When your muscle is pushing or pulling a resistance, a lot is going on inside your body at a molecular level. Not only is blood rushing to the muscle being worked, but every organ in your body has to step it up to meet the challenge you set for yourself. Now to really develop a specific muscle, isolating that muscle and keeping tension over a long period of time in that area will force growth to that muscle.
On the other hand, if growth is not your goal, but rather a muscle toning and fat burning workout is what your looking for, choose exercises that have multiple muscle groups being worked at once. For example, walking lunges with a dumbbell curl to over head press will work your legs, core, arms, and shoulders. This simple move will hit almost every muscle in your body forcing your cardiovascular system to send blood to all extremities. In order to accomplish this task, your heart rate increases and your metabolism increases. Exercises that hit multiple muscle groups and raise the heart rate have shown to have an After Burn Effect. This After Burn Effect means you will burn more calories between workouts, not only during them!
To get the most out of your cardio, pre-exaust your leg muscles with squats, lunges, or a wall sit immediately before running. The reason why cardio is so effective in burning calories is because you are using 16 of your largest muscles, both legs! To pre-exaust those 16 large muscles, (3 Hamstring, 4 Quadriceps, 1 giant calf) X 2, and then go running, you will not only set yourself up for massive calorie After Burn, but also help balance out your hormones!
Other Multi-Muscle hitting moves that are great for toning up and burning fat:
- Kettle Bells
- Burpees- (with push up)
- Lower & Upper Body Plyometrics
- Shoulder presses, Dumbbell chest presses performed on a stability ball.
- Over Head Tricep Pull with rope
- Jumping Jacks with Dumbbells
- Kick Boxing
- Mountain Climbers
