6 Best Exercises That Will Boost Your Metabolism

Your metabolism, or metabolic rate is the speed at which your body burns calories. The higher your metabolic rate, the more calories you burn, and the faster you can lose weight. Your metabolism is sort of like your body’s engine – the bigger it is, and the more stimulus you give it, the more efficiently it works, and the higher your rate of performance.
 
Whether your usual exercise regime involves going to the gym, walking, cycling, swimming weightlifting, or playing sports, your metabolism is getting a regular boost, which leads your body to burn calories, and helps you lose fat more quickly.

However, while all types of exercise do boost your metabolism, some boost it a lot more than others.

Generally, lower intensity exercises will only elevate your metabolism a little, and it won’t stay elevated for very long. More intense exercise though, boosts it much more significantly, and your metabolism also remains raised for longer – in some cases as up to 48 to 72 hours. This can make a massive difference to your rate of progress as you set out to lose weight.

So what constitutes higher intensity exercise?

Being quite general about this, higher intensity exercise is any activity where you really have to push yourself, and find that you’re sweating, out of breath, and possibly even feeling a little dizzy or slightly sick. Some exercises are even better than others for boosting your metabolic rate. They tend to be the ones that require you to use a large amount of muscle fibers, combine both strength training and cardiovascular elements, and push you towards your limits.
 
Let’s have a look at the 6 best metabolism boosting exercises that you can put to good use in any weight loss plan!

Kettlebell Swing

The swing works your hamstrings, core, lower back, and your glutes – one of the biggest muscles in your body. The kettlebell swing is a great calorie burner that will propel you toward your personal goals that much faster. Not only that, but swings will get your breathing and heart rate through the roof.

Squat

There isn’t a better leg building exercise than the squat. This workout effectively hits your quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs, calves, and your lower, upper and mid back. It’s very demanding, and you have to really focus on breathing and technique, so not only does it punish your lower body muscles, it’s a great cardio workout too. Squats can be incorporated into nearly any workout plan, and you don't even require special equipment!

Burpees

Burpees are the king of body-weight exercises. You’ll probably have a love-hate relationship with them. You’ll hate the burning feeling your get in your legs and chest after doing burpees, and will despise the fact that you see stars after every set, but love the fitness improvements you get from these exercises, and the feeling of satisfaction after a hard burpee workout.

Thrusters

Thrusters are a slightly less common exercise. You can do them with dumbbells or a barbell. Hold the weight at your shoulders, and squat down with it, then press the weight overhead as you stand up. That’s one rep. Thrusters really are a whole body exercise, which is the best kind of you are trying to lose weight.

Sprints

If you think you need equipment to do metabolism boosting exercises, then think again. Sprinting is a natural movement that everyone can do, but it’s super effective. Even just 10 or 15 seconds of an all out sprint will leave you gasping for air, and wondering if you’ll ever be able to run again.

Hand to Elbow Plank

The hand to elbow plank is another slightly odd, but highly valuable exercise. Start in a plank position, then push up into a press up position, and go back down to the plank again. Do this as quickly as you can. This will torch your core, arms and shoulders, and again, seriously challenge your aerobic fitness.
 

The above exercises performed on their own as straight sets are all great for boosting your metabolism, and you could just do a workout that comprised running through the six exercises in order, doing one to two all out sets on each, and you’d certainly get some good results.
 
But you don’t just want good results, you want great results. In fact, scratch that, you want the best results. For the ultimate metabolism boosting workout, try doing the exercises in any one of the following ways.

Timed Circuit

Set up everything you need for the exercises. That’ll include a kettlebell for the swings, a barbell and squat rack for squats, another bar or a set of dumbbells for the thrusters, an exercise mat and a little space for burpees and the plank variation, and a treadmill, or an outside track for the sprints. Set a timer to go off every 30 seconds, and start it going.

Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, doing a maximum number of reps on each, switching between each one as soon as the timer goes. After one full circuit, rest for two minutes, and then go again. Once you can do five circuits, increase the time to 40 seconds, then 50, and finally one minute on each. You'll build fitness quickly and you'll be able to follow your progress, which is a powerful motivator.
 

Ladder Superset Workout

For this workout, you’ll do the exercises in groups of two. Perform one exercise for 10 reps, then the other for 10. Switch back to the first exercise, and do nine reps, then nine on the second. Keep this going until you’re at just one of each. Once you can go through with no rest, work from one rep up to 10, and then back down again.

Pairings that work well for this are kettlebell swings and sprints, squats and hand to elbow planks, and burpees and thrusters. For the sprints and planks, instead of doing “reps” class each rep as five seconds. So five reps of sprinting would be 25 seconds.

Sprint-Based Workout

Do any exercise except sprints for as many reps as you can in 60 seconds, then sprint 200 meters, either on a treadmill or on a track. You can do this five times, doing a different exercise before the sprints each time, or just stick to one exercise per workout. If you need to make the sprints tougher, try doing them with a weighted vest on, or running up hills or stairs.

If just reading that got you out of breath, then prepare for some fun. Metabolism boosting exercises and workouts are tough, no doubt about it, but they’re also extremely rewarding, and will give you better results than you’ve ever had with traditional exercise. They certainly separate the men from the boys, and the women from the girls.

So what do you want – an hour of easy exercise that does nothing for your metabolism and progress, or half an hour of hardcore, full on training that gives you more bang for your buck than any other training program out there? If you're afraid of hard work that'll leave you feeling exhausted, these exercises aren't for you. If you want fast progress, on the other hand, you just have to commit and wait to reap the rewards.