Secret Revealed: The best exercise machine for fat loss.....

Hey,

If you read the headline and got pretty excited it woudn't surprise me as a) everyone loves a secret and b) who wouldn't want to know the best machine for fat loss....takes all the guess work out right?

Now before I give you the answer (which isn't what you are expecting) let's explore the different types of machines you might typically come across in a gym or personal training studio:

Cardiovascular machines:

CV machines are set out in rows and rows within most mainstream gym chains, they are big, exciting, with flashy lights and crazy gizmo's like heart rate monitors and calorie counters and you would be pretty shocked to walk into a facility that didn't have any right?

So what are CV machines doing for our fat loss efforts?

CV machines are generally large muscle group activities, by using many muscles over a sustained period of time we can elevate your metabolism to increase calorie usage. Sounds good, if we are burning lots of calories we must be working towards fat loss?

Sure you are burning calories but is this a truly effective use of your time? for most people starting out on a fitness program from a relatively low level of fitness you really wont be burning that many calories per minute so need long periods of exercise to achieve significant calorie utilisation. So really this isn't the most effective way of training for fat loss when you first embark on your training regime and also long bouts of exercise can hinder fat loss (but that's for another article).

So the CV machine whether it be the treadmill, x-trainer, bike or rower may not be the best machine for fatloss.

How about resistance machines?

But dont they just build muscles?

Yes they do help towards building muscles but if  you avoid resistance training because that is all you think is occurring you're missing a trick!

Resistance training in it's many forms helps to build lean body mass (muscle tissue predominantly). Muscle tissue is typically more metabolically active (burns more calories at rest) than other tissue within your body so the more you have the more calories you will burn both whilst training and whilst at rest.

So build more and burn more....sounds good.

But it doesn't stop there, the physical act of resistance training is, if done correctly, so much more demanding of the bodies resources that you continue to burn calories for hours afterwards leading to double the benefits from typically a much shorter training session.

So resistance machines are the best for fat loss then?

Whoa there nelly, hold your horses....im not finished yet :)

Resistance machines are an excellent start point for those unnacustomed to resistance based training and will contribute towards your fat loss efforts....

But that's not the secret machine....

Your body is the ultimate fat loss machine

Crazy I know, but seriously the one machine that most people forget about when starting an exercise program is their own body.

Firstly your body is capable of anything. It can perform cardiovascular exercises just by performing natural movements, walking, jumping, stepping, skipping, running. It can perform strength exercises using it's own bodyweight as resistance and then for the ultimate fat loss program....

Your body can combine the two types of training.

If you perform large muscle group resistance exercises.....squats, lunges, press ups, burpees, squat thrusts, pull ups, with limited rest what do you find?

Your heart rate and breathing increase....you are training your cardiovascular system as well as developing your muscular system.

By training in this way you are using your body....the ultimate machine, to perform the ultimate fat burning training session. You will burn calories in the session and afterwards, whilst developing your musculature to promote calorie burn at rest.

Sounds pretty awesome to me :)

Add to this the use of dumbells, barbells, kettlebells, powerbags, medicine balls and you have an ever progressing training plan that will get you into great shape in minimal time.

So when you next walk into a gym or personal training studio, remember the only machine you need is your body......start using it

To your health and happiness,

Nathan

to work with Nathan find out more here