While there are many factors that contribute to fat loss, having a solid workout routine ranks up there as one of the most important that we can start incorporating immediately to see results. While I personally believe that there are more important influencers that determine our body image (sleep, nutrition, and stress levels just to name a few) this article is going to target just one aspect - our movement practices.
When it comes to really creating a successful movement routine, we first need to understand the difference between movement and exercise.
I believe that as humans we were designed to just simply move our bodies in an array of different ways. It would’ve been completely foreign for our ancestors to say “Hey Fred I’m going to go on a run, I’ll be back in a little bit!”.
Fred would’ve looked at Wilma like he does when Barney cracks an awkward joke. This would’ve been a complete waste of energy and time we could’ve spent hunting, gathering, or playing with our loved ones. Because food wasn’t as readily available as it is now, we needed to conserve our energy as much as we could. Even if you just travel back in time to the 1950’s, did you ever see any housewives or men going on a jog, to the gym, or exercising for recreation?
If you’re like me and weren’t alive at that time, just ask a parent, grandparent, or great aunt or uncle. They will tell you that running shoes weren’t a thing. Yet, obesity and chronic disease were a lot less prevalent then than they are now. So with that mindset, more exercise is clearly not the key to fat loss.
However, along with the other factors listed above, more nutritious movement is a key factor to sustained fat loss and a healthy, thriving body. This term is simply the belief that we just need to move more. Not high intensity workouts for 3 hours a day. Not long jogs on the treadmill for hours at a time. Just simple, foundational movements that are natural to our overall well being. We were designed to walk, get down into the squat position, lift heavy objects from time-to-time, and sprint from the occasional tiger (although I’ve never had to run away from a tiger, I’m not willing to take my chances any time soon lol).
Gyms have skyrocketed in population over the past several decades simply due to the fact that humans have begun to colonize themselves and shift from ancestral field work to desk jobs. This is what our society has turned to in literally the blink of an eye as far as our evolution is concerned. So don’t believe for one second that we need to under-eat and overtrain in order to lose the excess fat on our frames. Gym memberships and at-home workout programs are simply a tool in our superhero utility belt and a way to recreate the natural movements we have done for our entire existence.
With that being said, let’s jump into these four tips on how to build a bulletproof workout routine!
1. Do movement you love
Would you be willing to start, let alone finish, a workout program that you don’t enjoy? Maybe if you had a really good incentive waiting for you at the end, you would suffer through it. But we’re not about suffering here. Health and suffering lie at two completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Let me say that again.
Health and suffering lie at two completely opposite ends of the spectrum.
Please understand this. I know how hard that pill might be to swallow, especially when some of us have gone our entire lives trying so hard to change our bodies. I mean, we have been led to believe by a society that we need to go through pain in order to achieve health. It’s what we’re told everyday on television and in some cases, maybe even by loved ones. While it is true that change is uncomfortable, it shouldn’t make us suffer in the process. If we are suffering, that should be a sign we need to take a step back and evaluate what it is we are doing in the first place.
When it comes to our workout routines, nobody enjoys suffering through a grueling workout (unless you are some weird cynical athlete- and even then it’s the feeling of accomplishment we enjoy, not the actual pain of exercise). So to really stick to a program that is going to give you results, make sure it’s something that you personally enjoy. Myself, I love to swim, play recreational sports with my friends, and powerlift. You might’ve cringed a little when I said that, but hey, that’s what I enjoy and gets me excited. You, on the other hand, might love to dance, run, and do goat yoga. Maybe that’s your thing! If that’s what it takes to keep you consistent with your movement practices, then have at it! Do it because you LOVE to do it.
There is a caveat here, though. We still need to listen to what our bodies are telling us and know when to back off of certain movements. If we are a runner and like to run everyday but are getting shin splints or some other potential injury, maybe that should be a sign we need to slow it down a little. So listen to your body and know when enough is enough. And just like the introductory mindset written above, always keep in mind the key foundational movement practices.
2. Focus more on muscle gain rather than fat loss
This could be a game changing tip for some of you out there. I know I’m not the only who has fallen victim to the conventional style of cardio that consumed a couple hours of my day. This also might seem like a foreign concept to some of you, but I promise it’s backed with solid science that has been time-tested and proven to work.
Muscle is our ultimate fat-burning machinery. The more muscle we have and the more we work to increase our muscle mass, the more fat we will burn in the process. Muscle is very metabolically expensive tissue. That just simply means we burn a lot more energy (whether that’s energy in the form of exogenous food or endogenous fat tissue) when we have muscle mass on our frames.
If you’re one of the ladies reading this right now, I’d just like to ease your minds and let you know up front you’re not going to end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger (geesh..have you ever tried to type that? I don’t recommend it lol).
It requires a lifetime commitment, A LOT of food intake, and probably some epic supplement stacks to get you to body builder status. However, by focusing more on doing more strength training workouts, rather than excessive cardio, your body is going to build more muscle, and in turn, use your own body fat as a fuel source to provide your muscles with energy. You’ll get tone and burn that excessive fat off your frame. It’s a win-win!
However, by doing excessive cardio without incorporating weight bearing exercises, we can start to burn fat and muscle which is not what we want. This isn’t to scare you away from cardio, however! It can definitely be a good tool to utilize, but making strength training the foundation for your workouts and sprinkling in some proper cardio will give you those epic results you’re looking for.
3. When in doubt, HIIT it out!
HIIT training is one of, if not, the most effective ways to burn fat (with a proper diet included).
Our basis of our movement should be light mobility work, walking, hiking, and any easy form of movement we love. Next up is about 2-3 days per week of a solid weight-bearing training routine that should include lower body, upper body, or a combination of both (don’t skip leg day!). Then next up on our list is 2-3 days per week of HIIT style workouts. This can include simple sprints around a track, stationary bike intervals if you have joint issues, or laps in a pool if you want to join me.
Published in the American Journal of Physiology, researchers at Victoria University, Australia, set out to compare HIIT training vs. conventional cardio training (1).
They had two groups of individuals. The first group was put on a treadmill and was instructed to run at 50% effort for 30 minutes (replicating conventional cardio standards we’ve been instructed to follow for many decades). The other group was instructed to bike at 75% effort for 30 seconds on a stationary bike, rest for four minutes, and repeat four times, totaling two minutes of actual work.
The researchers measured each participant’s levels of hydrogen peroxide inside their mitochondria (the power plants of the cells). By taking a muscle biopsy of their tissue, they could test the hydrogen peroxide (a type of reactive oxygen species) and could determine how the mitochondria behaved during both bouts of exercise.
The results: the two minute HIIT group had the same mitochondrial activity as the conventional cardio group. Essentially, you can get the same benefit of exercise from two minutes of HIIT training as you can from a half hour on the treadmill. If not having enough time is your number one reason for not getting in your workout, I think your excuse just flew right off the back of the treadmill (sorry if that was a really bad pun).
So to wrap up this point, try including some form of HIIT training into your routine. It can be a tabata style workout (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off), sprints, body weight movements, or whatever you prefer.
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4. Write your workouts in pen, not pencil
This tip is just a very easy way of saying that you should do everything in your power to stick to your workout schedule. A few years ago I was on a mastermind call with some of my good friends. One of the girls was explaining her planner to us and how she schedules her activities. At this point in my life, I was fairly new to the whole planner scene, but after this I quickly adopted the concept and have never looked back.
She continued to say in her weekly view of her physical, hard copy planner, everything that she is definitely doing is written in pen. These included her college courses, meetings with clients, and work. She then said she would write her less important activities in pencil. This included reading, journaling, and other such activities. She concluded that mastermind call by saying that if she had a lunch date with us and she wrote us down in pen, we better not become a white out in her planner. Needless to say, I didn’t want to become a white out in her life.
My message to you is don’t let your workouts become a white out in your life, either. But also don’t write your workouts in pencil (whether figuratively or literally). You will have more of a tendency to erase it and put it off until you run out of time in your day. Plan out your month, write it in pen, and stick to it as best as you can. It’s important to know that life will happen and more important things may pop up in its place. But that’s the beauty about this journey. When you commit to something you love you will always make more time for it, even if you do have to white it out and reschedule it.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it! These are the four tips to help you create a bulletproof workout routine for optimal fat loss. See if you can start to view exercise and nutritious movement differently, focus on building muscle rather than burning fat, incorporate a little HIIT in your life, and write your workouts in pen. If you can stick to this routine and implement some of these strategies into your already awesome life, I have no doubt you are going to succeed in life and create success habits that will take you further than anything you’ve thought possible!
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