Gaining muscle and losing fat weight at the same time is possible with the proper exercise routine, diet and rest. The best workouts for muscle growth and fat loss involve weight-training sessions using higher-intensity compound exercises with minimal rest between sets three days a week and plenty of aerobic exercise to help burn excess body fat.
Back and Chest Workout
Compound exercises involve using more than one muscle group during the movement. These exercises are effective at increasing overall muscle tissue and, because they are higher-intensity, will burn more calories. Additionally, having reduced rest periods between sets elevates the intensity, thus burning more calories. The best way to do this is by performing super sets with antagonist or opposing muscle groups. A super set is when an exercise is performed immediately after another exercise with little rest between sets. For the back and chest workout, perform each exercise for three super sets of eight to 12 repetitions, keeping rest periods between super sets less than 30 seconds. Begin the workout with a five-minute warm up and perform exercises in the following order: pullups/bench press, deadlifts/incline dumbbell press, bent-over barbell row/weighted dips. Finish the workout with three sets of 15 reps of hanging leg raises and decline crunches.
Legs
Begin your leg workout with a thorough warm up. The first two exercises should consist of a warm up set using a lighter weight for 12 to 15 repetitions per set. Additionally, it is essential to select a weight in which muscle failure is reached between eight to 12 reps during your working sets to accelerate muscle growth and fat loss. Perform leg exercises in the following order: full barbell squats/straight leg deadlifts, leg press/dumbbell split squats, leg curl/leg extension. Finish your leg workout with 15 walking lunges on each leg.
Shoulders and Arms
After warming up for five minutes, perform exercises in a giant set such as shoulders/triceps/biceps. Be sure to include a warm-up set during your first exercise of your routine. Perform exercises in the following order: barbell push press/close-grip bench press/barbell curl, Arnold press/overhead triceps extensions/incline dumbbell curl, lateral raise/triceps kickbacks/preacher curls. Finish workout with three sets of 15 reps of the following abdominal exercises: v-ups, reverse crunch and basic crunch.
Aerobic Exercise
The most effective way to burn fat is through aerobic exercise using a combination low to moderate-intensity long-duration exercise and high-intensity training, or HIT. The more you struggle with fat gain or loss, the more long-duration and HIT sessions you will need to perform with three long-duration cardio sessions and three HIT cardio sessions being the max, according to Kelly Baggett of Bodybuilding.com. Long-duration cardio could be 45 minutes of incline walking or elliptical. HIT is performed following a five- to 10-minute warm up, then sprinting all out for 20 seconds followed by a 40-second recovery jog repeated eight to 12 times. HIT should not be performed on weight training days.
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