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When you work in the fitness industry there are typically swing periods, just like any other business. For some businesses, these swing periods are seemingly unexplainable. For the world of fitness, it’s pretty damn obvious.
For example, New Years. The start of a new year is the obvious time for most people to try and get their fitness house in order.
But following New Years there are a few different interesting periods of time. My friend and non-sexual/okay maybe sexual life partner John Romaniello made an interesting observation about gym attendance dropping and Valentine’s Day, for example.
All of those being said, a time of year that gym attendance picks back up each and every year is right around the end of March and beginning of April. Another one is fall right before the holiday season. Every October gyms fill back up with people who are looking to prepare just a little bit to get ready for the calorie bombs they’ll detonate during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And I’m all for that. You do you, boo. Because I love you and want your life to be as easy as possible, here’s a bit about fat loss workouts and using dumbbells to facilitate your fat loss efforts.
Fat loss and dumbbells.
When it comes to fat loss season I’m a big fan of trying to condense workouts as much as possible. I’ll bro out with the best of bros and spend hours in the gym on machines and getting an arm pump. But fat loss requires a bit of a different style, and when that’s the goal, I’m more than happy to incorporate some different techniques.
One of those is placing more of an emphasis on utilizing free weights. Specifically tools like dumbbells.
Why?
Dumbbells are one the most common items in gyms across the world. They’re ubiquitous to the point that even a hotel gym that’s poorly outfitted is going to have dumbbells that you can make use of. They may not be heavy, but they’re there. And sometimes that’s all we can make due with.
And let’s not kid ourselves, when it comes to fat loss and travel, convenience can make or break your efforts. If you can make your workouts convenient and adaptable, then they’re bound to be workouts that you do far more often.
When you’re following workouts more often you’re probably going to be nailing your nutrition goals more often. And when you nail your nutrition goals more often, you’re probably going to start looking awesome more often.
See how momentum works?
Oh, but dumbbells stop at just being convenient.
Dumbbells are the very functional definition of a free weight. They move freely and independently, with the only contact point being your hand. You can move them wherever you damn well please, and that means you can get a lot of shit done with some dumbbells.
Thanks to this we have an increased range of motion, we have greater stabilization elements at work, and we have greater ease of use. Which is just a fitness douchebag way of saying you can do more shit with them a bit more easily than you can with barbells.
So, sold on dumbbells? Good. You should be. And in case you were wondering just what the fuck you’re going to start doing with dumbbells, here’s a badass little fat loss workout that involves only dumbbells that I love doing when I’m crunched for time.
Keep in mind this should be fast paced, with short rest periods and a lot of muscles moving at once. Which means you’re going to burn through a metric fuck ton of calories. Which, in case you were wondering, is good for those of you trying to get shredded.
Okay, cool. Here you go:
- A1. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift x12 reps
- A2. Dumbbell bent over row x12 reps per arm
- A3. Push-up x15 reps
- A4. Dumbbell reverse lunge x8 reps per side
Repeat 4 rounds total, resting 90 seconds between each round.
- B1. Dumbbell goblet squat x15 reps
- B2. Deadbugs x5 breaths
- B3. Single leg hip thrust x 12 reps per side
Repeat 3 rounds total, resting 60 seconds between each round.
- C1. Thruster x10 reps
- C2. Bear crawl x30 seconds
Repeat 3 rounds total, resting 60 seconds between each round.
A few tips:
If you’ve got a lot of dumbbells available to you, don’t try and keep the weight for the Romanian deadlift and the bent over row the same. You’re probably going to handle a bit more weight for the RDL, so let yourself show out a bit here.
On the deadbugs, focus hard on blowing ALL of your air out with each rep. If you’re not feeling your abs tighten up and contract hard, you’re not getting rid of enough air.
Thrusters suck gigantic monster D.
Don’t be afraid to move to a kneeling push-up. Ain’t no shame in that game.
And there you have it, folks. Give this a run through a couple of times a week as you get ready for the holiday season, or when you’re on the road, and let me know what you think.