Training – How to Burn Fat 101

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Geoff Howard

Correct training to maximise fat burning 101

When training to burn fat it’s not all about Cardio. Resistance training is important too as it increases the body’s calorie requirements and metabolism. Building muscle turns your body into a fat burning machine! Cardio is used as a secondary tool to support this weight loss. Follow our basic fat burning tips and watch the pounds melt away.

1) Do Resistance Training

It’s a bit of a myth that doing 25+ reps will tone muscle. Muscle tone comes from low body fat allowing the muscles to be seen in all there chiselled glory. Doing such high reps won’t stimulate any growth. So the best thing to do to burn fat is heavy resistance training as normal with moderate reps (10-15). This way the muscles are still growing and keeping metabolism high while causing and anabolic environment thus promoting fat burning.

2) Do Circuits

Do your resistance in a circuit style. Circuit training is both anaerobic and aerobic. You’ll be working your muscles with enough force to maintain size and elevating your heart rate at the same time with short rest periods, maximising fat burning in one all round workout.

An easy circuit for beginners is to do a whole body approach working top to bottom, and apposing muscles to keep the blood in the same area. Take a look at this very basic example….

*5 min Cardio Warm Up

1. Flat Bench Chest Press (Chest)

2. Seated Cable Row (Back)

3. Seated Shoulder Press (Shoulders)

4. Dumbbell Bicep Curl (Biceps)

5. Tricep Extension (Triceps)

6. Leg Extension (Quadriceps)

7. Hamstring Curl (Hamstrings)

8. Calf Raise (Calves)

9. Ab Crunch (Abdominals)

*After performing this 2-3 times in a row do a 5min cool down including a whole body stretch.

Perform 1 set of 15 reps on each exercise. Rest periods must be kept to a minimum, move from one exercise to the next with no more than 30secs rest. With the weight keep it heavy (so it’s difficult by rep 15). Perform this circuit 2 or 3 times in a row. 3-5 times a week is recommended.

3) Cardio

Additionally to stand alone resistance training or resistance based circuit training add a cardio element. At the end of your resistance session do 20 mins moderate intensity cardio (jogging). Performing cardio after weights maximises fat burning due to the depletion of muscle glycogen. When muscle glycogen is low the body turns to fat for its main fuel source. Hazzar!

Please check out ‘Nutrition – How to Burn Fat 101’and ‘Supplements – How to Burn Fat 101’ to complete this series.

Circuit programs to follow……..

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