|  | Diet Nutrition | Weight Loss

Fat-Burning Circuit-Training Workouts

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 36 percent of Americans are obese. Thus, if you need to lose weight and burn fat, you're not alone. To lose weight most efficiently, both exercise and dietary changes are needed. One reliable form of exercise is circuit training, which involves quickly moving from one exercise to another in a predefined order. To maximize the fat-burning potential of such training, consider factors such as exercise selection and duration of rest periods. Always ask your doctor before starting a new workout routine.

  1. Types of Exercise

    • Typically, workout sessions such as circuit training include either cardio exercises or resistance-training exercises; it's rare to combine both. But if maximum fat burning is your goal, you should combine both in your circuit-training routine. Research from the February 2007 issue of "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise" indicates that the fat-burning potential of cardio is enhanced when you perform resistance training in conjunction with it.

    Exercises to Include

    • To make the most of your time, choose compound exercises for your circuit-training routine. Compound exercises recruit multiple muscle groups, which increases the amount of calories you burn when performing them. Also, compound exercises promote the release of growth hormone, which assists in burning fat. Consider populating your fat-burning circuit with exercises such as the chest press, leg press, squats, overhead press, cable row and deadlift.

    Rest Periods

    • Believe it or not, a factor as seemingly insignificant as the length of the periods of rest between your exercises can affect how much fat you burn. Shorter rest periods allow you to dedicate more of your time in the gym to moving and burning calories, which can improve your chances of fat loss. Additionally, rest periods of one minute or less can encourage increased production of growth hormone, which also assists your fat-burning pursuits.

    Repetition Rangers and Resistance Level

    • To burn fat effectively, you need to maximize intensity, and this can be done with both heavy and light weights. If you use heavier weights, you can perform fewer repetitions of each exercise. If you opt for lighter weights -- and if you're just starting out, lighter weights are advisable -- be sure to perform high-repetition sets, such as 15 to 20 reps, to reach a high level of intensity.

Weight Loss - Related Articles