Resistance Bands For Fat Loss

Resistance Band Fat Loss Workout Routine

A basic and effective workout routine for fat loss should include both cardio and strength training. Overall, exercise is good and will help you lose weight along with a proper diet, but many people, especially women, neglect to include strength training in their workout routines (that’s a BIG mistake).

You see, strength training is beneficial in so many ways including increasing your metabolic rate and helping you build lean muscle mass, improving your balance and also helping you to prevent injuries by strengthening your muscles and tendons.

Whenever you see that super lean and defined look on someone that person is implementing both resistance training and cardio.

Usually, when people think of strength training, they automatically think of traditional weight lifting with free weights and machines, however, strength training with resistance bands is very beneficial and highly effective. In fact, I believe that resistance bands offer a lot more benefits than traditional free weights.

Benefits Of Resistance Bands Over Free Weights

One clear benefit is unlike free weights, resistance bands provide constant tension to engage your muscles throughout the movement. Resistance bands are light and portable for on the go workouts when you travel, either for business or pleasure. They can also be used at home or where ever you have limited space to workout. Resistance bands are also much more affordable than purchasing a set of dumbbells.

Resistance training will help you lose weight by helping to increase your metabolism, which in turn helps you burn more calories. Also, by helping to build more muscle, your body will burn more calories at rest. Typically, one pound of muscle gained will burn approximately five calories per day at rest over a 24 hour period, whereas fat will only burn approximately two calories per day at rest. So the more muscles you gain, the more calories you will burn.

The key to an effective strength training workout using resistance bands is to choose the right band that will provide you with just enough tension for the exercise to make the workout challenging but not impossible. The resistance band should constantly work your muscles and provide tension throughout the entire exercise, even at the bottom of the exercise.

You can incorporate resistance band training into just about any strength training workout. There are numerous exercises that can be performed with resistance bands, my favorites are total body movements using resistance bands.

Why?

The more muscle groups you are able to recruit during a single exercise, the harder your body has to work, and subsequently the more calories you’ll burn.

Here are my top 3 fat burning resistance band exercises below:

Resistance Band Squats With Leg Raise: Stand on the resistance band and hold onto the handles palm facing forward with the bands behind your arms. Squat and keep your back straight making sure to keep tension on the band at all times, and raise your leg to the side as you return to the starting position.

Watch the video below for instructions on how to perform a resistance band squat leg raise:

Chest Press with BOSU Ball Using Resistance Bands: place band underneath the BOSU ball, and lay all the way down on the ball. Grab the handles on each end with the back of the ball, and then press straight up. Repeat for 10-12 reps.