5 Fat Loss Strategies for Busy Mums

1 – The bulk of your workouts should be made up of free weight, cable or bodyweight exercises. 

Compared to machines, free weight, cable and bodyweight exercises require more skill, utilise more muscles, create more balance and have a greater metabolic demand. All of this adds up to more lean muscle tissue being made and calories being burned 

2 – Pair exercises 

Pair exercises together so that you alternate between upper and lower body or muscles that push with muscles that pull. This approach will keep your workouts efficient by minimising downtime. For example when you finish a set of squats your legs are pretty tired but your upper body is well rested, so putting a set of push ups in would be a great idea. This approach will keep your heart rate high yielding huge fat burning benefits 

3 – Use exercises that work more than one muscle at a time 

When fat loss is the goal you want to focus on the big bang for your buck exercises that recruit as many muscles as possible in one movement. Isolation exercises that simply work one muscle like leg extensions and tricep kickbacks should be saved for the end of the workout. They should just serve to supplement your core movements. 

Exercises that work many muscles in one move are called compound or multi-joint exercises. For example a kettlebell swing is a compound exercise that uses around 600 muscles in order to make that swing happen. Your glutes, hamstrings, core, shoulders and so much more.  

The more muscles used, the more energy demand, the more metabolism skyrockets and the more calories burned! 

4 – Keep your rest time short – 30 to 60 seconds between sets 

When you keep your rest time short, it is easier to stay focused on the task in hand. Your heart rate will stay elevated and your nervous system will stay cranked up. More challenging exercises like squats, deadlifts, pull ups and push ups will require 60 seconds while slightly easier exercises like lat pull downs or anything seated should only require 30 seconds rest. 

5 – Perform total body workouts 

Gone are the days where we smashed one muscle a workout. This way of training may have served the steroid driven meat heads of the 1970s, 80s and 90s but for the everyday athlete that wants to fit back into their skinny jeans and not spend 4 hours a day at the gym it’s far from optimal. Muscles work together and should be trained together. A whole body approach has been shown to yield a higher total expenditure of energy per session. Essentially meaning more fat burning.

Take these 5 strategies and make them a part of your workout routine. I promise not only will you save time but you will also soon see a leaner, more toned body staring back at you from the gym mirror.