3 Ways to Make Your Workout Harder

Happy Thanksgiving to all American readers, and Happy Weekend to everyone else.

Let’s get lean…

Question: How can I make my workouts harder? – Mark

Answer: There are 3 simple ways.

First, use more weight in each exercise, if you are doing dumbbell exercises. You should be working to just one rep short of failure (for safety reasons).

But in most exercises, we can safely push just a little bit harder and jump up that extra 2.5 or 5 pounds in dumbbell weight.

Second, use a harder version of the exercise. Instead of dumbbell squats, use dumbbell split squats. Replace
regular pushups with decline pushups.

Third, add more reps or time to your set (if doing the timed sets in the 24-7 workouts).

So if you can do 8 pullups no problem, just add reps. Same goes with all bodyweight exercises.

For dumbbell exercises, add weight first so you get challenged by the recommended number of reps, but if
you’re not comfortable adding weight, then you too can add reps to that exercise.

Those are three great ways to increase the calorie burning and metabolic boost of your training.

Question: I know that even though 24-7 is a fat loss program, you’ll still build some muscle in the process.

I’d like to know if there’s a way to tweak things to put a little more emphasis on muscle building. Thanks. – Bill

Answer: First, if you want to add muscle at the same time, consider dropping one or both of the extra interval workouts.

Second, add one round to the MRT circuit at the start of each workout and reduce the number of rounds of the finisher
circuit at the end of each workout.

Third, take more rest between exercises in the MRT circuit to start each workout.

This will allow you to use more weight. Let’s use 30 seconds between exercises and 60-90 seconds between rounds.

This will help supercharge your ability to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time – 24-7.

Get your 247 Fat Loss program here:

Let’s get lean,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Certified Turbulence Trainer