Thursday, June 12, 2008

Rocket Fast Ways To Lose Your Stubborn Belly Fat

As a rapid fat-loss specialist, I’m often asked, “What is the best way to lose fat and flatten my belly?”

Everyone wants to know if resistance training is better than aerobics. Or if intervals are more effective than traditional cardio.

To say that we’ve experimented with them all would be an understatement.

Working at so many college research facilities as well as commercial gyms has given me a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Now, we have put together some amazingly effective programs. The rub is that most people have about 45 minutes 3 times a week to exercise. So everything in this article is geared for the working man or woman who has only a few lunch hours a week to devote to exercise.

Since most people don’t have ten hours a week to devote to exercise, the programs they find in mainstream fitness rags won’t cut it. No fat loss method in the world will work if someone can’t find the time to do it.

But here’s the good news: We don’t need ten hours a week to lose all of that stubborn belly fat! Read on to find out how…

First, warm up with bodyweight exercises. Second, use resistance training to create a very high metabolic demand. Third, finish your workout with interval training to burn as much fat as possible. This whole plan gets you out of the gym in less than an hour!

Start with five minutes of bodyweight exercises to prepare your body for the workout ahead. This is far more effective than sitting on a bike for five minutes, which won’t get you ready for anything except more sitting on a bike.

During your warm-up, I like to include bodyweight exercises that fix any postural imbalances from work or sports. This means you not only get warmed up and lose fat, you also eliminate low back pain!

And then you’ll head on over to resistance training. Perform these in a “superset” style. What “superset” means is to perform two exercises back to back, with very little rest in between.

Supersets will greatly reduce the amount of time you need for your workout, while giving you even better fat loss results!

Resistance training for fat loss takes about 20 minutes. You’ll use basic exercises, such as lunges and bench press. And sometimes you’ll even use more bodyweight exercises. It all depends on what YOUR body needs.

To finish up, you’ll go for about 20 minutes of interval training. A quick warm-up, followed by short intervals interspersed with lower-intensity recovery periods. Cap it off with a quick cool-down and you’re done.

Add that all up: 5 minute warm-up plus 20 minute resistance training plus 20 minute intervals equals a complete workout in just 45 minutes.

Go ahead an compare this to what most people will do in the gym. They’ll spend their whole 45 minutes on one piece of cardio equipment. That might burn calories, but it doesn’t build a better body.

Really, think about the “Cardio Crew” at your gym. I’d be willing to bet that many of them have spent hours on the treadmill for the past two years, yet they look exactly the same! (And sometimes even heavier!)

Cardio has a lot of downsides, such as poor results and injuries from doing too much work. Which would you rather do? A fun, effective, 45 minute workout or long, boring cardio sessions?

You make the choice.

The Take-Home Message is: The very best way to burn belly fat is with a combination of effective strength training and fat-blasting intervals.

It’s quick, it’s effective, and best of all, it’s fun!

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