Certain exercises exceed the normal calorie burning power of your typical gym resistance machine exercises and when your main objective is to lose weight then these 5 fat burning exercises are definitely what you should be focusing on!
Plyometrics:
Now don’t get put off by the confusion of this word if you’ve never heard it before; basically plyometrics is a fancy word for ‘jump training’ and refers to a movement of controlled impact and maximum power output. For example: Box Jumps
In this exercise you squat down and spring up into a jump and land on the box gradually bending back down into a squat position when having landed on the box and then jumping back off and landing where you began on the floor and repeat. Squat – Jump – Land – Squat – Jump – Land – Repeat. Sounds simple doesn’t it! The benefit of this type of exercise is that we continuously repeat this movement for a stated length of time (i.e. ~1 minute) and our heart rate increases rapidly allowing us to reach a near maximum heart rate zone resulting in high intensity interval training (HIIT).
On average plyometrics burn 13 calories per minute.
Squats:
Whether you can only achieve a body weighted squat or you’re a well-trained squatting individual then this exercise is one to not be forgotten! Squatting burns more calories than any other compound movement and targets the specific areas associated with weight gain. Your quadriceps, hamstrings, core and glutes are all working in order to keep you stabilised as well as achieve the movement correctly. Trust me your booties with thank you! Also You can wear a weighted vest while squating. Learn more about them here.
On average squats burn 15 calories per minute.
Burpees:
Now you’ve probably seen hundreds of statuses, pictures and heard your friends moaning and groaning about those evil ‘burpees’; well if you’re skipping these out of your daily workout then I plead to you that you are missing out hugely on an amazing calorie burning exercise! Burpees are callisthenic exercises which involve simple movements performed in a rhythmical manner that use your bodyweight for resistance.
The general burpee movement is considered as: standing upright with your hands in the air and coming down into a squatting position, then kicking your legs back behind you (like a squat thrust) and coming into a press-up position (arms are shoulder width apart), then jumping your knees into your chest (returning the squat thrust) before shooting up into an explosive jump with both hands above your head. However there are a wide variety of burpees including: Cross-fit version (where your whole body pauses on the floor before squat thrusting up into the jump); Press-up burpees (where you include a press up during the downward phase of the movement); Tuck-jump burpees (where you add a tuck-jump at the end of the movement) and many more.
Due to this movement being performed continuously (i.e. in circuit training you will be performing this for a certain number of seconds), this exercise is designed to build and improve muscular endurance; therefore causing your heart rate to increase briskly and your muscles to weaken – however this means that you will be taking your calories burnt to the max!
On average burpees burn 10 calories per minute.
Sprints:
Sprinting is always an amazing gym workout to include into your weekly workout, just one sprint session a week can have you burning continuous calories throughout a 72 hour window! Yes you read that correctly, sprinting is an all-out maximal effort type of high intense interval training which means your metabolism is revved up for not only the rest of the day but for a further 72 hours from completion. Sport science studies have shown that your body can be burning calories at a higher rate than usual for up to 72 hour later – even when you’re at rest – this is due to the intense short burst of stress or metabolic disturbance that you applied to your body that you must recover from; and it does so by burning calories at a higher rate of expenditure than normal.
Sound good to you? Then try out our 20-minute fat burning treadmill sprint session specifically prescribed to rack up your calorie burning capacity. (Here you can get a foldable running machine if you are thinking about working out at home)
On average sprints burn 13 calories per minute.
Tuck jumps:
No matter your weight, size or fitness ability, jumping is one of the best workout exercises you could possibly do! Not only is jumping an immense exercise to get you into shape but it also keeps your bones healthy by increasing bone density as well as enabling your posture to improve and your balance to develop. Tuck jumps have the same effect on your body’s metabolism as sprints and will help improve your cardiovascular fitness by keeping your heart healthy and increasing your lungs ability to utilize oxygen.
A simple tuck jump is performed by standing upright and making an explosive bound up into the air whilst bending your knees and bringing them into your chest. As your knees are ‘tucking’ in, you use your arms to tap or hold onto your knees for a split second before returning back to the ground and repeating the first initial tuck movement from the start. Try not to add an additional jump in between each starting jump, as this will lower the intensity of the movement; thus try jumping in sets of 20 before taking a 5 second pause and repeat.
On average tuck jumps burn 15 calories per minute.
How these calories per minute are calculated:
When taking calories burnt into context it is very important to consider weight as a variable. The higher your weight the more calories you will burn when performing the exercise technique correctly, however weight is not the only factor that matters. The intensity to which you exercising at has a huge impact as well as your fitness levels in order to sustain the intensity, thus burning more calories for longer when peaking at high intensity. Not only that, but your metabolic rate can also influence the number of calories burnt, by trending a positive linear relationship.
The above calories burnt per minute as based on a moderately fit individual weighing 155 pounds.
These top 5 exercises are ideal to implement into any weight loss plan and the typical gym routine of overweight, untrained individuals as well as trained and healthy fitness fanatics.