Weightlifting offers many benefits such as muscle development and weight loss. Losing belly fat occurs when you expend an overall amount of calories from activity. The addition of lean muscle mass from weightlifting assists in raising your metabolism to increase daily calorie burn. Knowing how to properly design your weightlifting routine will allow you to shrink your belly successfully.
Increase Intensity
Increasing the intensity of your weight training program will boost your calorie expenditure during activity. For example, a 125-lb. exerciser who participates in a 30 minute, general weightlifting workout burns 90 calories. Comparing the same 125-lb. individual performing a vigorous 30 minute weightlifting session burns 180 calories in the same amount of time. Vigorous workouts consist of higher intensities, lower rest periods between sets, and increased exercise volume. These calorie amounts prove that adding intensity increases your chances of losing your excess belly fat.
Compound Exercises
Performing compound exercises like the chest press, deadlift and squat involve multiple muscle groups to increase calorie expenditure during and after workouts. These multiple joint movements promote increases in lean muscle tissue which results in raising metabolism. When performing larger movements like these, the involvement of multiple muscle groups result in a greater amount of calories burned. An example compound exercise plan contains the chest press for three sets with 30 second rest periods between sets, followed by the deadlift and squat for the same amount of sets and repetitions.
Circuit Training
Circuit training consists of a group of exercises performed consecutively with minimal or no rest intervals between movements. The intensity provided by using circuits assists in achieving maximum calorie burn per workout. Circuits provide versatility in program design to use anywhere. A home circuit workout example consists of body weight squats, pushups, lunges, dumbbell row and chest press. A gym circuit workout lineup involves the lat pull, bench press, leg press, seated row and shoulder press.
Schedule
An ideal workout frequency of three days a week allows for proper muscular recovery. Over training your body stalls your progress and leads to decreases in muscle mass and metabolism. This effect hinders your belly fat loss progress. Schedule a minimum of one day in between workouts to prevent over training. During off days, perform steady state cardio for roughly 45 to 60 minutes to increase your calorie burn. Examples of steady state cardio exercises include treadmill walking, using the elliptical or stationary bicycle.
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