The 5 Most Essential Muscle-Centric Exercises for Fat Loss
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If you want six-pack abs, you must build or at least maintain your ab muscles while simultaneously losing fat - body-wide.
So if you want to get rid of your toxic excess belly and visceral fat and love handles, ensure you're doing exercises targeting all of your body's major muscle groups: legs, glutes, back, chest, shoulders, arms, and especially your core.
You also want to work with a certified nutritionist to optimize a protein-rich, whole-food diet to facilitate the desired body recomposition process. It's really important to track your food intake and other critical biometric data points such as intake of liquids, sleep quality, and stress score.
You can enjoy the extraordinary health and fat-loss benefits of resistance training by doing just 2-3 fifteen to 20-minute bodyweight resistance training workouts per week!
So which resistance exercises should you start with?
I believe these are the 5 most essential muscle-centric exercises for fat loss and general health. They'll help you build or maintain lean muscle improve your metabolic and cardiometabolic health, and burn more calories at rest.
1. Squats
There is absolutely no doubt that squats are one of the best exercises you can do for your body. Not only do they work your large, calorie and burning glut and leg muscles, but they also help to build core strength and stability. Plus, they're a great way to burn fat and calories.
But did you know that squats can also have incredible benefits for your metabolic health?
Studies have shown that squats can help to increase insulin sensitivity, which is crucial for maintaining blood sugar levels within a healthy range. Squats can also help to decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes and improve cardiovascular health.
But it is so critically important to do squats correctly and safely. Here's how -step by step:
1) Start with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes pointing slightly outwards, keeping your knees pointing in the same direction as your longest middle toe.
2) Lower yourself down by bending your knees and hips, keeping your chest up and your core engaged, with shoulders, pelvis, and feet in a neutral position (i.e. weight equally distributed across your whole foot.
3) Lower yourself as low as you can while still maintaining good form - you should be able to get your thighs at least parallel to the ground. You don't want to rest on your laurels. Instead, maintain constant muscle engagement.
4) Push back up to the starting position, driving through the center of your feet.
5) Repeat for 8-12 reps, slowly.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to ensure you use the proper form when performing squats. If not done correctly, squats can lead to injuries like knee pain or lower back pain. But when done correctly, squats are an incredibly effective and safe exercise that can have tremendous benefits for your overall health and faster, more effective weight loss.
Please check out my detailed guide to doing bodyweight squats:
2. Pushups
The pushup is an ancient exercise that has been around for thousands of years, and for very good reasons. Pushups are incredibly effective for building muscle, burning fat, and improving metabolic health. For example:
A recent study found that "Participants able to complete more than 40 pushups were associated with a significant reduction in incident cardiovascular disease event risk compared with those completing fewer than 10 pushups."
The pushup is a fantastic exercise for building muscle in the chest, shoulders, triceps, core, back, and leg muscles. But it's imperative to do pushups with the correct form, - here's how:
Begin in a plank position with your hands shoulder-width apart and your feet hip-width apart. Lower your chest to about 1-2 inches before the ground, maintaining a straight line from your head to your heels the entire time. Push back up to the starting position, but don't completely lock out your arms. That's one rep.
If you're a beginner just starting to pushups, it's better to start with wall pushups and gradually build up to desk pushups.
When ready, you move on to modified pushups and complete or regular pushups. Here's how to do each as you become comfortable completing 1 set of 10:
Start with wall pushups:
- Place your palms against a wall at about shoulder height.
- Lean into the wall, keeping your body in a straight line from head to heels.
- Bend your elbows, lower your body toward the wall, and then press back to the starting position.
To do desk pushups:
- Position your hands on a sturdy desk or table about shoulder-width apart.
- Step back until your arms are straight, keeping your body in a straight line from head to heels.
- Bend your elbows, lower your body toward the desk or table, and then press back to the starting position. Don't lock out your elbows.
Modified (aka knee) pushups:
- Get into a modified plank position with your feet together (or with one leg crossed over the other), with your knees touching the ground.
- Place your palms on the ground beneath your shoulders, fingers pointing forward.
- Lower your knees to the ground, keeping your back straight and your abs engaged.
- From here, bend your elbows and lower your chest toward the floor, but without touching your chest toward the ground, then press back up to the starting position -without locking out your arms or touching your chest to the floor.
There are so many benefits to pushups for health and fitness, but here are a few of the most important ones:
Pushups build muscle and strength in the chest, shoulders, and triceps. They also build core strength and stability.
In addition to being a great resistance training exercise, pushups can also be an effective cardio workout. It's just a matter of safely increasing your speed and adjusting your breathing technique to cardio mode. This will boost your heart rate while helping you burn more calories!
So, in summary:
Pushups are excellent exercise for burning fat.
Pushups improve metabolic health by helping to increase insulin sensitivity.
Pushups help to prevent injuries by strengthening the muscles and connective tissues around the joints.
Pushups can be done virtually anywhere and at any time with no equipment. They can also be done as a form of cardiovascular exercise - just like bodyweight squats.
If you're looking for a great exercise to improve your muscle and strength, lose unwanted fat, and boost your metabolic health, pushups, are a perfect choice. And if you're new to pushups, don't worry - just start with wall or desk pushups, work your way up to knee, and then regular pushups. You'll be reaping the benefits in no time!
3. Planks
When developing a strong and healthy core, no exercise is more effective than the plank. The plank is an isometric exercise that works all of the muscles in your core, including your abs, obliques, and lower back.
Not only does the plank strengthens your core muscles, but it also has a host of other health benefits. Planking can improve your posture, relieve back pain, and even help to prevent injuries during other exercises like the squat and deadlift.
The plank is also great for fat loss because it engages almost all of the major muscles in your body. When you have greater lean muscle mass, you actually, burn more calories at rest and become much more efficient at glucose utilization and regulation.
4. Deadlifts
The deadlift is arguably one of the most foundational exercises for building strength, lean muscle mass and burning fat. It works all of the major muscle groups in your body, including your quads, glutes, hamstrings, back, and shoulders. The deadlift also helps to improve your metabolic health.
Studies have shown that deadlifts can help to increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR). Put simply, you will burn more calories even when you are not exercising. Deadlifts can also help to improve your insulin sensitivity. This is important for people who are at risk for diabetes.
Deadlifts are excellent for people of just about all fitness levels. If you are an exercise newbie, you can start with a lightweight. It's even recommended to do air-deadlifts at first to really master proper form, carefully engaging the muscles you want to target. As you get stronger, you might want to increase the amount of weight that you lift by using free weights or adding resistance bands.
There are many benefits to deadlifts, but there are a few things to keep in mind when you are doing this exercise:
- Make sure that you warm up before you start lifting. This will help to prevent injury.
- Use proper form. Among other critically important points, this means keeping your back straight, and your core positioned neutrally and optimally engaged.
- Never try to lift too much weight.
- Start with a lightweight and slowly increase the amount of weight every 2-4 weeks.
5. Bent Rows
Bent rows are a great exercise for targeting your biceps and back. They also work your shoulders and core muscles, making them perfect for helping you build a strong, toned body. Like the squat and deadlift, bent rows are a compound exercise that work multiple muscle groups at once, making them very effective for fat loss.
As compound exercises, the squat and deadlift increase testosterone and growth hormone levels in both men and women by a significant amount. These two hormones are essential for muscle growth and fat loss.
Women should not fear becoming too bulky from weight training; it is very hard for women to put on bulky muscle mass due to having much less testosterone than men.
But regardless of your gender identity or testosterone profile, having more lean muscle and less unhealthy body fat may just help you live a much longer, happier, and healthier life.
Remember that diet is still one of the most important factors in muscle-centric body recomposition.
You want to ensure you are eating a healthy, whole foods diet rich in protein and with the optimal amount of good fats - for optimal health and maximum satiety.
Ideally, you want to track your daily food and fluid intake to monitor your progress and make changes to your diet as necessary. There are many excellent food tracking apps available that make it easy to do this.
I strongly recommend the Fitbit Charge 4 or 5 as the best all-around app for tracking nutrition, sleep quality, and daily stress levels. It's among the most affordable of the popular fitness trackers. It also has one of the best sleep-tracking trackers on the market.
The Importance of Minimal Weekly Movement:
Finally, yes, resistance training is critical for fat loss and for overall health.
But it's especially important if you're trying to lose weight to get at least 150 minutes of zone 1 and 2 cardio per week.
Low-level cardio activity such as walking or light jogging can help burn calories and improve cardiovascular health.
The American Heart Association recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week. This can be done by doing activities such as brisk walking, swimming, or light cycling.
People just starting an exercise program can meet these basic movement requirements by walking for 30 minutes per day, five days per week.
You may want to start with just 5-10 minutes per day and gradually increase your time as you get more fit. You can also break up your activity into shorter sessions throughout the day.
For example, you could take a 10-minute walk in the morning or a 10-minute walk at lunch. Next, try a 20-minute walk in the evening within an hour or so after meals for maximum cardio-metabolic benefits.
And yes, activities like doing housework, for example, vacuuming, count as minutes toward your 150 minutes per week and can be tracked, along with your walking and other movement breaks with your Fitbit Charge 4 or Charge 5 in real-time.
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