7 Essentials for Fat Loss Training That Works
Getting on the elliptical for an hour and watching TV is not a good fat loss workout. The primary goals of ANY fat loss program need to be:
1. Maintain lean muscle to maintain the metabolism.
2. Stimulate the body to break down and burn stored fat.
3. Avoid injury in the process.
Here’s how you do all three at once.
1. The Table Push-Away is Your Primary Exercise
Credit to Michael Boyle for the coining of the table push-away. YOU CANNOT OUT-EXERCISE A LESS THAN OPTIMAL DIET. It can’t be done. There are always the people that can barely work out, eat whatever they want, and still look great. Those people are VERY few and far between, have the ideal metabolism, and we all hate them.
They aren’t who you need to be looking to for inspiration.
For the rest of us, look at the people who were in your shoes but made LASTING change. You’ll see that their nutrition was the biggest factor in their success. If you have a very significant amount of fat to lose, consider consulting with a qualified registered dietitian and your physician.
1.5. Strength Training is your second “primary” exercise
This is the “maintain lean muscle” part of the equation. If you neglect this, you will still lose weight, but you won’t lose as much fat and will lose muscle. No one wants to be weak and frail. You should aim to be lean, strong, and healthy, not skinny for the sake of being skinny.
Split training that splits the body up into “bodyparts” to be trained once per week is not optimal. We’re not trying to push individual muscles to exhaustion; we’re trying to maintain muscle and increase our metabolism. Training the entire body at once allows you to use very demanding exercises and places a big stimulus on the body to increase fat breakdown. It’s also a lot more time-efficient.
2. Use Multi-Joint Exercises
Curls and crunches will not do anything in terms of fat loss. They don’t affect enough muscle tissue to significantly build it, and they don’t put a big enough demand on the cardiovascular system to increase fat metabolism after exercise. Focus your efforts on multi-joint movements like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, pushups, rows, and pullups. These exercises use a ton of muscle and take a lot of effort, putting greater demands on the body to maintain muscle and releasing beneficial fat loss hormones.
3. Do Mostly Sets of 8-12 Repetitions, and Use a Challenging Weight
Research has shown that using a 10 rep maximum resistance (the weight you could only lift 10 times with good form) is more beneficial for fat loss than doing lots of repetitions (i.e. 20-30). This challenging level stimulates the release of growth hormone, which despite its name tells the body to break down stored fat for energy.
I don’t like prescribing a true “maximum” resistance because of the risk of injury if you’re inexperienced, so use a resistance you can move 8-12 times with good form, with a rep or two in the tank. Don’t just stop at 12 if you can do 20. Make it harder!
4. Keep Your Rest Periods Under A Minute For Most Exercises
Using very short rest periods (i.e. 30-60 seconds) stimulates growth hormone, a fat-burning hormone. It also increases demand on the cardiovascular system, burning more fat during exercise and increasing EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). This just means that your metabolism is increased for hours after you finish exercising, so even after you go home and shower you’re burning more calories than normal.
If you’re doing heavy squats, deadlifts, or other large total-body exercises, you’ll need more than a minute of rest to execute them properly. That’s fine. Technique is more important than blowing through your sets.
5. Try Incorporating Interval Training With Strength Training
This is one cool way to challenge yourself. Try incorporating some sort of cardiovascular exercise with your strength workout. For example:
Sprint 15 seconds
12 Goblet Squats
12 TRX Rows
Repeat circuit 3-4 times
You can also do bodyweight exercises like burpees and mountain climbers, the stationary bike, battle ropes, or whatever else you can come up with. Just make sure that you are going HARD for 15-30 seconds when you sprint.
6. Train As Frequently As You Can
2 workouts a week aren’t going to cut it. Especially when doing short, high-intensity workouts, frequency is your friend. Mix it up enough so you don’t get used to one workout or burn yourself out. Do free weights, bodyweight exercise, sprints on various cardio equipment, barbell complexes, battle ropes, sled drags and pushes, run outside, swim, bike, kettlebells…there are a LOT of possibilities. A sample schedule could include 3 strength training, 2 additional interval workouts, and 1 or 2 days of long, easy cardio. Shoot for 4-5 hours of exercise a week, and increase from there based on your schedule and training response. That may seem like a lot, but it will probably be necessary. Dig down deep and remember why you want to lose fat.
7. Stick to the Plan
One of the worst things you can do is change programs all the time. Variety is good, but it has to be in the context of a long-term plan. Don’t miss workouts. Don’t change workouts in the moment just because you don’t want to do another set. Don’t let the newest fad draw your attention. Have a laser-like focus, and you will succeed.
If you’re looking for a fitness trainer in the Mt Juliet/Hermitage/Nashville TN area, online fitness training, or just need some advice to get your fitness program started, contact me