The Best Fat Burning Exercises
When wanting to lose that extra weight most people will use cardio training as their primary exercise to burn fat. This normally takes the form of lots of running and walking or getting on the cross trainer and rower in the gym.
As fat burning exercises these can be successful but are they as effective as everybody thinks? Contrary to popular belief over usage of cardio training may actually harm your fat burning efforts.
So because of doing too much cardio there is the possibility of losing lean muscle. Less lean muscle in the body results in a slower metabolism that leads to you burning less calories in the form of fat. A result of this is people who are thin but don’t have much lean muscle. This lack of muscle can make them very prone to weight gain should they eat normally again or stop training.
Another reason why moderate intensity cardio training is not as effective is that after doing this exercise your metabolic rate is only kept high for possibly 1-3 hours after you finish. This leads to a limited fat burning window in what can be called the “after-burn” of exercise.
So with these points in mind it now seems that the best fat burning exercise are the ones that build lean muscle and are performed at a higher intensity to create a much stronger and longer fat stripping post exercise metabolic state. So make sure that in your goal to lose fat start you include lots of free weight and body weight exercises.. For fat burning make sure that you just focus on multi joint movements. These exercises recruit far more muscles in the body resulting in higher energy expenditure and stronger metabolic response.
The main exercises you should perform on a regular basis are:
Squats – Perform various types using free weight dumbbells and Barbells (No Machines!)
Deadlifts – Again to be performed with Dumbbells and Barbells
Chest and Shoulder Presses – No Machines if possible
Push ups- Use varying techniques to increase the difficulty
Pullups - Very difficult for most people only perform if you can do full range of movement. If you cannot do this exercise then use lat Pulldowns
Lunges – Vary between front, reverse and side.
Rows – Bent over Rows and cable rows
There are lots of variations of these exercises and I would recommend you investgate further to get more ideas.
When performing these as fat burning exercises you do need to focus keeping the intensity of your workout high. To do this use quite heavy weights that allow you to perform between 6-10 reps and rest periods between sets to under 60 seconds to keep the heart rate elevated throughout the workout. I also highly recommend including training systems such as super sets. This is where exercises are performed back to back as one rep before resting. That is one set. A great example of this is 10 reps of bent over rows then performing 10 reps Shoulder presses right away. You will find that for a more effective response choosing opposing muscle groups is the best way to do it.
If boredom is creeping into your exercise regime then think seriously about doing free weights in your workouts. They may just be the answer to getting the results you want.