Top 5 Fat-Burning Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight exercises are great fat burners that uses the best equipment--your body. No fitness gadgets are needed!

Bodyweight exercises use natural body motions that don't limit your natural range of motion like machine lifting does.

Bodyweight exercises allow you to develop strength that allows your body to stabilize itself. Also, no two people have the same exact motions. So, adjustments are made for your unique challenges.

Here are my Top 5 Fat-Burning Bodyweight Exercises (hard to limit to just 5):

1. The Burpee exercise sounds kind of gross but it burns body fat like crazy and its good for you! Always do burpees under control with good technique.

If you need to change up your high intensity interval cardio routine, here is a great choice----do full speed burpees for 20 minute intervals (1 minute burpee, 2 minutes walk).

The burpee is a great full-body exercise that will increase your strength endurance, power and anaerobic conditioning (remember, aerobics is an exercise done for more than 2 straight minutes).

Research has proven that anaerobic conditioning will give you superior fat loss and heart health.

Do the burpee this way: From a squat position with your hands on the floor, kick your feet back to a pushup position. Quickly return your feet to the squat position and jump as high as you can from the squat position. Repeat this exercise at full speed for 1 minute! Whew! Walk or jog for 2 minutes and burpee again!

2. Jump Rope with your bodyweight to burn more fat, improve your heart health and better lean and tone your body!

Jumping rope will also help improve your balance, coordination and overall core strength.

Buy a jump rope and practice for 5-10 minutes every day and soon you'll be jumping for 20-30 minutes. I can make you a promise if you will jump rope for about 20 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week: your body will burn fat and get leaner like never before!

Just do intervals for 20 minutes when you jump rope such as jumping for 1 minute and walking for 1 minute. As you improve, you can begin to jump faster and faster and burn more and more fat!

Be sure to look straight ahead, keep your body erect, your core braced (as if taking a punch to your gut) and use your hands/wrists to propel the rope. Keep your arms and body as still as possible as you jump. Land on the balls of your feet and not your toes.

3. Pullups/Triceps Dips on Bars. I am including this pair as one superset. You must include bodyweight pullups in your exercise routine! The pullup is one of the best exercises you should be doing! If you haven't done a pullup since grade school, you need to bring the pullup out of your workout closet! If you can't do any, start doing 1 pullup and progress (assisted pullup machine or a spotter are also options).

The pullup is not just a back muscle exercise. Pullups work your lats (and other back muscles), core, shoulders, arms, chest, biceps and improve grip strength.

Do the basic overhand grip, dead-hang pullup this way (pictured above):

--Hang from a pullup bar with your palms facing away from your body, your arms straight and your feet crossed together with legs bent about 90 degrees. Pull yourself up until your chin passes the bar.

--A wider grip (greater than shoulder width) will work your lats more. A closer grip (shoulder width or less) will work your middle back muscles more.

--If you lack grip strength, you can use straps to help.

--Don't jut your chin out (it strains your cervical spine).

--Don't swing. It makes the pullup easier by using momentum. You need to pullup, not swing up.

--Don't let your chest collapse because that puts too much stress on your shoulders.

--Don't arch your lower back too much. You want your abdominal muscles to be engaged when you do the pullup. Keep your torso braced (as if taking a punch to the gut) during the pullup.

--When you start the pullup, drive your shoulder blades down and squeeze them together. This will engage your shoulder stabilizers more.

Tricep Dips on Bars will give you the most benefit. Keep your hands by your side and don't lean forward when doing the exercise. Your core will also get work during this exercise. Add weight to increase difficulty when needed.

4. Bulgarian Split Squats (pictured below) - This exercise is very difficult to do correctly.

--Start by standing with feet shoulder width apart, like you’re going to do a squat. Place one foot on the bench, 2 feet behind you and stand on the front foot.

--Lower your body until the front leg is parallel to the ground.
Keep your back upright (90 degrees) and abs braced (like taking a punch to your gut).

5. Pushups - Close-grip pushups, pushups on stability ball, power pushups, regular pushups, incline pushups, decline pushups, uneven pushups.... take your pick! Pushups are one of the all-time best bodyweight exercises.

How to do the standard pushup movement: Keep your body straight and torso braced throughout the movement. Keep your head in line with your torso at all times. Lower your body down to the ground and back to starting position. Repeat as required.

Its hard to keep this list to five exercises. Step ups, inverted rows, prisoner squats, one-legged squats and mountain climbers are just a few that come to mind.

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Posted in: Fat Burning Tips