Here’s An Opinion On:
By Todd Scott
As there are many different types of workouts for burning fat, the most popular and the most effective for fat loss consist of full body workouts or workouts containing exercises that stimulate the large muscle groups.
There are 2 different interpretations of a ‘Full Body’ workout:
1) The workout consists of exercises that force the body to move and work as one to complete each exercise in the workout. An example of this type of exercise would be the deadlift as it requires the use of nearly all the muscles in your body.
2) The workout consists of multiple exercises that all stimulate different muscles during performance, but the end of the workout results in all of the muscles being worked.
Regardless of the interpretation, full body workouts are a great tool for burning fat. And if losing weight is your number one priority, then this is the way to go.
But, just as full body workouts are great at burning fat, there are a few drawbacks to using this as your bread and butter routine.
Doing these type of workouts require more energy than workouts that simply focus on fewer muscle groups at a time. This causes decreased focus and intensity funneled directly and specifically to the larger muscle groups. Meaning the weights used, and the force applied by each muscle group will be lower, resulting in less stimulation, lower muscle breakdown, and shorter recovery time. In the end, it’s much more difficult to add moderate to large amounts of muscle to your body.
To give you an example, let’s take the Deadlift as the full body exercise and break it down. You can go extremely heavy using deadlifts, but the main target of the exercise is the quads, hamstrings, and lower back. Your upper body will be stimulated somewhat, but it will be stimulated in more of an isometric way. Meaning the upper body is there for support, to hold the bar as you lift to the midpoint. There isn’t any direct stimulation to these muscles.
Many full body exercises work in this fashion, they require large amounts of energy from specific muscle groups, and neglect muscles in the other parts of the body.
While a full body workout will increase energy output, if your goal is to increase your muscle mass, this is the worst approach to take.
In the end, full body workouts are absolutely stellar for females looking to shed fat, but on the other hand, if your goal is to burn fat and build muscle at the same time, your best bet is to opt for a different type of workout that allows for greater stimulation for each muscle in the body.
If you’re in the lose fat – gain muscle category, the ideal program for you would consist of moderate to heavy weights in a superset, triple set, or giant set sequence. It’ll allow you to isolate certain muscle groups, get greater stimulation, and allow you to build more muscle while simultaneously increasing your energy output to burn fat.
About the Author: Todd Scott is a training advisor to Men’s Fitness magazine and author of HowToGetSixPackAbs.com. To learn more go to the
Ab Workout for Six Pack Abs
homepage. Grab a free report about losing body fat at the
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site. For a great ab exercise, simply log on to the
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