How To Go From A Keg Belly To A Six Pack

by Brad Setti on December 21, 2009

in Fitness

Everyone wants to know if aerobics is better than strength training or cardio better than intervals. The main question is “What is the best way to lose my belly fat?”

I have to say, I’ve tried them all!

With over 15 years experience helping others, training myself, training for sports, spending countless hours in the gym, AND actually conducting laboratory research studies on different exercise methods, I’m pretty confident in knowing what works and what does not.

But first of all, I want to frame my responses. I’m going to talk about what works for people that have a limited amount of time to exercise, mostly because I expect your readers don’t have 90 minutes per day to devote to a workout, unlike the typical audience of a fitness magazine.

That’s why there is a huge disconnect between some of the information found in magazines and the ability of the reader to apply it to their lives.

We just don’t have 6-8 hours per week for exercise, nor do we need it. If you’re a triathlete, you might need that, but not someone that just wants to lose fat and gain muscle.

Having said all that, the bottom line for getting a better body is…

Your best results will be through warming up with your own body-weight. Use strength training for muscle buildup. And use interval training to finish up and burn fat fast. This system is structured for you to workout 3 times/week and be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes.

Warm up using 5 minutes of bodyweight exercise. This will be much more effective than walking on a treadmill. Walking on a tread mill will only get you ready to walk more on a treadmill.

Then we move into the strength training supersets, where we use two exercises performed back to back with minimum rest between each. This cuts our workout time, while still giving us maximum results. We only need 20 minutes for this, and we’ll use basic exercises, and sometimes even more bodyweight exercises, depending on the client’s goal for muscle building.

And finally, we’ll do 18 minutes of interval training. A warm-up, followed by six short intervals at the appropriate fitness level for the client, interspersed with short periods of low-intensity recovery. Finish with a cool-down. And that’s the workout. Again, about 45 minutes total.

That will be a much more effective workout than running, cycling, or a cardio machine for 45 min straight. Sure they all burn calories but they don’t build a better body.

The downside to long cardio includes injuries due to overuse of a muscle and it really is an inefficient way to exercise. If you only have 30-45 minutes to workout, when are you going to work the rest of your muscle groups and get that beautiful body you want if you are on 1 cardio machine for 45 minutes?

The best way to burn belly fat is fast and fun and it works using a combination of strength training and interval training

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. To learn more please visit Craig Ballantyne’s Website here.

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