Wondering what make the most effective weight loss workouts? Today I explain why it is necessary to incorporate functional exercises and full body workout routines into your training regime.
The term ‘functional exercises’ is a greatly misused description of exercise, and many personal trainers rave about their functional exercise sessions when in fact every exercise serves a function.
Whether that function is to improve your body composition, bone density, blood pressure, mood, tone up your posterior, get ripped abs or sports performance or whether its to improve your ability to lift a dumbbell whilst balancing on a wobble board is a question you should ask yourself.
What is it you want to achieve? What is the function you need the exercise to achieve? When I describe an exercise as functional what I mean in the case of wanting an exercise to help you lose weight, is that it is effective when incorporated into a weight loss workout.
Incorporate Compound Exercises Into Effective Weight Loss Workouts
This brings me on to the use of compound and isolated resistance exercises as a means of bringing on improved sports fitness.
Compound Exercises Are More Effective
A compound exercise describes a movement about 2 or more joints such as a squat, lunge or press up. An isolation exercise ‘isolates’ muscle fibers, involving motion about only one joint. Not great for effective weight loss since we want to burn as many calories as possible.
Compound exercises rely on (and stimulate) excellent neuro-muscular coordination between an abundance of muscles around the body all playing different roles from the prime movers to the stabilising effect of fixators and synergists.
As a person you will never use just one joint at a time and for effective weight loss it is best to incorporate specific compound moves into your routines.
Some of the most effective weight loss workouts include suspended body weight compound moves on a suspension trainer as well as full-body body weight exercises like burpees and lunges. These are effective if performed consistently with proper technique and in a manner that maximises EPOC.
Signs You’re Performing Effective Weight Loss Workouts
A sure sign of an effective workout is the delayed onset of muscular soreness (DOMS) 24 to 48 hours post workout.
DOMS is particularly uncomfortable after a new routine, or a period of inactivity through illness or work commitments.
For those new to exercise, the DOMS is characteristic to proper training and is a sensation you will grow to love, and even be a talking point among fellow exercisers.
It is OK to ache, and nothing to worry about! All it means is you are experiencing overload and adaptation – a good thing if you want to get in shape!
What Is Delayed Onset Of Muscular Soreness (DOMS)
Contrary to popular belief the DOMS is not a result of lactic acid build up from your high intensity exercise sessions.
DOMS is the result of muscular breakdown on a cellular level, with inflammation as a result of pushing the muscle beyond its ability (overload). The resultant breakdown, although uncomfortable, is a great sign as it will elicit a reparation response and your muscles will adapt and you will get fitter.
Methods to prevent DOMS, or at least reduce its severity, is to gradually progress your intensity of exercise over time, particularly if you are new to exercise.
It is also suggested that the eccentric phase of a muscle contraction is the most damaging to the muscle fibers and so an initial exercise routine that minimizes time under eccentric tension might reduce the aches and pains the next day. This is the lengthening of the muscle under load.
I believe however that if you are able to tolerate aching for a few days at the beginning of your program you will gain far more rapid weight loss and fitness if you can push yourself to your limits.
If however the DOMS is likely to put you off training, or if you are susceptible to getting injured then a gradual and sustainable approach will be the best option for you.
Just remember if you never push yourself in training, you will not get the results you really want. Most effective weight loss workouts include hard work and you will benefit from high intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with compound body weight and resistance exercises. Sorry!
Effective Workouts
Within exercise circles the use of terminology to describe current fitness or the outcome of a training session is often misused.
Proper physiological descriptions of endurance, hypertrophy, strength and power are important because depending on your session aims you will be looking to develop aspects aspect of fitness, and knowing how endurance differs from power is necessary for progression.
What Are Endurance, Hypertrophy, Strength and Power?
Endurance is described as the sustainability of your effort, so for example in a triathlon you are able to reach the event distance. Adding overload such as distance or sets to a workout will increase endurance of a specific fitness.
Endurance loads in terms of resistance workouts are to keep the load up to 67%1RM (1 rep max), and in aerobic workouts the pace should be between 60-80% HRR.
Moving through hypertrophy, strength and through to the other end of the scale is Power. Power is the ability to move a weight at speed. An example of a power move is a jump squat either using just body-weight or with a medium weight such as a power-bag or dumbell.
Power moves are very effective weight loss exercises and the beauty is that you can exercise from almost anywhere doing simple moves like jumps and sprints. However they are more advanced than endurance and should be progressed to.
Safety first – start easy, get more advanced and intense with time, and remember connective a-vascular tissue develops more slowly than vascular muscle tissue and fitness does. This means that while you may feel invincible quite rapidly, if you progress too fast you might pop a ligament. Beware!
Anabolism
An Essential Factor Of Effective Weight Loss Workouts
Often associated with being athletic, an exercise junkie and a gym user is the image of muscle growth.
You train because we want to lose weight and get stronger or faster or to prevent or repair injuries. But do you consider your muscles to be in a state of either growth or degeneration during your training cycle?
During phases of adaptation (after your workout) you will adapt to the training load that has been imposed. This muscle building is called anabolism or anabolic.
The ideal environment within the body for anabolic adaptations to take effect are as follows:
- Low stress
- Correct hormone balances
- A plentiful supply of nutrients
- Very intense, short exercise sessions
- Proper recovery is the best way to create an anabolic environment in the body
Catabolism or a catabolic environment in the body is observed when muscle is physically broken down by the external training stress, lack of stimuli (sedentary lifestyle or a plaster cast), long periods without proper nutrition or during and after long steady exercise sessions.
Branched chain amino acids (BCAA) taken from the muscle itself can also be used by the body as a fuel source if no alternative BCAAs are provided through nutrition. This is usually seen in long endurance events over 3 hours duration.
So to conclude, for the most effective weight loss workouts try the following:
- Keep workouts short
- Make them tough
- Include HIIT training
- Include resistance training
- Focus on compound exercises
At the end of the day workouts are only effective if you consistently follow them. If you’re keen to exercise but you’re a little inconsistent, and you could benefit from the motivation that comes with expertly designed training plans, then I encourage you to join me over at the One Habit Fit Club.
The exercise plans you receive as a member on a daily basis will motivate you to train consistently, knowing you’re doing the right type of training.
I hope you found the post useful and interesting and that it helps you achieve your goal. Please feel free to share it if you think it would benefit a friend.
Happy training, Nico.