Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Training for Fat Loss

As trainers we see many different clients from all walks of life. However, most clients just want to get in better shape. When you ask them what their goals are, the responses are usually the same "I want to lose weight." A lot of clients have trouble losing weight and keeping it off. So, with this in mind, here a few key points to follow if you want to keep the LB's off.

1. Proper Nutrition is Key. We have a saying in our industry "Abs are made in the kitchen." The gist of it is this, it doesn't matter what you do when you're in the gym, if you're eating fried food and ice cream all day you're not going to lose weight. Simple right? 90% of the results you see are going to be from good nutrition. In fact, you could skip the gym altogether and focus just on nutrition to lose weight. Obviously if you combine the two you'll have a recipe for success.

2. Compound Movements. Compound movements are exercises that use more than one joint. For example, a squat with an overhead press uses more joints than a bicep curl. Why is this advised? Simple really, the more joints you use the more muscles you use and the more muscles you're using the more calories your body will burn. So when choosing an exercise selection make sure you skip rope pushdowns and opt for deadlifts or squats.

3. Get Bigger, Stronger Muscles. Sorry to say but cardio isn't how we build stronger muscles. So, if you want to get bigger stronger muscles (and you do) you're going to have to hit the weights and up the intensity. The problem with cardio is, the more you do it the better you're body will adapt to it. When you train with weights, the better you get at it the heavier the weight gets and your body is constantly being taxed at a high rate. We will come back to this principle in a minute (5)

4. Stop Using the Scale!!! When a trainer talks about weight loss and a client talks about weight loss there is usually a huge disconnect between them. Typically clients want to see the numbers on the scale go down. Trainers aren't really worried about this. Why? Because we don't necessarily want you to get lighter, we want you to lose body fat. You can drop body fat but stay the same weight. The important number you or your trainer should be tracking is BODY FAT PERCENTAGE.

5. Boost Your Metabolic Rate. Your metabolic rate essentially controls how many calories your body burns. So getting it to work at a high rate is essential in long term post exercises fat burning. The days of long duration slow paced cardio are gone. Research has actually shown that short high intensity exercises can help boost your metabolism over a 24 hour period. Try sprinting or running up stairs at the end of your workout for a post workout metabolic blast.

As always a good trainer is highly recommended if you want to see the best results. Check out our website and ask one of our trainers for a FREE Evaluation to get you started.

No comments:

Post a Comment