River For Me

It’s no secret that the biggest fat burning muscles in your body are your legs. Your legs are the primary muscles that drive your heart rate up, the more you use them the harder your heart pumps, which means you burn more calories. If you increase the amount of muscle you have, you will raise your BMR. The way to put on muscle is through strength or resistance training 3-4 times per week.

Your legs and glutes are your foundation. Strengthening them will help you stay pain and injury free throughout life. They help you lose fat. It's a fact that muscles need energy (calories) to survive, and the more muscle you have the more energy you'll burn - all day.

Swiss Ball hamstring work

If you're really strong, you can make it more difficult by using just 1 leg.

1. Lie on the ground with your feet up on a swiss ball.

2. Raise your hips so that you have a straight back.

3. This is the start position.

4. Bend your knees to 90 degrees.

5. The swiss ball will roll with your feet.

6. Make sure that you do not bend at the hips.

7. Hold for about a second.

8. Roll back to the start position.

9. Repeat.

Lunge with weights

This exercise is really good for your glutes and thighs. Pushing up powerfully out of the deep lunge is where the real work gets done. Make sure that your knee doesn't go past your toes.

1. Get a dumbbell in each hand.

2. Stand up straight with tucked hips.

3. Step into a deep lunge position.

4. Hold still for about 1/2 second.

5. Push off your leg to stand up again.

6. Repeat.

7. Swap sides and repeat

Booty Blast

This exercise becomes more effective if you go as high as you can and then push it just a little bit more. That extra increase in intensity does you lots of good.

1. Get onto all fours.

2. Keep your back as straight as possible.

3. Raise one foot upwards.

4. Try to keep a 90 degree angle between your hamstring and calf.

5. Make sure that you keep your hips level.

6. Once you get to the top, pump up your leg just that little bit higher.

7. Lower your leg back down, but don't touch the floor.

8. Remember to do this in a controlled movement.

9. Repeat.

10. Change legs

Split Jumps

This is a fantastic exercise. It gets your heart rate going and really works your glutes and thighs.

1. Get into the lunge position.

2. Spring yourself as high as you can into the air.

3. While you're in the air, switch legs.

4. Land in the lunge position on the opposite side.

5. Repeat.

Your back muscles comprise the second largest set of muscles, after the legs. Putting effort into training your back will pay off if you are looking to burn a large number of calories.

Barbell Bent Over Rows

Bent over rows with is arguably the most important back exercise you can do for pulling strength and thickness in the upper body. This movement works everything from traps to lats to lower back and hamstrings. Using proper form the weight should be hanging straight down from your arms at this point, directly below your chest. Your palms should be facing towards you. Feel free to use a bit of chalk if you are rowing really heavy. NO STRAPS!

To row: to start a row, use your back muscles to pull the bar straight up to touch your chest. The elbows should be tucked in, head up, back straight, and you should NOT bounce. Lower the weight under control and repeat.

Chin-ups and pull-ups

These two exercises are very similar. Pull-ups are done with your hands face down and clasped around the bar, while chin-ups are done with your palms up and clasped to the bar. In other words, pull-ups use an overhand grip and chin-ups use an underhand grip. The Total Gym has a bar that can be used for chin up and pull up, add weight to the rack to make it harder.