Fat Loss Workouts

Alright, if you’ve already gone through our “Weight Loss” section, you should know a couple of things about losing weight.

  1. The most important thing during a weight loss phase is your NUTRITION.
  2. During this phase, our workouts change from intense to DENSE workouts. This means that the weights used are lower, the reps are higher and the rest times between sets are also decreased. Our main goal with this type of training is to keep and shape up the muscle we have.
  3. You DON’T really need cardio if your diet is on point, but it can still help you out on the way to a higher “Total daily energy expenditure”. (Yes, really, even if you’re obese- It’s all about calories in and calories out.)

If you haven’t yet understood how the process of weight loss works, make sure to read our “weight loss” section, before doing these workouts. Losing weight is not just doing cardio and eating salads, there’s science behind it and you should know it, for the sole purpose of making the process enjoyable and easier!

Keep in mind, these workouts, ARE NOT made for people who are looking to compete (competition weight loss requires a more specialized approach, which we will cover later on in this section. If you are someone with competitive goals, go to the ‘Competitive Season’ article).

These workouts can be used by regular trainees, who have gotten out of shape during their “off-season” (aka muscle building period), or even overweight/obese people, who have no idea of the workouts they should be doing.

Again, it’s NOT the workout that makes you lose weight, it’s the CALORIES (Diet)! The workouts just help you retain and shape up that precious muscle.

Now let’s move on to the actual workouts.

Goals with the workouts

  • Achieve higher density of the workload
  • Retain muscle as much as possible
  • Achieve greater detail and shape of the musculature

Principles and methods applied

Warm up before every workout:

5-10 minutes of stretching & 10-15 minutes light cardio (Light jog, rope jumps)

Rest times between sets (Don’t forget this, as it is one of the more important things in your weight loss workout):

Using the quality principle, the rest times between sets are no longer than 40 seconds.


Make sure to use full range of motion for each exercise. Focus as much as possible and feel your muscles working, instead of just going through the motion.

Full body split

(Suited mostly for beginners and/or people who do not have serious goals, but rather prefer to maintain an overall shape).

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Full body Rest, Cardio Full body Rest Full body Rest, Cardio Full body

The workouts are done every other day- One day on, one day off. Cardio is done twice a week on rest days.

For each muscle group, you have one exercise with 4 working sets of 10 or more repetitions.

Full Body Workout
Body Part Exercise Repetitions
Chest Flat dumbbell bench press Two warm up sets of 15 and 12 repetitions, using a light weight
4 working sets of 10 repetitions, using a significantly higher weight
Back Lat pull-downs Two warm up sets of 15 and 12 repetitions, using a light weight
4 working sets of 12 repetitions
Shoulders Dumbbell shoulder presses 4 sets of 12 repetitions
Biceps Straight bar curls 4 sets of 12 repetitions
Triceps Bench dips (Additional weight can be used if your strength allows it) 3 sets of 15 repetitions
Legs Body-weight squats 5 sets of 15
Leg presses 3 sets of 12
Standing calf raises 3 sets of 15
Seated calf raises 3 sets of 20
Lower back hyper-extensions 3 sets of 15

Typical split

(Suited for intermediate and advanced athletes)

 

DAY 1
Body Part Exercise Repetitions
Chest Incline barbell bench press Warm up sets- 15,12 repetitions
Working sets- 3 sets of 10 repetitions
Flat dumbbell bench press 3 sets of 12 repetitions
Cable crossovers (Isolation) 3 sets of 15 repetitions
Biceps Straight bar curls 2 sets of 15 repetitions
Dumbbell preacher curls (Isolation) 3 sets of 12 repetitions per arm
Incline bench dumbbell curls 3 sets of 12 repetitions
Dumbbell hammer curls 2 sets of 15 repetitions
DAY 2
Body Part Exercise Repetitions
Back Pull ups 3 sets until failure
Cable rows 3 sets of 12 repetitions
Narrow grip lat pulldowns (Using the V pulley from the cable row machine) 3 Sets of 12 repetitions
Dumbbell pullovers 2 sets of 15 repetitions
Triceps Weighted bench dips 4 sets of 12 repetitions
Overhead dumbbell triceps extension (two arms) 2 sets of 12 repetitions
Rope push-downs 2 sets of 15 repetitions
DAY 3
Lower Body & Shoulders
Body Part Exercise Repetitions
Quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes Body-weight squats 3 sets of 15 repetitions
Barbell squats 4 sets of 12-15 repetitions
Hack squats 3 sets of 10 repetitions
Leg presses 3 sets of 15 repetitions
Leg extensions 2 sets of 15 repetitions
Romanian dead-lift 3 sets of 10 repetitions
Calf & Ham super-sets Standing calf raises + Laying hamstring curls 3 sets of 12 repetitions
Seated calf raises + standing hamstring curls 2 sets of 15 repetitions
Lower back hyper-extensions 3 sets of 15 repetitions
Shoulders Dumbbell shoulder presses 3 sets of 12 repetitions
Dumbbell lateral raises (each arm done separately) 4 sets of 12 repetitions per side
Dumbbell front raises 2 sets of 15 repetitions per side

Upper-lower super-set based split

(Suited for advanced athletes)

The workouts are done in a “2 days on 1 day off” fashion.
Cardio is done 2 times a week on rest days.

 

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Upper body Lower body Rest, cardio Upper body Lower body Rest, cardio Repeat

 

Upper Body
Body Part Exercise Repetitions
Chest & back super-sets Incline barbell bench press + Lat pull-downs First two sets- 15 and 12 repetitions
Last 3 sets- 10-12 repetitions
Flat dumbbell bench press + Cable rows 5 sets of 12 repetitions
Stretching exercise for the chest and back Dumbbell pullovers 2-3 sets of 15 repetitions
Biceps & triceps super-sets Straight bar curls + Machine triceps dips 3 sets of 10
Machine preacher curls + Overhead dumbbell triceps extensions 4 sets of 12
Dumbbell hammer curls + triceps kickbacks 2 sets of 15
Shoulders Dumbbell shoulder presses 2 sets of 12
Lateral raises with a dumbbell (done with both arms simultaneously) 4 sets of 12
Front raises with a disk 2 sets of 15
Lower Body
Body Part Exercise Repetitions
Quadricpes, hamstrings and glutes Body-weight squats 3 sets of 15
Barbell squats 4 sets of 12
Walking dumbbell lunges 2 sets of 15 per leg
Quad & ham super-sets Leg presses + Dumbbell Romanian dead-lifts 4 sets of 15 and 12 for each exercise respectively
Leg extensions + Hamstring curls 4 sets of 15
Standing calf raises with a barbell 3 sets of 12
Seated calf raises 4 sets of 15
Abs & lower back super-sets Hanging leg raises + lower back hyper-extensions 5 sets of 15

Cardio

f you’ve stumbled upon this article and have no idea how to do your cardio workouts, DO checkout our article on “Cardio for beginners“.

Posing

If you haven’t yet found out about the massive benefits of doing isometric contractions (Flexing your muscles through bodybuilding poses) make sure to read our article on ‘Posing‘.

Important notes

  1. During your fat loss phase, you are supposed to use relatively LIGHTER weights without reaching failure.
  2. Keep full range of motion and proper exercise form
  3. Keep your NUTRITION in check, as the workouts won’t cut it! You can’t expect to see results, if you have a half decent nutrition plan and your workouts suck. Gaining muscle, losing weight or just maintaining your shape (Whatever your goal is) is 100% nutrition and 100% training. It’s never 70% nutrition and 30% workouts as you might hear from a lot of the “Fitness gurus” out there.
  4. Progress takes TIME. You don’t suddenly get results after 6 months of training and eating right. You make small improvements with each day of consistency, the thing is- that progress stacks up, leading to a significant, visible result!

If you have troubles with your workouts and stop seeing significant progress, analyze your nutrition and your training cycle to eliminate the possible mistakes you might be making. If you cannot do that yourself, we are always here to help you.
In case you need INDIVIDUAL approach and guidance, make sure to e-mail us via our ‘Individual coaching’ section.