5 Best Exercises For Burning Fat

A flat belly is a badge of honor. It’s an outward sign that you keep fit and watch what you eat. And beyond the vanity aspects, a more chiseled torso makes you stronger and less prone to injury and remember, burning more and more fat makes you look good too.

Start with the following 5 exercises to hammer the dozens of muscles between your shoulders and hips and get better metabolism at the same time for burning fat.

1| Burpee

The burpee, or squat thrust, is a full-body exercise used in strength training and as an aerobic exercise. The basic movement is performed in four steps and known as a “four-count burpee”.

How to Do Burpee

1. Begin in a standing position.
2. Move into a squat position with your hands on the ground.
3. Kick your feet back into a plank position, while keeping your arms extended.
4. Immediately return your feet into a squat position.
5. Stand up from the squat position.

2| Mountain Climber

Mountain Climbers are a killer exercise that gets your heart rate up fast while also firing nearly every muscle group in the body—deltoids, biceps, triceps, chest, obliques, abdominals, quads, hamstrings, and hip abductors. It’s truly a full-body workout! Mountain Climbers are also a very accessible exercise; you can perform them anywhere because they require only your bodyweight.

How to Do Mountain Climbers

1. Start in a plank position with arms and legs long. Beginning in a solid plank is the key to proper form and good results in the Mountain Climber. At its heart, the Mountain Climber is a form of a plank. Keep your abs pulled in and your body straight. Squeeze your glutes and pull your shoulders away from your ears
2. Pull your right knee into your chest.  As the knee draws to the chest, pull your abs in even tighter to be sure your body doesn’t sag or come out of its plank position.
3. Quickly switch and pull the left knee in. At the same time you push your right leg back, pull your left knee into the chest using the same form.
4. Continue to switch knees. Pull the knees in right, left, right, left—always switching simultaneously so that you are using a “running” motion. As you begin to move more quickly be in constant awareness of your body position and be sure to keep a straight line in your spine and don’t let your head droop. Core body stability is crucial.

3| Kettlebell Swing

The momentum of the bell at the top of the swing will try to pull you forward, so you have to clench your abs as if you were performing a standing plank for burning fat.

How to Do Kettlebell Swing:

1. Bend at your hips and hold a kettlebell with both hands at arm’s length down in front of you. Rock back slightly and “hike” the kettlebell between your legs.
2. Then squeeze your glutes, thrust your hips forward forcefully, and swing the weight to shoulder height. Reverse the move between your legs and repeat.
   

4| Pull-up

Thing is, pullups aren’t easy to learn, for a variety of reasons. First, there’s shoulder mobility, an area that’s a struggle for many people. Second? You’re lifting a large percentage of your body weight, and that’s simply not easy. The move also has multiple schools of thought these days, making it that much more confounding to understand from the ground up. We are here to help you.

How to do a Pullup:

1. Grab a bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder-width, with your hands facing away from you.
2. Hang all the way down.
3. Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar.
4. Slight pause
5. Lower yourself all the way back down.

5| Barbell Thruster

The thruster is that compound moves, and it works muscles and joints throughout the body to great effect. It can be done with a barbell, dumbbells or kettlebells with equally good results and it fits easily into a weights session or HIIT workout. It’s an especially popular exercise in the CrossFit community, and you know how that bunch loves doing compound moves at speed.

How to Do Barbell Thrusters:

1. Stand with the bar in the front squat rack position, holding it with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep your elbows as high as you can as you lower into a squat. Keep your knees wide apart and your heels down. Lower until your thighs are at least parallel with the ground.
2. Drive-up through your heels using your quads and glutes. Maintain that momentum as you come to the top of the squat and use it to help you push the bar over your head until your arms are locked out. Then bring the bar back down to your chest to complete one rep.