Burn Belly Fat The Quick Way
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.
I have to say, I’ve 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.
But first of all, I want to frame my responses. I’m going to talk about what works for people that have a limited amount of time to exercise, mostly because I expect your readers don’t have 90 minutes per day to devote to a workout, unlike the typical audience of a fitness magazine.
Exercise magazines portray that we need 90 minutes to exercise. People don’t have that and disconnect.
For someone who is not a triathlete and just wants to tone and lose weight you don’t need to work out 6-8 hours/week.
Having said all that, the bottom line for getting a better body is…
Your best results will be through warming up with your own body-weight. Use strength training for muscle buildup. And use interval training to finish up and burn fat fast. This system is structured for you to workout 3 times/week and be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes.
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.
Next are strength training supersets. What is this? Use two exercises, with minimal rest between each, back to back. This will give us top results and cut workout time. Take about 20 minutes for this step. Depending on your goal you should use basic exercises and if you would like add more bodyweight exercises.
Last but not least, interval training for 18 minutes. It is important to warm up. Next do six short intervals at your skill level while using short periods of low intensity recovery.
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.
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?
So the best way to burn belly fat is with a combination of strength training and interval training. It’s fast, it works, and it’s fun!
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.
Tags: exercise program, fitness, Health, health and fitness, losing weight, strength, weight, weightloss
