Is Cardio Really Necessary to Lose Stomach Fat?

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Scow

If you want to lose fat, especially from your stomach, you have to do long, boring, monotonous cardio in order to achieve your goal. Right?

I mean, that's what you've always been told by the "experts."

They've always said, "If you want to lose fat, do lots of cardio." But is that true? Do I really have to pin my fat loss hopes and dreams on doing 60 minutes of cardio everyday of the week?

Absolutely not! And if you do want to do cardio, you sure as heck don't have to do it for that long.

There is a better way...a far better way to lose fat, especially stomach fat.

You need to focus on doing resistance training if you really want to lose stomach fat. And if you do it correctly, you won't even need to do a traditional cardio session again!

When I say "do it correctly", I mean that you need to focus on doing full body workouts that focus on working large muscle groups, rather than attempting to split your body into sections and working one thing at a time.

All too often I hear guys say that they're going to spend today's workout session on Back and Biceps or Chest and Abs, etc. I've got news for you, the body just doesn't work that way. You can't just split the body up into pieces and expect to get superior results, especially if time is an issue when you workout.

The ladies are not immune to this phenomenon either. I always hear ladies saying they want to work their triceps and "inner thighs" or "saddle bags" in an effort to "tone up." Sorry ladies, but that's just not going to happen if you train that way. Especially if you finish that workout up by hopping on the treadmill for 60 minutes (or more) of fast walking because you don't want to leave your "fat burning zone." A zone that doesn't exist by the way.

So now that I've told you what doesn't work, let's get to what does work. As I said earlier, what works is full body workouts that focus on working lots of muscle because muscle is what burns fat.

Here's a typical workout that I prescribe to my clients.

Warm-up for 5 minutes by doing a circuit of medicine ball wood chops, push-ups and bodyweight squats.

Then perform the following supersets.

1A) "T" Push-up - 10 reps 1B) Dumbbell Bent Over Row - 8 reps

2A) Reverse Lunge - 10 reps per leg 2B) Incline Dumbbell Chest Press - 8 reps

3A) Dumbbell Rear Flies - 8 reps 3B) 1-Leg Stability Ball Leg Curl - 10 reps per leg

4A) Mt. Climbers - 30 seconds 4B) Stability Ball Rollout - 12

Then I have my clients perform interval training for their cardio. This comes in many different types, but at its root, all interval training consists of is mixing bouts of intense activity with bouts of lower intensity activity.

This could mean mixing sprinting for 20 seconds with walking for 90 for 10 minutes or it could mean doing bodyweight circuits for 15 minutes. The sky really is the limit with this type of "cardio".

The point is that you need to get out of the cardio mentality that so many of the so-called experts have you trapped in and break free and try something new. Something that will work and is proven to work. I've been using this style of training with my training clients for years with fantastic results.

Give it a try today and I'll prove to you it works.