Bestefficient At Home platform for training from a distance lends a set of exercises for maximum calories burning during an efficient and intensive workout

30 March 2022 important content updates such as video – an additional workout, summary notes, and useful links.

Responding to all questions raised following the article on The 13 Fatal Myths about Nutrition and Training, Bestefficient is replying here now, while again giving you part of its library of more than 1000 exercises. One of the most commonly asked questions came from Point 1, which read „Cardio is the sole key to weight loss – fitness myth for beginners“, and is the following:

How can I make an efficient and intensive workout?

Once cardio was considered to be the right way. Now we know that 70% of the result comes from how strictly you stick to the meal plan and not so much from how long you are working out. Research has shown that there are a number of other factors in the weight loss equation. Strength training and nutrition play the main parts. The intensity of the workouts, the number of muscles involved, the different training modes also matter.

If you need to, substitute the box jumps with standard burpees, and the medical ball – with any equivalent weight, for example a bottle of water or even – a book. Anyways, the emphasis here is on the rotation, not on the weight. The Australian pull ups can be substituted with rowing with dumbbells. See a video of that here.

High Intensity Workout (HIIT) – Based on True Events

Before I sum up the theory on the matter, I will tell you about a real case from my experience as a fitness coach with a client that I have been working with (she is 40 years old). Over the last 5 we have been working in the gym. In the last one year we have 4 to 6 workouts a week, and the progress that she achieved since we included high-intensity training sessions (since January 2019) has been substantial.

In February 2020 she was already used to at least 2 or 3 interval trainings a week. Thus, once the State of Emergency was declared the challenge in fact was to find a way to keep the approximately same level of intensity, given she had some 2 sq. meters at her disposal at home.

I had to turn into an online fitness coach now, which I did through my platform for distance workouts bestefficient at home. It contains a mix of the best practices, not just video clips, photos or .pdf files, it is not “live” training sessions either though.

Bestefficient at Home is aimed at giving you a completely tailored training plan, which a real personal trainer with actual experience, has created especially for you, after discussing your specific sports background, options, lifestyle, personal goals, and preferences, i.e. the point is to be “an actual personal trainer inside your phone”.

Certainly, the app can be useful not only at home but also in the gym, at the park, or at the hotel gym, without having to make an appointment, while at the same time – providing you non-stop access to both your coach and your profile and this gigantic source of information inside. Check Bestefficient Anywhere for a more efficient and intensive workout.

The case study of my client’s progress with a more efficient and intensive workout

She achieved in a matter of one month of State of emergency, given she was not a beginner in workouts, all of it told through stats and graphs, derived from the app itself.

Nutrition has always been the factor that affects the most the progress, and that progress can be seen in the next graph, which shows a huge leap for such a short period of time.

The result for the same short period of time due to efficient and intensive workout

Despite the weight loss, the following graphics show clearly that she not only lost weight, but that did not lead to a reduction in her strength, rather on the contrary – she had an increase in those in basic exercises such as squats and push, which are the main indicator of the physical capabilities of the trainee.

Together with the basic exercises, we managed to improve her capabilities in more complex forms of training – combinations of isometric and dynamic exercises. The example below is small but statistically significant progress of 5% in an exercise, combining triceps extension from high plank position.

  Triceps extension from a high plank position – progress in 3 weeks

Theory-backed practice – efficient and intensive workout

In time different methods such as TABATA, HIIT, and Functional Training have been born, further back – Interval Training and General Fitness Training.

A large part of the principles behind most of the above mentioned were formulated at the beginning of previous century. A huge progress in that aspect is achieved by Emile Zatopek, who brought up interval training to a whole new level. Here is what he said about the training process:

“ I had started as an average athlete – a normal boy. It took me three years to win a race. I was glad that I endured those three years – that I did not give up.”

Emil Zatopek

This way of thinking is – of course – irrelevant today, when all our efforts are targeted at the main consumer request:

How to easily and quickly get in shape if I have limited space and time?

The paradox of our time is that in a world with ever more limited resources, our needs are ever more satisfied. The efficient and intensive workout is here to help, but if time is the currency of exchange, and the goal is something so abstract as “the good shape”, we are prone to “pay” far too low a price for the way too high an expectation to be lead to the Promised Land.

There is how the fitness industry mass produces thousands of products daily: The 90-day diet, the 21-day detox diet, etc. reaching such absurdities as “a 15-min workout”, 7 min for abs, 2 min meditation and 1 min of plan a day. I am sceptical about an such proposals for “fast and easy toning and getting in shape“.

Don’t get me wrong, if you spend 2 hours lying on the mat at home today, or alternatively – when gyms are opened back after lockdown – you spend the same time, chatting with people in the hall – the effect will be exactly the same.

The solution I have found for the people I work with is making the workouts varied enough so that they are interesting and this way the time factor does not feel that painfully.

What came in handy in there is the combination of different methods of training so that we I do not cyclically exhaust one and the same resources. That is how HIIT exercises fit into my training plans, albeit significantly modified. I also added full-bodied warmups, mobility and strength exercises, and end-of-workout stretching as a not-to-miss part of it.

How to get in shape with HIIT – high-intensity workouts?

The name of HIIT does not come from the word “heat”, although you really actually „are burning “, and I understand where the idea is coming from. HIIT means in essence „High Intensity Interval Training “.

The GIFT workout, which I introduced at the fitness complex I am working at, is based on HIIT one but has some additional benefits that significantly build it up. Because I am coming from a group sport, that is basketball, I wanted to introduce the team element to it. Not so much for the sake of making it mass, but rather for the emotional aspect of it. That is why I named it GIFT, where the G stands for „Group“, I – „Intensive“ (expectations check! You won’t last for 2 hours), F for „Fitness“ (in the broadest sense of „general fitness readiness“ of the person’s body) and T – „Training“.

With that workout, we manage to burn a much greater number of calories for the same amount of time and meanwhile, unlike other aerobic sports, it helps building up and toning the muscles. This is very important because aerobic workouts – for example running on the treadmill or biking – do not help build up the upper body part muscles.

On yet another hand, this training improves the metabolic index. Most generally and clearly speaking -you continue burning more calories even after the training is finished. 65-75% of the calories that you burn during the day are in fact burnt while you are passive. It is exactly the increase of calory burning in a passive state that is one of the keys. The benefits are many and do not come down just to the physiological ones. Most important of all is the emotion it brings.

Summary of high-intensity workout

In order to get fit, one of the most engaging ways is by doing group workouts, so it’s obvious to have a look at HIIT training. High-intensity workout is a quick method of training. You should switch between squats, push-ups, battle ropes, sit-ups, etc. very fast and then back again. Keeping a high pace and giving yourself a short break is part of the party and that is the way to make an efficient and intensive workout.

One thing to remember is no matter how fast you’re doing the drills in the circle, complex, WOD it is just part of the workout. You still must prepare your body by warming up and I’d go even further by doing a few stretches to cool down.

Keep in mind that the high-intensity workout is a workout, not a miracle. You’d better watch out for your eating habits in case you’re aiming for something more sophisticated than a sweaty towel on your neck.