Metabolic Conditioning for Weight Loss

If you have been trying to lose weight for a long time, the metabolic condition is something you must try. Research suggests that around 250 million, roughly 7% of the adult population, is obese. Obesity appears to be on the rise in most parts of the world, even where it was formerly uncommon. However, there are some ways that could help you effectively burn calories and lose weight. One of these methods is metabolic conditioning.

Understanding Metabolic Conditioning

Simply put, metabolic conditioning involves work and rest intervals that efficiently train the body’s energy systems. Your body uses several strategies to provide energy to the working muscles, called energy metabolism. Metabolic conditioning works on the principle of energy metabolism. It is not just another regular workout routine. Instead, it is an exercise designed mainly to use intermediate and immediate energy pathways. In other words, this workout makes your body use carbohydrates and creatine phosphates as fuel to give you energy.

Many people confuse metabolic conditioning with High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). However, metabolic conditioning involves everything from circuit-style strength training to high-intensity interval training (or HIIT). It also includes endurance exercises like rowing, running, or biking for a while, with minimal rest. Metabolic conditioning boosts your metabolism through exercise. MetCon involves compound exercises that allow your body to exercise multiple joints and muscle groups. It also includes short intervals for recovery in between to give your body more time in action.

Research suggests that one must customise MetCon based on their developmental stage, age group and physique. It reinforces that weight loss looks different for everyone, and customisation should be an effective solution. This way, your journey to your fitness goals becomes sustainable. 

MetCon activities help increase heart rate while also improving aerobic fitness. In addition, they generally tend to enhance other aspects of your fitness, gymnastic ability, muscular endurance and strength. It encompasses a broader range of workouts. In general, they’re high-intensity workouts done with ample rest in between.

The HealthifyMe Note

The common myth about metabolic conditioning is that it is similar to HIIT. However, not all metabolic conditioning exercises are HIIT. Instead, metabolic conditioning is a mix of high-intensity and moderate activities. It also involves enough rest between workouts to enhance your performance.

Metabolic Conditioning Workout: Advantages 

The metabolic conditioning workouts are reasonably beneficial. Besides weight management, they help improve stamina, enhance flexibility, and overall health. Here are some of the most significant advantages of metabolic conditioning:

Improves Stamina 

MetCon is, in general, a great exercise program meant for anyone wanting to improve their physical strength. It helps you build lean muscles and prevents the chances of injuries. Although it might not directly result in strength gain, it shall help you build your endurance to high-intensity burns. Endurance or stamina is nothing but your ability to continue putting in effort without giving up. 

Weight Management

MetCon is pretty high in intensity, which means that your body burns calories while exercising and continues to do so even after you finish your workout. Combining a couple of movements specifically for cardiovascular health would help regulate blood pressure and improve heart health, usually associated with body weight.

Flexible Practices

There is no fixed way to work out. You could use many types of equipment available, or you could just work with your body. It also does not need you to be present at a gym daily. Even the duration of your workout can be altered. What matters is the intensity of the workout.

Improves Metabolism

Another significant advantage of metabolic conditioning is that it burns more calories than fats. Thus, it helps tone your body and hence, can benefit your metabolism.

MetCon Workout: Limitations

Not for Strength Gain

Metcon workouts can assist you in achieving your fitness goals and managing weight, but their purpose is not to help you gain strength. If you want to increase strength, include sessions where you lift heavy weights for a few reps. However, metabolic conditioning can assist you with flexibility and weight management better than regular strength training.

Greater Difficulty Levels

The high magnitude of the workout has often proven ideal for people who are used to pushing their bodies to the ultimate next level. However, intense workouts can lead to fatigue, muscular discomfort, and injuries. The key is to continue the regular practice to perform your way up efficiently. In addition, you might want to train your strength and stamina to carry out the MetCon safely. 

Metabolic conditioning exercises are generally safe. However, since these exercises are high-intensity, the risk of injuries also increases. Also, high-intensity exercises increase your heart rate. Hence, it’s advisable to consult your doctor before starting this new fitness program.

How Does MetCon Aid Weight Loss?

The simple mechanism behind any weight loss program is burning more calories than you consume. As per research, a MetCon workout allows you to maintain or lose weight by burning more calories even after exercising. The process, an excellent advantage of the metabolic conditioning exercise, is called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Furthermore, you burn more calories since your heart rates are high while doing such activities.

It is also vital for you to keep track of the diet you consume. If you opt for a fibre-rich, nutrient-dense diet paired with a MetCon, losing weight would be easier and healthier. 

The HealthifyMe Note

Metcon workouts enhance your EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen, which refers to an increase in your metabolism as your body gets to its resting condition after an intense workout. 

Beginning with MetCon Workout

Most people who try to lose weight include various physical activities in their daily routines. However, even if you are used to exercising, MetCon is quite different. You might want to give your body some time to adjust to functioning in an anaerobic state. For this, you could begin by practising with a beginner program and then gradually move to more complex MetCon exercises. Read further to learn about types of MetCon workout movements: 

Circuit Training 

Circuit training consists of six or more exercises repeated with short rest periods for a predetermined number of rounds or times. You complete one circuit when you complete all the exercises picked for once.

In a single training session, you can perform several circuits. The training is such that you can keep doing the exercises with good momentum while resting briefly. According to a meta-analysis, circuit training appears to efficiently reduce body weight and BMI in individuals who are overweight or obese.

The MetCon after-burn occurs due to an inadequate recovery time between activities. The goal is to train hard on every exercise and relax enough to keep the pressure up the next time. Some simple exercises you can include in your circuits are jump ropes, push-ups, chin-ups, lunges, crunches, squats, benches dip, calf raises and jumping jacks.

Interval Training (HIIT)

The active intervals in an interval-style MetCon workout should be intense enough to leave you gasping for air. While you perform interval training, body temperature rises, your muscles get lactate built in them, and your body releases catecholamines responsible for dopamine release. The High-Intensity Interval Training or HIIT workout puts your body under metabolic stress to make it respond with a greater hormone release rate. 

According to a study, high-intensity training has a better effect than continuous moderate-intensity exercise on fat loss and weight loss. Another study showed that six weeks of HIIT is an effective way for sedentary young women to lose weight and improve their physical health parameters. 

Tabata

Tabata workouts are yet another interval training exercise that taps the body into an anaerobic energy state. It involves intense activity, each for 20 seconds with a 10-second recovery time. You should usually repeat them for 5-8 rounds. It mainly helps with a comparatively quick fat-burning session. 

Boot Camp

A typical Bootcamp is a pretty harsh military training camp. The Bootcamp for a MetCon workout may be similar in ideology regarding rigours and intense training. Metabolic Bootcamps are programs that can help you lose weight and achieve your fitness goals. 

Metabolic Bootcamp routines are so adaptable that you can do them anywhere. They are challenging enough for every fitness level, irrespective of the availability of a gym. In a group training situation, metabolic Bootcamp programs deliver all the advantages of private training and more.

Strength Training 

Although a typical strength-training session does not qualify as metabolic conditioning, you can convert it into one. Choose compound exercises that target muscle groups. Work with light weights that you can use safely when working out at a fast pace. 

Practise in sets with little breaks to optimise the metabolic effects of strength training. A metabolic strength-training exercise should raise your heart rate more than a regular workout and leave you feeling exhausted.

AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible)

Since you are aware of the importance of beginner-friendly workout training, here is a MetCon strategy that you could include in the same:

One of the most common MetCon workouts is the AMRAP workout. It requires you to do as many reps of an exercise as feasible in a set amount of time. For example, you could pick four activities and perform as many repetitions of each within 30 seconds. 

A sample set could include ten lunges, ten squats, ten full jumping jacks and ten pushups. Take 15–30 seconds of rest intervals in between 3 to 4 rounds. You can also set a 20-minute timer and observe your performance. 

Tips to Efficiently Perform MetCon Workout 

• You should only do this workout a couple of times per week. It is so because the training is pretty taxing for your body. However, this does not mean you skip movement on other days. Instead, choose a moderate exercise for the rest of the day. It will keep your body in practice and not shock it when you do a MetCon after a couple of days.

• Your workouts need to be only a few minutes long. Keeping them between 10 to 30 minutes is long enough to develop a high degree of intensity. It is advised to not exceed that limit and compromise your energy and physique.

• You are required to finish each exercise in order and complete the circuit one or more times. Try to include non-competing movements. Maybe do squats, meant for the lower body while your upper body rests and vice versa in terms of rest and movement.

• Your relaxation periods need to be brief. However, the interval may differ based on your fitness goals. Each body may require a specific break to perform the following exercise properly. Just make sure that it is enough for your body to revive itself.

• Operate at a relatively high intensity for 10-12 minutes. Then engage your entire body in a tough workout. You would be required to work hard for the time you’ve set aside. Your working hours again would be determined by your fitness goals.

• Discuss your MetCon workout with your trainer, exchange ideas, tell them the goals you have in mind and create a sustainable plan for you to practise.

• Since your body requires to function at great intensity during a MetCon workout, make sure your diet supports it. A protein-rich diet, whether plant or animal-based, with an optimum amount of fibre, and healthy fats like nuts and oils, whole grains, pulses, and legumes, would make you feel satiated for longer and help manage your weight.

• Plenty of liquids throughout the day will help your body stay hydrated so that it does not drain off during and after the workout. Liquids like plain water, water with lime or mint, coconut water and ORS solutions are great for your body.

Conclusion

A MetCon workout is challenging and taxing on your body. You must start with beginner-friendly MetCon training and gradually build on your stamina to be able to feel the burn of a proper MetCon workout. It would help you reap healthy and safe results.

These workouts help you get leaner, and the increased anabolic reaction also aids muscular growth. When trying to lose weight, metabolic conditioning activities can help you break through a still state. You can accelerate fat burning for hours after a workout with the metabolic-conditioning after-burn. In addition, this form of workout might assist you in improving your conditioning. So, give it a shot if you’re searching for a new method to spice up your workout.