Amp up your calorie burn, boost fat loss, and give it your all with these workout finishers! These metabolic finishers are over in mere minutes but will leave you as a puddle on the floor.
If you want to feel the burn at the end of your workout, these fun finishers will get that done.
If you strive to get the most out of your workouts and give them everything you have left, a workout finisher is for you!
As a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, I use metabolic finishers to crush fitness results, shed body fat, and simply push myself and my clients past the point of no return.
They're something I use often in the SMASH Home Workout Program too. Moms love ending off a session with wicked fatigue.
A combo of upper body exercise, lower body exercise, and some cardio for fun, these finishers are a wicked pairing but a sure-fire way to sweat.
What Is A Workout Finisher
A finisher is the final few minutes added to your regular workout that leaves you a breathless, sweaty mess.
Normally this is done with 1-2 exercises and high intensity. They are meant to completely exhaust you and push your limits.
They're normally done very quickly and often for higher repetitions than normal (or for as many reps as possible).
However, in my SMASH home workouts I tend to choose a timed interval of a combo exercise the most.
There's no rule for finishers, they can be geared toward upper body, lower body, or both. Just the same, they can be done using just your bodyweight or a variety of at-home workout equipment.
That said, it’s easy to just finish off with ascending burpees (10 reps, 30s rest, 15 reps, 30s rest, 20 reps, 30s rest), or max out on push ups and call it a day.
However, there are so many more options!
But I wanted to get you to think outside the box a bit. So the ones below are a bit more than just burpees or jump squats (here is a printable if you need it!)
Tips To Use The Workout Finishers
Perform the finishers at the end of your workout and give yourself that extra little push.
Remember: these finishers play upon your fatigue. Make sure you’re still using proper form and engaging the necessary muscles when you do them. Otherwise, finishers are an easy way to injure yourself!
Metabolic Finisher #1: Swings & Sumo Walks Superset
This one is always a fun one but take note: it is a leg finisher and it fries the glutes! I personally love this feeling and I hope you do too.
Ensure you understand how to kettlebell swing though. The swing is a hip hinge (learn how to hip hinge here) movement and not a squat.
Perform 30 Kettlebell swings supersetted with 25 sumo walks (per side). Repeat for a total of three sets without rest. Then… stretch your glutes!
#2: Thrusters & Bear Crawls
This workout finisher is… hard. It’s fatiguing as hell. So that makes it fun, right?!
Grab a weight to use for a Dumbbell thruster. Make it lighter than you think because your shoulders are going to be slaughtered.
Perform 15 Thrusters followed by 30 seconds of bear crawls (alternating forwards and backwards). Rest for 30 seconds and repeat for a total of three rounds.
If you're feeling especially badass you could do this one for "as many rounds as possible".
#3: Barbell Glute Bridge + KB Swing 21-15-9
I love this glute finisher because it pairs a strength movement with a power movement. Plus it hits the glutes which are a crucial exercise to train. Read what I mentioned above about kettlebell swings though. Really, don’t mess those up. It is a posterior chain exercise, not a squat.
Load up your bar with a weight that you can perform for 21 reps. It should be challenging but you shouldn’t be grinding out those last few reps.
Perform 21 barbell glute bridges, then 21 kettbell swings. Jump right back to the bridge and go for 15 reps (the 15 of the swing) and then 9 reps of both.
That’s it! Super speedy and super fatiguing.
Fun twist: you can switch up this finisher and perform each exercise for one minute and do as many reps as possible for three rounds.
#4: Banded Hip Thrust Countdown
Can you tell I love training glutes (here’s a few reasons why)? Glutes are often overlooked and yet they respond so well to volume. So, they make a great muscle group to hit with a finisher!
To be honest, the setup on this finisher sucks.. but it’s worth it. If you can’t rock this exact setup, opt for just a mini band around the knees and a dumbbell hip thrust. Not as awesome but still great.
Perform 30 hip thrusts (lockout at the top!), rest for 30 seconds then perform 25 thrusts, rest for 20 seconds, 20 thrusts, 15s rest, 15 thrusts, 10s rest, 10 thrusts + 20 second isometric hold at the top.
#5 DB Walking Lunges & Mountain Climbers
This one will leave your quads and hip flexors on fire- especially if you've just smashed a full body workout.. It’s also very much volume-oriented. So, if you’ve already done a lot of legs, I wouldn’t opt for this choice.
Grab a set of dumbbells (15’s work) and perform 30s of walking lunges with 30s of mountain climbers. Without resting, repeat alternating exercises for as many rounds as possible until you hit four minutes.
Switch up: want to knock down your upper body a bit more? Swap the mountain climbers for push ups!
Other Fitness Tips You'll Love
If you're into fun fitness junkie stuff, below are a few other blog posts you'll probably love!
- 6-week fat loss workout plan
- Learn how to get better at push ups
- No equipment fat loss workout
- Glute training 101: everything you need to know
- Glute workout finishers
- Slider exercises for strong abs
- Glute training for strong glutes
- Lunge variations for wicked results
- Follow along home workouts
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Frequently Asked Questions About Metabolic Finishers
Finishers are a great way to amp up fat loss and burn more calories as well as improve your cardiovascular endurance. Though you don't need to add them to the end of every single workout, they are a great one to do once or twice a week!
Conditioning finishers are an intense set of exercises or repetition schemes done at the end of your workout. Most often they use full body exercises to get the biggest bang for your buck. The purpose is to exhaust you fully, increase calorie burn and improve your performance capacity long-term.
Don’t forget to pin these sweaty finishers!
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