How personal training sessions are structured to maximise weight loss
I’ve talked about how important the nutrition side of weight loss is quite a lot in the past but not in depth about the exercise components to weight loss. The actual formula we use to work out an exercise program for weight loss is quite dependent on your long term exercise goals. Today let me explain how we structure the personal training session to encourage weight loss and why.
In terms of personal training, the balance is very important to get right. When beginning a personal training program weight is rarely the only issue that is faced by a client. Often there will be injuries or weaknesses or pain that may or may not be related to the extra weight that a person is carrying, and of course this is extremely important to be taken into account.
Cardio within personal training sessions
Cardiovascular exercise is extremely important for overall fat burning and long term cardiovascular benefits therefore the personal training session should have a decent cardio component involved from this perspective. Exactly how much is dependent on how many personal training sessions a week the person is doing and the level of exercise externally. However at Axis we use cardio training no matter how much to raise the heart rate up in between resistance training sets.
Resistance Training
Resistance training is important for increasing lean muscle mass, however also plays an extremely important role in increasing balance, stability, strength and muscle activation. Generally we structure resistance training for weight loss with compound (multiple muscle groups) exercises initially and then work down to more specific exercises. Generally compound setting 2 to 4 exercises in a group.
Ultimately using compound exercises means that these exercises require a greater amount of energy and effort than specific exercises. So these exercises are done first and the more specific exercises are targeted towards to the end, which also includes stretching.
How the structure of a session looks
Therefore the structure of our sessions generally start off with a bit of a warm up to get the heart rate going. Then we’ll immediately get started into a group of 2 to 4 compound exercises, complete 2 to 3 sets of those and then throw in a moderate to hard cardio phase that may last anywhere from 2 to 8mins.
After that we’ll move back onto 2 to 4 new compound exercises, complete 2 to 3 sets again and then go into another cardio phase. Then ultimately we finish off with core, activation and flexibility activities and possibly some more cardio depending on time constraints.
So the initial cardio and 2 to 3 other cardio phases raise that get the heart rate up and while you complete the compound/resistance exercises the heart rate remains up and you continue to burn fat. Then at the end of the session we work on more specific muscle activation, core and stability activities, almost as a way to cool down as well.
For more information on our weight loss products go to our weight loss page or http://www.axiscorporate.com.au/weight-loss.