Fat Loss Tip! Keep Your Body Guessing

By Craig Ballantyne

Do bodybuilders know it all? Have they been right all along that you have to keep your body guessing to burn fat and lose fat? Do you have to change your workouts all the time? Or can you do the same strength training and cardio exercise each time you go into the gym?

You have to "keep your body guessing". That's the classic phrase that goes around the gym, passed from one bodybuilder to the next as they try out new routines and techniques.

But does this old bodybuilder phrase hold true?

Well, I think it does.

And that's why I strongly recommend changing the variables in your training program every 3-4 weeks. Each month you should change the exercises, or switch up the sets and reps for each exercise, or try new training methods.

If you're going on 3 straight months of the same program, then I'll bet you're also going on 2 straight months of no results.

So you must change.

Even with the best strength and interval programs, you have to switch the workouts up on a regular basis. Heck, that's one of the main principles of a good fat loss program - Variety in strength training and cardio exercise.

If you don't switch it up, your body will not change, adapt, or improve in order to handle the different workouts.

Here are some changes you should make...

Switch from long, slow steady cardio to interval cardio (although I hope that you've done this a long time ago).

Sub in bodyweight circuits for interval cardio, as many men and women are now doing with the strength and interval variety in training philosophy.



With hundreds of bodyweight exercises possible, you can create an infinite number of different bodyweight circuits to keep your workouts fresh, and to keep your body guessing - so that you are always applying the ever important "metabolic turbulence" to your body. Fun workouts that give you results. That's what exercise should be all about.

Or if you prefer to exercise with free weights and build more muscle, switch from squats and hamstring curls to single-leg dumbbell exercises, or from barbell presses to dumbbell presses - and change the incline while you are at it.

Use heavier weights, fewer repetitions, and sometimes 4 sets instead of just 3.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked home gym fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Bodyweight exercise workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.