Tweak your workout to burn more body fat
Written by Darren Ellis
What comes to mind when you think about burning bodyfat? You thought cardio right?
Well you could be forgiven for thinking that. Even most personal trainers usually guess, "Crunches", "Situps", or
"cardio" as the best method. This may come as a shock, but none of
those work best, or even work at all!
Here's the truth. Cardio is not the best way to burn fat.
I know it’s hard to believe. Just take a look inside of any big gym to see row upon row of cardio machines, often with a queue of people waiting to get on them. But look a little closer and you’ll notice that hardly anyone is lean or at least getting leaner from one week to the next. In fact, I don’t know many people who have successfully lost a significant amount of fat through cardio alone. Those that did were competitive runners or triathletes, training for hours every day.
If you really want to lose fat fast, the key word is intensity. Increase the overall intensity of your workouts by adding resistance training and increasing the intensity of your cardio by switching to interval training.
There’s no denying that steady cardio burns fat – bodybuilders use it successfully to lean up for competition; however, as well as their regular training they perform up to an hour of cardio every day! Most men and women with jobs and lives outside of the gym simply don’t have the time for hours of exercise, and thus can’t depend on slow cardio workouts to get lean.
If you want to get maximum fat burning results in minimum workout time you need to do this:
Revamp your warmup
Let me guess, you warm up by riding the stationary bike for 5 minutes right? Why not supercharge that time and start burning fat right away? Run through this light bodyweight circuit 2-3 times for 5-10 reps per exercise, and not only will you have burnt a bit more fat than cycling, but you’ll be better prepared for the workout to follow, as well as injury proofing your joints.
• Squats
• Pushups
• Situps
• Lunges
• T-rotation (pushup position, lift one hand and point to the ceiling)
• Mountain climber (sprinter stance, switch feet with a quick jump)
Lift weights to burn fat
It’s true; building muscle helps you to burn fat – where do you think your fat is burned anyway? That’s right, in the muscle, so the more you have, the leaner you get.
Try this basic routine three times a week if you’re new to it.
• Dumbbell Squats
• Inverted Row
• Dumbbell Walking Lunge
• Pushup
• Perform 12-15 reps of each exercise as a circuit 3-5 times. Take as little rest as possible between exercises. Rest 60-90 seconds after each circuit.
Circuit training using big-muscle-group exercises offer a serious metabolism boost. What that means is your body will burn body fat for HOURS after your workout has finished. Slow cardio only has fat burning benefits during the workout.
Intervals get you fitter and leaner, faster
After your resistance training, finish with 10-20 minutes of interval training. Interval training is simply periods of all-out effort followed by easy recovery. Choose a cardio machine, or get outside and swim/bike/cycle/run. Perform a quick warmup, then do a few intervals, followed by an easy cool-down. You don't need a lot of intervals to get great fat burning results, and don’t forget they are pretty tough, so start off with 5-8 sets of 30 seconds effort, with 60 seconds of rest. As you get fitter, add sets and experiment with both shorter and longer intervals.
There you have it – 3 ways to supercharge your workouts for maximum fat burning. Stick to your schedule, you'll be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes. Compare that to what most people do, which is run, jog, cycle or use the cardio machines for 45 minutes straight. Sure, that will burn calories, but it doesn't build a better body.
Darren Ellis has an MSc specialising in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. He is the co-owner of CrossFit NZ, a functional fitness facility in Panmure, Auckland. His clients range from world champion athletes to stay at home parents, to high school children. He can be contacted at
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