If you want to shed unwanted body fat, there are many types of exercise you can perform. Varieties of both resistance training and cardiovascular exercise, combined with a proper diet, can allow you to maintain lean muscle mass while dropping weight. With a well-coordinated program, you can improving your conditioning and athleticism while slimming down. Consult your physician before starting a diet or exercise program.
Resistance Training
Weight lifting should be the basis of your program. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest over the course of the day. If you lose muscle, your metabolism will slow which will cause a decrease in the amount of fat that you burn. Perform compound lifts, which cross multiple joints and work the most muscles. Exercises such as the squat, deadlift, chin-up, barbell row, bench press and military press will work every muscle in your body. Train three times a week on non-consecutive days to allow yourself time to recover. When you train you should try and lift with at least 75 percent of your one-repetition maximum on each exercise, and keep your rest periods short. This will stimulate the hormones that maintain muscle without excess fat storage.
Cardiovascular Work
If you are new to cardiovascular work, start slowly and keep it simple. Go for a walk every morning. As your conditioning improves, extend the distance you walk, then increase your pace. You can experiment with different types of cardiovascular exercises, as the one that you like best is the one you are most likely to spend time performing. For general conditioning purposes, there is little difference between rowing machines, the treadmill or bicycle, assuming you keep the intensity and duration the same. The key to progress in this area is consistency.
Extra Conditioning
On the days you do not lift, you can perform extra conditioning work. Sled dragging is an exceptional exercise as it not only allows you to burn fat but improves your tolerance for training volume. Pulling a sled forward and backward does not just work your legs, it also works your abdominals and provides a great deal of cardiovascular work. You can perform bodyweight exercises such as squatting, push-ups and jumping jacks, or you can jump rope for even more conditioning work.
Advanaced Techniques
You can adapt your workout in the gym to burn more fat. A technique known as "super setting" can be used where you work one muscle group, then an opposing muscle group without rest, pausing only after both exercises have been performed, then repeating. An example would be bench presses followed by barbell rows. Drop sets can also be used, where you train until you cannot lift the weight any more, drop the weight 20 percent, and continue. This can be done multiple times with the same exercise.
References
- PubMed.gov: Acute Testosterone and Cortisol Responses to High Power Resistance Exercise
- PubMed.gov: Acute Hormonal and Neuromuscular Responses to Hypertrophy, Strength and Power Type Resistance Exercise
- "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise"; Biomechanics of the Knee During Closed Kinetic Chain and Open Kinetic Chain Exercises; Rafael F. Escamilla ;Glenn S. Fleisig;Nigel Zheng; Steven W. Barrentine; April, 1998
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