You don't need fancy cardio machines to help you lose fat. In fact, a good fat loss program can be done with bodyweight exercises only. You don't even need traditional "cardio" to do this...or an expensive gym membership.
Here are 3 reasons you can use bodyweight exercises to lose fat.
1) Bodyweight exercises are a total body interval cardio circuit workout.
You don't need any fancy machines for "cardio" when you have your own bodyweight to move around. For a great circuit, simply pick 3 lower body exercises and 3 upper body exercises that you can do with only your bodyweight.
Then alternate between upper and lower exercises, doing 10 reps per exercise, and don't take any rests between exercises. Rest 30 seconds at the end of the circuit and repeat up to 5 times. That will take you 20 minutes. See below for a great circuit.
2) Bodyweight exercises boost metabolism
Strength and interval training both boost metabolism more than slow cardio, so you burn more calories after exercise. And bodyweight training is the perfect "hybrid" of strength and interval exercise. So you'll benefit from calories burned during AND after exercise.
3) Bodyweight exercises build muscle
In addition to an increase in metabolism, muscle makes you look good. After all, who has better arms, Madonna or the skinny, starving young celebrities of today? Madonna of course, because she has built her arms in the gym and with bodyweight movements in yoga and other forms of exercise.
Think of bodyweight training as positive bodysculpting, and avoid that negative, cardio "body breakdown" mentality that too many runners have.
After all, what's the main thing that runners and other cardio addicts neglect? Strength. And that's one of the reasons they end up in the physio and doctor offices so often.
Get started on your bodyweight fat loss workouts today
For example, here's a great circuit:
- Prisoner Squat
- Pushup (or incline pushup for beginners)
- Split Squat
- Elevated Pushup (or kneeling elevated pushup for beginners)
- Step-up
- Mountain Climber
10 reps per exercise (10 reps per side for the split squats, elevated pushups, stepups, and mountain climbers).
Whew! Better than cardio!
You only need 20-30 minutes per session to sculpt your body with exercise that is much better than traditional, slow, boring cardio.
CB
PS - How many things have I laughed at over the years only to end up doing them now?
My mistakes...
I'll be honest, 10 years ago when
I was all about lifting and playing sports I never would have expected
to be so "into" bodyweight training. But it fits an adult schedule
perfectly, whether its off-day exercise or real
training-with-limited-time for fat loss and bodysculpting.
By Craig Ballantyne, author of Turbulence Training.
