Maybe you’ve been working out at your local health club or in your home gym, and you’re feeling stronger than ever. Your cardio endurance is better than it’s ever been. Your muscles are toned and firm. Yet, you still have that stubborn belly that won’t go away. Here’s how to create a workout to loose belly fat!
First, you won’t loose belly fat by just doing cardio. Or just strength training. You need to do both. And, you need to do both cardio and strength training in the proper combination. Sound confusing? Here’s what you need to keep in mind, thanks to new research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science.
They did a 24 week study (that’s almost 6 months) – using 48 people. 16 of them did both cardio & strength training during every workout session. The next 16 alternated cardio and strength training every other day. And the last 16 – didn’t work out at all (they acted as the control group). Both of the exercising groups did the same volume of training, but the first group exercised 2-3 times / week, while the other group (the ones doing the alternating day workouts) – they exercised 4-6 times / week.
They also increased the cardio (in this case, cycling) – from 30 to 50 minutes during each workout. They also added HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) after the first few weeks. And just like their cardio sessions, strength training sessions increased from 30 to 50 minutes for each workout during the course of the study.
Now both groups did loose belly fat. But, if you’ve been doing cardio & strength training both on the same day, you might want to change that to alternating days. Those that did both strength and cardio training on the same day lost 7% of their belly fat. But those that alternated cardio and strength training workout days – they lost an amazing 21% of their belly fat – that’s 3 times as much!
So, what does this mean for you? Rather than trying to figure out how you’re going to cram both cardio & strength training into a single workout (which not only gets complicated, it also is being shown to be less effective) – it’s better to do strength one day, and cardio the next.
There’s also other health benefits associated with training on alternate days. Although you may want to loose belly fat to look better, because you loose more belly fat with the alternate day training schedule, you also loose more of certain inflammatory markers in your blood. Prolonged, low-level inflammation may contribute to some chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and plaque buildup associated with heart disease. During this study, the marker hs-CRP dropped in both groups, but even more for the group that did cardio & strength training on alternate days.
It’s even easier to accomplish these results if you exercise in the comfort and safety of your own home gym. At Fitness 4 Home Superstore, we can help you put together the proper blend of both strength equipment and cardio equipment for your exercise needs. Putting a home gym together is an investment in your health. Stop into any of our 3 Valley area stores to learn more!
