I often get asked, "What's the best way to burn fat and lose my belly?" People want to know if aerobics is better than strength training, or if traditional cardio exercise is better than intervals.
It would be an understatement to say I have tried them all.
With over 15 years experience helping others, training myself, training for sports, spending countless hours in the gym, AND actually conducting laboratory research studies on different exercise methods, I'm pretty confident in knowing what works and what does not.
Time. Do you have it? For those of you who can't spend 90 minutes per day exercising I want to talk to you.
People read in magazines that we need to spend so much time on this and we disconnect.
You don't need 6-8 hours/week to exercise. Maybe if your goal is a triathlon you do. But for those of us trying to lose and tone there is still hope.
So, to get a better body, the key is...
For warming up use your body-weight, to build muscle use strength training supersets, and then to burn fat in a short amount of time and finish your workout use interval training. This system is made so that you can be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes only 3 times per week.
You'll do 5 minutes of bodyweight exercises to warm-up. This is a much more efficient approach than spending 5 minutes walking on a treadmill, which really doesn't prepare you for anything except more walking on a treadmill.
Then we move into the strength training supersets, where we use two exercises performed back to back with minimum rest between each. This cuts our workout time, while still giving us maximum results. We only need 20 minutes for this, and we'll use basic exercises, and sometimes even more bodyweight exercises, depending on the client's goal for muscle building.
And finally, we'll do 18 minutes of interval training. A warm-up, followed by six short intervals at the appropriate fitness level for the client, interspersed with short periods of low-intensity recovery. Finish with a cool-down. And that's the workout. Again, about 45 minutes total.
That will be a much more effective workout than running, cycling, or a cardio machine for 45 min straight. Sure they all burn calories but they don't build a better body.
In fact, long slow cardio has a downside. We already know results are different. But overusing muscle groups leads to injuries and it is an inefficient form of exercise. When are you going to build your muscles and sculpt that beautiful body if you are on a cardio machine for 30-45 min straight?
Therefore you can burn belly fat fast by combining strength training and interval training. It works and is fun in the process!
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. To learn more please visit Craig Ballantyne's Website here.
Comments on this entry are closed.