If you want to strip unwanted fat off your body, you need to
look first to your diet. However, once that is taken care of, it is time to
look at your training. I’m always looking for ways to make the valuable time
you spend training more efficient and effective. If you want to speed up fat
loss for yourself or your clients, here are some ways to improve your fat loss
training programs.
Effective training program design starts with picking hard
exercises. Even with the best possible selection of all other training
variables (e.g. sets, reps, tempos, etc.) a program made up of inferior
exercises will fail.
Related:
2. Pick appropriate exercises for your metabolic training
There are many fantastic exercises that are bad choices for
metabolic training. Take the Olympic lifts for example. They are fantastic for
improving explosive power and athleticism when done for low reps. Yes, you can
do them with high reps and that will make you really tired. However high rep
Olympic lifts can also make you injured and create sloppy motor patterns.
Instead, use explosive power exercises or heavy barbell training for low reps
and when you want to create that metabolic training effect, select exercises
more suited to fatigue. Sled pushing/pulling or hill sprints are much better
choices for conditioning and metabolic training.
3. Include some unilateral exercises
While unilateral (i.e. one arm or leg at a time) exercises
are often included in performance programs to correct asymmetries, they are a
fantastic tool for fat loss. Coach Dan John wisely points out that doing only one
limb at a time requires a lot more stability work from your body and thus
increases the metabolic demand of the exercise.
4. Avoid split routines
While I’m not anti-split routine, I rarely use them for fat
loss. I don’t care how are you work, but triceps day will not impact your
metabolism as much as doing some hard upper and lower body multi-joint
movements.
Related: Whole Body vs. Split Routines
5. Try to train 4x per week
When I have a client or athlete who needs to drop body fat
fast, my go-to program is a 4-day whole body routine. Of course there are times
when I use other layouts, but if you are past the beginner stage and have the
time and energy, this can work great! The trick is making sure you vary
intensities throughout the day and pick joint-friendly exercises.
Here is sample weekly layout for an athlete trying to get
“athletic lean”
Day 1: Heavy strength training
Day 2: Metabolic circuit training 1
Day 3: Speed/power training
Day 4: Metabolic circuit training 2
If you can only train 3 times per week, don’t worry, but if
you will usually make even better results if you can get that fourth day in. In
this case, I would do 2 metabolic sessions and one session that alternates
between power and heavy strength training most weeks.
6. Include some strength & power training
Too often people focus on endurance training for fat loss.
While this can help burn some calories, it also teaches your body to preserve
energy. You see this all the time in group fitness classes. Everyone uses light
weights and does endless reps and sets. As a result, you naturally learn to
preserve energy. By including some strength, speed and power work into your
training, you will learn to expend energy. This can be done at the start of
your session or take a day or two during the week to specifically focus on it.
Stay Tuned...
Stay tuned for next week when I'll have 6 more fat loss program design tips for you. In the mean time, check out my book Athletic Training for Fat Loss for a complete guide to burning fat and sculpting a lean, athletic, high-performance body HERE.
Stay tuned for next week when I'll have 6 more fat loss program design tips for you. In the mean time, check out my book Athletic Training for Fat Loss for a complete guide to burning fat and sculpting a lean, athletic, high-performance body HERE.
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