Who’s got time to spend countless hours a week pounding the pavement or the treadmill, for minimal results? Well I’m sure some of you sickos do, but for the rest of us, there’s a much quicker solution that will result in burning more calories, thereby getting us the results we want.
Before we talk about one of the best types of exercise for effective fat burning, let’s quickly talk about the basics of fat loss. When it comes to the physiology of fat burning, its not as simple as just doing exercise and burning body fat.
There are three critical steps that need to take place in order for effective fat loss to occur:
- Mobilisation – getting the fat out of the cell
- Transport – getting it into blood stream
- Oxidation – clearing the mobilised fat by using it for energy
And we don’t just want to burn fat; we want to target those nasty stubborn areas of fat that we’d normally never get rid of.
Tapping into those stubborn areas involve two types of receptors:
- Beta-2 receptors – increase fat burning
- Alpha-2 receptors – inhibit fat burning
So for all the smart kids in the class, you might have already guessed that to make the magic happen, we need to turn off alpha-2 receptors, while switching on beta-2 receptors.
Train so Hard You Scare the Fat Away
So how do we turn off the alpa-2 receptors? Well, in a nutshell, your fight or flight hormones (catecholamine hormones epinephrine and norephinephrine), are produced in response to exercise. Our bodies perceive this as stress, and activate the alpha-2 and beta-2 receptors.
Technically all exercises produce catecholamines, but the most effective types are short, high intensity exercises.
Once we have both receptors firing, we need to turn off the alpha-2 receptors while still keeping the beta-2 receptors doing their job. The key to this is low insulin, and the simplest way to achieve this is to do your high intensity exercise in the morning in a fasted state (meaning no food 12 to 18 hours before training).
Ok, we’ll let you at least have a coffee, we’re not complete sadists. But just black- no milk or sugar!
Now let’s talk about one of the best exercises to do to get those beta-2 receptors on.
Say Hello to Your New Best Frenemy
Introducing: The Prowler. In basic terms, it’s a torture device sled that you get behind and push, sprinting to maximum effort. You can even make it heavier by adding plates.
Sound easy? Not a chance.
An all-out effort of this will only take about 30 seconds, but trust us, when done properly, it will leave you questioning reality itself.
It’s tough, but the trick is to get enough rest in between sets to recover, and then aim to get 10 rounds done in just 30 minutes.
And going back to what was mentioned earlier, this type of high intensity exercise gets the fat out of the cell (mobilised) and into the blood stream (transported). So now we just need to finish it off by clearing the mobilised fat by using it for energy.
The best way to do this is to finish the Prowler workout with a nice slow 20 minute walk. Around the block if it’s a nice day, or on the treadmill listening to the latest Justin Bieber/Barry Manilow mash-up album. You’re so down with the kids.
To mobilise fat, train high intensity exercise in the morning in a fasted state then go for a slow 20min walk.
The Trimmed Down Version
So just to recap:
- Do your morning cardio in a fasted state
- Start with 10 rounds on the Prowler or some other sort of weighted, short burst training
- Finish with a 20 minute walk
Do this a few times a week, in conjunction with a good nutrition plan and resistance training program, and those stubborn areas you thought you’d never be free of, will start to melt away.
Be consistent. Be patient. Don’t settle.
If you’d like to find out more about how to mobilise, transport and oxidise stubborn body fat, just talk to us and we’ll get you on track with personalised advice.
References:
Van Bol, Peter; The Physiology of Fat Loss. 2004
Teta, Dr Jade; How to burn stubborn body fat, 2014.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
