The worst exercise mistakes when you are trying to burn belly fat.
Hello all of you wonders of humanity, you seekers of personal growth and development! Welcome to BodyRock, a different kind of fitness community that is transforming and evolving in it’s purpose to serve and support people that are under-represented in the mainstream fitness world - the beginner.
Have you ever noticed that most workouts and fitness advice are targeted towards people that are already fit? There is a lot barely veiled condescension that is directed towards fitness beginners, with advice like ‘go for a walk’ or ‘move more’, with all of the best workout programs programmed at exertion levels that are beyond the reach of most people just starting out. The people that need and want the most effective workouts for burning fat, building strength and losing weight are often left out, because the trending workouts that everyone is so excited about are just too hard for them to participate in. We think beginners deserve better than this, so help us get the word out - we are striving to bring beginners the best fitness experience - workouts that are trending, training that is dynamic and will help you reach your body goals - but at a beginner level.
Most people who begin their fitness quest have one central goal in mind: to burn away their belly fat. We have been helping fitness beginners get into the best shape of their lives since 2008, and over that span of time, working with over 250k beginners, we’ve noticed a lot of common exercise mistakes that slow down their progress.
If you've been working out on your own for a while now, and you're not experiencing any significant changes to your belly fat, we are here to help. Today we are going to cover the worst mistakes you can make when you're trying to burn off belly fat. Let’s get started shall we?
You're only performing sit-ups and crunches. If your main goal is to burn belly fat, only performing sit-ups and crunches will not help you achieve it. Although you may feel like your abs are working and burning, this limited exercise is not going to give you the results you want. A recent study on the best core exercises discovered that the squat is actually a much better exercise for targeting the muscles in the belly area. Squats have the added benefit for beginners of being a standing exercise - which eliminates the need to get up and down off of the floor. When you are performing squats, you are also working your legs, butt, and thighs, in addition to giving your abs and core the best toning possible. This is all part of training smart, which involves doing the most efficient exercises for reducing belly fat.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with doing sit-ups if that is your jam, but when you follow a workout program like our 30 day Beginner Bootcamp workout series, every single exercise has been designed to help you train smart - maximum results in the most efficient way possible, all at a beginner level of intensity that is achievable in just 10-15 minutes per day.
You're focusing on cardio over strength training. Another extremely common exercise mistake that people make is believing that a cardio only fitness regimen will burn belly fat. Cardio is extremely important for heart health, improving your endurance, and burning calories, but it's not nearly as effective as strength and resistance training.
Strength training helps build and maintain your lean muscle mass, which elevates your metabolism to burn dramatically more calories each day. Every pound of lean muscle that you build strength training will show up on your body in the form of athletic looking tone / definition, and it will burn 3.5-5x more calories than a pound of body fat. Lean muscle will not only help you burn more fat 24/7, it’s also significantly smaller than a pound of body fat, resulting in a tighter, leaner, body silhouette.
Just imagine how much more fat you would burn if you had an extra 5 lbs of lean muscle on your frame. Lean muscle transforms your body into a fat burning furnace. It’s why people that are already in shape don’t sweat what they eat as much as someone just starting out. The lean muscle that they have built - those tight arms, the tone in their calves - all of it is working to support their calorie burn - even as they sit across from you having that glass of wine or enjoying a desert. Strength training is the key to fat loss and incredible body transformations, and that’s why we built strength training into all of our 30 day Beginner Bootcamp workouts.
You're only using light weights and high reps when strength training. If you are strength training, avoid the mistake of only using light weights and doing higher reps. This is a fitness myth that just won't go away. Even though you might feel the burn using lighter weights and higher reps, they won't help you shrink belly fat. You need enough resistance to force your muscles to work harder.
A shot from our Beginner Bootcamp with Coach Edith wearing a BodyRock Weighted Vest.
The most efficient way for beginners to safely add the benefit of strength training to any activity - from walking, to biking, to vacuuming or mowing the lawn - literally any activity that involves movement - is to snap on one of our BodyRock weighted vests. Our vests offer balance friendly, hands free resistance to any activity or workout, leaving your hands free to do whatever you want. Our trainer and host of the Beginner Bootcamp, Edith, wears a 6lbs vest throughout the program. You can check out our vests here, and yes - they are on sale!
If you're lifting the same amount of weight and reps, your body will eventually start to adapt (a sure sign that you are making progress), which will make it harder for you to continue to make gains. Always choose a weight that's challenging (but safe), and focus on lifting heavier, if you are able to physically do so. Speaking of weights, we have an incredible, Black Friday scale deal on dumbbells here (use code: MADGAIN to unlock instant savings at checkout).
The BodyRock Beginner Bootcamp workouts are between 10-15 minutes each.
You are not following a workout program that is aligned with your goals or fitness level. People that are following a guided, structured workout program that was designed for their current level of fitness ability are far more likely to successfully reach their body transformation goals. This just makes sense. If you go into your workouts scrambling to figure out what exercises you are going to be doing, it’s highly likely that you won’t be training smart. While any movement is better than none, this random approach to your fitness won’t deliver the results that you are looking for. The right workout program will do two things well. It will be designed to be achievable at your current fitness level, and it will be programmed to help you lose fat, drop excess weight, get stronger, leaner and progress you towards your goals. Most programs fail at one or both of these, which is what inspired us to create the Beginner Bootcamp.
The right fitness program will fit you like a pair of your favourite sneakers. If you are ready for your fitness Cinderella moment, slip your foot into our fitness glass slipper, and give our 30 day Beginner Bootcamp a try. Each workout combines HIIT and strength training - the two most effective workouts for fat loss and general athletic conditioning - in a daily workout that is just 10-15 minutes in length. Each workout is programmed to be achievable at the beginner level of fitness ability. For a limited time, we are offering a full year of unlimited access to our Beginner Bootcamp workout series on our fitness streaming platform BodyRockPlus.com for just $69 with code: NY22.
Best,
Freddy
P.S. We have an epic dumbbell sale running if you are looking to pick up some dumbbells for your home gym or exercise space that you can check out by clicking the image below.
