How to Get Rid of Belly Fat with Resistance Training

In order to get rid of belly fat quickly, I believe it is very important to include resistance training into your weight loss program. Resistance training includes things like weight lifting, body weight calisthenics (pushups and pull-ups), using rubber bands, or isometric exercises which cause your muscles to contract while in a static position against a counter force or a stationary object.

All of these things cause our muscles to do the same thing, contract in order to apply force. And it is this contraction that ultimately breaks the muscle down, so your body has cause to build it back stronger. But don’t worry ladies, your bodies lack the testosterone that builds bulky muscles in men. You can lift to your hearts content and you’ll probably fill out a sexy frame, and one that’s not at all muscle bound and oafish.

This process of muscle building is essential for developing strength. And even though strength is not the goal for most women, it is the single most important factor that will allow you to increase the intensity of your cardio sessions, and therefore burn more calories. Notice here I didn’t say lengthen your cardio sessions. I said increase the intensity, which means working harder in the same amount of time.

The reasons for this were discussed in the previous post on interval training. In order to get rid of belly fat, and for general fitness progress, it is more important to increase the intensity of a workout than to lengthen it; though sometimes lengthening and intensifying will be one and the same, especially for beginners. I generally judge intensity by whether or not I’ve completed my workout in a half an hour or less, and when I’m finished I’d have great difficulty doing more of what I’ve done.

The advantage of increasing intensity over increasing duration of a session when you are trying to get rid of belly fat is because our bodies will adapt to our workouts after some time. Once you can jog for 30 minutes, you can jog for 45; it’s just a matter of will power. But the more time you add to these sessions, the less benefit you’ll receive from every minute of added time. Increased intensity of a workout, more weight per rep when weightlifting or faster sprinting during interval training puts greater stress on our nervous systems, and this causes the release of human growth hormone; the incredible hormone which builds muscle, burns fat, and keeps you young and beautiful forever.

Furthermore you aren’t giving your body cause to adapt. Your body will adapt to long cardio sessions, and it will adapt to certain lifting routines, resulting in a fitness plateau. But if you measure your training sessions, writing down your weights, times, rest times, and subjective feelings of fatigue, you’ll be able to quantify the intensity of your sessions, and can therefore increase the intensity marginally and methodically.

Your body cannot adapt to increased intensity, that’s the point of intensity. If something becomes easy for you, it is no longer intense. Increasing the stress you put on your body is essential for those looking to get rid of belly fat quickly. What kinds of resistance training offer the best results? Those which cause the highest energy output in the shortest amount of time, and those which work the greatest number of muscles simultaneously. And since getting rid of belly fat is our goal, and not chasing Arnold, three exercises are sufficient to elicit the strongest metabolic response

The Big 3 Exercises for Getting Rid of Belly Fat:
1. A Big Push (pushups or bench press)
2. A Big Pull (pull-ups, lat pull down, bent over row, and other row)
3. Squat (Bodyweight or with weight added)

Try not to think of these as mere exercises, but look at them in terms of the function they perform. Each exercise works multiple muscle groups. We call these compound exercises. They also work the largest muscle groups in the body, requiring the largest amount of energy, as well as putting the greatest amount of stress on the body. Pushups work the pecs, triceps, and shoulders to a certain extent. Pull-ups and rowing works the lats and other muscles of the back. And squatting works the quads and glutes, and if deep enough, the hamstrings.

For those with experience in fitness, you’ll notice these are the same primary exercises for muscle building. Yes, they are they same. When we train effectively, our bodies exert energy. Exerting energy damages our muscles or stresses our nervous system when we train at high intensities. This results in bigger and stronger muscles. Energy exertion also draws from our fat stores to meet energy needs, thus helping us get rid of belly fat. It also ups our metabolism, allowing us to burn belly fat not only while at the gym, but also while we’re chilling on the sofa. Not a bad deal.

For those who are out of shape and consider walking to the fridge for a second beer a bit of a workout, I’d recommend starting with doing these three exercises 2 to 3 days per week. If you are too heavy or too weak to do a standard pushup, pullup, or squat, you can use a bench press or press machine, a lat pull down or row machine, or a leg press at the gym. For those that can perform a few reps of each exercise, I recommend using body weight to start. If you can only perform 3 to 5 reps of a given exercise, than finish those reps, and hold your body in a static position for 30 seconds to a minute. This will allow your muscles to remain contracted in their strongest range of motion, and will help you build strength faster.

So when doing a pushup, just hold yourself in a pushup position with the arms just slightly bent. If doing a pull-up, jump or jerk yourself to the top, and resist as much as possible to stay up there as your body weight pulls you down slowly. And squats are the same as pushups. Go down as far as you can, and if you max out (can’t complete another rep), hold the lowest position as long as you can. Do this until you can perform at least 8 of each exercise. 8 should be your minimum number of reps per set, every set. There is no maximum number you ought to perform per set. I generally work 50 to 80 pushups and squats and 8 pull-ups per set. And then do 2 to 5 sets, depending on your level. Ideally you’ll perform them in a circuit, one after the other, with as little rest time as possible between exercises. You can rest 1 to 3 minutes between sets, again, depending on your level and pace of breathing.

If using your own bodyweight, and if you’re able to complete three sets of 8 or more reps for each exercise, then you can either increase the intensity of each session by adding repetitions, or you can perform this workout more frequently, daily or 5 days a week. I believe our bodies adapt quickly to bodyweight exercises, and I don’t believe they require a tremendous amount of rest to recover. Though if you get to a point where you’re performing 3 sets of 15 of each exercise, 4 or 5 days a week, you can be pretty sure your belly fat is long gone.

Because our own body weight is constant, and we’re only increasing the repetitions, it doesn’t put nearly as much stress on the body as heavy weightlifting, so our bodies can perform these exercises more frequently. If you’re lifting heavy weights however, its more reasonable to increase the amount of weight lifted, rather than increase the reps continuously. But if you’re adding weight, keep this in mind. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT increase the frequency of workouts. Adding weight increases the intensity of your workout and puts great strain on your nervous system. Increased intensity requires a decrease in training frequency if you are increasing weight and looking for gains in strength and size. So that’s an advantage of getting stronger, you ought and need to lift less often, as your body requires more time to recover from workouts.

Either one of these methods will be an effective component will considerably help you get rid of belly fat. The first method, via body weight resistance training will burn more calories per session, but may also result in a faster plateau. The second method, weightlifting will result in greater hypertrophy, or larger muscles. But unless you’re lifting compulsively and taking supplements, you won’t look like Arnold. You’ll most likely fill out a nice and attractive athletic frame. So for those of you again wondering how to get rid of belly fat, I hope this info on resistance training is a help.