Workout finishers are short “mini-workouts” that you can do at the end of your regular workouts to burn a lot of fat and get a fast metabolism. In today’s guest post, Mike Whitfield talks about how he used workout finishers to lose over 100 pounds and how they help his clients get faster results and break through a fat loss plateau.
Break Fat Loss Plateaus with Workout Finishers
Mike Whitfield, CFNC, CTT – WorkoutFinishers.com
There it was. It was staring at me in the face… “Candy Corn”, aka “the devil”. Unfortunately, I am one of those types that if something I really dig (like candy corn) is in the house, I will eat it. That’s why it simply has to stay out of my environment. The good news is that I took a handful and thought, “I’m going to let this candy corn allow me to do awesome things in the gym”, and off I went.
My workout was great, and to torch more fat and burn more calories, I added a workout finisher like this:
1A) Bulgarian Jump Squats (8 ea leg)
1B) X-Body Mountain Climber (12 ea)
1C) Burpee (10)
I did the above circuit 3 times, resting for only 30 secs between circuits.
I use workout finishers with myself and my clients for two different reasons: 1) they help speed up results and 2) They break fat loss plateaus.
The funny thing is that I “accidentally” figured out that these finishers break fat loss plateaus. Some of my clients wanted alternatives to interval training, so I started “experimenting” with finishers so they wouldn’t get bored. That’s when the results started to go through the roof and it’s then I realized I was onto something.
Workout finishers are the hottest thing in the fitness industry lately, and most trainers agree that using them is getting their clients better results in less time. They are also one of the greatest tools for breaking a fat loss plateau. If done with the right intensity, workout finishers can even let you get away with a little candy corn in your diet and still drop fat. This is fat loss dynamite!
A workout finisher is like pouring a tall glass of “Awesomeness” and sipping it at the end of a workout. But seriously, they are a great tool for replacing interval training because they tend to be shorter, yet burn more calories. Some of my clients call them “mini-workouts” performed at the end of their session to set their body up to burn more fat for hours.
Back in the day, I used to hit the treadmill for some interval training after my workouts, which is great for fat loss. But I like workout finishers better, especially when trying to break and avoid fat loss plateaus. Here’s why:
Treadmill intervals for 15 minutes – very good calorie burn, but the legs are mostly used to perform them
Workout Finisher Bodyweight circuit of inverted rows, push-ups and lunges – more muscles being stimulated, therefore burns more calories.
Here’s even more good news – Because you worked your entire body at end of the workout rather than hit the treadmill, your legs won’t be so sore and your performance at the next workout will be better, resulting in burning more calories. It’s like a positive domino effect for more fat loss.
The last thing you need to do to break a fat loss plateau is totally revamp your diet and workout program. By simply tweaking your nutrition program a little bit and introducing workout finishers to your current favorite program, there’s no reason why you couldn’t bust through a plateau in no time.
Let’s say you’re on a split program and it was an upper-body workout day. This would be a great opportunity to incorporate a lower-body focused workout finisher. Your legs will be fresh and can handle the intensity. For example, you do a finisher of Jumping Lunges, Push-up Planks and KB or DB Swings. Let’s see what we accomplish:
The upper body muscles were worked during strength training.
The lower body muscles were worked during the workout finisher.
All major muscle groups were stimulated, burning a substantial amount of calories. This was done by just tweaking your program a little bit. Now you’re on your way of finally breaking that fat loss plateau. Boom.
Workout finishers definitely helped me lose 105 lbs of fat and keep it off. I’ll wait until you read that sentence twice because let’s face it, that’s a lot of weight. Done? Yeah, I know. Yes, I have lost over 100 lbs and more importantly, I’ve kept it off by incorporating workout finishers. Now get out there and bust that plateau (or avoid it).
Mike Whitfield,
Get more of his workouts here: WorkoutFinishers.com
