Functional movement: Anti-cardio for fat loss

June 1, 2:06 PMDenver Men's Fitness ExaminerRyan Patrick

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TRX Suspended Lunge

Summer is here. Board shorts are out (so are bikinis). But you are still fat from winter. Time for cardio? Doubt it. Cardio is very rhythmic in nature, and a lot of people find it extremely boring. But amidst hot summer bodies, it seems a must-do.

When you are a meathead at heart who loves the weights, cardio is an unnecessary evil. For the alpha male interested in moving some heavy weights and being strong, cardio is one of the least desirable options for losing fat. But again, it’s summer and it’s better to look good naked, or half-naked.

Thankfully, there are solutions out there for getting ripped while maintaining or even improving your muscle mass. With bodyweight or some light weights or kettlebells there are numerous options for getting your heart rate up without trashing your body for the next day’s workout. Why not use some functional movement in addition to muscle mass?

The process is fairly simple. Utilize full body movements with bodyweight, or sub-bodyweight and do multiple movements with little to no rest. If you use more muscle mass you do more work and create more metabolic disruption, it translates into greater fat loss. It doesn’t have to be extremely challenging exercises or weights. In fact, adding velocity to the movements will cause more of an increase in breathing and heart rate than heavy weights alone. If you lift several times per week, you need to treat this as a day for focusing on heart rate and execution of movement. Save your heavy weight training for the days you already do. This is just a shift from boring cardio to something way more interesting and competitive in nature.

Option number one involves the TRX Suspension Trainer. This is a tool that allows you to use your own bodyweight to perform a number of exercises. Many clients have come to love this, and it allows for a good travel workout since it’s so light and compact. Our system for using this is not revolutionary, but it’s effective. Pick three exercises and do them for 6-8 reps for as many rounds as you get can in 15 minutes. We generally use a push, pull, or leg exercise. Sometimes we may swap the push for an abdominal or combo exercise. All of the exercises can be found at the TRX website, so I’ll save my breath here trying to explain them.

A bodyweight circuit can be equally effective. Again, go with a 15-20 minute circuit here utilizing some the following 6-7 basic movements: horizontal push/pull, vertical push/pull, hip dominant, knee dominant, and abs. What this amounts to is a group of exercises that are all compound and will get your…gasp… “cardio on” when done in series. Everything is done for max reps or 10, whichever comes first.

Here’s a more specific example:

1. Dips
2. Inverted Row
3. Incline Pushup or T-push up
4. Jump Squat
5. Pull up
6. Band resisted good morning (slight cheat from true bodyweight)
7. Ab Dolly Roll Outs

Try 2-3 days of this in addition to your off days. You can tweak what's laid out here. But if you work hard these circuits will yield much greater benefit for fat loss than traditional cardio while improving muscle mass. That’s win-win.