Losing fat, which is not the same as losing weight, is one
of the most sought after goals when it comes to physical activity. And knowing
how we should train to achieve this goal is not always easy. For this reason
today we are going to give you some tips on how your training should be if your
goal is to lose fat (and lose as little muscle mass as possible).
Strength, the basis of our training
On some occasion, we have already talked about strength as
that basic physical capacity from which, if we are able to increase and improve
it, we will be able to improve the rest of our physical abilities. Therefore,
strength training should be the basis of our training if we want to lose fat.
In addition, we must not forget that the muscle occupies
much less space than fat and that, in addition, to maintain it our body must
spend more calories than to maintain fat (to maintain fat we only need to lie
on the sofa and start eating as if there was no tomorrow).
Some exercises that should not be missing in your training
Next, we are going to mention some of the exercises that
should be present in your training if you want to lose fat. In addition, some
of these exercises will allow you to significantly increase overall strength
levels, so you will be adding an improvement in muscle tone to that fat loss.
Squats
One of the great exercises of all time is squats. Focused to
work mainly our lower train, squats will not only allow us to gain strength and
muscle mass in our legs, but they are also an excellent exercise to increase
our pulsations and, therefore, we can incorporate it into a HIIT routine to
maximize the burning of fat
In addition, another benefit of squats is that they will
also involve all the core muscles in the movement so that our central section
will be strengthened and thereby reduce the risk of back injuries and problems.
Burpees
This exercise, whose origin is in military training, will
allow us to work practically all the muscles of our body since it will involve
almost all muscle groups:
The arms and shoulders will have a stabilizing role when we
are in the position of iron on the floor, but they will still have a greater
influence depending on the variant of burpees that we perform (with flexion,
with front sliding, with lateral sliding ...)
The core will work as a stabilizing muscle so that when we
are in an iron position the hip does not "sink" and we can keep the
entire central axis of our body aligned.
The lower train will be responsible in the phase of
plyometric jumps and when we go from standing position to plate position. In
addition, depending on the variants we use, our legs will make more or less
effort.
Dominated
A demanding exercise and that we must start doing little by
little, but that due to the great muscular implication, presents some benefits
in terms of the increase in general, incredible strength. And to realize them,
we can even start by performing them lying on the ground (no, we are not
crazy):
First, we must lie on our stomachs with our arms extended to
the front and palms resting on the ground. For beginners, you can start by
flexing your knees so that only half a leg is in contact with the ground and
thus reduce friction and resistance.
Next, our goal will be to push forward simply with the force
that we apply through the palms of our hands, trying to detach our elbows as
little as possible.
Compound movement
Compound movements are another type of exercise normally
composed of two different exercises, sometimes they can even be three, but we
do it in a chained way. An example of this could be, for example, the
realization with the same bar of a deadweight along with an oar with a barbell
or a squat with a front bar along with a military press.
As with multiarticular exercises such as squats, chin-ups or
burpees, compound movements recruit several muscle groups and, therefore, we
need more energy to perform them, so caloric expenditure increases considerably
if, for example, instead of performing a bicep curl we perform a bicep curl
followed by a military press with supine grip.
Get more out of cardio: HIIT workouts
However, many people do not like working with weights and
prefer cardiovascular work to get rid of that excess fat, and this is where
HIIT-type workouts come into play, which will allow us to burn more calories
than a classic cardiovascular workout. and, in addition, it will allow us to improve
our levels of strength and endurance.
This type of training, as you know, is characterized by
being short-term workouts (we will not need to spend 40 or 50 minutes sessions
running on a tape) but very high intensity , which will generate later after finishing
the training known as the COPD effect (which is the burning of post-exercise
oxygen and responsible for continuing to burn calories hours after the end of
training).
In addition, another advantage of this type of training is
that they tend to be very dynamic, so we avoid the component of boredom that
can generate being running on tape as if we were a hamster. Some of the
exercises we can incorporate to make it a good HIIT training session are:
climber movement, burpees, plyometric squats, push-ups, skater strides or knee
lifts.
Tabata method
It is the best known and popularized HIIT method. It is
characterized by training sessions of approximately four minutes in which we
find periods of the effort of 20 seconds in which the goal is to work around 170%
of our VO2Max. These 20 seconds of work are followed by ten short seconds of
recovery. At the end of the four minutes, we will definitely be totally
exhausted.
Gibala method
Martin Gibala, this high-intensity training protocol is
characterized in that it is performed during a certain number of rounds in
which the period of effort or work will be 30 seconds in which we will have to
give 100% of our capabilities. Subsequently, we will have an active rest of
four minutes in which we can walk or perform gentle stretching. This will count
as around.
Little-Gibala method
Designed in 2010 when doctors Little and Gibala conducted a
study (it is true that with a population sample of only seven men) in which
they used a training protocol based on sprint series of 60 seconds duration at
95-100% of the VO2Max alternated with active breaks of 75 seconds duration.
How should our routine be?
If the goal to be achieved is to get rid of that excess fat,
the best results could be achieved by alternating a full body routine (in which
we would include certain exercises in strength ranges, that is, between one and
six repetitions, and exercise the entire body ) and high-intensity workouts.
Introducing a pair of multiarticular exercises into our full
body routine (squat, bench press, deadlift, barbell or military press) in
strength ranges followed by the rest of the routine, would be a very good
option. Thus, an example of the structuring of this type of routine, assuming
we train four days per week (and rest three), could be the following:
DAY 1: squat and deadlift (in strength ranges) + full-body
routine.
DAY 2: bench press, military press, and rowing with bar (in
strength ranges) + full-body routine
DAY 4: two multi-articular exercises of choice in strength
ranges + full-body routine. The idea that this day the exercises are our choice
is to choose those exercises that correspond to muscles that we have decompensated
or delayed so that we are correcting these decompensations.
When we get physical fitness, we can introduce a second
high-intensity training in the week, but trying to always leave two or three
days apart between each HIIT workout so that the body recovers properly.
And yet the most important thing will be the diet
Despite all that we have exposed in the post, no matter how
much you train to give 100% and resting well, the results will never come if
you do not have an adequate and balanced diet, for which you should visit a
professional nutritionist (a lot Beware of the typical smoke sales and sales of
"miraculous milkshake" that the only miracle they will do will be to
empty your wallet).
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