Here is your BEST fat burning weapon. Hint: you carry with you every day

One of the best fat burning weapons in your arsenal is something that you carry around with you wherever you go. Yes, your own body weight is the perfect tool for building effective fat loss workouts. Not only is it completely portable, but you can create a serious ass kicking session with it.

But bodyweight training doesn’t just offer the convenience of portability. Done right, it’s also a seriously nasty method for intense fat burning. Here are a few of the reasons why…

You can easily transition from one movement to another with little or no rest when you don’t have to mess around with equipment. This is obviously an advantage if you’re looking to torture fat off your frame.

Imagine smoothly transitioning from max repetition push ups to 30 seconds of rapid fire mountain climbers with no rest in between. By the time you’re finished your set you’ll be panting like a hound dog on a hot Memphis day! But that’s just the beginning.

Bodyweight workouts will turn you into the Energizer Bunny. No, your ears won’t grow. But you will be able to keep going and going. Quickly switching from one movement pattern to another lets you maintain the overall intensity of a set without hitting the unstoppable wall of local muscular fatigue.
So once you’re finished with those push ups and mountain climbers, pop up to your feet and start doing lunge jumps for another 30 seconds. Not coincidentally, this is also the point where you’ll start to hate whoever gave you the crazy idea for this workout…

Bodyweight exercises are a great way to add truly three dimensional training to your fat burning sessions. This increases the calories you burn, for several different reasons. First, you’re recruiting more muscle by performing innovative full body movements. Second, you’re challenging your nervous system to assimilate movement through new ranges of motion and new patterns. You won’t be as efficient as you are when performing familiar movements, and you’ll need to use more energy to get the job done.
You’ve already taken tens of thousands of steps on the treadmill. Your body has been there, done that. But have you tried the quad squat, the spike press or the v-up? If not, your body is going to have to work twice as hard to assimilate the movement. Which means you burn more fat!

Those are just a few of the benefits that intelligent bodyweight training can bring to your physique. But enough talk. Let’s get down to business and give you a workout you can try right now. I call this one Sets Of Descending Doom. It was inspired by a workout from my friend and T-Nation resident Christian Thibaudeau.

Start each set with jump squats. Do 20 for the first set, then reduce that by 2 reps on each subsequent set until you’re down to 2 — so 10 sets total). After the jump squats you’ll proceed with no rest through the other exercises in your circuit.

The last exercise in your circuit — jumping jacks — is active rest, so take as little extra time as possible before moving into your next circuit.

The workout is made up of two phases, each with slightly different exercises, but both run on exactly the same rules and principles. You can take heart in the fact that the second phase starts with 10 Jumps squats and works down to 2 (so only 5 sets). And you’re allowed up to 2 minutes rest between the first and second Phase.

There you have it. A nasty little fat burning inferno that you can do anywhere and anytime. Give it a try and let me know how you did. And if you like it, there’s plenty more where that came from…

-Adam Steer
NCSA-CPT, NCCP 3, CSIA Lvl 4 Course Conductor, CSCF 3
Biosignature Certified, MAT Lower Body Specialist
CST Certified, AKC Certified Coach