Some people burn a lot of fat with their workouts and some burn a lot less. In this post I want to share some advanced fat loss exercise tips to help you take your fat loss to a new level.
A word of warning: there is not a single gimmick in this post. Every tip I give here requires work. However, it is “smart” work. When you do things the smart way, you may expect to have faster results. Follow these tips and this is what you will experience.
5 Advanced Workout Tips For Faster Fat Loss
Do non-competing circuits
I’ve spoken before about the effectiveness of strength circuits. Creating a workout which is made up of circuits allows you to save time on your workouts and to create a more intense experience. This, when done right, burns a lot of calories and boosts your metabolism for many hours.
To make your circuits even more effective, you need to do circuits which are made up of non-competing exercises. This means that you don’t do two exercises back to back which target the same muscle in about the same way. For instance, you won’t do a squat followed by a lunge. They’re fairly similar exercises and both work the quads in a similar way. You may find that you’re not doing your lunges properly, or can’t do them with the same level of resistance because your quads are still tired from the squats.
This is why a non-competing circuit may look like this:
- Squats (quads)
- Pull ups (back)
- Push up (chest)
- Lunges (quads)
Between the first exercise and the last one, your quads had a bit of time to rest. You may find that you can do better on each separate exercise when you train this way.
Do a lot of exercises with jumping
I have one secret thing which makes my workouts much more powerful: jumping exercises. These can be done at home or at the gym. They are one of the best ways to add intensity to any workout and achieve a faster fat loss.
I’m not talking about jumping jacks but about exercises which involve strength and jumping. This means that you’re getting both a cardio stimulation. Some of these exercises include squat jumps, lunge jumps, side-to-side jumps and box jumps. Add them to your circuit and you will instantly get a harder workout experience.
Add small exercises at the end of circuits to give your body an active rest
Most of the exercises I do are multi-jointed exercises such as push-ups and squats or combination exercises such as forward lunges with bicep curls. These exercises are simply harder and more efficient than “smaller” exercises such as triceps extensions.
However, if you want to add a bit of activity to your circuits, you can do some “smaller” exercises at the end of each circuit when your body is already tired. I’m talking about exercises such as calf raises or hammer curls. These “small” exercises don’t burn a lot of calories by themselves. However, adding them at the end of your circuits gives your bigger muscles more time to rest for the following circuit. This is an Active Rest so you are still burning more calories than you would in a complete rest, but without lowering the intensity of the following circuit.
Do finishers
At the end of your strength workout you have the chance to burn a lot of calories. The final 5-10 minutes are an opportunity to push yourself very hard. After all, you don’t have anything to save energy for. You don’t have any more strength exercises to do.
This is the perfect time to do some workout finishers. A finisher is a short sequence of exercises which you do at the end of your workout.
This is a highly intense sequence, and the goal is to push your heart rate up and to give it all you got before your workout is done. Finishers can make a big different in your workout. If you find it hard to shed some stubborn fat, doing finishers can make all the difference.
If you want some ideas for finishers, check out Mike Whitfield’s site at WorkoutFinishers.com.
Add some low intensity cardio at the end
When you finish your strength workout you have two options:
1. To do some stretches and head on home.
2. To continue with your workout by doing some low intensity cardio.
If you want to burn even more calories, you will choose the latter option.
At this point in your workout, you will be feeling pretty tired. You’ve already done all of the hard work. This is why doing intense cardio is not really an option. Instead, you can get on the treadmill for 30 minutes (or more) and simply walk. You will burn more calories and fat this way.
At the last gym I worked out out in, I used to get on the treadmill and walk for about 45 minutes while watching CSI or Law and Order. Don’t let anyone tell you that low intensity cardio is useless. It may not be time-efficient, but it is certainly better than not doing anything.
Recap
Here are my 5 advanced fat loss workout tips:
- Do non-competing circuits.
- Do jumping exercises
- Add some small exercises at the end of circuits
- Do workout finishers.
- Do low intensity cardio following a strength workout.
Non competing circuits are a good idea. It’s kind of like combining supersetting with interval training – both of which have shown to be extremely effective at muscle building and fat loss.
Yeah. I thought you might like those. Your idea is good too. Also a way to achieve advanced fat loss.