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The Best Exercises to Effectively Burn Belly Fat and Achieve a Toned Midsection
Not only these exercises will help you lose belly fat, they will help you lose weight all over. AAAND on top of it, doing these weekly will make you stronger, boost your metabolism and will build some nice lean muscle. As a personal trainer, I always get my clients do variations of these exercises to help them achieve the best results possible!
A Toronto personal trainer is always works with clients who want results NOW! I call it Pronto Toronto mindset. No wonder – our schedules are slammed and we don’t have the time to wait around to lose belly fat.
Recently, I read a book by Richard Koch called “The 80 20 Principle – The Secret of Achieving More with Less“. I was fascinated by the fact that 80% of your results come from 20% of the work you do. The trick is to figure out the most effective part of your work that produces those 80% of the results.
It got me thinking about the most effective exercises I always incorporate into my clients’ workouts that provide the best results. As a judging criteria, I picked exercises based on two factors:
- The amount of muscles they activate at the same time to lose belly fat more effectively
- The simplicity of execution so that you can start doing them now (perhaps, an Olympic clean and jerk burns more energy than a simple shoulder press, but it is also much more complex and requires a lot of time mastering it).
After a process of elimination I have finally picked the winners and today I will share them with you. Here we go!
Plank
If you’ve only got time for one abdominal exercise, forget the sit up, which only works the top portion of your core. Instead, the plank and its many variations targets the muscles at the top, bottom and sides of your midsection, not to mention other stabilizing muscles in your hips, back and shoulders.
Once you’ve mastered the front and side plank, try some variations like walking side-to-side with your hands, alternating leg lifts or walking your hands two steps forward and two steps back. There are endless ways to challenge yourself.
Deadlift
Want to feel mega strong? With practice you can add some serious weight to this compound movement. The ability to stack on the heavy plates means you can get major heart-pumping action with just one exercise! You’ll work your glutes, hamstrings and back, while improving your grip. And since you work so many muscles all at the same time, it makes it so much easier to lose belly fat and getting leaner in general.
Squat
This fundamental exercise is a gym-rat favorite for good a reason: It’s a full-body move that torches body fat while increasing balance and stability.
Loading up a bar in the squat rack may seem intimidating for newbies, but fear not: there are effective ways to work up to the full expression of the exercise. Try body weight squats with a bench behind you, dumbbell sumo squats or by leaning your back against a swiss ball. Graduating to a heavier weight can cause trouble for weak knees and backs, so be sure to have a personal trainer or a knowledgeable friend check your form.
Overhead press
Because sexy shoulders are always in style! Working your delts creates the illusion of a slimmer waist and sets a beautiful frame for your upper body. The shoulder press can be done seated, standing, with dumbbells or a small barbell. Get the most out of this exercise by keeping your core tight and maintaining proper posture.
Pushup
You might think of pushups as a chest exercise, and you’d be correct, however it’s also an effective way to train your shoulders, triceps and core. The best part is this exercise can be done anywhere with no equipment, so on days when you can’t get to the gym, there’s no excuse not to drop and do 20!
Absolute beginners can work up to the pushup by starting with their hands against a wall, graduating to a bench, then on the floor on their knees. Positioning your hands widely will target more of the chest muscle (aka pecs), or you can bring them close together for a challenging tricep workout.
HIIT
When gym time is scarce, high intensity interval training (HIIT) should be your go-to. Keeping your cardio sessions short and intense is every bit as effective as long bouts on the treadmill. Use an interval timer on your smartphone, or a Gymboss, to create prompts to change exercises or rest.
A simple version of HIIT is treadmill sprints: run as fast as you can for one minute, then do a light jog for one minute and repeat. Or try a conditioning workout such as:
- 20 seconds on kettlebell swings
- 20 seconds of mountain climbers
- 20 seconds holding a plank
Change up your HIIT sessions each week to keep gym-boredom at bay.
The one you’re not doing
Finally, in addition to the tried-and-true effective exercises that make you lose belly fat, we need to keep our bodies and minds constantly challenged to see changes in our fitness. It’s all too easy to fall into a routine rut where we think we’re working hard but really just going through the motions.
Check our mobile app for new ideas or contact me to set up a free consultation to get you started on a customized fitness plan!
