3 Best Exercises for Strength, Fat Loss

There will always be ongoing debate about which workouts and exercises are the best for rapid results.

It is important, however, to apply the science of conditioning and physiology to understand what exercises are best suited for strength & fat loss. The exercises that are going to have the most notable impact on your program are those that simultaneously work the whole body, challenge the body’s stability and mobility, and make progress easy to track.

This is the key to quantify results. The following three exercises are in my opinion the best for strength and fat loss:

The Double Kettlebell Front Squat: The double kettlebell front squat is an amazing exercise for building strength, promoting fat loss, working your abs and maintaining good posture.

Take 2 kettlebells and hold them by the handles with the bells resting on the back of your wrists (known as the rack position). You want the bells directly in front of the shoulders with your elbows pointing down and your feet about hip width apart.

Slowly push your hips back sitting into your heels while keeping your knees aligned over your toes and your chest tall. With your abs held tight push from your heels to drive yourself out of the bottom position back to a tall standing position. To progress on this exercise work towards getting your hips at least parallel to your knees on the way down and strive to gradually achieve efficiency with greater loads. 

The Pull Up: Every fitness professional will tell you that the pull up is one of the best exercises you can do for building strength.

There are 3 different grip positions to master with the pull up and they include supinated grip (palms up), neutral grip (palms turned to the side facing each other), and prone grip (palms forward).

You can begin these variations in an assisted fashion by wrapping a large resistance band around the bar and then around one of your legs (keeping the knee bent) and slowly work towards doing pull ups free from assistance. Simply find a bar 6-8 feet off of the ground choose your grip take a deep breath in and forcefully exhale as your pull your chin to the bar. As you lower yourself down take another deep breath and repeat. Mark your improvement by the number of reps you can complete with and without assistance.

The TRX Atomic Push Up: This exercise can be done with the TRX Suspension Trainer (), which can be secured to any stable bar 7-10 feet off of the ground or in a doorway.

Lengthen the TRX so that the foot cradles are parallel to middle of the calf and then secure both feet in each of the foot cradles and assume a kneeling pushup position.

When ready extend the legs so your body is fully suspended off the ground in a push up position. Lower yourself towards the ground keeping your abs contracted and your elbows close to your body. As you press yourself up from the bottom position and your arms are fully extend, pull your knees forward toward your chest and then extend your legs back to your starting position and repeat.

This exercise can be further challenged by increasing or decreasing pace, securing only one leg in the TRX while leaving the other leg free, or by wearing a weighted vest. All of these will demonstrate marked improvement in this exercise.

The best thing about these three exercises is that they work a squatting motion, a pulling motion, and a pushing motion, and most importantly, all inadvertently target and strengthen the abs as well.

Because these exercises work many muscles in the body simultaneously, they are very effective for building strength, burning fat, and are easy to monitor for tracking progress.

For more detailed information on these exercises or tools, contact BT Fitness at www.bt-fit.com.