You already know the best cardio workout to blast belly fat. But if you’re looking for a more well-rounded routine, well, that’s where strength training comes in. Yes, we’ve talked about how spot-reducing fat isn’t actually a thing. But truth: Losing fat all over will trim your midsection.
To do that, cardio is absolutely necessary, but strength training is the other piece of the puzzle. “Strength training will develop lean muscle tissue that will magnify the amount of fat you can lose,” says Emily Hutchins, Chicago-based Nike NTC Master Trainer & Run Coach.
Plus, as she notes, if you’re stuck on a cardio-heavy program, your fitness can actually plateau. “Strength training will increase your exercise threshold so you can go harder when you do those cardio workouts, helping you make even bigger gains,” she says.
So then the question becomes: What should you do at the gym? Higher-intensity strength sessions that focus on full-body functional and dynamic movements (a.k.a. how your body moves every day) will be the most effective and time-efficient way to maximize fat burning and muscle building. In addition, strength training has the happy effect of increasing bone density to keep your skeleton strong as you age.
Try This Fat-Blasting Workout
Hop on the fast track to flatter abs with this five-move workout from Hutchins. (You can find more at the Nike+ Training Club app, free on iTunes and Android.) To keep your heart rate up throughout, perform 30 seconds of “work,” followed by a 10 second rest break. Choose weights that make the last few seconds of each interval feel difficult to finish with proper form.
Complete the circuit three times, taking time to recover between each round. (Think: The amount of time it'll take you to go get water.) The other benefit to doing a timed Tabata-style workout is that you tend to push yourself harder when you’re going against the clock rather than counting reps, says Hutchins.
Oh! You’ll see that these don’t include typical core moves—no situps here. But these moves force you to engage your abs throughout, which will challenge those muscles.
Dumbbell squat to shoulder press: Hold a weight in each hand and bend your knees to 90 degrees to lower into a squat. As you’re coming up from the squat, push the weights above your head, palms facing one another, straightening your arms into a shoulder press.
Reverse lunge with biceps curl: Start with two feet together, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Step back with one leg into a lunge and perform a curl. Alternate legs.
Pushup with mountain climbers: Do three pushups in a row, followed by 10 mountain climbers. (This one and the next will really get your heart rate up, Hutchins says.)
Burpee to shoulder press: Holding dumbbells in your hands, place your hands on the floor. Jump out with your feet to pushup position, then jump your feet back toward your hands. (That’s the burpee.) Stand up and do a shoulder press.
Goblet squat: Hold a dumbbell in front of your chin (not touching your body), dropping into a deep plié squat (feet slightly wider than hips-distance apart, toes angled out). Pro tip: Keeping the dumbbell in this position will help better activate your core.
How Often Should You Do It?
You don’t want to repeat the same strength workout over and over, because gains come when you continually switch things up, Hutchins says. (Mix it up with the strength workouts in Women’s Health’s Lift to Get Lean by Holly Perkins.) When you’re first starting out, do one strength workout during your first week, she says. The second week: Do one strength session and one endurance workout. Week three: Try two strength and two endurance workouts. “There’s no magical science, but you want to work with constant change to shock and surprise your body,” she says. “Altering your routine will help support fat burning so you start to see results faster.” Yes, please, and thank you.
Jessica Migala is a health writer specializing in general wellness, fitness, nutrition, and skincare, with work published in Women’s Health, Glamour, Health, Men’s Health, and more. She is based in the Chicago suburbs and is a mom to two little boys and rambunctious rescue pup.
“How to lose belly fat” is one of the most common questions out there. And that’s understandable. Belly fat is really easy to gain and notoriously hard to lose. It can seem as though no matter what exercises you try to lose belly fat and no matter how well you eat, the belly fat just won’t budge.”
“And unfortunately, with exception to surgery, there is currently no proven method of being able to spot reduce fat from the belly. There is an exercise, however, that is incredibly underutilized yet powerfully effective when it comes to losing even the most stubborn belly fat. Today I’ll share what that is and how you can start using it right away to lose belly fat.”
Why is Belly fat So Hard to Lose?
“Why is belly fat so hard to lose in the first place? Well, it comes down to the fact that certain areas of your body are easier to lose fat than others, and is largely determined by genetics. Now having your genetics stacked against you may seem problematic if you’re looking to develop a slim or lean looking abdomen, but there is a solution. As long as you create a calorie deficit, you will continue to lose fat. Eventually, if maintained long enough, you will lose excess fat from all areas of your body, even if your genetics put your belly fat at the back of the line.”
How to Be Consistent
“While diet should be your main way of creating a calorie deficit, adding additional exercises could help you to lose belly fat by keeping your metabolism high, even as you’re losing weight from dieting. That said, not all exercises are created equal. While things like running, rowing, cycling, or even HIIT workouts tend to burn calories very quickly, the truth is, the overwhelming majority of people can’t actually stick with traditional cardio long enough for fat loss to reach stubborn areas. And it’s not that these methods don’t work if you stick to it, because they do. The problem is simply that they’re brutal. They require a lot of willpower.”
Types of Cardio
“Now don’t get me wrong, these forms of cardio definitely do have their place and some people have no problem sticking to them. In fact, I still do these intense sessions once or twice a week for conditioning. But I no longer rely on them as my main form of cardio to lose fat and nor should most people. Because if you want to lose your stubborn belly fat, and more importantly keep it off once it’s gone, then you need something you can stick to for life. What’s the solution?”
The Best Exercise
“The best exercise to lose belly fat is walking. It’s the easiest to maintain, lowest stress, lowest fatigue, and most versatile form of cardio. According to research, intense forms of cardio like HIIT or running, while time efficient, didn’t provide any superior fat loss effect when compared to longer yet less intense forms of cardio such as walking. Which makes sense. It’s simply a numbers game. Your body doesn’t care whether the calories you burned were from some crazy intense fasted cardio session or from plain old walking. What matters most is what you can do consistently over time. And if you crunch the numbers, you’ll actually find that the calories burned from simply walking can very quickly add up to a meaningful amount.”
Exactly How to Lose the Fat
“So now that I’ve hopefully convinced you of the power of walking, let’s dive into the specifics of how to lose belly fat from walking. The first step is to determine an average of how many steps you’re currently taking. You can use the health app on your iPhone or use Google Fit if you’re on Android. After a week, see what your daily average comes up to. Some of you however might be surprised with how few steps you’re taking, but this is a good thing, as it means you have a big opportunity to bump that up.”
Realistic Goals
“Set a realistic goal and first aim to do an extra 2,000 steps a day. Given that the average individual takes about 1,200 steps during 10 minutes of walking, all you have to do is throw in two 10 minutes walks into your day to accomplish that. Once you’re consistent with that, try bumping it up by another 2,000 steps, and continue doing this with the goal of consistently getting at least 8,000 steps or even up to 15,000 steps, which seems to be the range that provides the greatest fat loss and health benefits.”
It All Adds Up
“Trust me, the little things add up. Apply these tips and you’ll be surprised with just how much they increase your step count and even more surprised by how much of a difference it makes towards your fat loss overtime. That said guys, I want to emphasize that walking or any form of cardio is only effective for fat loss if it’s used in combination with a diet. So use your diet as the primary way to create a calorie deficit and supplement it with walking to help speed up the process.”
Video – The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good
Learn More
How to Increase Chest Size and Strength
Best Way to Train the Chest for Hypertrophy (Muscle Mass)
3 Hacks for a Bigger Chest
Upper Chest Exercises Ranked (Best to Worst)
9 Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises
Muscles of the Legs
The muscles of the legs are responsible for locomotion and balance. They are grouped into two categories: extensors and flexors.
The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good – Gastrocnemius
The gastrocnemius is a two-headed muscle with origins on the lateral condyle of the femur and on the posterior surface of the calcaneus. It inserts into the posterior surface of proximal phalanges through an aponeurosis. The gastrocnemius acts to plantar flex at both knee and ankle joints, as well as inversion at ankle joint when standing upright.
The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good – Quadriceps
The quadriceps (quads) are muscles in the thigh that attach to the patella, or kneecap. They extend the leg at the knee and flex (bend) it at the hip. The quadriceps are considered to be one of the strongest muscles in your body and help support you during walking, running, jumping and other weight-bearing activities.
The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good – Hamstrings
The hamstring muscles are a group of three muscles on the back of your thigh. They bend your knee and extend your hip.
Hamstring muscle contractions are important for walking, running, jumping, kicking and maintaining balance.
The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good – Soleus
The soleus is a muscle in the back of your lower leg. It lies deep to the gastrocnemius, and like its more superficial counterpart, it has two heads: medial and lateral. The soleus is responsible for plantar flexion of the ankle joint and contributes to knee extension. It also helps stabilize your body when you stand on one leg.
The tibial nerve innervates this muscle from its posterior division; thus, there is no motor branch joining them together at any point.
The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good – Plantaris
The plantaris is a small muscle in the back of the leg that attaches to the lower part of the knee. It is not used much in everyday life, but it can be injured during sports activities.
The plantaris originates from several tendons and muscles around your knee, including some parts of your hamstring and calf muscles.
These tendons and other tissues all come together to form a single tendon that travels down through your lower leg to attach at the bone just under your ankle joint (medial malleolus). The muscle fibres then extend out toward your toes on each side.
The Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat for Good – Popliteus
The popliteus is a small muscle that lies on the back of the knee. It is located at the bottom of your thighbone and helps to flex your knee.
It also stops your shinbone from rotating while you’re running, which helps protect your kneecap (patella). This muscle can get injured if you do sudden or extreme movements with your legs, such as kicking something or falling onto one foot.
The popliteus is used in sports such as football, basketball and tennis because it allows players to change direction quickly without having to slow down first. Injuries are rare but they can happen during certain activities like dancing or martial arts when there are lots of twists and turns involving fast movements with one leg up in front.
Gracilis
The gracilis is a slender muscle that originates on the medial epicondyle of the femur and on an intermuscular septum between gracilis and adductor longus. It inserts at the medial side of the pectineal line of the pubis.
The gracilis is responsible for flexion, adduction, and medial rotation of your leg.
Sartorius
The Sartorius is a muscle of the anterior thigh and is one of the longest muscles in the body. It flexes and rotates the thigh laterally, and it also stabilizes flexion at the knee by preventing rotation of leg.
The Sartorius originates from the lateral ilium, sacrum (at first functionally connected to sacroiliac joint), and posterior surface of femur; its insertion (into tensor fascia lata) can be found on anteromedial aspect of tibia, along with semitendinosus.
This long muscle runs from hip to knee and inserts into tibia as well as fibula via its innervation by nerve plexus around femoral vessels near inguinal ligament.
Semimembranosus
The semimembranosus is one of the three hamstring muscles. It is located on the back of the thigh, behind and below its larger counterpart, the semitendinosus. The hamstring group serves to extend or straighten your hip joint while flexing and rotating your knee joint inward (towards your other leg).
Some of these functions are obvious when you look at a person standing up straight: when they bend forward, their knees flex; but if they twist in one direction or another as well, it’s usually because their hamstrings have rotated their legs in those directions too.
Semitendinosus
The semitendinosus muscle is a member of the hamstring group and originates from the ischial tuberosity, also known as the sit bone. The semitendinosus muscle inserts onto the head of the fibula bone. It acts to flex and extend (bend forward) your knee joint.
The tibial nerve innervates this muscle, with branches of its posterior division supplying it through a branch called L5. Two blood vessels supply it: the deep posterior circumflex femoral artery from above and lateral circumflex femoral artery from below.
Biceps femoris
- Origin: Ischial tuberosity, posterior surface of the body of femur, and upper portion of the intermuscular septum between vastus intermedius and vastus medialis.
- Insertion: Head of fibula.
- Action: Knee flexion (leg bending).
- Innervation: Tibial nerve (L5-S2).
- Blood supply: Deep artery in the anterior tibial recurrent branch via perforating branch to reach muscle belly; branches from anterior tibial artery supply lower third; perforating branch supplies upper two-thirds.
Conclusion
The muscles of the leg are very important to our body and its ability to move. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to walk or run. They are also responsible for helping us stand up straight and stable when standing still which is why it’s important to stretch all these muscles regularly if you want strong legs!