Best Fat Burning Exercise

There are more than 100,000 articles, blogs and websites on the internet that talk about the best fat burning exercise. Some say it is walking, some are of the opinion that cycling or rowing burn the most fat, then you also have a category of people who promote weight training as the best fat burner. Each one has arguments for their exercises. The thing is that in order to make this decision we cannot only rely on the exercise. It is the exercise, intensity and the method of training that counts. For example, bench press is one of the best chest exercises and to achieve the final goal, you need to consider the intensity and method as well. If you use 2 lbs dumbbells and do 25 reps for 2 sets of bench press, you will never gain muscle. So the exercise alone is not enough to make this decision. Let’s analyze each of these aspects and try to draw a conclusion.

The best fat burning exercise should work all of your major muscle groups. These include the glutes, thighs, back, chest and shoulders. Simply put, the more/larger the muscle, the more calories you burn and the bigger the EPOC effect. So any exercise that works all of these muscle groups is a good fat burner. Exercises that do actually work the entire body or the major muscle groups are running, skipping, burpees, clean and jerk, high jumps, kettle bell swings etc. You get the idea. So which one is the best? In my personal view, anaerobic exercises are better than aerobic for fat loss. Many experts may at this point be like – ‘This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about’ as it is a general notion that aerobic exercise is for fat burning. But we fail to realize that anaerobic exercise gives us the EPOC (Excess Post-workout Oxygen Consumption) effect for a lot longer as compared to aerobic exercises. This helps you raise your metabolism, increase your oxygen intake and in effect, burn more fat. I would say that the best exercise for a full body workout is clean and jerks or kettle bell swings. Don’t get me wrong, running is excellent, but there is A LOT of risk for injury. If you do the clean jerks or swings as a controlled movement at a medium to high intensity, you would be a lot safer.

As pointed out earlier, it is not only the exercise that determines whether it is the best burner or not. It is also important to note in what method the exercise is being done. As many others, I support HIIT as being the best method for burning fat, but majority of the trainers look at HIIT as alternating between low intensity and high intensity cardio. I think slightly differently. I prefer strength training workouts alternated with resting periods. For example, do 15 reps of clean and jerk followed by a resting period for about 1 – 2 minutes. Repeat this 5 – 8 times and you’re done. All the HIIT essentials are there – EPOC, carb and fat usage, cardio workouts, mass gaining workout, release of HGH and testosterone and lots more. It’s actually the same HIIT concept, with minor changes.

Ok, so the conclusion is that a full body workout like clean and jerk or kettle bell swings with medium to high intensity in an HIIT fashion is the best kind of fat burner. Stay tuned for a lot more hints and tips for BURN FAT AND BUILD MUSCLE.