If your wanting to lose a few pounds on the scales, reduce your body fat percentage or get in shape to feel great on the beach this summer or feel comfortable in your summer shorts follow these 5 top tips for a Summer body. The tips focus on increasing your metabolism to optimise your fat burning potential.

1. Beast your muscles to gain muscle

In order to see a growth in your muscles you need to ensure that the muscles are placed under stress such as tension or weight.

This does mean however that you have to be in control of your reps introducing tempo, volume and intensity.

In order for your body to adapt and gain muscle you need to be constantly pushing your body. Rocking up to the gym and performing the same exercise, weight, reps and sets is not only boring for you but your muscles.

TOP TIP – focus on longer time under tension. Tempo is key 4 second eccentric and 1 second concentric.

2. Sprints Conquer Steady State Cardio

Distance running has its place in fitness but for the best results for weight loss or muscle building it isn’t the best as the body adapts to quickly to repetitive aerobic exercise.

Sprints however are very effective as they great a metabolic stress on the body. There are numerous variations of sprint protocol you can perform to keep your body on its toes and losing body fat.

TOP TIPS

Beginners on a bike sprint for 8 seconds recover for 12 seconds repeat this as many times as possible in 20 mins.

Intermediate 30 second jog, 20 second fast run, 10 second sprint

Advanced – 6 x all out sprint with 3-4 min recovery

3. Metabolically Stressful Training

An effective way of training to reduce fat is to produce a build up of lactic acid. This happens when you physiologically stress your body. Causing it to use a lot of energy. This leads to a lot of calories being burnt and a boosted metabolism resulting in fat being used as fuel. When an increase in healthy protein is introduced lean muscle mass is produced

TOP TIP

Large compound lifts are key to success so all the main lifts are critical- Squats, Deadlifts, Pulls, rows, presses. You need to be training these moves at high volume with 70-90% of your max load.

4. Quality & Quantity

Healthy eating is simple to get optimal body composition you want to be eating good quality food. Increase your protein intake, eat loads of vegetables, and don’t neglect the Good fats.

Eating this well helps you reduce body fat as whole foods require more energy for your body to digest and utilize than processed foods as well as being much more filling.

A higher protein diet results in fewer calories been eaten and helps sustain lean muscle mass.

Be aware that people who reduce their calorie intake without increasing the amount of protein they eat, lose muscle as well as fat.

TOP TIPS

You can reduce your carb intake and get the majority of your carbs from veg and fruit.

Eat high quality protein and fats at every meal for the optimum fat loss eat meat fish or eggs as animal protein is more amino acid dense then plant proteins.

5. De –stress

It is crucial to manage you daily stresses to ensure optimum fat loss. High levels of stress can rapidly deplete the hormones that aid in fat loss and help repair tissues after a hard training session.

TOP TIP

To help recover from training eat plenty of berries, green veg and whey protein. Try and relax after a session so listen to relaxing music or have a massage

it is really important to put 100% into your training and diet if you want to drop the body fat and build lean muscle by following these 5 tips you will be well on your way to that dream summer body.

For any any help or fuRther guidance please contact one of the Motive8 North Personal Trainers .

Good Luck

LH