It seems like almost everyone, when starting on some type of fat loss plan, will incorporate one variation of cardio training into their workouts. In the minds of most individuals, cardio training equals fat loss while weight training translates into muscular gain.

This is not always the case though. First and foremost you need to realize that weight training in itself is good for fat loss because it will help add more lean muscle tissue to your frame, keeping your metabolism higher, as well as causing your body to burn more calories later on when you aren't working out. This is best accomplished by performing a lifting session that has you lifting heavy weights and really pushing your body hard.

On the other side of things though with regards to weight lifting and fat loss, more and more trainers are starting to introduce metabolic training into their client's workouts as a replacement for the more traditional forms of cardio. Traditional cardio typically would consist of performing either long duration sessions on any piece of cardio equipment (think hamster on a treadmill) or else by doing higher intensity sprints. The later option started to catch on more and more as the preferable method of choice since people were finding it would help burn fat faster while also helping to preserve your lean muscle mass (assuming of course you weren't doing too much of it that it pushed you into an overtrained state).

While sprint training is definitely still predominately seen in most plans, this metabolic condition is catching on as well. What it consists of is performing a series of weight lifting exercises that has you taking as little rest as possible between sets. This allows the body to burn more calories per session and keep the metabolism high. It is better than performing a typical steady state cardio session because there is less chance for bodily adaptation. One of the biggest challenges that 'steady state cardio-ers' face is that sooner or later their body stops responding. Then they are left with no choice but to increase the cardio even more. When you are already doing such a high volume, you can likely see why this is not preferable. You will end up performing an hour or two on a daily basis in order to keep fat loss moving and oftentimes you may not even continue to burn fat but rather your body will start burning muscle instead. It makes for a very unpleasant situation.

With metabolic training though, you are performing weight lifting exercises with lighter weights or body weight/plyometric type movements. As the body grows stronger you can then simply add more weight (note you will never be lifting as much weight during these sessions as you would on a typical 'heavy' day). Most people will do these exercises in a circuit style fashion and will likely alternate between upper and lower body movements, as well as core and abdominal work.

The goal in this workout though is to keep moving at all times so make that a priority. It is what is going to help get you burning the fat and allow you to give up those tedious steady paced cardio sessions you've likely grown to hate with a passion. Also take into consideration proper rest and recovery. As this is still a workout where you are pushing against resistance you do need to make sure you allow your body enough time to repair. It wouldn't be advisable for instance to always schedule a metabolic training session and then a heavy weight lifting session for similar body parts the next day. Try and space them out so you do not risk pushing your body too hard and not allowing it to come back stronger.

So if you are tired of wasting precious minutes of your day on the treadmill, bike or elliptical, you may want to give metabolic training a try.