3 Workout Tips for Maximal Fat Loss

In yesterday’s post we talked about a really cool concept my buddy Dan Long calls “Kill Mode” and the extreme importance of really pushing yourself each and every workout.

Simply put, if you’re not feeling “uncomforable” often throughout your workout, you’re barely skimming the surface of your fat loss potential, if at all.

Are you happy with your results?  If not, one of the things you need to be doing is ensuring that your workouts are set up to burn maximal fat, and that’s exactly what today’s post is about — 3 “staple” components of fat-killing workouts:

1.  BIG Movements – The only movements that should be included in a fat burning workout are those that include multiple muscle groups and cross multiple joints.  For example, with a Dumbbell Bench press there is movement at the shoulder joint and the elbow joint.  For a DB squat, there is movement and the hips and the knees.  Contrast those BIG movements with a bicep curl in which you’re working just one teeny tiny muscle of the upper arm, and movement is only occuring at one joint.

The difference?  With big movements you tax much more musculature around many more joints and ultimately create a much greater metabolic effect.  BIG movements burn BIG calories; small movements not so much…

 2.  Alternating Upper and Lower Body – Now that you know that big movements are key, here’s a little trick to get your heart working even harder:  alternate BIG upper body movements with BIG lower body movements.  When a muscle or group of muscles work, the heart works to pump blood to those muscles in order to deliver oxygen and other nutrients necessary to perform the exercise and for recovery after.  If you just finished a big lower body exercise in which the heart is working hard to send blood to that region, and then follow it up with a BIG upper body exercise, you’re heart will then need to work even harder to deliver nutrient rich blood to the entire body.

The result?  Heart rate is elevated, your heart works harder, and you burn more calories.

Want an even greater caloric burn?  Mixing in full body movments like a plyometric medicine ball slam where you start with a full squat holding a medicine ball then explode up jumping as high as you can lifting the ball overhead and slamming it down on the ground…fun stuff =)  Combination lifts like a lunge and press work well as full body movments as well.

3.  Limited rest – BIG movements, full body movments, and alternating upper and lower body exercises is all phenomenal, but the trick to keeping heart rate up and calories incinerating throughout the entire workout is limiting your rest periods.  This has two benefits.  Number one, you’ll obviously be able to do more work in a 45 minute workout with 30 second rest periods than with 90 second or 60 second rest periods between exercises, which means way more calories burned.  Secondly, your heart rate won’t fall off as much as your conditioning improves and you’re able to limit rest, and a higher average heart rate = more calories burned.

Some of the best workouts that incorporate all three of the above components can be found at my friend Craig Ballantyne’s site here.  In fact, Craig just put up a “secret” page where he’s got 31 different interval training workouts for you that require practically no equipment:

==> 31 Fat Burning Interval Training Workouts for You

Keep rockin’!

Joel