As a personal trainer and boot camp owner I’ve helped countless people with their weight loss goals. I’m going to share with you some of my favourite exercises that you can use in your own workouts to breakthrough any training plateau. They are the same exercises I have used to help hundreds of people lose thousands of kilos of fat.
I’ll try and keep this simple, the best exercises for increasing muscle are also the best exercises for losing fat. All these exercises have one thing in common: they work many muscles at once and are very challenging to the body.
Scientific research and real world experience shows that total body workouts are the most effective form of training for fat loss and muscle gain. But lets go one step further…
Your results can be substantially increased by using total body exercises within a total body workout! For example, squats are one of the best exercises for building lean muscle whilst shedding unwanted fat.
So what if we took the squat and combined it with an upper body movement like a shoulder press. Now this exercise becomes unstoppable for getting you the great results. Its plain to see that by incorporating your upper and lower body into one movement youll reap even greater rewards.
Heres The Fantasy Body Equation:
more muscles worked = more calories burned + more lean muscle = more fat loss + more muscle gained
To be totally honest I have a big love hate relationship with the exercise Im about to show you. Firstly I love them because of their ability to burn unparalleled amounts of fat and secondly for their muscle building properties that keep me in great shape. On the other hand I hate them because they break me every workout (but in a good way), be warned these exercises are not for the weak minded.
So without delay, let me present my top 7 exercises for shedding fat and building lean muscle.
1. Olympic Lifts: Dumbbell or Kettlebell Cleans, Snatches, High Pulls or a combination of all.
2. Wood Chopping exercises: Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, Bands, or Sandbags
4. Press Up Combination Exercises: Press ups with knee raise, Push up with Row, Push up with burpee etc..
6. Med Ball Snatch with Slam Combination
7. Squat combination exercises: Squat and press, Squat and row, Squat and curl etc.
If you incorporate these exercises into your workouts I guarantee you’ll see better results faster.
With all the Xmas parties, shopping and catching up with friends and family the holiday season can be a busy time, don’t let yourself get into bad habits and fall into the trap of missing workouts.
Missing workouts and losing the lean muscle mass you worked so hard to develop is a big mistake.
The reason…
Less lean muscle equals lower metabolism, muscle accounts for the bulk of your daily calorie burning (between 65-75%).
This means that you’ll be burning less and less calories 24/7 putting you in grave danger of piling on unwanted body fat through the holiday season.
It gets worse…
The loss of strength will mean your training has regressed - a rude awakening on your first day back to training.
But…
There are a few clever strategies you can use to maintain or even increase the number of calories you burn everyday.
Use the strategies below to avoid stacking on the holiday kilos…
1. Reach Your Totals. Your body cannot differentiate between 100 squats all at once versus 100 squats performed in a day. If you honestly can’t fit in a 10-20 minute workout during the day, look for little chunks of time where you can get in a certain number of reps a day that will work your entire body.
Got a spare few minutes before the turkey has to come out of the oven, then crank out 12 press ups, 12 bodyweight rows and 15 squats. Using this system will soon add up to large number of reps by the end of the day that will burn just as many calories as if you did all the exercises at once.
Its important to recognize that this system should only be used as a backup to performing your usual exercise routine of total body workouts and interval training which are scientifically proven to burn 9 times as much fat as traditional exercise (click here for fat burning workout).
High intensity exercise and short rest periods provide the body with the best hormonal environment for muscle gain and quick fat loss.
Be sure to choose large compound exercises that work as many of your bodies major muscles in the shortest amount of time i.e press ups, chin ups, bodwight rows, squats, lunges etc.
Use the routines below to “reach your totals”, adjust the rep range according to your current level of fitness.
There’s no need for any fancy pieces of equipment, just use your bodyweight and if you have them dumbbells or barbells.
Perform the program every other day ensuring you rotate between routine 1 and routine 2, you can either reach your totals by performing one exercise at a time i.e 100 squats (with rest breaks until you reach your total) or by performing the exercises as a circuit i.e 20 press ups, 20 bodyweight rows and repeat 5 times throughout the day until you reach your total.
Reach Your Totals Holiday Program
Routine A
Press ups: 50-100 total
Body weight Squats or reverse lunges: 100-200 total
Bodyweight Rows: 50-100 total
Routines B
Walking Lunges or Hip Extensions: 100 total
Bodyweight Dips: 50-100 total
Dumbbell or Barbell rows
2. Be More Active. Technology has made us a lazy and overweight society, during these holidays be more active. If you need to go to the shops and it’s 15-20 minute walk then leave the car at home, take the stairs instead on the escalators and elevators. All these small steps add up to burning more calories at the end of the day.
3. Perform a minimum of one strength training session per week. Studies show that by performing just one strength session per week you can maintain your current level of lean muscle mass. So to be certain of maintaining your muscle mass perform at least one intense strength workout per week to avoid the dreaded regressions in fitness levels. For optimum results try to perform 3-4 total body workouts per week with interval training.
Below is a video of the outdoor training session my friend Richie and I had on Saturday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
This workout was especially tough as it was 35 degrees with very high humidity, every set was a battle and by the end of the workout I felt like I’d gone 10 rounds with Lennox Lewis.
Nevertheless it was a fun workout, I enjoy the Saturday training session more than any other because I love training outdoors and I get to play with many of the training tools I use with my boot camp clients.
The training session was a total body workout working all the major movement patterns using the following tools;
It sounded something they’d do in strong man contest, I didn’t think I’d be able to use sandbags with my clients.
However when I left there to start up my outdoor personal training company I was searching the internet for ways I could still challenge my clients but without using barbells and dumbbells.
I didn’t fancy using resistance bands, I’ve never been a big fan of the type of bands you see in commercial sport stores, they may be O.K for your grandma but personally I think if your young fit and able you can lift proper weights.
The 1st day my sandbags arrived I headed off to the builders wholesalers and bought 2 x 20kg bags of sand and went to the park to fill em up and have play with some basic lifts.
I figured 40 kg would be conservative as I usually lift heavier in the gym.
But…
As soon as I threw the sand bag up for a clean it came down on my chest like a ton of bricks, lifting a 40kg sandbag feels totally different to a 40 kg barbell!
After a few reps my forearms were beginning to throb then after a few more reps my heart was pounding, I knew I was gonna be in for tough workout.
To be honest after a 30 minute total body workout I was totally exhausted, this type of training hit me in a totally different way than I was used to in the gym.
The workout…
Sandbag clean and press x 8
Sandbag zercher squat x 8
Hanging knee raise x 8
Push up sandbag row x 8
Sandbag Turkish get ups x 8
Sandbag reverse lunges x 8
Perform exercises in a circuit and repeat for 2 sets, rest 30 seconds between exercises.
Like kettlebells sandbags are great for challenging both strength and endurance simultaneously and because the bag is unstable and moves around your body has to use more muscles to control it.
Sandbags are excellent for outdoor or in home training and compared to dumbbells and barbells they’re cheap.
I’m not saying sandbags should replace dumbbells or barbells but I’d definitely recommend adding a sandbag to your arsenal of tools.
Do this workout at least once a week this is your homework for the next 6 weeks, weekends are always a good time to fit a quick workout in - all up it should only take you about 45 minutes.
Warm up
High knee running
High hill running
Lateral running
Back peddle
3/4 sprint
Shoulder circles
Strength
Rest 15 seconds between exercises.
2 x 10 Squats
2 x 10 Press Up’s
2 x 10 Plank
2 x 10 Reverse Lunge (each leg)
2 x 10 Ab Crunches
2 x 10 Inverted rows
Cardio
Sprint for 10 seconds (fast as possible).
Rest for 20 seconds (slow walk).
Repeat this 10 times.
Rest for 90 seconds (slow walk).
Sprint for 10 seconds (fast as possible).
Rest for 20 seconds (slow walk).
Repeat this 10 times.
Warm down and stretch
Let me know how you get on, if you have any questions regarding the workout please post them below.
I’ve just returned from my 6 week winter vacation to Spain visiting friends and family and have really enjoyed having the time to rest, regenerate and catch up with everyone from back home.
Now that I’m back in Sydney we’re kicking off with two new boot camps to trim up before the Xmas holiday season.
The camps will run for 6 weeks and will be held at Rushcutters Bay and Queens Park (Centennial Parklands) starting next week, please click here for more info…
6 weeks is a long time to be away and I definitely missed my surfing and kettlebell workouts, luckily I took my Olympic rings away with me so I managed to get some pretty good workouts in even when there were no gyms around.
I also trained with my brother in Spain for a few days, without having access to a gym for 5 weeks and only performing bodyweight leg exercises I think I may have overdone it on the squats.
There was no way I was going to get outdone by my brother and soon as I began training the competitiveness in me took over and the *10% rule (10% rule means you should only lift 10% more than in the previous week) went out the window.
Subsequently I could barely walk for 3 days, walking upstairs was painful and getting in and out of cars was nearly impossible, even after years of hard training it’s amazing how quickly the body can lose it.
Anyway I had my first kettlebell workout this morning since I got back to Sydney and even though it was tough it felt great to blow off the cobwebs and get back into some serious training.
There’s a different kind of mental toughness when training with Kettlbells where you really need to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and dig in.
Here is the workout I performed …
Warm – up
10 x bodyweight squats
10 x Olympic ring face pulls
10 x push ups
10 x KB swings (with a light weight)
Workout
2 x 12 KB clean and press
2 x 12 Wide grip Olympic ring chin ups
2 x 12 KB Russian twist
2 x 12 KB Front squats
2 x 12 KB single leg deadlift
2 x 120 second plank
P.S If you would like to learn more about Kettlebells we use them for personal training and in our boot camps, you can call me directly on 0422 936 963 or contact me through my website www.personaltrainersydney.com
With the “functional training craze” still in full swing many people are getting too caught up in all the fancy stuff and forgetting what really works.
In the gym last week I watched a guy lifting weights whilst standing on a swiss ball for his entire workout.
Unless he was looking to improve his skateboarding skills (which I doubt) there really is no point spending an entire workout balancing.
Don’t get caught up in the fads, for the average person training on your feet with free weights is a much more functional way to train.
95% of people have one goal – to look better naked, spending an hour balancing on a ball isn’t gonna make that happen.
Unless your No.1 goal is to get better at balancing leave this form of training to the circus acts. Balance training is not the most effective way to make you lose weight, tone up or get stronger.
If you want to change your body you have to force it to change, whether you would like lose unwanted weight or increase the size of your muscles you need to lift a heavy enough to force your muscles to adapt - which will in turn make your muscles become leaner and stronger.
If you are standing on 1 leg or trying to balance on something there’s no way you can lift enough weight for this to happen.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying balance training doesn’t have it’s place, but the majority of balance training should be focusing on working the core. The total time spent swiss/bosu ball should only be a small percentage of your entire workout.
Stick with the basics, Always perform large compound exercises, which are exercise’s that use multiple muscles at one time, use free weights standing up and train movement patterns instead of body-parts.
Incorporate everyday movements into you strength training routine where you;
Bend
Lunge
Squat
Push
Pull
Twist
You’ll get significantly better results in a much shorter amount of time!
Here is a video of a quick 8 minute ab workout routine, incorporate as many ab movement patterns into your ab workouts as possible.
The core is the link between your upper and lower body and needs special attention, gone are the days when core training meant performing hundreds of sit-ups off the floor, there are much more effective ways to train.
The rectus abdominal’s (abs) is the muscle known as “the 6 pack”. When training the abs it is important not to just perform trunk flexion exercises (sit-ups). The rectus abdominal’s are just one muscle of a whole group of muscles which is commonly referred to as the “Abs”.
The other muscles are: external oblique’s, internal oblique’s and the transverses abdominus.
All movement from the extremities rely on the core for stabilization and force production, it’s the most important area of the body. As the old saying goes “you can’t fire a canon from a canoe”.
Below are some general guidelines showing what a proper core program should look like, apply these strategies to your routine and you will have a shredded 6 pack in no time.
1. Interval Training.
This is short bouts of high intense exercise broken up with periods of low intense exercise. For example sprint for 10 seconds then rest for 10 seconds - repeat this for 15-20 mins, as you become fitter increase the reps or decrease the rest period. This will boost your metabolic rate whilst burning heaps of calories. Everyone has a six pack, it’s just that it’s usually hidden under fat.
2. Wood Chopping Exercises.
The rectus abdominals (6 pack) are designed more for anti-rotators of the trunk rather than trunk flexion (sit up’s). Otherwise the ab’s would look more like a bicep. Standing sideways to a cable machine, attach a rope to the high pulley. Pull the rope down and across your body, to just outside your left knee. Return the cable to the starting position, finish your reps and then switch sides.
3. Strength Training.
By increasing your lean muscle mass you’ll burn more calories sitting behind your desk and whilst you’re asleep, you will also burn a considerable more amount of energy whilst you’re exercising through greater energy demand from the increased lean muscle. Do large compound exercises working multiple muscles working every major muscle group in the body.
4. Fit-Ball.
By using a fit ball you’ll be increasing the range of motion from a neutral spine to trunk flexion (sit-ups), to trunk extension to trunk flexion. By doing sit-ups on an unstable surface you’ll also increase the amount of muscle fiber recruitment.
5. Diet.
If your diet is poor, no amount of training will work. Eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, nut’s, seeds, wholegrains, beans, legumes. If your eating meat and dairy make sure it’s lean and low in saturated fat. Keep sugar’s and alcohol to a minimum.
6. Train all Movements.
Don’t just do sit-ups, train all movement patterns. A good core program should include trunk flexion and extension, rotation, side flexion, reverse crunches and static holds. It’s not necessary to do them all in one session, pick one or two for each training session.
7. Less is More.
One of the most common mistakes people make is they do too many reps. The abs are just like any other muscle, so train them like you would other muscles. Doing hundreds of reps isn’t going to do much except give you bad posture. Add an external weight and keep the reps under twenty.
8. Stretch.
Like any other muscle the Abs need stretching. Lay face down with your hands under your shoulders, push up until your arms are nearly straight whilst simultaneously pushing your hips into the floor. This will increase the range of motion of the muscle and increase blood flow, therefore speeding up recovery between sessions.
9. Static Holds.
To develop a strong core you must incorporate exercises that incorporate the whole mid-section, including the hips. Stuart McGill (leading researcher on lower back dis-function) believes strength endurance is the most important factor in maintaining a healthy lower back. The plank is a good place to start, hold yourself in the press-up position, keeping your abs braced (tightened) and your butt squeezed tight. Start with a 20 second hold and increase this time by 10% a week.
10. Train the body as one integrated unit.
Use strength training exercises that will actively challenge the core. Some of the best core exercises around are ones that are working other muscle groups. By using exercises such as squat and deadlift variations, overhead presses, bent over rows and even push ups you’ll be creating awesome core strength.
If you have any questions please feel free to post them below.
Over the past couple of years kettlebell strength training has become very popular in Australia, recently Ive received quite a few questions regarding the use of kettlebells, people want to know what the benefits are.(Note:You can either perform this exercise for time or reps).I have been using kettlebells myself for the past 2 years and training clients with them for the past 1 year and a half.I love them, virtually all my training takes place outdoors and kettlebells are a great way for me to train quickly and conveniently without the hassle of going to the gym or setting dumbells and weight plates - I literally open up the back of my truck and have an instant gym waiting for me.
So what are the benefits?
Well…firstly kettlebell training will certainly give you the biggest bang for your buck, it must be one of the most effective forms of training for achieving the most out of your workout in the shortest amount of time.
You see the great thing about kettlebell training is it works the body as one unit with killer exposive exercises, these workouts are great for fat burning, toning, mental toughness, flexibility, strength and muscle endurance.
On recent trip to Kangaroo Valley I filmed one of my workouts… here is one of of my favourite exercises - the high pull, clean, snatch and press.
It’s a combination lift working many muscles at once - great for a quick workout and makes a good finisher.
Give kettlebell training a try, I doubt you’ll be rushing back to the gym to stand in queue in a hurry!
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