When it comes to weight and fat loss, most people go to the gym and focus mainly on a cardio program and change their eating habits. Many people forget to add the strength training component. Strength training is far more effective at helping build muscle and burn fat than just cardio exercises. One reason for this is that cardio does help people shrink in size with slow gains in muscle mass. A better way to do this and also get strong is to build muscle which help to burn calories and fat at the same time.
Body Building Exercises:
Research has proven that a well-designed strength training program can help people rev up their metabolisms for up to 38 hours after a workout. This basically means that the body is burning a lot more calories after each training session. This is not the case with cardio. Strength training, cardio and diet are the perfect trifecta for getting sculpted body.
Some of the exercises that form part of a body building program are:
- Chest: Bench press, incline dumbbell press and cable cross overs. All of these target upper body muscles.
- Back: Lateral pulldowns, dumbbell rows, hyper extensions and seated cable rows are all commonly performed exercises. This helps to build up strong back muscles which are important for a variety of movements.
- Shoulders: side laterals, cable laterals, side laterals and dumbbell military presses all help to give the shoulders good definition.
- Thighs: Squats, lunges, leg curls and extensions work out all the major muscle groups in the lower body.
- Calves: Standing raises, donkey calf raises and seated calf raises help to build shapely muscles.
- Biceps: Incline and concentration curls are great arm exercises.
- Triceps: Dumbbell kickbacks and triceps press downs are done to balance out arm exercises.
A typical exercise routine involves working out with different machines and isolating muscle groups. Rest periods with such strenuous routines are usually timed at a minute. Each muscle group is trained 3 times a week.
This program has been used for body building over many decades. It may not be the optimal program to get cut and defined. People should ensure that they are not overtraining to avoid injuries. This kind of training with a diet would make people lose more muscle than actually build and retain it.
The better way to do it is to tweak the program a bit to get stronger and lose fat. The best way is to train 3 times a week but spread out the exercises – work the upper body one day and lower body the next. Free weights are a better option and working on compound exercises and muscle groups makes it more effective. Learn more about fitness supplements on FckFat.
Even though circuit training is a great way to lose fat, it is not always possible for people to do this. This is because it requires the use of multiple machines close together and it may not always be convenient to do in a busy gym. Make sure to isolate muscles and ensure that lagging muscle groups are exercised properly.
