Just eating broccoli, drinking plenty of water and pacing on the treadmill for hours won’t make those extra pounds go away, you know.
Instead, if your plan is to trim your body fat once and for all, you should focus on choosing a good full-body workout to help you get real results.
Why full body workouts for fat loss ?
Because that’s the way to torch as many fat cells as possible! Full-body workouts activate all muscles in the body, especially the largest ones, and allow you to work with great intensity and frequency, thus forcing your body to turn into a highly efficient calorie-burning machine.
By utilizing exercises that work as many muscle fibers as possible, full-body workouts will help you achieve a constant progress in building lean muscle.
Furthermore, people who regularly perform full-body workouts have increased muscular recovery rates and higher levels of testosterone!
Below we have selected what we consider to be the 3 best full-body workouts for fat loss, check them out! Each one is best paired with a certain dieting style, which is a must-have combo when looking for optimal results in the shortest period possible.
And if you’re ready for that final battle with unwanted fat, make sure to try them!
Just One Word of Advice
Considering that fat loss requires a reduced calorie intake, you should be careful about the total volume you perform at the gym. It’s harder for the body to fully recover after exercise when its energy reserves are running low.
And if you get into the loop of constant near-recovery, you will be one step closer to overtraining and screwing up most of your progress. Besides, you are most likely to struggle to come back as strong with each session.
This is why we recommend you to perform one of the following workouts 3 times per week and leave a 48-hour window for rest and recovery between each two sessions, or at least try to do minimum-intensity activities during the off-days.
In addition, if you make sure your dieting efforts are also flawless, you are guaranteed to achieve top-level results.
1. Low-Volume Multi-Joint Style
For whom?
This workout would be the most useful for those who are eating a low-carb diet in order to get leaner, as it has a reduced volume and therefore wouldn’t leave their muscles totally depleted afterward.
In other words, thanks to the low rep range involved, those who are craving to see the famous “muscle pump” are better off scrolling a bit further down.
Here, your primary aim will be to maintain the previous weight you had been using on the bar so that you can keep your strength level constant.
For best results, alternate between these two workouts.
WORKOUT 1
EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
Barbell Squat | 3 | 6-8 |
Barbell Bench Press (medium grip) | 3 | 6-8 |
Bent-Over Barbell Row | 3 | 6-8 |
Upright Barbell Row | 3 | 6-8 |
Crunches | 3 | 8-10 |
WORKOUT 2
EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
Barbell Deadlift | 3 | 6-8 |
Barbell Incline Bench Press (medium grip) | 3 | 6-8 |
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown | 3 | 6-8 |
Lateral Raise (with bands) | 2 | 6-8 |
Standing Calf Raise | 2 | 8-10 |
Superman | 2 | 8-10 |
2. Full Body Depletion Style
If you prefer cycling your carbs, you need a cutting full-body workout that will eliminate nearly all carbohydrates from the body, so that when you follow it up with a high-carb meal, the muscles will absorb as much of it as possible, thus promoting better recovery and better gains.
Carb cycling can help retain lean muscle mass while cutting, increase energy levels and most importantly, prevent weight loss plateaus due to a slowed metabolism.
Perform the following workout once in a while, especially when your fat-burning efforts have come to a stall, to accelerate the work of your fat-burning enzymes.
That being said, it’s best done in a circuit fashion where you do one set of each exercise and then proceed onto the next. Keep the rest pauses short to increase metabolic stress.
DEPLETION FULL BODY WORKOUT
EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
Leg Press | 2 | 10-15 |
Barbell Bench Press (medium grip) | 2 | 10-15 |
Seated Cable Rows | 2 | 10-15 |
Barbell Shoulder Press | 2 | 10-15 |
Barbell Lunge | 2 | 10-15 |
Butterfly | 2 | 10-15 |
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown | 2 | 10-15 |
Side Lateral Raise | 2 | 10-15 |
Standing Calf Raise | 2 | 10-15 |
Dumbbell Bicep Curl | 2 | 15-20 |
Push-Ups | 2 | 15-20 |
Hanging Leg Raise | 2 | 15-20 |
3. Time-Pressed Full Body Style
This last variation of a cutting full-body workout is best suited for people with a very busy schedule and very little free time, who are usually trying to find workouts that allow them to make the most use of their gym time.
Therefore, the following high-intensity workout is designed to be maximally effective, and to help you balance your cardio workouts.
Who ever said that you must slave to the gym in order to get in shape? In fact, more and more research studies suggest that shorter, high-intensity workouts can yield greater results than conventional fitness routines.
This is mainly because intense but shorter bouts of exercise can boost long-term exercise capacity, accelerate metabolism and help you burn calories for longer.
TIME-PRESSED FULL BODY WORKOUT
EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
Barbell Full Squat | 2 | 6-8 |
Barbell Bench Press (medium grip) | 2 | 6-8 |
Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 1 | 8 |
Dumbbell Bicep Curl | 1 | 10-12 |
Triceps Pushdown (with rope attachment) | 1 | 10-12 |
Sit-Up | 1 | 15 |