While building muscle is important to have toned legs or six-pack abs, it is all rather pointless if you have a layer of fat covering up your toned muscles. Lowering your body fat percentage to a healthy level is a surefire way of looking and feeling great, but how do you do it? The answer is simple—you need to burn some fat.
As most people know by now, you cannot spot reduce. It is impossible to burn fat from just one place on your body, and instead you must work on lowering your overall level of body fat. To do that, you need to work some seriously intense cardiovascular exercise into your routine. Here are five great exercises that can do just that, helping you burn fat and whip your body into shape in no time at all.
1. Running with interval training
Interval training is not only a great way for beginners to get into running, but it is a massive fat burner. Interval training gets your metabolism going as you can beat the lactic acid build-up in your body by giving yourself rest periods—allowing you to work more intensely and for a longer period. Interval training is proven to build stamina faster than conventional running, mean you will be zipping along in no time. In addition, the hard work you do keeps on paying even after you stop running. The high intensity bursts of interval training leave your body requiring a recovery period, so you are still burning calories even after you have finished your run. Best of all, interval training is super-simple. A beginner might run full pace for 5 minutes, then walk for 5 minutes—repeating 2 or 3 times. It’s an easy, cheap and practical way of burning fat fast.
2. YouTube videos
If you can’t afford a pricey gym membership, when why not do a little exercising at home? Nowadays you don’t even need to buy a exercise DVD, as there are many health buffs airing exercise routines and tips for free on YouTube. Get online and get searching: there are guaranteed to be plenty of exercises that fit both your needs and your fitness level. Throw on some trainers, set your laptop up with a good viewing angle, and get working out!
3. Using an elliptical machine
Using elliptical trainers is a great way to burn fat fast, as the easy-on-the-knees exercise simulates running without the straining any delicate joints. As an added bonus, elliptical machines with arm levers encourage you to work both your arms and core, giving you a full body workout and burning even more fat! There is a word of warning though—calculating the calories burned on an elliptical machine is tricky business, and therefore you might be burning less than you think if you follow the calorie counter on the machine itself. Always push harder, and forget about the calorie counter.
4. Resistance training
While cardio is the main way to burn fat fast, but it is not the only to shift some stubborn bulge. Working in some strength and resistance training is great not just for burning calories, but also to firm up your muscles underneath. Best of all, a recent study confirmed that the most efficient way to burn fat was to have a combination of cardio and strength training exercises. Many women are wary of weight or resistance training for fear they will turn into a butch Arnold Schwarzenegger, but in reality that fear is completely unfounded. A fair amount of weight training will burn fat, give you tone and also generally benefit your health. What could be better?
5. Row 2K on a Rowing Machine
Rowing machines are an oft-neglected piece of gym machinery in places were rowing is not a common sport, but they actually offer a fantastic workout that engages just about every major muscle group in your body. Once you have perfected the rowing machine technique (getting it wrong will turn you into an unfortunate YouTube star), trying rowing a 2K ‘erg’ as rowers like to call it. By the time your workout is over, you will be sweaty, tired and have sore hands—but you will also have burned a lot of fat!
This is a guest post by Marianne Ross, a freelance writer on sports topics. You can read her articles on various sites.
Top 5 Exercises To Burn Fat Fast
