You don't need fancy cardio machines to help you lose fat. In fact, a good fat loss program can be done with bodyweight exercises only. You don't even need traditional "cardio" to do this…or an expensive gym membership.
Here are 3 reasons you can use bodyweight exercises to lose fat.
1) Bodyweight exercises are a total body interval cardio circuit workout.
You don't need any fancy machines for "cardio" when you have your own bodyweight to move around. For a great circuit, simply pick 3 lower body exercises and 3 upper body exercises that you can do with only your bodyweight.
Then alternate between upper and lower exercises, doing 10 reps per exercise, and don't take any rests between exercises. Rest 30 seconds at the end of the circuit and repeat up to 5 times. That will take you 20 minutes. See below for a great circuit.
2) Bodyweight exercises boost metabolism
Strength and interval training both boost metabolism more than slow cardio, so you burn more calories after exercise. And bodyweight training is the perfect "hybrid" of strength and interval exercise. So you'll benefit from calories burned during AND after exercise.
3) Bodyweight exercises build muscle
In addition to an increase in metabolism, muscle makes you look good. After all, who has better arms, Madonna or the skinny, starving young celebrities of today? Madonna of course, because she has built her arms in the gym and with bodyweight movements in yoga and other forms of exercise.
Think of bodyweight training as positive bodysculpting, and avoid that negative, cardio "body breakdown" mentality that too many runners have.
After all, what's the main thing that runners and other cardio addicts neglect? Strength. And that's one of the reasons they end up in the physio and doctor offices so often.
Get started on your bodyweight fat loss workouts today
For example, here's a great circuit:
– Prisoner Squat
– Pushup (or incline pushup for beginners)
– Split Squat
– Elevated Pushup (or kneeling elevated pushup for beginners)
– Step-up
– Mountain Climber
10 reps per exercise (10 reps per side for the split squats, elevated pushups, stepups, and mountain climbers).
Whew! Better than cardio!
You only need 20-30 minutes per session to sculpt your body with exercise that is much better than traditional, slow, boring cardio.
CB
PS – How many things have I laughed at over the years only to end up doing them now?
My mistakes…
I'll be honest, 10 years ago when I was all about lifting and playing sports I never would have expected to be so "into" bodyweight training. But it fits an adult schedule perfectly, whether its off-day exercise or real training-with-limited-time for fat loss and bodysculpting.
By Craig Ballantyne, author of Turbulence Training.
Great workout. Did it in about 19 minutes today and then I collapsed.
sorry, how do you do mountain climbers?
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/henkin18.htm
mountain climbers 1/2 page down.
Question:
When the fuck did 25% bodyfat become “really good?” When did 21% bodyfat become “lean?”
21% is lean for a girl.
9% is lean for a guy.
Unless you are talking about like “figure contest” levels of leanness, which is different from how most girls actually want to look.
21% may be edging towards lean for a female, but it is certainly not “really good.” Forget figure competitors, how many high level female athletes do you know who are 21% bodyfat?
My job isn’t training high level elite athletes. And if I was training athletes, I wouldn’t be focused on their bodyfat percentage, I’d be focused on their performance in their sport.
I train regular women who want to look awesome. That’s different for everyone. But it’s rarely lower than 18-19%. Most women are totally stoked at 21%.
Women, unlike men, don’t always look better when they are leaner, leaner, leaner. There is a point of diminishing returns where as they are getting ultra-lean they start to lose their girl parts.
Yeah, I said, 5 of these will be simple. I did my first complete workout in 24 minutes and could barely make it through the 5th set. Great stuff!
Two questions: 1) you state ‘Then alternate between upper and lower exercises’ but I only see elevated push-up. What others do you recommend?
2) two exercises use barbells or weights, what can be substituted?
Thx.
what exactly is a prisoner squat?
Hey,
is it true that when you loose weight you loose your boobs 🙁
I’m wondering what you believe is best when exercising using squats, lunges, etc. Should u take a day off in between or should you just change up the reps a bit. Really I just want to know how many days a week I should do a good squat workout
I totally agree with bodyweight being better than cardio! I did the Bodyweight 500 workout today and was shaking when i came out and sweating more than any run! My heart rate was up and I was working at a constant pace. I am 5 foot 9, 140 pounds and 19 percent body fat. I teach fitness classes at my college and love introducing fantastic full body bodyweight exercises. I have also achieved my personal goal of 35 “men” regular pushups in one minute. Strong=hot
Hi Allison!
Unless you’re using some form of bodyweight squats for cardio, I’d keep it to three days per week.
Always listen to your body. The more active I am outside the gym (snowboarding, brazilian jiu jitsu, running) the more it can lower my ability to recover and I may do as little as two lifting workouts.
Hi Jessica!
I’m glad you liked the Bodyweight 500.
You kick ass! Keep it up!
Keep me posted about your training and your the classes you’re teaching. What are your workouts like now?
Josh
Hi Josh,
I am an asian woman 5ft 2inches, weighing between 122 and 125 (haven’t checked my weight in a while). I am actually pretty frustrated because I work out 4 days a week (just increased it recently to 5) by doing cardio for 30 mins followed by strength training for about 10-15 mins (3-4 exercises per session with 3 sets of 10 reps each, alternating between upper and lower body with weights ).
I have also been eating in moderation. I do not like junk food. Breakfast is cereal(oats, bran) with milk, 2 cups coffee, lunch is protein and 1 wheat tortilla (indian roti) and the same for dinner with a glass of wine. I do snack on cold cuts (1-2 slices), 1 cup coffee and biscuits about 4. I snack once in the evening.
I also “indulge” over the weekend by going out to dinner (usually Friday and Saturday).
I have yet to see results. I want to become lean but I am not. Your advice/help would be appreciated. Do I need a trainer to make sure I am doing it right?
I am really frustrated and ready to give up.
oops biscuits = cookies (not the biscuits from the south)
Hi Josh,
Boy do I love your website. I recommend it to all my bodybuilder gym friends. This semester I teach killer abs, pilates, and kickboxing. I have gotten so many compliments on my high intensity full body workouts for my abs class, usually girls only come to group fitness classes, but I have about 10 guys out of the 40 people in my class! People know how to do crunches and I use creative full body high energy exercises to keep people coming back! My pilates class is known for being more intense than the average pilates class with hindu pushups and squats, pushups on weights and of course more squats and intense abs. Kickboxing is my absolute favorite with full body lunges and squats,punch and kick combos,jump rope and sweating through the hour! The days I don’t teach I do circuit training mixed in with step ups, lunges, sqauts, assisted pullups, full pushups etc…got any cool moves you can suggest for me or my classes?
Everyone has their own opinion, but in my opinion I will say that both bodyweight and Cardio training are useful and depends upon the person’s requirement and body. You have shared great thought on this topic.
Let form follow function. I don’t train to look strong. I train to be strong. If you are truly fit, it shows. Weight lifting takes too Mich planning and thinking for me. For example, chest and back on Mondays, legs on Wednesday… Biceps getting big, better go heavy on triceps next 2 weeks…
I rather hit everything with natural amounts of weight. Weights work for a lot, you can even say most, people. But I like
bodyweight stuff. It goes great with martial arts training.