Dumbbell Workout: Better For Fat Loss?

A dumbbell workout is an excellent way to burn off fat, and keep it off. Unfortunately, many people don't understand how to take full advantage of the fat burning characteristics of dumbbell training. I hope this article opens your eyes and helps you on your quest for a leaner, more attractive body!

When most men and women think about burning off the ugly fat keeping them from looking and performing their best, very few of them think about a dumbbell workout. Usually, the first two things that come to mind are restrictive diets and long duration aerobic exercise. This is a shame, because dumbbell exercise is an excellent way to burn off fat and build a muscular, attractive body.

Here are three important ways a dumbbell workout helps you shed extra pounds of flab...

1) Dumbbell Training Builds Muscle

You may be asking, "What does building muscle have to do with fat loss?" The answer is simple. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn during the day to maintain the muscle. Muscle is more "metabolically expensive". It takes more energy to maintain muscle, even during rest. So, since you burn more calories naturally during the day for maintenance, there are fewer calories left over to be converted into fat.

A dumbbell workout is excellent for building muscle because you can take advantage of the bilateral deficit. You see, when you perform dumbbell exercises with a single limb (as compared to the two-limb version of the same exercise), your body recruits more muscle for stabilization purposed. More muscle recruited means the ability to use heavier weights. And heavier weights mean more muscle growth!

And just to make sure you're paying attention: More muscle = less fat!

2) A Unilateral Dumbbell Workout Uses More Energy

Unilateral training is when you perform an exercise with one arm or leg for a certain number of repetitions, then perform the same number of repetitions with the opposite arm or leg. This doubles the amount of "work time" per set.

So, not only can you use heavier weights (as discussed in #1), but you spend more time exercising with those weights. This means you expend more energy performing a unilateral dumbbell workout than a machine or barbell workout.

More energy used in the workout means more fat burned and less calories left over to be converted to fat!

3) A Dumbbell Workout Blurs The Lines Between Strength And Cardio Training, Producing More Metabolic Disturbance

Most people have been lulled to sleep by the set 1, rest, set 2, rest, set 3, rest format of training. But what happens if you throw some high repetition, rhythmic exercises into your dumbbell workout. For example, what happens if you do 20 reps of dumbbell snatches for each arm back to back. The exercise requires muscular strength and power, but also extraordinary heart and lung power. This kind of dumbbell workout burns a lot of fat.

But maybe more important, you burn fat during AND after the workout. Think of it this way. The workout places stress on your muscles, heart and lungs. To recover, your body uses a great deal of energy to return to a normal state. This means you are not only burning calories during the workout, but during the recovery process as well.

So, you effectively turn your body into a 24 hour fat burning machine!

Are you starting to see what a powerful weapon a dumbbell workout is in your battle to lose fat and keep it off? And I'll let you in on a little secret. Restrictive diets and long duration exercise is NOT the fat loss solution you seek. A nutritious diet, well planned workout program and healthy lifestyle is!

If you need to lose ugly pounds of fat, it's time to give a dumbbell workout a try!