Few fitness achievements seem to be valued more highly by guys than a washboard stomach, maybe because it's tangible evidence that you've worked hard in the gym, followed your diet, and made time to target belly fat.
A toned stomach is an external indicator that you exercise frequently and eat healthily, as long as it's done safely and correctly. However, there is no one-size-fits-all method for getting rid of belly fat, and you cannot "spot reduce" or target certain areas of your body to lose fat, regardless of what dubious fitness advice you may have heard.
Similar to draining a swimming pool, you have to empty the entire thing—you can't just grab a bucket and drain one corner.
Furthermore, working out by itself isn't a good way to tone your stomach. If you want to permanently lose belly fat, you should concentrate on decreasing belly fat overall.
What's the best technique to do that? a strategic fusion of smart strength training and calorie restriction.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke have all been related to belly belly fat.
However, this does not mean that losing belly fat cannot be your ultimate objective. That's a commendable objective, and science undoubtedly supports you if that's your desire.
Your belly, often known as your paunch or gut, may raise your chance of dying young, according to a British Medical Journal study. According to the 2.5 million-person study, all causes of mortality rise in tandem with waist size.
Startlingly, the study discovered that the risk of dying young rose by 11% for every four inches (10 cm) of additional waist circumference.
The excess fat that is accumulated around the organs in the abdomen is referred to as "belly fat," and it has been connected to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
Thus, having more abdominal fat may raise your chance of passing away from these conditions, according to research author Tauseef Ahmad Khan of the University of Toronto's nutritional sciences department.
Individuals ought to pay greater attention to their waist size rather than just their weight or body mass index. Although one cannot specifically target areas of the body to lose fat, food and exercise can help reduce waist circumference, which in turn reduces belly fat.
Khan is absolutely correct; the only way to finally lose your belly fat is to reduce your body fat percentage and lose weight. We can assist you with that, too, if you'd like to know which workouts to do to lose belly fat faster.
It is a common misconception that focusing on your abs and core (also known as "spot-reducing") will reduce belly fat.
Belly Fat Types and Their Risks
First, it's crucial to note that not all belly fat is created equal before moving on to the workouts. Harvard Health states that there are two types of fat in your stomach:
Subcutaneous fat
The wobbly parts are the soft layer of chub that lies just beneath the skin and is usually innocuous.
Visceral fat
The invisible substance that builds up around your organs and has been shown to have a detrimental impact on your health by raising your chances of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
The bad news is that belly fat is very metabolically active and proficient at producing a wide range of inflammatory compounds that disrupt hormones responsible for mood, appetite, and brain activity. Additionally, it may have an effect on your cortisol levels, which may cause your stress levels to skyrocket.
Good news: if you know what you're doing, getting rid of it is not that difficult. And a lot of it is determined by the kind of workouts. They're probably not the exercises you would have thought, though.
Let's begin with the things that everyone does (or has done) even if they shouldn't.
It requires more than just constant crunches and sit-ups to burn belly fat. It involves finding a long-term balance between your exercise and nutrition.
Exercises That WON'T Burn Belly Fat
exercises for the abdomen. In other words, a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning suggests that doing countless repetitions of sit-ups won't significantly reduce your belly fat.
Naturally, these exercises will assist tone and develop your abdominal muscles, but they won't reduce the layer of fat that sits above them.
Some people think that you may lose weight by focusing on a particular area of your body, a technique called "spot reduction." Regretfully, most research questions the validity of this procedure.
Let's be clear: you must lower your body's overall body fat percentage in order to minimize belly fat. Put simply, you have to expend more calories than you take in if you want to encourage your body to use the fat that has been stored as fuel.
Regretfully, and we apologize for breaking the terrible news, there's really no control over where your fat loss will occur.
However, that doesn't mean that the following workouts, which consist of a variety of full-body motions that burn a ton of calories and require a ton of effort, won't begin to reduce your body fat almost immediately and eventually shave off the fat around your stomach to reveal your muscular areas.
Furthermore, they'll appear powerful and well-defined when they do eventually show up.
Use a few of these twenty-two fat-burning exercises to improve your metabolism and target the numerous muscles that are located between your shoulders and hips.
The 22 Best Exercises For Burning Belly Fat
1. Burpee
You have to work as many muscles as you can if you want to lose your stomach. The burpee does this. This powerful exercise works every muscle in the body, from head to toe, and involves transitioning between push-ups and jumps.
You may burn belly fat more quickly than ever before thanks to a study from the American College of Sports Medicine that discovered 10 fast-paced repetitions are just as effective as a 30-second all-out sprint at boosting your metabolism.
DO IT:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Lower your body until your palms rest on the floor about shoulder-width apart.
- Put your legs in a push-up posture by kicking them backward. Then, swiftly switch up the motion to land a leap when you stand. That's 1 rep.
2. Mountain Climber
Think of the mountain climber as a moving board. You perform a little crunch by forcefully dragging one leg into your chest.
But the thing that makes this technique so challenging is that each time you raise your foot off the floor, your core needs to work extra hard to keep your body straight and stable.
DO IT:
- Put your hands beneath your shoulders and align your torso so that your head and heels make a straight line as you perform a push-up. This is where everything begin.
- Drive your right knee toward your chest while raising your right foot off the ground. After tapping the ground with your right foot, take a step back to where you were before. After every repetition, switch up your legs.
3. Kettlebell Swing
One of the greatest workouts ever for burning calories is the kettlebell swing. You must use large, fat-burning muscular groups like your glutes, hips, and quadriceps to drive the heavy ball of iron.
This movement is explosive, which immediately raises your heart rate and hits your core hard.
DO IT:
- Hold a kettlebell in front of you with both hands at arm's length while bending at the hips. The kettlebell should be "hiked" between your legs while you slightly recline.
- Next, tighten your glutes, firmly push your hips forward, and raise the weight to shoulder level. Repeat the motion with your legs in reverse.
4. Medicine Ball Slam
You're losing out if you haven't used a medicine ball since school. According to renowned coach Sean De Wispelaere, "your core is your center of power, so performing explosive movements like the med-ball slam requires all the muscles between your neck and your hips to work together."
Additionally, he claims that increasing the pace and using greater force and velocity to move the ball can raise your heart rate and burn a lot of belly fat.
It's not even necessary to raise the weight. If you push yourself and go hard, a 3-kilogram medicine ball will function perfectly.
DO IT:
- Pose with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold the ball above your head.
- Use all of your force to slam the ball onto the ground. Rebound, grab it, and carry on.
5. Dumbell Overhead Lunge
You can quickly develop a stronger core by adding a dumbbell overhead while performing a lunge.
According to Tony Gentilcore, strength coach at Cressey Performance, "all of the muscles in your torso need to work together as the load shifts with every rep to keep the weight directly above you."
Because a protruding belly is also a result of bent shoulders and weak glutes, the exercise also works your back and butt.
DO IT:
- Take out two dumbbells that range in weight from medium to light. Raise the dumbbells so that your palms are facing one another. Take care to avoid hunching your shoulders over your ears.
- Put your feet together by stepping forward into a lunge, pausing, and then bringing your back leg forward. As you advance, switch up your leg motions.
6. Treadmill Sprints
Few activities are better for losing weight around your midsection—or anywhere else, really—than quick, intense aerobic sessions. Instead of doing daily 5ks, switch to HIIT.
According to a study that was published in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, people who performed a fast-paced high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for the same period of time burnt up to 30% more calories.
Start with fifteen sprint sets of 20 seconds each, followed by 40 seconds of rest, and then progressively raise the work:rest ratio.
DO IT:
-
On a treadmill, increase the inclination and run at maximum speed for the allotted duration.
7. Thrusters
This multi-joint exercise, which combines a squat with a shoulder push, will challenge your cardiovascular fitness and fire up your glutes, quads, abs, shoulders, and arms.
It works nearly all of the major muscle groups and is the best exercise for the money.
DO IT:
- With the weight on the back of your shoulder, grasp two dumbbells or kettlebells by their handles.
- Squat down, keeping your legs parallel to your shoulders and bending your knees slightly.
- Raise the kettlebells above your head by driving through and straightening your legs, then extending your arms. Return to a squat position.
8. Skaters
Skaters have several advantages beyond only burning belly fat, though they are also quite good at it. Some of these benefits include promoting fat reduction, increasing agility, building strength, boosting power, and supercharging your fitness.
DO IT:
- Place your legs shoulder-width apart while standing. Leap to one side of the mat, bending one leg slightly behind the supporting leg.
- Return to your standing position and hop to the opposite side of your mat.
- Drop your weight and place the other leg behind you when you land. Repeat.
9. Tuck Jumps
This is a great plyometric activity to add to any body-fat burning routine because it burns calories like crazy.
DO IT:
- Assume a hip-width stance, bend your knees, and raise your arms to shoulder level.
- Lean further and leap straight up, lifting your knees to reach out and touch your hands with all of your strength from your legs.
- Make sure your knees are bent and that you land lightly.
10. Squat Jumps
Squat leaps are a plyometric exercise that burns a lot of calories and is a fundamental component of almost all explosive lower body movements.
DO IT:
- Place your feet hip-width apart as you stand. To push your butt back and lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor, hinge at the hips.
- To leap as high as you can off the ground, plant your feet firmly.
- After landing, bend your knees 45 degrees, instantly return to a squat, and then jump once again.
11. Froggers
This exercise, despite its seeming simplicity, works every muscle in the body, including the arms, abs, glutes, legs, and heart, all in one efficient and, for our purposes, calorie-crushing motion.
DO IT:
- Put your hands on the ground in front of your feet as you squat down.
- Return to a press-up position with a kick to your legs.
- Return to the low squat position by reversing the movement. That amounts to one rep.
12. Broad Jump
Because broad jumps require a lot of energy due to their explosive and complex nature, they are an excellent workout for burning calories.
DO IT:
- Sit down in a squat stance with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Bring your legs forward for more momentum after swinging your arms back to propel yourself forward.
- Leap as high as you can and descend to a low squat.
13. Jumping Jacks
Jumping jacks burn calories, are heart-healthy, and can be done anywhere. They're not just for your half-baked warm-up, however.
DO IT:
- Place your hands by your sides and your feet together as you stand.
- Raise your arms over your head and jump up just far enough to allow your feet to spread wide at the same time.
- Quickly reverse the motion and repeat without stopping.
14. Jumping Lunge
Did you believe that the dumbbell overhead lunge was the only lunge you would ever need to do? But wait, much like that other exercise, a basic leaping lunge works your core and burns calories as well.
DO IT:
- Push yourself forward until your back knee nearly touches the floor.
- With your front foot back and your back foot forward, leap into the air.
- Take a lunge and land again.
15. High Knees
Not able to use a treadmill? Not an issue. Just take a stand and do some intense high-knees. Oh, and try trying your coordination with alternate punches as well if you want to make these harder.
DO IT:
- Place your feet hip-width apart as you stand. Strive to bring your right knee up to meet your chest.
- Bringing your left knee up to your chest and lowering your right knee.
- Proceed with the exercise, switching legs and jogging or sprinting at a fast pace.
16. Skipping
You can burn anywhere from 800 to 1000 calories by jumping rope for an hour. Although we don't recommend doing so, you should never undervalue the benefits of a basic skipping rope.
DO IT:
- With your arms at your sides, grasp the rope in your hands.
- With every revolution, leap.
- Maintain a soft knee and a contracted core.
17. Devil's Press
As this sinisterly titled dumbbell delight suggests, fewer motions demand just as many muscles, and more muscles equals a greater burn of calories.
18. Barbell Clean and Push Press
Almost every muscle in your body will be used when you lift a barbell from the floor to the ceiling, which will definitely increase your metabolism.
DO IT:
- With your hands slightly broader than your shoulders, hinge down and grab a barbell. Shins angled at right angles to the floor. Lock your back and arms firmly.
- Launch yourself forward, extending your hips and knees, and use the momentum to lift the bar up to your shoulders. With a small bend in your knees, flip your wrists to place it above your chest, then stand up straight.
- Inhale deeply and tense your core. Bend at the knees and press the barbell above with your legs. Repeat by lowering under control to your shoulders, then to the floor.
19. Alternating Dumbbell Snatch
Dumbbell thrown explosively from the floor to above? Most likely the most enjoyment (and caloric burn) you can get out of a dumbbell.
DO IT:
- Hinge down with a flat back while squatting, holding one dumbbell between your legs.
- Utilize your hips and knees to propel yourself upward, building force to raise the dumbbell to your chin.
- In one swift motion, flip your wrist and press the dumbbell straight overhead. Arm extended aloft, maintain a tall posture.
- After securely lowering the weight to the floor, swap arms and repeat.
20. Farmers Walk
There's no denying that walking is a fun method to burn calories. Even while it may not be as enjoyable, walking while carrying a large set of weights is undoubtedly a more effective way to increase your metabolism.
DO IT:
- Lower yourself to your waist and deadlift a weighted pair of dumbbells or kettlebells.
- Assume a tall stance, retract your shoulder blades, flex your rib cage, and strengthen your core.
- Move rapidly forward, covering 10–20 meter strides, or just keep moving forward until your grip gives out, then repeat.
21. Sled Push
The sled push will burn calories in addition to taxing your quadriceps and giving you a wicked shoulder burn.
DO IT:
- With your arms straight and your torso lowered, hold onto the handles.
- Brace your core and push each leg behind you to propel the sled forward.
- Make strong, long strides.
22. Reverse Sled Drag
With the sled pull, which targets the posterior chain, you can test your endurance and burn a lot of calories while toning your glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
DO IT:
- Using both hands, secure your sled with straps or a rope.
- March back explosively, little by little but with great force.
- Step backwards and pay attention to the strain in your hamstrings.