The Best Fat Burning Exercises

Most people wil generally perform cardio exercises when looking to shed excess weight. This means lots of running, cycling, walking or on the rowing machine and cross trainer in the gym.

As exercises for fat burning they can have the desired effect but are they as good as most people think? Within the the fitness industry a lot of research is now indicating that too much cardio training can actually be harmful to your fat burning efforts.

This is because excessive cardio training can result in a loss of lean muscle mass resulting in a lower metabolism and if you have a lower metabolism you will be burning less fat. A result of this is people who are thin but don’t have much lean muscle. This lack of muscle can make them very prone to weight gain should they eat normally again or stop training.

Secondly when doing low to moderate intensity cardio training your metabolic rate is only elevated for maybe 1-3 hours after you have finished your session so your capacity to burn fat in the “after-burn” of exercise is very limited.

After examining these points it can be argued that the most effective exercises for fat burning are performed at high intensity with the focus on building lean muscle to produce a strong fat burning post exercise response. This means including lots of free weight and bodyweight exercises in your fat burning program. If must be noted that not all of these kind of exercises are suitable. For a more effective workout focus on multi joint movements that use lots of muscles and therefore lots of energy.

The key exercises  you should perform on a regular basis are:

Squats – Perform various types using free weight dumbbells and Barbells (No Machines!)

Deadlifts – Again to be performed with Dumbbells and Barbells

Chest and Shoulder Presses – No Machines if possible

Push ups- Use varying techniques to increase the difficulty

Pullups -  Very difficult for most people only perform if you can do full range of movement. If you cannot do this exercise then use lat Pulldowns

Lunges – Vary between front, reverse and side.

Rows – Bent over Rows and cable rows 

There are lots of variations of these exercises and I would recommend you research further to get more ideas.

When performing these as fat burning exercises you do need to focus keeping the intensity of your workout high. To do this use quite heavy weights that allow you to perform between 6-10 reps and rest periods between sets to under 60 seconds to keep the heart rate elevated throughout the workout. Another highly advised technique is to perform supersets to maintain intensity. Supersets involve a pair of exercises being performed without rest as on rep. That is one set. An example of this would be doing 8 reps of deadlifts then performing 8 reps incline chest presses straight away. This does work better if you use opposing muscle groups in your exercise choices.

If boredom is creeping into your exercise regime then think seriously about doing free weights in your workouts. They may just be the answer to getting the results you want.