HEALTHY FAT LOSS

“Slow but steady wins the race.”

Aesop

A COMMON STARTING POINT

Fat loss is one of the most common focal points for people wanting to start a health and fitness training program. They find themselves losing the ‘battle of the bulge’ and decide that it is time to take action. This is good, up to a point. By this I mean that there has been a decision to take action on something that has most likely been on their minds for a while.

FULL STEAM AHEAD?

“Long term consistency trumps short-term intensity.”

Bruce Lee

The problems begin when trying to know how to start. Is the answer a crash diet? Or perhaps a balls to the wall boot camp? Why not fully take the bull by the horns and do both at the same time? What usually happens is that the crash diet eventually gets extremely difficult to follow because dieting is hard. And a few workouts into the boot camp you realise that burpees are hard on joints that have not been conditioned to take the new sudden loads placed upon them.

BODY COMPOSITION

So we have a noble goal to shoot for. We also know that as in most endeavours, sustainable results don’t magically happen overnight. What is needed now is a bit of understanding about the importance of optimal body composition. Body composition is the ratio of fat to lean tissue in an individual, or in layman’s terms how lean, overweight, or obese a person is. It is an indicator of health and excess bodyfat is associated with hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and coronary heart disease.

Our desired outcome becomes very simple. Optimal body composition means reducing bodyfat whilst increasing lean muscle.

SIMPLE, NOT EASY

Like most important things in life, fat loss is theoretically simple, yet not easy to accomplish. Simple implies clarity and easily understood. Easy implies minimal effort required. Although we would welcome a positive outcome with small effort, achieving optimal body composition requires a great deal of consistency.

THE HEALTHY WAY = MOVEMENT + NUTRITION

In the simplest terms the body composition formula is:

YOU NEED TO BURN MORE ENERGY THAN YOU TAKE IN

The energy you take in, i.e. your FUEL SOURCE must be high quality. You need to eat real food and balance your intake of the nutrients protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Water needs to be your primary source of hydration. Real foods and water contain vitamins and minerals that are crucial for healthy body function. You will feel ‘fuller’ eating a lesser amount of real food that provides the good stuff than eating more of lower quality food.

From a strength coach’s perspective, it is common knowledge that you cannot out-train a bad diet. This means that you cannot eat like Fat Bastard from the Austin Power films and expect to look like Luke Hobbs from Fast and Furious (i.e. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson). I will leave you with that visual.....

For burning energy, you need to employ FULL BODY MOVEMENTS USING THE MAJOR MUSCLES OF THE BODY. Aerobic activities such as walking, running, biking, rowing, etc are proven methods for staying lean. However they reach a point where they become less effective because the body adapts to them and becomes highly efficient at doing them. You need to run further or faster to get the same results.

An ideal exercise plan for optimising body composition will include exercises that build strength and lean muscle along with more traditional ‘cardio’ activities. Full body exercises like pushups, squats, kettlebell swings, kettlebell get ups, loaded carries, and rucking fit the bill.

NO EQUIPMENT NEEDED - PUSHUPS

Pushups, when performed properly, engage the entire body, and you do not need to go further than your living room to do them. I discuss how to build up to proper pushups at home in my eBook.

SMALL INVESTMENT FOR EQUIPMENT – THE KETTLEBELL SWING

The swing exercise is a strong ‘bang for your buck’ movement for many health, fitness, and strength applications. It is one of the best choices for optimising your body composition. I prefer kettlebells for swings; however any suitable implement can be used. Check out my eBook on how to build up to using the swing exercise for losing fat. There are also some great helps on motivation and goal setting.

IT’S COACHING TIME – BURPEES FOR CONDITIONING

Bodyweight Burpees and Kettlebell Swings are my main go-to exercises for conditioning. Both require good form and movement skill because they call for multiple repetitions to give a conditioning effect. They also contain an explosive/ballistic component which requires appropriately strengthened joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles. You really do not want to ingrain poor form on a weak body via multiple repetitions. This is a principle to understand across all of your training.

Just because burpees are in most cases a bodyweight exercise (some advanced versions include implements such as dumbbells, etc), does not negate the fact that you may need to build up to them. They are no different from the kettlebell swing where you need to understand the hip hinge as well as the mechanics of the deadlift. Both are compound exercises and multi joint movements. To do a burpee well and injury free, you need to have a strong plank and pushup. You also need to be able to squat and jump well. So, how do you develop your conditioning whilst building up your strength? Try the following two basic movements.

JUMPING JACKS / STAR JUMPS

Burpees contain a jump. This is in the vertical plane. The jumping jack or star jump (same exercise, different name) is a good exercise for practicing a slight hop to condition the lower leg joints and musculature. I also gets your arms working to get overhead, which also helps the burpee jump. The jumping jack is a staple exercise in military and martial arts, and most activities in between. When I taught karate I used them in every class as a warmup exercise for my students. They are an amazing exercise and a great precursor to burpees. I still do them, and always will.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

Burpees also contain a pushup. This is in the horizontal plane. Perhaps more importantly, they require you to stabilize your shoulders as you kick back into the plank position before you pushup. Enter the mountain climber exercise. I like to think of mountain climbers as a plank where you are marching your legs. Because the legs are moving, you really need to stabilize the core and shoulders. Again, just as with the jumping jack, mountain climbers develop the skills and strength required for a burpee whilst providing a conditioning benefit

ROUNDUP

I hope this has helped take away some of the fat loss confusion for you. Optimising body composition is one of the healthiest pursuits you can do.

REFERENCES:

Cotter, Steve (2014) ‘Kettlebell Training’ Human Kinetics

Coulson, Morc (2017) ‘The Fitness Instructors’s Handbook’, 3rd Edition, Bloomsbury Sport