How To Burn More Belly Fat During Exercise
I was chatting with my friend and fellow muscle building and fat loss coach, Jeff Anderson (author of "Combat The Body Fat") the other day, and we were talking about strategies to help speed up abdominal fat loss. After all, who doesn't want a lean ripped mid-section with 6 pack abs!?
Anyway, Jeff shared a killer technique with me that works awesome for blasting away stubborn belly fat and helps to carve in those deep cuts that will reveal your 6 pack. In a nut shell it's combining your ab training with your cardio training which indirectly has a "spot reduction" kind of effect on your belly fat... (all the details of how to do this are explained below).
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But the funny thing is I've been unconsciously using this technique myself in preparation for all my bodybuilding contests and it's no doubt one of the tricks that has helped me to get such deep cuts in my abs (as you can see in the pic)...
You see I have an elliptical and a stepper machine at home that I use for a lot of my early morning fat loss cardio workouts when I'm training for a bodybuilding competition. And one thing that I find often happens after a while of repetitive motion is that my toes and feet sometimes go a little numb.
So what I would do throughout my cardio workouts do to get off my feet for a minute, but still keep active is hit the floor and do some ab work (i.e. sit ups, crunches, leg raises, etc.) and then get back on the elliptical or stepper. I would do this back and forth for my entire cardio workouts, not even realizing the ab sculpting, belly fat burning benefits that I was getting from this technique.
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Now while there have been numerous "experts" out there who have have claimed that there's no way to Spot Reduce where you're able to burn bodyfat. Recent studies are showing that it may in fact be possible with this kind of this simple, but effective alternating back and forth between cardio and strength training technique.
Now THIS is Really Cool...
It seems that there may be a unique connection where the fat cells in the location of the muscles being exercised may actually provide the bulk of the long term fuel for your training.
This is NOT definitive yet, but it holds promise.
It also supports my theory (and again, this is ONLY a theory!) that your MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION plays a STRONG role in how much, and WHERE you can burn fat.
Here's How You Can Do It...
- First, if you have read my "Bodybuilding Competition Training Guide" or Jeff Anderson's best-selling "Combat The Body Fat" program, then you know that we are both HUGE supporters of LOW intensity cardio as a fat-burner.
Sure, you can get your panties in a wad while you preach about how HIGH intensity is better, and yes there are benefits to more intense cardio workouts. But the fact is most competitive bodybuilders get ripped to the bone shredded with LOW intensity cardio, and literally hundreds (if not thousands) of average men and women have used the LOW intensity cardio strategies that Jeff talks about in his "Combat The Body Fat" program to make some amazing "before & after" transformations, and the pictures don't lie!
- For this cardio / strength training exercise session, you'll start with a quick, "low effort" warmup of about 5 minutes on a treadmill, bike, or other cardio exercise equipment.
- Next, do a set of WEIGHTED CRUNCHES until "failure". Just one single set.
- Now, go and do another 10 minutes of LOW INTENSITY cardio activity that uses primarily either an upper body or lower body movement (i.e. - Rowing machine/jumping rope primarily works upper body while jogging, bike, works lower).
- When 10 minutes are up, do one set of HANGING LEG RAISES (with your legs straight), rep out to failure and then go on to your 2nd 10-minute bout of low intensity cardio using the opposite area of your body as your last set.
(i.e. - if you jumped rope in your last cardio round, switch to an exercise like jogging on the treadmill or using the stepper this time.)
- When done, do a single set to failure of HANGING ROTATIONAL KNEE RAISES... then on to your 3rd round of cardio using the opposite half of your body.
And so it goes on, switching back and forth between doing abdominal exercises and low intensity cardio.
For your follow up abs exercises, I suggest (in order)...
=> Hanging Knee Raises
=> Either crunches or V-Ups
As you can see, you'll slowly decrease the intensity of the abs exercise choices with each set as you get closer to the end of your workout.
But in essence, by training your abs throughout your cardio session, you send a "message" to your body WHERE you want all that fat-burning cardio to do most of it's work.
So WHILE you're hitting your cardio sets, you've "activated" your abdominal area for fat destruction!
You may think I'm crazy, but give it a try and see if it doesn't make a difference in WHERE your measurements start reflecting results!
If you'd like to learn more killer fat burning techniques like this then I highly recommend that you grab yourself a copy of my friend Jeff Anderson's "Combat The Body Fat" program.
This program reveals some of the Secret Training Strategies that Jeff used when he was a Master Military Fitness Trainer who's primary job was to take out of shape soldiers and whip them into shape as quickly as possible and turn them Lean, Mean, Fighting Machines.
In fact using these "Hard-Core Military Style Workouts" these soldiers were able to blast away 2-4 pounds of ugly bodyfat every single week, while carving in ripped muscle definition at the same time!
So if you are struggling with that extra roll of flab hanging over your belt, then it would certainly be worth your while to check this program out for yourself...
Click The Link To Check Out "Combat The Body Fat" at: www.CombatBodyFat.com
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