10 Muscle Building, Fat-Burning Moves

1.  Shorten rest periods between exercises... This can boost your metabolism and coloric burn.

2.  Work in whole body exercises to your weight training program and/or train entire body occationally for growth hormone spike, which in turn burns fat.  Do this by alternating lower body exercises with upper body exercises, for example, lunge and then a row.  This will allow one muscle group to recover while you train the other. 

3.  Add plyometrics and speed work to your training routine.  You can burn more calories by doing explosive moves.  Examples are box jumps, low hurdles, agility ladder and sprints.

4.  Play with decreasing reps and incresing weight being lifted and other days increase reps and lighten the weight being lifted.   Intensity should always be there.  If your last few reps are not hard to get through, you are not lifting heavy enough to cause the muscle to change in shape. 

5.  Try Kettle Bell Training.  An amazing way to train the entire body.

6.  HIIT  (High Intensity Interval Training)  An incrediblly time efficient workout, that produces dramatic fitness gains.  EPOC (Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption) is enhanced allowing for more calories to be burned around the clock (even while asleep).  You shouldn't do this kind of training until you have built up a substantial base of fitness that will support the harder training.   For example, as a runner, if you have been running for at least 8 weeks and can run 3 miles without difficulty, then you should be able to safely add this kind of training to your routine. 

7.  Try cardio between sets. Do your regular weight routine but instead of resting between sets, perform light cardio on spin bike, jumping rope, jumping jacks etc.

8.  Try high intense activity for 15-30 seconds, followed by a 45-60 second rest between your weight sets.  You can pair your lifting with any kind of cardio, for example, a treadmill sprint, bike sprint, jump rope, mountain climber, etc. 

9.  Try Circuit Training.  Do a number of exercises in a row, begining with compound exercises (examples lunge and squat), followed by isolation exercises (examples leg extension and leg curl).  Rest after you have completed the last exercise for about 2-3 minutes. Then repeat. 

10.  Track your workouts and monitor how you feel afterwards.  This way you can look back at what you have been doing to see your strength gains and get ideas of ways to mix up your routines to help keep it fresh.   Be sure to document how you feel a day or two after your workout.