When golf guru Chris asked me to talk about incorporating metabolic workout finishers into golf fitness, I honestly chuckled a little bit. I imagined myself playing golf. You see, when I play golf, I actually aim to lose 30 golf balls or less on an 18-hole course. If I lose just 15 golf balls, I consider that a huge success. That’s how bad I am. My handicap is “Really?”. It’s that pathetic. Sure, I can lose 105 lbs, but I can’t hit a golf ball straight to save my life.
But the good news is that I know how to strip off fat with short workouts and using metabolic workout finishers. After all, you need to get to your tee time, and spending too much time in the gym is not only unproductive, but it can lead to overuse injuries, keeping you off the greens.
Maybe Chris can teach me some cool golf lingo, but in the meantime, I am going to explain what a finisher is. Finishers are designed to be used at the end of your main strength training session. They are short bursts of intense exercise, typically using all major muscle groups, using incomplete recovery. I’ve written literally hundreds of finishers, and some of them are just bodyweight, while some use a variety of dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells and even a mixture of all of these.
Here is a very basic finisher. Do this circuit at the end of your next workout session:
Do the following circuit 3 times, resting for 30 seconds after each circuit.
1) Alternating Reverse Lunges (30 seconds)
2) Push-ups (30 seconds)
3) Run in Place (30 seconds)
4) Mountain Climbers (30 seconds)
You can adjust these to your fitness level by increasing/decreasing the rest periods and the amount of time on each exercise.
Let’s grab a calculator and see how long this finisher will take. You are looking at roughly 7 minutes. Now you can make your 8 am tee time, and you set your body up to burn fat all day long.
Why Finishers are Better Than Long Cardio
Unfortunately, when people want to lose weight, the first thing they do is hit the elliptical and spend countless hours doing cardio while watching episodes of “Three’s Company”. C’mon, you know it’s going to happen. There will be some kind of misunderstanding and they end up hiding stuff…. yeah, that episode… AGAIN.
Think about this – let’s say you are on the treadmill for 45 minutes to an hour. Ask yourself, “what muscles are being worked right now?”. You’ll soon realize that you are working your legs, over and over, with the same motion, while your upper body gets no work. That will not create a metabolic afterburn like finishers can do. Science has proven to us that finishers elevate your metabolic rate for hours and hours, unlike long, steady-state cardio. Science also proves to us that doing the same motion over and over can lead to overuse injuries.
If you injure yourself, that will keep you off the golf course.
Save Your Tee Time with Finishers
What about intervals?, you might be asking. And if you’re not asking that, then you can skip this paragraph because I’m going to explain how you can replace your interval training with finishers to save you lots of time. By the time you include the warm-up and cool-down with intervals, you are looking at anywhere between 20-25 minutes. That’s still a lot better than long, boring cardio for an hour, however, you like to get to the golf course early so you can sneak in some extra putting practice. That’s right Henry, I’m talking about you.
That’s where finishers can benefit you. In just a fraction of the time, you can use metabolic finishers to polish off your workout, and just like that, you have set up your body to burn hundreds of calories more, with just 10 minutes or less of work. That’s time well invested, not like me … spending 20 minutes looking for my golf ball that I hooked way right.
Using Finishers for Weight Loss
Finishers can help you bust through a stubborn weight loss plateau, as well as jump start your fat loss. By incorporating finishers, rather than cardio, you work your core more effectively, which I’m sure Chris will agree that when your core is stronger, you hit the ball further. On a side note, I wonder how many commas I can put into a sentence. Anyway, hidden “gems” like push-ups, high rep DB rows and other moves not only set a metabolic disturbance in your body, allowing you to burn more fat in less time, but it also helps in building ab and core endurance. A solid plan to burn fat week after week is this:
Staying active (like playing golf)
Using metabolic resistance training as your main workout
Incorporating finishers to burn more fat in less time, putting the total effort across the body, rather than increasing your risk for injury with long cardio.
Save time and burn more fat? Perfect. Now I can spend more time looking for my lost golf balls.
To landing on the green,
Mike Whitfield, CFNC, CTT
About Mike
Mike Whitfield, CFNC, CTT (known as “Mikey”) is a certified Turbulence Trainer who resides in Georgia. After losing 105 lbs, his passion propelled him into the fitness industry. His unique approach of using metabolic resistance training and metabolic workout finishers has helped thousands of people lose fat through his online and offline programs. He is known across the fitness industry for his “finishers” and he is the author of the Workout Finishers and Ab Finishers programs. He has been seen on the Turbulence Training blog, Men’s Health Blog, and he has been featured in the AJC. You can read his humor and fat loss advice at www.cranktraining.com.
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