Full Body High Rep Workout

Full Body High Rep Workout
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A wide range of people can benefit from full body high rep workouts. Previously sedentary people new to resistance exercise can reeducate the body's energy production systems and make these processes more efficient. Endurance athletes can use full-body, high-repetition workouts to enhance performance. Full body high rep workouts also help you maintain muscle tissue while burning fat and losing weight.

Merits

Full-body, high-repetition workouts can increase your muscular endurance and help you lose weight. Full body high rep workouts deplete energy stored in your muscles, and your body adapts by increasing the number of energy-producing mitochondria within your muscle fibers. Your endurance increases because more mitochondria can produce the energy required during muscle contractions for extended periods of time. You can lose weight with full body high rep workouts because increasing the mitochondria speeds your metabolism and helps you burn more fat during low-level activities throughout the day. High-rep exercises also increase growth hormone levels, which helps your body burn more fat.

Exercises

A full body high rep workout includes exercises that work all the major muscle groups in your body. Full body high rep workouts include one or more lower-body exercises, and upper-body pushing and pulling exercises. Workouts that emphasize compound movements, involving multiple joints, are ideal for a full body high rep workout. Compound lower-body exercises include squats, leg presses and lunges. Compound upper-body pushing exercises include bench presses and shoulder presses. Rows, lateral pull-downs, pull-ups and chin-ups are examples of compound upper-body pulling exercises.

Circuit Method

The circuit method helps enhance the effects of a full body high rep workout. The method involves performing circuits, which are sets of multiple exercises that you perform back-to-back without resting between sets. Full body high rep workouts generally include four or five circuits that each include all the major exercises in your workout. For example, a typical circuit includes one compound upper-body pushing exercise, one compound upper-body pulling exercise and one lower-body compound exercise.

Frequency

Workout frequency means how long you give your muscles to rest before performing another full body high rep workout. Your muscles need time to recover between workouts. Recovery processes include repairing tissue damage that occurs during muscle contractions, and manufacturing new mitochondria to accommodate increasing demands. Muscles need 48 to 72 hours to recover between workouts, depending on exercise intensity. The intensity of full body high rep workouts is not typically high enough to cause significant tissue damage, and you can generally perform these workouts every other day.

References

Article reviewed by Timothy Dodson Last updated on: Aug 18, 2011

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