Another way to avoid "bulking up" while still boosting your metabolism
is to use more bodyweight exercises.
As for exercise choice, say goodbye to biceps curls, hamstring curls, and triceps
kickbacks. Seriously, I couldn't think of a more useless exercise for a fat loss
program than triceps kickbacks.
Stick to full body movements. Use squats, lunges, split squats, pushups, chinups,
rows, etc.
Remember, you don't have a lot of time to workout. So you can't be doing bodybuilding
splits from the 80's that call for three exercises for the long head of the triceps,
and two exercises for each of the anterior, medial, and posterior deltoid.
That's just not possible in the real-world. A pushup trains almost all those muscles,
and more. It works your abs, chest, triceps, and shoulders. That's the type of exercise
that is going to help you get more fat loss results in less workout time.
I train in the concept of a short time frame. That is, anyone that wants to use
my programs has less than 3 hours per week to devote to structured exercise. So
there just isn't much room for isolation training in that time frame.
But training should be fun too, and adding some curls as a reward for completing
a hard workout is fine, but only if you want to. You don't need those types of exercises
to get results.
But remember, isolation exercises are not actually going to burn fat, but they can
build muscle and help you sculpt your body. Here's the list of methods that lead
to fat loss, in order of importance:
i) Nutrition
ii) Burning calories with interval training
iii) Burning calories due to an increased metabolism from interval training and
strength training (with multi-muscle movements)
As long as you understand that nutrition is the most important factor in fat loss,
and that strength training is essential for sculpting your body, than you will have
realistic expectations of success - based on how well you commit to each process.
Sincerely,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training