6 Tricks to Stay Lean after Your Summer Tan has Faded

As women, we’re always striving to build a better body and be the best physical version of ourselves. Erin Stern is here with 6 tips to help you get AND STAY leaner.

1. Lift Heavy

Choose big, compound movements for your first few exercises. Ideally, the first 1-2 exercises will be straight sets. This will allow for more recovery time between sets and allow you to lift heavy! Heavy lifting boosts natural hormone levels, increases metabolism, and can help with increasing muscle mass!

2. Choose Compound Movements Over Isolation Movements

With every workout, opt for mostly compound movements over isolation movements. Compound movements are where more than one joint or muscle group is working, like a squat, press, deadlift, or row. Isolation movements are exercises where only one joint or muscle group is working, like biceps curls or triceps extensions. More muscles involved = more calories burned = more efficient workouts.

3. Combine Exercises – Supersets, Compound Sets, Giant Sets

After your first big lifts, try combining exercises. When doing this still try to lift heavy and I recommend sticking to the 6-12 rep range. This will give your nonworking muscles an active recovery, while still keeping your heart rate up. Exercise volume increases dramatically when you do this, too.

4. Add Cardio Spurts to Your Weight Training

Sneak in your cardio in the form of jumping rope, ab work, jumps (like switch lunges and pop squats), or boxing/shadow boxing. This elevates the heart rate and causes you to burn more calories in less time. Try to keep your recovery between sets to 30-45 seconds.

5. Add Strategic Cardio

Two-a-days will elevate your metabolism and help you burn more calories overall. This can be 10 minutes of body weight Tabata or HIIT in the morning, followed by an afternoon weight training session. Allow for 8 hours between sessions. If you must train in one session, opt for HIIT after upper body training or do 20 minutes of steady state after weight training, 2-3x per week. Keep in mind, steady state is a slippery slope. The more you do it, the more steady state cardio (i.e. longer duration) you need to do in order to see the same results!

6. Supplementation

Consider adding a whey isolate protein shake post-workout. This will help with recovery, satiety, and with maintaining muscle. Essential amino acids can also help with recovery and with satiety. PEAK ATP is great for increasing quality volume in your workouts, which can lead to big changes over time. I take it before my workouts and love being able to get extra reps!

Thanks for reading! Until next time, train hard y’all!