Burning up: Keep losing calories long after your workout’s over

Keep burning calories well beyond the end of your workout with these three exercises designed to spark your metabolism and activate the key muscles in your body.

These exercises are based on the Plyometrics training technique designed to increase muscular power and functional training which encourages all the muscles to work together rather than isolating them to work independently.

These types of exercise are far more neurologically demanding than any machine based exercises and help burn greater calories during and after the workout, increasing your metabolic rate throughout the day.

Exercise 1: Squat jumps

Step 1: Stand with your feet a hip’s distance apart, pointing straight forward.

Step 2: Bend your elbows at a 90 degree angle and pull back your shoulder blades.

Step 3: Bend down trying to sit your weight back onto your heels. A good tip is to keep your toes lifted off the floor.

Step 4: Keep your chest lifted and upright and your shoulder blades retracted throughout.

Step 5: Keep your navel pulled in to activate your core.

Step 6: Jump upwards. Extend your arms straight down as your feet leave the floor.

Step 7: Land in the same position you started in. Allow your arms to come back to a 90 degree angle and immediately repeat the jump.

Try to land softly through the heels without slamming into the floor.

Perform 3 sets, 8-15 reps depending on your fitness level.

Exercise 2: The cable punch

Step 1: Start with your legs a hip’s distance apart and your back facing the cable pulley machine or resistance band.

Step 2: Now place one foot behind you in a staggered stance.

Step 3: Keeping both feet pointing straight, lift the back heel up on the back foot.

Step 4: With your knees slightly bent, place most of the pressure through the heel on the front leg and a little through the toes on the back leg.

Step 5: Keep your spine neutral and extended and your chest lifted and keep your hips behind your shoulders.

Step 6: Posterially tilt the pelvis and draw your navel in.

It is important that you do NOT allow the knee on the front leg to extend past your ankles

Step 7: Hold the cable grip one hand (the hand that corresponds with the backmost leg) with the opposite arm held straight out in front.

Step 8: Now pull back the front arm and as you do this turn your upper body and punch forward with the back arm, extending the cable out straight in front of you and keeping it in line with you shoulder.

It is important that the hips don’t move and you only rotate through the trunk and that you keep both shoulder blades pulled back throughout.

You should feel your abs, core and back muscles and also the muscles in the lower legs and butt all working.

Step 9: Return back to stage one with the arm positioning and repeat the punch again.

Perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

Exercise 3: Pendulum squat

Step 1: Stand with your feet a hip’s distance apart, pointing straight forward.

Step 2: Holding two light dumbbells in each hand with your arms by your side.

Step 3: Now try to develop rhythm by allowing the dumbbells to naturally swing back and forth.

Step 4: As the dumbbells swing back down before they pass the torso, move your hips back (like you are doing a semi squat).

It is important to leverage weight from the pelvis.

Step 5: The chest will drop forward as pressure is coming forward and then extend back up to a straight position as the dumbbells come back up.

Step 6: Repeat again as the weights come downward.

Keep relaxed in the upper body and keep your shoulder blades retracted (pulled back).

The weights should go above your head and the knee should not cross to far forward past the ankles.

Performed 3 sets of 15-20 reps.