Fergie Has a Shapely but Toned Body
When i write out a hierarchy of the best workouts to lose weight, lengthy endurance cardio is near the bottom of the list and high intensity weight training is at the top. The next time you are at the gym do not spend your time running on a treadmill for 30 mins, instead go to the weight room, and train with an intensive, circuit routine. If you notice the people on the treadmill will hardly change in appearance with the exception of 6lbs or so, but the people in the weight room have a body that most people desire. (Don’t pay attention to the meat heads, with biceps, swollen to the size of watermelons, there just morons) Which body would you rather have?
Pick A Celebrity Body You Aspire To Have
Find a celebrity, fitness person, or anyone you know that has a body you aspire to have. The chances are, they will be well toned, not too bulky or have too much muscularity. Someone like Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas comes to mind, or for the guys, Brad Pitt. Now these celebs will spend a great deal of time in the weight room to sculpt their bodies.
When you begin your cardiovascular program you will lose several pounds but the body has an annoying
Brad Pitt's Body Is a Popular Physique To Want
habit of resisting fat loss. The body wants to always find equilibrium (find a state of balance) and adapts to change. In this case the body will adapt to the same 30 min treadmill run you do every time you go to the gym. Therefore after a while you will stop losing weight and hit a plateau. If you want to see continuous change in your body i.e weight loss and muscle gain, then you need to apply different challenges to your body.
How To Achieve Your Body Goal
To achieve a particular body shape like Fergie you will need to design a weight training program with enough intensity and diversity over a long period of time. Now i wouldn’t rule out fitness training as a weight loss tool as it still can be a very effective, but it will be used as an addition to a weight training program because lifting weights with intensity is at the top of the hierarchy for weight loss.
With this weight lifting approach we are setting up your body not just to lose weight periodically but to maintain fat loss. How is this done? Well it is very true that if you have more muscle that you will burn more calories steadily throughout the day as you will have a higher metabolic rate. Now i know that you will burn more calories in a treadmill session than in a weight lifting session but the proven method i am suggesting, where you will build up some muscle as well, means you will find it easier to keep the fat off in the longer term, and that is what we all ultimately want, right!?
Another plus point for doing weight training is that you will not have to spend as much time in the gym to get the benefits that we have talked about already above. Treadmill sessions take up a long time and counting the calories you have to eat and the calories burnt on the treadmill is not fun either. Calorie counting is not as much as an issue when weight training as the calories should be used up by your body to rebuild the muscle you worked. That said, you still need a healthy balanced diet.
Women Need To Weight Train Too!
Something else to take heavy not of is that cardio will not shape or tighten your body into a fergie lookalike. You will become a smaller version of your previous self, but will still be squishy.
I need to stress again that all i am saying is that weight training for fat loss should be top of the list and steady endurance cardio should take less of a priority. Don’t disregard fitness training altogether. If you have time restraints, then always opt for a weight training session rather than a fitness training one for sure.
For diverse fitness and weight training workouts combined, to give your body no time rest and find balance, check out my previous post where i check out Rushfit which is totally awesome and is taught by a powerful and ultra fit MMA Champion. You may also be interested in ‘Overcome your muscle genetics’ article.
I get so frustrated and confused the more articles I read about weight loss or fat loss and the more they contradict themselves, who do you believe? I want a lean body and I was under the impression that cardio was the way to burn fat after all look at runners. Now your saying weight training is the way to go. I just want to scream, which one is it?
We are not saying that weight training is the only thing you should be doing to lose the fat but it is the most effecient, good for the long term, and should be prioritized over anything else, thats all i was trying to say.
Put it like this… Do you wish to have a body like a scrawny pro runner? most people won’t,(besides it would take along time to get to that state) so if all you done was run for your exercise you wouldnt’t be sculpting your body into a fergie or a Mel B. Muscle Burns Fat! Can you see my logic?
Ok so weight training is the best way to go for gaining lean muscle but is It the best way to go for losing fat. I understand that for weight loss but what about just pure fat? I was under the assumption that cardio was best for fat loss. There are so many different opinions out there that I can’t help but get confused and frustrated after reading things like this.
You should not discount cardio workouts all together. I was highlighting the fact, intensity plays an important role in burning fat in weight training and cardio. Weight training has the added benefit of you being able to gain muscle (correct nutrition needed) which inturn burns more fat. (More muscle = more fat burn)