Written by Travis Halena | ACSM CPT
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Even if you aren't familiar with a metabolic workout, you've likely seen some form of it at some point. P90X, Crossfit, insanity, and high-intensity interval training are all variations.
If your goal is to physically be in the best shape of your life, you should include this type of training in your workout program.
Metabolic workouts check a ton of boxes for improving your fitness, but they can be hard to plan if you haven't done them before. Luckily for you, we're about to cover the best metabolic workout and everything you need to know to get the most out of them.
Table of Contents:
- What Is A Metabolic Workout?
- What Is Metabolic Training?
- The Best Metabolic Workouts
- Benefits Of Metabolic Workouts
- What Are The Best Exercises For Metabolic Workouts?
- How To Build Your Own Metabolic Workout
- Programming Tips For Metabolic Workouts
- FAQs
What Is A Metabolic Workout?
Metabolic workouts can go by several names, including circuit training, interval training, EMOMs, AMRAP, Tabata, metabolic conditioning, or metabolic resistance training. It's a style of workout designed to burn energy more efficiently through varying high-intensity and moderate intensity exercises.
A list of exercises is determined beforehand. During the workout, an individual will move through the circuit from one station to the next while mainly performing compound exercises and bodyweight movements. The sets and rest intervals will be based on your fitness level and goals.
The workouts will be grueling, but they have to be to deliver the fantastic results that come with them. Total times can vary, but they're usually around 20 minutes long. You might be surprised at how much you'll elevate your heart rate, burn calories, and even build muscle in that time.
What is Metabolic Training?
The Cliff's Notes definition of metabolic training is that it uses structural and compound lifts while implementing limited rest between exercises so you can maximize calorie burn and increase your metabolic rate during and even after your workout.
When you stagger these metabolic exercises together, you are trying to create an oxygen debt. This is important because metabolic training is about increasing energy storage and delivery so your body can use it for any activity. If you finish one of these workouts, weren't breathing hard, and were drenched in sweat, you did something wrong.
Metabolic training alternates between opposing muscle groups, so one thing can rest while the other works. Even though most exercises are structural, meaning they load the spine and legs, you can still get a metabolic challenge by performing movements like a bench press and chin up back to back.
That's because both movements work for multiple muscle groups and are more effective than isolation exercises.
The Best Metabolic Workout
Before we go any further, let's get to the workouts. I've created three different metabolic workouts for every fitness level. This way, unless you're starting out at an advanced level, you can continue progressing.
For each of these workouts, you'll rest the indicated time in between circuits, completing your circuit a total of 3 times.
Stay tuned after the article, as I'll explain the benefits of these workouts, how to do each exercise, and how to create your own metabolic workout.
Metabolic Workout A (Beginner):
|
Exercise |
Work Duration |
Rest Duration |
Reps |
|
Alternating KB Swing |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Mountain Climbers |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
DB Squat & Press |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Sprinter Sit-ups |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
DB Jump Squats |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Push-ups |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Alternating DB Snatch |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
AB Bicycles |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Renegade Row |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
V-ups |
30 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Rest |
2 min |
N/A |
N/A |
Metabolic Workout B (Intermediate):
|
Exercise |
Work Duration |
Rest Duration |
Reps |
|
Goblet Squats |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
DB Push Press |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Weighted Jumping Lunges |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Close Grip Push-ups |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Alternating DB Step-ups |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Bench Dips |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
DB Suitcase Deadlifts |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Bent Over DB Row |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Overhead Walking Lunges |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Burpees |
40 sec |
20 sec |
3 |
|
Rest |
90 sec |
N/A |
N/A |
Metabolic Workout C (Advanced):
|
Exercise |
Work Duration |
Rest Duration |
Reps |
|
Medicine Ball Slam |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
DB Squat and Press |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Kettlebell Swing |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
KB Clean and Press |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Pull-ups |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Push-ups |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Sumo KB Bent Over Row |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
DB Floor Press |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Weighted Burpees |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Alternating Jumping Step-ups |
60 sec |
15 sec |
3 |
|
Rest |
75 sec |
N/A |
N/A |
Benefits of Metabolic Workouts
We know metabolic workouts will get you tired, but let's examine some of the major benefits you may or may not be aware of.
1) Improves VO2 Max:
If you aren't familiar with the term, VO2 max is a person's highest attainable oxygen consumption rate during maximal or exhaustive exercise.
As exercises get more intense, your body demands more oxygen consumption, which is one of the top indicators of your cardiorespiratory endurance and aerobic fitness. Metabolic resistance training has been proven to improve your VO2 max better than any other form of exercise1.
2) Burns Calories:
During an average metabolic workout, a person can burn over 600 calories. That is a much higher rate than traditional strength training. The hidden benefit is excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, also known as EPOC.
EPOC keeps your body burning calories for up to 38 hours after the workout2. When your metabolism is sky-high after one of these workouts, it taps into your fat stores for energy by using oxygen which burns fat.
3) Total Body Workout:
You'll notice that there aren't many isolation exercises in a metabolic workout. Instead, the compound exercises involved target multiple muscle groups at once, which require more energy from your body and help burn calories3.
In each session, you'll get a full body workout thanks to the ability to switch back and forth between upper and lower body movements. This style not only allows one to recover while the other is working, but it also means you can hit a lot more muscles in a shorter period.
4) Builds Muscle:
The full-body exercises we just mentioned will also produce more growth hormone, so your body can build muscle mass, an additional benefit to cardiovascular training4.
Isolation exercises don't recruit enough muscle fibers to stimulate that same growth hormone production. With metabolic workouts, you kill two birds with one stone by building muscle and increasing your body's ability to use more oxygen to fuel that muscle.
5) Trains Multiple Energy Systems:
This likely isn't something you're thinking about if you are a beginner, but this has a serious upside for an athlete.
Metabolic workouts train all three energy systems, which include the phosphagen system (immediate energy), glycolysis (intermediate energy), and the aerobic system (extended energy)5.
Training all three of these systems ensures your body has energy for any type of exercise you throw at it.
6) Adds Variety:
Traditional strength training can sometimes get a little boring if you're just doing three sets of ten reps with two minutes between sets.
With metabolic training, the rest periods are also short enough that you are only worried about breathing as much as possible before the next interval begins.
You can move through an entire list of exercises with metabolic workouts before starting over again, giving you a lot more variety and engagement.
What Are The Best Exercises For Metabolic Workouts?
If you take a look at the workouts I've provided, you'll notice they're packed with moves that hit multiple muscle groups. Compound exercises will be your best friend for this type of training instead of isolation exercises.
Focusing on multiple muscle groups simultaneously burns more calories and builds more muscle than isolating one small muscle group. Plus, it makes getting your heart rate high enough to reap this training style's benefits easier.
If you aren't familiar with the terms, an isolation movement for the triceps would be a cable rope triceps extension. A compound movement like a bench press simultaneously works the triceps, shoulders, and chest.
Remember, you will need to be able to set these exercises up quickly or have them set up so you can rotate through your circuit in the short rest times you are given.
Here are my picks for a few of the best exercises for metabolic workouts.
1) Kettlebell Swings:
Kettlebell swings provide a time-efficient and highly effective way to engage multiple muscles simultaneously. Instead of doing numerous exercises, incorporating kettlebell swings allows you to target a wide range of muscles at once, such as your glutes, hamstrings, shoulders, and upper back.
Kettlebell swings exemplify the essence of compound exercises, making them an excellent choice for maximizing workout efficiency and engaging multiple muscle groups. By incorporating them into your metabolic workouts, you can experience accelerated calorie burning, an enhanced metabolism, weight loss, muscle development, reduced blood pressure, and more.
Moreover, the inclusion of kettlebells in your workouts offers additional advantages such as maximizing strength, power, and muscle growth, elevating the intensity of your training, and potentially adding an additional element of enjoyment.
To learn more about the benefits of adding kettlebell swings to your training, read our article What Muscles Do Kettlebell Swings Work?
2) Squat and Press (thruster):
A thruster, also referred to as a push press, is a compound exercise commonly used in metabolic, CrossFit, or HIIT workouts. It combines a front squat with an overhead press, resulting in a dynamic movement that engages multiple muscle groups.
Instead of having a barbell on your back, you'll rest it (or a pair of dumbbells) on your shoulders in front. A thruster is done with light enough weight that, although it starts with a front squat, you can use your momentum on the way up to "thrust" the weight overhead.
Once the weight is locked out overhead, reverse the movement by bringing the weight back down to the starting position at shoulder level while simultaneously descending into the next squat repetition. If you can get into a groove, the continuous motion makes
3) Push-ups:
Incorporating push-ups into your metabolic workouts is ideal for a well-rounded session. This classic exercise is highly effective and engages a wide range of muscles in your upper body, using only your own body weight. Not only does it target the chest, shoulders, and triceps, but it also recruits various other muscle groups.
Push-ups are a compound movement that activates the pectoralis major and minor (chest muscles), deltoids (shoulders), and triceps. Additionally, they provide a workout for stabilizer muscles in the back, biceps, and even the core.
One of the great advantages of push-ups is their versatility. You can modify them to target different areas and increase the challenge as you progress.
Variations such as wide-grip push-ups, diamond push-ups, and decline push-ups offer diverse benefits and keep your workouts engaging. To learn more about these variations (and more), check out our article on the 33 Best Push Up Variations.
4) Pull-ups:
The pull-up is an upper body exercise that relies solely on bodyweight resistance to engage multiple muscle groups. Another compound movement, it not only contributes to muscle development, but it replicates functional strength required for everyday movements.
As a fundamental bodyweight exercise, it can be done virtually anywhere, utilizing different apparatus such as a pull-up bar or even a sturdy tree branch. All you have to do is grab an overhead object and pull your entire body weight upward. The ability to do it anywhere makes it great for metabolic workouts on the go.
Many people struggle with strict pull ups, however, so it's important to work within your current fitness level. Use our Ultimate Pull Up Progression Plan to help you make gains with this move.
5) Burpees:
The burpee is an exercise you probably love to hate, and for good reason. It's a tough movement that challenges your cardiovascular fitness as much as your power, strength, and mobility.
In addition to their numerous benefits for balance, agility, and overall athleticism, incorporating burpees into your metabolic training can enhance coordination.
Moreover, burpees are generally considered to be a safe exercise for the majority of individuals, offering a favorable risk-to-reward ratio. However, it is important to note that if you have pre-existing joint issues, the jumping motion involved in burpees may exert pressure on your joints, and thus caution is advised.
Nonetheless, even if you experience joint problems or back pain, there are modified burpee variations, known as regression movements, that provide easier variations and can be suitable alternatives.
6) Renegade Row:
The renegade row, also known as the plank row, is an advanced variant of the dumbbell row that's done from a plank position.
As such, it primarily targets the upper body while challenging your core stability at the same time. When done with impeccable form, appropriate load, and progressive difficulty, the renegade row can enhance anti-rotation, stability, coordination, and strength.
To make renegade rows effective metabolic training exercises, you need to have a foundational level of strength through a tall plank position. Rest assured, there are numerous modifications for the renegade row based on your fitness level and individual objectives.
7) Jumping Lunges:
Jumping lunges are a dynamic exercise that combines the traditional lunge movement with a jumping component. They're particularly beneficial for intermediate to advanced fitness levels, but anyone can incorporate lunge or single leg squat variations into their metabolic workout.
Lunges primarily target the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and hip flexors, making it an excellent choice for strengthening and building muscle mass in those groups. Additionally, jumping lunges engage secondary muscles such as the hips and core, further enhancing overall stability and strength
However, if you have knee or balance issues, a simple lunge, split squat, or other single-leg variation may be a better option, especially under fatigue.
How To Build Your Own Metabolic Workout
While you could choose from one of our workouts in this article or our other HIIT routines, sometimes you may want to get creative and make your own. Here are the basics.
The Setup:
Even though there aren't official rules as to what constitutes a metabolic workout, most of them are done in a circuit-type format. This means you do each exercise one after another until you have completed the entire circuit.
After resting for your indicated time, you'll go through the order again for however many rounds are indicated.
You'll need to decide how long your workout will be, which will help determine your work and rest periods. Follow our guidelines for beginner, intermediate, and advanced rest times, and then set up your list of exercises.
The Exercises:
The majority of metabolic workouts feature non-competing exercises. That means the exercises allow one of your muscle groups to work while the others are resting. You could alternate between mean upper and lower body, push and pull, or resistance exercises and body weight.
Most of the exercises you pick will be compound movements because, as we mentioned, they give you the best chance of building muscle and burning fat simultaneously since they work multiple muscle groups at once.
For example, you would pair a goblet squat with push-ups instead of isolation movements like quad extensions and tricep press-downs.
The Intensity:
For these workouts to be effective, you need to be working at a level of 9-10 on the perceived exertion chart for your working sets. Using the challenging compound exercises we have discussed is part of the equation.
The other part is you busting your butt for that entire time. Remember, these weights won't be your best, but they must be challenging to get your heart rate high enough.
Holding yourself accountable is essential because it only works if you reach that high-intensity status. A helpful tip is that through round 1 try to record how many reps you got during the allotted time. In the following rounds, try to match or break that record.
Programming Tips For Metabolic Workouts
Although metabolic training has excellent benefits, it's also challenging and very taxing on your body. By nature, it puts great demands on the aerobic and anaerobic exercise systems.
These demands will help you burn fat, increase VO2 max, and build muscle and strength, but it also means using a ton of energy. I advise you to take two days of rest between metabolic workouts to ensure your body recovers and doesn't get injured.
Recovering from these workouts can be hard at first, so it's best to try adding one session for a few weeks and then working up to two and no more than three a week.
Another important thing is remembering to warm up and cool down. Give yourself 5 minutes before and after your workout to adequately get your blood flowing, lubricate your joints, and help your body cool down and begin recovery afterward.
Just because these workouts are short and have more bang for your buck doesn't mean you can jump into going as hard as possible.
When it comes to picking your weights, it's important not to lift with your ego. Remember, you're not going to hit personal bests for any of these lifts. That isn't the purpose of the workout.
That said, you also don't want to go as light as possible just to get through a ton of reps. A good rule of thumb is to pick a weight you could do 10-15 reps for. Then, use progressive overload to try to increase the reps you are doing within the indicated time each week.
Your form is also essential to keep in mind during these workouts. When we think of something like CrossFit, we often think of someone we know who got injured during the workouts. Injuries come from form breakdowns when you get into the higher rep ranges.
What you need to remember is still to maintain control of the eccentric portion of the exercise. If you can lift explosively and then control the negative portion of the rep, you are less likely to get injured.
Lastly, don't bite off more than you can chew when starting these workouts. If you are brand new to them, don't try the advanced option just yet. It's not a secret. It's going to be really challenging. But you can progress with these workouts just like anything else.
From week to week, you can increase the work periods, decrease rest periods, add reps, add weight, or add a number of exercises. Either way, there are many ways to progress and make this more challenging, but you need to survive the workout first.
FAQs
Here are some other frequently asked questions about metabolic training.
Do metabolic workouts really work?
Metabolic workouts are extremely effective for burning calories, building muscle, and improving VO2 max (conditioning).
Is metabolic training the same as HIIT?
The concepts are almost identical, and both use a circuit training type of format. The main difference is that metabolic training will focus primarily on strength training. In contrast, HIIT is solely focused on achieving a heart rate of 85% or higher by any means necessary, including cardio options.
What are 3 key elements of a metabolic strength workout?
The three main elements are compound exercises, work periods, and rest periods.
How often should you do metabolic training?
Start with one session a week and work up to no more than three a week with a minimum of one day of rest between each workout.
Metabolic Workouts: Key Takeaways
Metabolic training can be intense. It's designed to push your fitness and stress your metabolic output, hence the name.
If you're new to metabolic conditioning, start with fewer exercises and longer rest periods. Ideally, your body will adapt over time, and you can manipulate the three main elements to increase the intensity. Progressing one or more of your compound movements, increasing your work periods, or decreasing your rest periods will all add a new challenge.
However, don't get discouraged if you feel like you need to regress things on some days. Like we said, these workouts are designed to be hard, and recovery is just as important as work rate.
To learn more about another style of metabolic training and get more great workouts, check out our Complete AMRAP Workout Guide.
References:
- Wen D, Utesch T, Wu J, et al. Effects of different protocols of high intensity interval training for VO2max improvements in adults: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2019.01.013
- Schuenke MD, Mikat RP, McBride JM. Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: implications for body mass management. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2002. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-001-0568-y
- Elliot DL, Goldberg L, Kuehl KS. Effect of Resistance Training on Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 1992;6(2):77. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/1992/05000/Effect_of_Resistance_Training_on_Excess.2.aspx
- Wewege M, van den Berg R, Ward RE, Keech A. The effects of high-intensity interval training vs. moderate-intensity continuous training on body composition in overweight and obese adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews. 2017. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12532
- Green HJ. Mechanisms of muscle fatigue in intense exercise. Journal of Sports Sciences. 1997. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/026404197367254
Travis Halena
Author