lower body. Although they didn’t look at deadlifts in this study, you would expect this exercise, too, to burn a significant number of calories too since it’s an exercise that works muscle groups in the upper and lower body at the same time.

You can also increase the number of muscle groups that work simultaneously when you do certain exercises. To boost the calorie burn when you squat, launch into an overhead press when you rise up from a squat. This turns squats into a dynamic, whole body exercise that burns even more calories. You’re working more muscle groups as well. It’s an excellent functional movement that will get your body into shape quickly.

When you do an exercise like lunges, why not do walking lunges to make the movement more dynamic and increase the calorie burn? Other ways to pack more calorie-burning into a strength-training session is to include a dynamic exercise between each strength-training move. How about adding a few burpees between sets? Keep in mind that doing so may reduce how much weight you can handle for the strength-training exercise that follows due to the exhaustion factor. So, if your main goal is to build strength, use the time between sets to rest.