Stacking

I usually reserve Saturdays for my toughest workout of the week and spend 3 or more hours at the gym paying special, individual attention to each muscle group. Today I didn't have that kind of time so I went back to an abandoned calorie-scorching technique called stacking.

Stacking is where you do two or more lifts at the same time, thus burning twice the calories and working more muscles in less time. Today I needed to maximize my time, but still do the same amount of work.

Stack 1
Lunge with Arnold press.
Start by staggering your feet so one is in front and one is in back. Hold dumbbells with elbows bent and palms facing you.
Next, dip to the ground so that your back knee is a half inch from the ground and your front leg forms a 90 degree angle, making sure to keep the front knee directly over the ankle; do not let it extend in front of the ankle. You'll injure your knee so fast by doing that, and an injury can halt your training and be so frustrating!
At the same time you dip, raise the dumbbells above your head, straightening your arms and rotating the palms to face away from you.
Return to start, and repeat reps to finish the set.

Stack 2
Lunge with biceps curl
When you finish stack 1 on your first leg, switch legs and prepare for stack 2.
Lunge the same way, but on the other lead. Hold dumbbells with arms straight down by sides, palms facing out.
As you dip into the lunge, curl the dumbbells and return to start, repeat to the end of your rep set.

And now you've done 3 exercises in the same time it would have taken to do just the lunge set. This will get you sweating fast and your heart pounding, I promise!

Enjoy!