One of the most effective ways to increase the calorie burn in a session is with a high intensity workout ‘finisher’. These are an exercise or series of exercises performed in a short burst with the emphasis being on maintaining high effort levels. They’re always at the end of a workout because the idea is to work hard enough so there’s not much left in the tank afterwards!
In this article we’re going to look at a few different workout finisher ideas and give you some guidance so you can put them into your own training. Used effectively, they can be transformative for your fitness and physique goals.
We use workout finishers at AdMac Fitness, because we believe they have a double whammy of effectiveness…
They increase the overall calorie burn of a session
The client ends the session on a high, knowing they’ve given their all
Workout Finisher Guidelines
As a rule of thumb, the finisher should be short but high intensity. If it drags on for too long, you won’t be able to maintain the high intensity required. Also, if it’s lower intensity and longer duration, what you’re basically doing is cardio training and that’s a different thing altogether!
Here’s a few guidelines to make your workout finishers more effective…
Make the movements simple to do - as you fatigue your technique will suffer, so don’t do anything that requires complex movement patterns.
Keep them short - less than 10 minutes. The goal is high intensity, not long duration.
Mix them up between workouts - don’t repeat the same movement patterns over and over.
Make them appropriate - don’t throw in high intensity sprints if your client is morbidly obese and struggles to walk.
Use resistance training often - don’t rely on pure cardio approaches.
Sample Workout Finishers to Transform Your Fitness Results
Throw these into your workouts and thank me later - they’re a mixture of weight training and cardio workout finishers and they’re all very, very effective.
Burpee Swings into Push Ups
Take a medium to heavy kettlebell (16-20kg women, 20-24kg men) and perform 20 swings followed immediately by 10 push ups. Get to your feet and perform 18 swings and 9 push ups, followed by 16 swings and 8 push ups.
Repeat down to 2 swings and 1 push up.
30:30 Rowing Machine Sprints
Start with a gentle 30 second row, then once you reach the 30 second mark row as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Repeat this for five minutes. This simple pattern can be used across all kinds of equipment or approaches, not just rowing machines - you could do it on a spin bike, air bike, treadmill, ski-erg etc.
Burpees for Time
Pick a number that’s sufficiently challenging and the task is to complete that many burpees in the quickest time possible. Generally speaking, for a fit person 100 burpees will take around 6-8 minutes. Vary the number depending on the fitness of the person training, but most people will shoot for 50 or more.
3:2:1
Pick three different exercises and perform three reps of the first one, two of the second and one of the final exercise. Personally, I like to do air squats, pull ups and push ups because it’s a great all-body workout.
In practice it looks like this… I do 3 air squats, 2 pull ups and 1 push up. I repeat this for a designated amount of rounds or time. I’ll either keep repeating the circuit as many times as I can in 5 or 10 minutes, or I’ll do the 3:2:1 for 20 rounds, which is 120 reps.
Hill Sprints
If you like to train outside, there are few better finishers than the good old hill sprint. All you need to do is find a steep hill, 30-50m long and sprint up it, walking back down. Repeat as many times as you need to!
Tabata
The Tabata protocol is simple - you work at all out intensity for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. You repeat this for 4 minutes. It’s simple, but brutally effective. You can use this approach with either resistance training exercises (such as squats, push ups, kettlebell swings etc) or cardio exercises.
Rope Slams into Jump Squats
This is a simple two-move all body finisher. Perform 30 seconds of high intensity rope slams. Once the clock hits 30 seconds, drop the rope and immediately perform 30 seconds of jump squats. Repeat for as many rounds as required.
Simple Sprints
Either on a treadmill or a field, sprint as fast as you can until you can’t go any longer. When you reach that point, stop and walk for 20 seconds. Repeat until you physically can’t run any more!
Prowler Circuits
If you have access to a prowler, set a start point and put out 3 cones in a row, 5m, 10m and 15m from the start point. Push the prowler to the 5m cone and back, then the 10m cone and back and finally the 15m cone and back.
Repeat as often as you need.
Circuits
Pick a number of different exercises and perform a micro circuit class - between 30 seconds and a minute per exercise. Don’t rest between exercises, just move straight from one to the next without a break. Keep the intensity high and the finisher short (10 minutes tops).
Programming Workout Finishers
Unless your goal is simply ‘general fitness’, programme your finishers with a goal in mind. That might be to increase calorie burn, to increase explosive strength under fatigue, to do more hip hinge movements (kettlebell swings etc). It’s part of the workout, so use it to the client’s advantage.
You can use your finisher for far more than simply getting someone more tired (although that’s a secondary benefit!)
Always keep your finishers at the end of the workout, because if they’re done properly your client (or yourself) won’t have much energy left to carry on with the session. You’ll also compromise your movement quality for the work coming later!
Keep them simple and effective. The idea is to work hard and complex movements don’t lend themselves brilliantly to high intensity, hard work at high volumes.
Adding finishers into your workouts can transform your fitness and physique. Give one of the suggested workouts here a go and see how you get on - you’ll make a huge difference to your conditioning in a short space of time.
If you’re looking for personal training in East London, get in touch!
At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
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