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Workout Secrets from Celebrity Trainer! Oh and 15% Off Body Scales.

Promo Code : SCALE15

We all exercise for many reasons. Whether it is to lose weight, build muscle, live a healthier lifestyle or all the above; producing these results in an efficient manner is the most sought-after path by many.

That's why we picked the mind of RENPHO Fitness Advisor, Joe Dowdell, to understand what goes into an effective workout and what the best type of workout for everybody is.

Best Workout for Reducing Body Fat

Over-exercising or exercising more than you need is not the most ideal method of reducing body fat. Reducing the number of calories by controlling your diet plays the biggest role.

Dowdell proposes, “it's a lot easier to eat 300-500 less calories than it is to burn that same amount via exercise. That said, the best type of workout for improving body composition is going to involve a combination of resistance training and cardio in conjunction with a healthy diet.

“You shouldn't necessarily worry about targeting body fat via exercise. The focus should be on instilling proper dietary habits, getting 7-9 hours of sleep at night, staying hydrated, increasing activities of daily living and working out consistently 2-3 times per week with a priority on resistance training.”

The RENPHO Smart Body Scale helps in this journey by tracking 13 body metrics including your Body Fat and Muscle Mass on top of the minimum number of calories (BMR) your resting body needs to function.

To learn more about the 13 body indexes, read our previous blog "What is Body Composition?"

Best Workout for Enhancing Muscle Mass

To drive an increase in lean muscle mass, you must put your muscle groups under mechanical tension with a resistance that is challenging enough to stress your muscle fibers.

The truth is muscle is actually built during the post-workout period when the body begins to repair the muscle fibers that were damaged during the resistance training.

The result of this reparation process is a bigger, stronger muscle. To drive an increase in lean muscle mass, you must put your muscles under mechanical tension with a resistance that is challenging enough to stress your muscle fibers and you need to supply them with an adequate amount of protein in order to help rebuild them. Contrary to popular belief, muscle is built during the workout itself rather it occurs post-workout when the body begins repairing damaged muscle fibers. The net result of this reparation process is a bigger, stronger muscle which capable of producing more force in the future and withstanding greater challenges.

Dowdell explains, “resistance training, in combination with both a progressive overload and a slight caloric surplus is going to be the best way to increase lean muscle mass without adding much body fat.” He recommends a multi-set approach (i.e., 3-4 sets) and a repetition range that mostly falls somewhere between 6-15 reps per set.

How the Smart Body Scale Maximizes Fitness Potential

As mentioned earlier, the 13 body indexes found within the smart scale can be used to track the trajectory of your specific fitness journey.

As a personal trainer, Dowdell tells us that his primary focus for clients in the early stages of working with them is to develop good habits such as getting enough sleep, developing better nutritional choices, and training consistently. “I don’t really worry about the numbers on the scale because if you don’t have these good habits, you are not going to make an impact on your body composition.”

When weighing yourself to document a fitness transformation Dowdell suggests doing so once a week on the same day and at the same time. “It’s best to do so when you first get up in the morning and prior to eating or drinking anything.”

Taking circumference measurements using the RENPHO Smart Tape Measure and taking progress photos once a month will also show where improvements have been made or can still be made.

Should RENPHO Scale Users Use Athlete Mode or Normal Mode?

RENPHO Scales offer an Athlete Mode to accommodate the more regimented exercise level of an athlete.

Dowdell notes that the reason Athlete Mode exists is because oftentimes the algorithm that is used in the calculations of the various metrics needs to be calibrated to the body of a leaner individual such as an athlete.

We recommend users who fit the following requirements to use Athlete Mode:

  • 1) Aged 18 or above
  • 2) Takes part in more than 6 hours of intense aerobic exercise weekly
  • 3) Has a resting heartbeat below 60 beats per minute.

To learn more about Athlete Mode, read our previous blog “RENPHO Body Fat Scale: Normal Mode or Athlete Mode, Which Is Right for You?

What Performance Trends Should You Be Looking Into?

If your goal is getting leaner and more fit, attention should be paid toward tracking your reduction in body weight weekly, assessing your body fat and keeping a record of your body measurements (especially the waist/hip areas) twice a week.

Dowdell says, “tracking the results of your workouts is really important! Many of the changes that we see in the early stages of training are going to be neurological and not necessarily morphological.”

Tracking these invisible performance changes each workout will keep you on the correct path and motivated for success because you will be able to see the increase in weight being used or the number of repetitions performed while exercising with the same weight amount.

“A decrease in one’s resting heart rate in the morning is also a great thing to monitor,” says Dowdell. This is because a low resting heart rate is a good indicator of a healthy heart. “Usually anything below 60 beats per minute is a very good score.

Most smartwatches can track your heart rate; in addition, RENPHO’s collection of health monitors can also track your heart rate among other health indicators in a reliable, accessible and easy-to-use manner.