The Afterburn effect is how you burn massive calories after your workout!

You may be wondering what is meant by the “afterburn effect.” The afterburn effect is the ability for your body to continue to burn extra calories long after your workout is over. Usually, you will burn a host of calories during the time you’re working out.  But, did you know there are certain activities that can keep your body in high fat-burning mode for hours after your workout has ended? It’s true! And it’s called the afterburn effect, or EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen Consumption).

When you exercise, your system speeds up.   Your body has to take in and consume more oxygen than it normally would when at rest (oxygen consumption). You know you’re taking in more oxygen because you’re breathing harder and faster than when you’re not exercising.
Taking in oxygen requires calories.  The more oxygen you’re taking in through exercise, the more calories you’re burning.  This in turn speeds up your metabolism.  This happens naturally when you exercise, but there are certain exercises that keep your body burning calories and fat hours after you workout.


4 Exercises to Maximize the Afterburn 

The afterburn effect takes place when you push yourself so hard during your workout that your body still has to take time to recover after your workout. This means engaging in more High intensity workouts. The good news is these workouts require the least amount of time.

Keep in mind, for the afterburn to kick in, the intervals must truly be intense. You also need a recovery period, so these workouts are not meant to do consecutively.

1. HIIT

HIIT training requires all out high intensity follwed by a rest period...it can be done using your own body or with equipment like a bike, treadmill. You can apply this type of training to many aerobic activities like walking/jogging, jogging/sprinting, stair climbing, swimming, and bicycling.

HIIT sessions usually last between 15 and 30 minutes, maximum.

2. Strength Training 

Strength training (resistance training) can also produce an EPOC response, especially when you perform compound movements. Compound movements use several muscles and joints to complete the movement. For example, a squat will involve the legs, glutes, core, and lower back (a compound movement).  A biceps curl would only really use the biceps muscles. Now if you added lunges to those bicep curls, you would be performing a compound movement. Strength training is essential if your goal is the maintain muscle mass and increase your metabolism.

3. Circuit Training

You can also use circuit training to create the afterburn effect. Circuit training is moving between a circuit of exercises, one after the other, with little to no rest in-between. Try to incorporate exercises for all the different muscles in the body, and you may even want to do a few minutes of high-intensity cardio in-between each exercise. This combination of weight training, coupled with aerobic conditioning, will create an EPOC effect.

4. Tabatas

Tabata is also another form of training, similar to a HIIT workout. For Tabata style workouts, you will do 20 seconds of all-out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest. Do eight rounds of this to complete your Tabata workout. Tabatas are short, but oh so effective!

So for your next workout, try incorporating one of these exercises, then sit back and relax on your couch knowing you're still burning massive amounts of calories!