Two Great Exercises to Lose Weight – Fast!

Everyone wants to lose weight, especially during this time of year – the summer holidays. It is very easy to add weight on, but very hard to lose an appreciable amount of weight. In today’s age everyone wants things done quickly, if there is a shortcut out there to be had, people will buy it or try it, and in this technologically advanced day everyone is looking at the latest gadget or tool to shift any excess weight as quick as they possibly can – whilst doing as little as they possibly can(just watch some TV and wait for Cristiano Ronaldo to appear with the latest Electronic Muscular Stimulation or EMS for short, device)
What people overlook though is how much cardio it takes to get lean and how much your eating habits need to change in order to look in good shape, also how long it can take, it might have only taken you a month to add on an extra stone of weight, but chances are it will take you at least twice that long to get rid of it. Sure there are exceptions and there are a lot of variables, but either way expect to work hard and work consistently.

With this in mind, I am going to suggest to you two exercises I believe will GUARANTEE you lose weight, and lose that weight quicker and in less time than conventional methods. By conventional methods I mean cardio such as jogging or riding a bike. No more pounding the treadmill for 45mins and suffering through other long boring cardio workouts, you can get these exercises done within 30mins, probably 20. Now this does assume you have at least some control over your diet and that you will be performing these exercises at least 3-4 times per week(personally I recommend cardio at least five times per week when trying to lose weight but at a minimum at least three) its a given you need to do at least these things to help you lose weight, even if you are not and trying to start an exercise routine, these will help you ‘ease’ into it so you can start off dieting and performing cardio once or twice per week and gradually up the number.

OK exercise no.1 is…..Burpees…surprised? Well don’t be, make no mistake the burpee is a great all round exercise. There is a reason military from around the world use them and its because they are hard and have several benefits, they develop strength, endurance, explosiveness and co-ordination. Not to mention they burn a high amount of calories and rev up your metabolic rate so you continue to burn calories even after you have finished exercising(up to 14hrs later in some cases). Also, it goes without saying you can do these anywhere, don’t feel like leaving the house to go to the gym, never mind just do burpees in your room!
Attack with a goal and number in mind, I suggest the 100 burpees a day challenge, try doing 10×10 Burpees and tell me it wasn’t hard. Include burpees with a pushup for good measure. Once you get good at them you can start adding exercises in between your sets such as the planche or increasing your reps ie 20 reps for 5 sets. So 10 pushup burpees, rest for 60 seconds then on to the next set and once you are improving, 10 pushup burpees and then planche for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds rest or even try the planche for the whole 60 seconds and straight into the next set!

How to do them:

As mentioned above, I suggest adding push ups to your burpees, this is the only way I ever do them so you are getting a good chest work out too by doing 100 push ups along with the burpees.

1. Begin in a standing position
2. Drop into the squat position, hands on ground
3. Kick your legs back into the planche position, arms extended
4. Perform a push up
5. Kick your legs back in and in to the squat position
6. Jump up from the squat position, arms up hands high.

Exercise no.2 is Suicide Sprints. All you need to perform these is space such as a park or basketball court and some markers to measure the points between your sprints. You can use anything for markers, if you have cones – great! If not, just use your jacket, gym bag, water bottle, anything will do really(nothing too valuable of course incase someone else comes sprinting past stealing it).
OK so having found your space to run, set out markers at 20m, 40m and 60m and go to your start position. Before you start sprinting, do stretch and warm up, do some light jogging as sprinting cold can cause injuries. Once you are ready to go, sprint to the 20m marker and then sprint back, then sprint to the 40m marker and back and finally sprint to the 60m marker and back. Rest for about 60 seconds and repeat, you want to be able to comfortably breathe without letting your heart rate return to normal. If this is new to you, you might only manage about 3 cycles, however many you manage, aim to complete as many as you can within 20-30mins once you get into better shape.
Suicide sprints tap into the what is famously known as the ‘afterburn effect’ (as do the burpees), what this means it forces your metabolism to increase in order to recover the lack of oxygen and to recover its resting state, so it is when your body burns a greater number of calories AFTER strenuous exercise so yes you will continue to burn fat after you are done.

So those are my two recommendations to help you lose weight, it is often the simple exercises which are the most effective, just like with weight training, the basic compound movements, squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, bent rows work best for building muscle, the basic simple exercises such as sprinting and burpees are great for conditioning and losing weight. Mix it up, one day 100 burpees, another day suicide sprints, if you want a real fat burning workout, burpees, followed by Boxing pad work and ending up with suicide sprints but performing these exercises will help you shape up and shape up fast. If you don’t have anyone to hold the pads for you, as an alternative exercise I would recommend Kettlebell swings.  These exercises are simple, but hard work, the battle isn’t just physical, but mental because it will hurt putting yourself through 100 burpees or going out for suicide sprints but as the old saying goes ‘nothing worth having comes easy.’