10 best fat-blasting exercises

March 7, 2013

Great exercises for losing weight: Kettlebells

Interval training

Interval training, whether you do it on a bike, on a rowing machine or through running, is one of the best fat-blasting exercises. When you do interval training sessions both your adrenaline and growth hormone levels increase. These hormones help to burn fat and they also suppress your appetite, which is good news if you want to lose weight.

The plank

As well as firming up your core, the plank will help you to lose weight because it requires your body to use up calories. To make this exercise harder push your body up from the plank position and support your weight using one hand, before bringing up your other hand and supporting your weight with that too. Once you are in this position return to the plank before repeating.

Kettle bells

Kettle bells have been around for hundreds of years and it’s easy to see why. Not only are they excellent at toning up flabby areas, the aerobic nature of common kettle bell exercises helps you to burn fat because these exercises increase your heart rate. Kettle bells also help you to burn fat because they build muscle and the more muscle mass a person has the more calories they burn.

Run just below your lactate threshold

The Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found that men who were relatively unfit burnt more fat when they ran just below their lactate threshold compared to very fit athletes. To run below your lactate threshold warm up and begin to jog. Accelerate your speed every two minutes until it becomes difficult to breathe and your muscles begin to burn. When you feel like this you have found your lactate threshold, so slow down and run below this speed to increase the amount of fat you burn when running.

Metabolic resistance training

Metabolic resistance training is a methodology that suggests that if people want to maximise the amount of calories they burn and boost their metabolic rate they should perform exercises that engage their entire body (or as much as possible) and do these exercises back to back at a high intensity.

Example: 10 mountain climbers, 10 kettle bell swings, 10 V sits, 10 mountain climbers. Repeat this five to 10 times depending on your ability.

High knees

This fat-burning exercise is simple yet very effective. When performing high knees keep your back straight and bring your knees up as high as possible towards your chest, swinging your arms to stay balanced. After 15 to 30 seconds your heart will be racing and this increased heart rate is essential if you want to transform your body and lose weight.

Heavy lifting

Lifting heavy weights during strength training sessions is an excellent way to burn fat through exercise. Lifting heavy weights, either through squats or deadlifts, will help you to burn calories because the intensity of your lifts will be increased. Also lifting heavy weights will help you to burn more calories after your workout because it increases your lean muscle tissue and in turn this tissue elevates your metabolism.

Never lift beyond your means, as lifting weights that are too heavy will mean you will sacrifice your form and this is a big no no.

Super sets

Doing two exercises back to back that work different parts of your body is an ideal way to burn fat because your heart rate is kept high throughout your session. Plus, according to the Colorado State University, after you finish your superset workout you will keep burning fat for up to 16 hours after you’ve stopped training. 16!

Make sure you perform each exercise without resting in between; for example, go from a bicep curl straight into a tricep pushdown.

Skipping

Skipping is tough and is a high-intensity form of aerobic exercise that can help you to lose weight because it helps to raise your metabolism even once your workout has ended. This is important because it will mean you burn more calories overall over a greater period of time compared to doing an aerobic exercise that was not as intense.

Walking

Although high-intensity workouts are great for boosting your metabolism, low-intensity aerobic workouts, such as walking, can also be helpful when you are trying to trim down. This is because low-intensity exercises burn a higher percentage of fat, using it to fuel your workout. So if you want to burn fat and are not used to doing a great deal of exercise, going on long walks or gentle jogs may help you to achieve the body you want.

Now you know how to exercise to burn fat, find out what you should be eating to lose weight.