The 7 best workouts for fat loss

Lose fat and build muscle at the same time

Fat loss is easy, but improving body composition - losing fat AND building muscle - is a little more complicated. This requires smart nutrition and the best training methods.

A lot of people who focus on "fat loss" see their exercise program with weights as a way to burn more calories, and so they assume the key is to do more reps and more sets. You're right, you definitely need to increase energy expenditure, but not at the expense of the growth stimulus the muscles are exposed to.

It's more important to focus on increasing training density than training volume. Training density refers to performing more repetitions per unit of time. In other words, you should rest less during your training sessions. This will keep the metabolic rate high both during and after the training session. It will also promote a hormonal environment that is conducive to fat mobilization. And if you plan it right, you'll still be able to promote muscle growth. Here are the best methods.

Method 1: Loaded Carries - carrying weights

Loaded Carries stands for nothing more than carrying weights in different ways. It could be walking with weights in your hands (Farmers Walk), carrying weights in the crook of your elbows (Zercher Carry), holding a barbell, two dumbbells or two kettlebells above your head and walking with that weight (Overhead Carry) or pulling/pushing a weight sled. You can also use other equipment such as sandbags or wheelbarrows.

Loaded Carries make the body work in a way not found in any other exercise: they combine a strong need to stabilize the trunk, dynamic movements, isometric tension in the muscles, as well as the need to fight a "micro-oscillation" - an insignificant but constant change in position that forces the body to stabilize the load.

Loaded Carries will...

• Reduce body fat: Loaded Carries burn body fat, promote an optimal hormonal environment and improve insulin sensitivity in muscles.
• Increase muscle mass: Loaded Carries keep the muscles under tension for a fairly long period of time, initiate muscle contractions to combat "micro-oscillations" and cause the muscles to stretch under load.
• Improve muscle hardness: The whole body has to work to maintain stiffness in order to remain stable and combat "micro-oscillation".
• Improve heavy basic exercises: Loaded Carries can possess a significant impact on performing heavy basic exercises by strengthening the core and making it more stable.

Two ways to use Loaded Carries

On your own: Perform one set of a Loaded Carrie exercise as if you were performing a regular exercise. Each type of load/length will have a positive effect on body composition, but you should use the method that best suits your goal.

Load parameters for loaded carries/weight sleds

Target	Minimum distance	Maximum distance	Ideal distance	Sets	Breaks
Power	10 m	50 m	30 m	3-5	2-3 min.
Hypertrophy	50 m	80 m	60m	3-5	90-120 sec.
Resistance	80 m	110 m	90m	3-4	75-90 sec.
Fat loss	60 to 90 seconds			4-6	1:1 ratio

A good option for hypertrophy development is to perform a loaded carry exercise with a regular exercise with weights in the superset

If improving body composition is your goal, any of the last three categories would be effective. If your main goal is to build muscle in combination with some fat loss, sets of 50 to 80 meters with 90 to 120 seconds rest are best. This will have a maximum impact on muscle mass while burning some fat at the same time.

If you are more concerned with fat loss, the last two variations can be used. The only difference is the mindset when you perform them. Regardless, you will be working for one minute (up to 90 seconds) with a comparable rest period. You will still achieve some muscle gain, but fat loss will be maximized.

For more variety: combine 2 or 3 different Loaded Carries in a circuit or use Loaded Carries in combination with other metabolic exercises (rowing ergometer, sprints, jumping rope, mountain climber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwgirgXLYM), etc.) This approach allows you to work out at a higher density - you can basically work out for 10 to 15 minutes without rest, which is especially true if you use exercises that work different muscle groups.

For example, you can do 5 circuits consisting of Sled Pulls (40 meters), Battle Ropes (30 seconds) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__bv4D7ii_0), Farmers Walks (40 meters) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pGG5DYqK9Q) and Crunches on the Swiss Ball (12 to 15 repetitions). Another effective circuit consists of 50 meters with the weight sled, 50 meters of sprinting, 50 meters of farmer's walk and 50 meters of walking (the rest phase) performed six times in a row.

Method 2: Upper body/lower body - alternating sets

By performing exercises in rapid succession that target muscle groups that are far apart (e.g. thighs and shoulders), the body must quickly adapt the blood flow to the working muscles. The constant need to adjust blood flow makes the heart and cardiovascular system work extra hard. This is good for mobilizing body fat and cardiovascular health.

Stay in a slightly lower repetition range so that you can use fairly heavy weights while still benefiting from a metabolic boost and the positive effects on the cardiovascular system. Aim for 6 to 8 repetitions per set, although you can also perform 10 to 12 repetitions for some exercises. Pair two exercises and pause for around 20 to 30 seconds between them.

Example:

1. Leg press 10 repetitions
2. Pause for 30 seconds
3. Dumbbell shoulder press 8 repetitions
4. Pause for 30 seconds
5. Leg presses 10 repetitions
6. Pause for 30 seconds
7. Dumbbell shoulder press 8 repetitions
8. Pause for 30 seconds
9. Leg presses 10 repetitions
10. Pause for 30 seconds
11. Dumbbell shoulder press 8 repetitions

You can use any exercises you want, but for the best results, use the following rules:

1. Use one upper body and one lower body exercise per exercise pair.
2. Try to avoid exercises with a strong postural component such as squats, deadlifts and bent-over rows. If you are not used to high-density exercise, you may find it difficult to maintain proper posture when you get tired.
3. You can use isolation exercises, but perform them at the end of the training session or pair an isolation exercise with a challenging exercise.
4. Start with 3 exercise pairings per session until you become more efficient at a high density workout and then consider increasing to 4 exercises.
5. Control the eccentric or negative part of the movements and perform them quite slowly.

Method 3: EMOM with alternating exercises

EMOM stands for "every minute on the minute". This 4 repetition method focuses more on strength, which is why you should use 70% of your maximum and only heavy basic exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, standing barbell shoulder presses, pull-ups, barbell rows, front squats, etc. Pair one upper body and one lower body exercise.

You must start a new set every minute. For the odd-numbered minutes, perform exercise 1 and for the even-numbered minutes, perform exercise 2.

Example:

• Start: 4 repetitions of squats
• 1:00 4 repetitions bench press
• 2:00 4 repetitions of squats
• 3:00 4 repetitions of bench presses
• etc.

Your first option is to perform an entire training session using this approach. This means performing 2 such pairs in your training session for 14 to 20 minutes each. Start with 14 minutes and work your way up. Pause for 5 minutes between each pairing and do nothing else during this training session - apart from perhaps some lighter training for abs or other small muscle groups for no longer than 15 minutes in total.

The second option is to perform a regular (but slightly shorter) training session with weights and finish it off with an EMOM pairing for 14 to 20 minutes. This would be your training finale.

Method 4: Elimination circuit with increasing repetitions

This is almost like a game. You put together a circuit of 5 exercises that covers the entire body. All of these exercises must be multi-joint exercises:

• 1 Squat variation
• 1 horizontal press (barbell or dumbbells on flat or incline bench)
• 1 exercise with hip flexion (a deadlift variation, an Olympic weightlifting exercise, etc.)
• 1 vertical press (barbell or dumbbell shoulder press/push press)
• 1 pulling exercise (pull-ups, rowing)

Perform all these exercises as a circuit. You can allow yourself 60 seconds (beginners), 45 seconds (slightly advanced) or 30 seconds (advanced) between stations. Use about 60% of your 1RM weight for each exercise.

Begin your first circuit with 5 repetitions of each exercise. After completing each circuit, increase the number of repetitions per exercise by one more repetition while maintaining the same weight:

• Round 1: 5 repetitions per exercise
• Round 2: 6 repetitions per exercise
• Round 3: 7 repetitions per exercise
• Round 4: 8 repetitions per exercise

You probably won't have much trouble adding one repetition per round until you reach about 8 repetitions. At this point, fatigue will accumulate. For some exercises, you may not be able to add another repetition. If you are no longer able to perform the required number of repetitions on an exercise, skip this exercise and continue the following cycles with the remaining exercises.

What will happen is that you will get less rest between two executions of an exercise, which will inevitably lead to you having to remove another exercise from the cycle. Continue in this way until there are no more exercises left. You can then dip your head in a bucket of ice water.

Method 5: Metabolic complex sets for strength/mass

This method is also very suitable for improving athletic performance. It combines three exercises that are performed as a complex (i.e. all three exercises are performed one after the other with only short breaks). All three exercises target the same muscle group.

The first exercise is used to build strength, which is why you should choose a heavy basic exercise of which you perform 3 to 6 repetitions per set. The second exercise is a hypertrophy exercise, of which 8 to 12 repetitions are performed. The third exercise is a metabolic exercise, of which sets of up to 60 seconds are performed.

Here are some examples:

Lower body example 1

	Exercise		Pause
A1	Squats	4-6	30-45 sec.
A2	Leg presses	10-12	30-45 sec.
A3	Sled pull	40 m	3 min.

Lower body example 2

	Exercise		Break
A1	Sumo deadlift	4-6	30-45 sec.
A2	Leg curls	10-12	30-45 sec.
A3	Kettlebell swings	30	3 min.

Upper body example 1

	Exercise		Break
A1	Bench press	4-6	30-45 sec.
A2	Dumbbell incline bench press	10-12	30-45 sec.
A3	Battle Ropes	30	3 min.

Upper body Example 2

	Exercise		Break
A1	Barbell row bent forward	4-6	30-45 sec.
A2	Seated rowing on cable pulley	10-12	30-45 sec.
A3	Rowing ergometer	200 m	3 min.

Method 6: Active rest between sets

This simple method is based on never really taking a break during your workout. This means that you do some light training or activity between exercises. This activity is not so intense that it prevents you from performing your actual exercises at a high level - this activity is simply to keep your heart rate elevated.

An effective method is to perform abdominal exercises between upper body exercises or postural exercises such as pull-aparts or rotator cuff exercises between lower body exercises. You could even do something like forearm training or calf training. Just make sure that the exercise you're using doesn't interfere with performing your main exercises.

Example:

• Perform the first set of your main exercise. Do not pause for more than 15 to 20 seconds.
• Perform active recovery training for about 45 to 60 seconds. Do not pause for longer than 15 to 20 seconds.
• Perform the second set of your main exercise.

Continue in this way.

Method 7: Walking

An hour of brisk walking every day can do wonders for your body composition. Sure, you could do jogging or HIIT, but if you're training really hard and maintaining a calorie deficit, doing too much intense exercise could have negative effects such as an overproduction of cortisol.

Walking, on the other hand, will not increase cortisol levels. It might even lower cortisol levels as it helps you to switch off and relax. Even if it doesn't burn a ton of calories, it can still make a significant difference. A fairly brisk walk can burn up to 350 to 400 kcal per hour. Over the course of a week, this adds up to 2400 to 2800 kcal. One pound of fat is about 3500 kcal. Even if this calculation is of course not completely accurate, the fat loss could add up to an additional 4 to 5 pounds within 12 weeks.

Never rule anything out in advance because it's not "hardcore". I walk for an hour every morning when I'm in a fat loss phase and sometimes I take a second walk in the evening. Every little helps!

From Christian Thibaudeau | 07/25/16

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-7-best-workouts-for-fat-loss