The other night I was chatting with a friend about her gym routine. She (who gave me permission to reference our conversation) just started a new gym routine with a friend, and her particular goals are to tone up and firm up. Of course, this really means to lose a little body fat and possibly gain a little muscle mass, both of which are goals of nearly every female client who comes to me.

When I asked said friend what she was doing for her gym routine, she said:

“Well, tomorrow we are doing biceps and triceps.”

Now, before I go on, let me say that I have no qualms about how others work out, so long as they’re not my clients. If someone wants to try and lose weight by doing biceps curls, have at it. I’m not here to shame, poke fun of, or seem superior.

That said, I know this is a very common misconception. I see it all of the time in the gym – women who’s primary goal is to lose weight – training smaller muscles with isolated moves that produce very little metabolic demand. If their primary goal was to build their arm muscles, then they’d be doing the exact best thing for that. But it’s typically not…

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I’ll also say that if your diet is on point, it’s absolutely possible to ‘tone up’ doing these sorts of exercises. It’s possible to lose weight without exercising at all (not that I’d recommend that)! But in my 8+ years of research and experience in the fitness industry, it’s not the most efficient and effective way to strength train to lose body fat.

So now that we’ve got all of the PC matter out of the way, let’s get to the nitty gritty of the post: 5 Ways to Strength Train for Fat Loss

1. Perform Compound Movements

Multi-joint, compound movements mean exercises that hinge at joints to produce workload at more than one muscle group. Think exercises like squats (working the glutes, hamstrings, core, and quads) and push ups (working the chest, shoulders, and triceps.) By performing push ups, you’re not only working the triceps muscles, but also two other muscles groups! You’re getting more bang for your buck by doing compound exercises, as they’re much more metabolically demanding than isolation exercises like triceps kickbacks. This means you’re not only strengthening muscle groups, but burning more calories while you’re at it.

Instead of doing leg extensions, which only work the quads in isolation, do squats, which not only work the quads, but also two-three other major muscle groups!

2. Focus on Larger Muscle Groups 

Place your focus, energy, and attention on the larger muscles groups first. The larger the muscle, the more energy expenditure (aka calorie burn) it takes to move/work it. It’s fine if you want to work the triceps or calves to feel that “burn,” but save them until the end, when you have less energy to put into your workout.

3. Lift Heavy (Enough) Weights

Make sure to choose a weight that’s challenging enough so that you can only perform maybe 1 more at the end of your rep range. If you finish your set – whether timed or counted – feeling like you could keep going, it’s likely time to increase the weight. While I don’t adhere to the “no pain no gain” mantra, if it’s a cinch, it’s probably not doing you much of a service.

4. Increase Intensity

Your workouts don’t need to be long to be effective. Strength workouts as short as 15 minutes can be incredibly effective – as long as the intensity it high enough. Increase intensity by keeping your heart rate relatively high throughout it, and minimizing rest times.

5. Include Circuits/Complexes/Combo’s, etc.

I love playing with the format of my and my clients’ workouts to increase intensity. There are many ways to do this, but some of my favorites include circuits, complexes, and using combination exercises.

Metabolic Resistance Circuits keep you moving quickly from one exercise to the next, with little rest in between. As long as you’re moving from compound exercise to compound exercise, your heart rate should stay elevated, and you’ll get a huge metabolic effect.

Combo or Combination Exercises is another great way to get much more bang for your buck. Combo exercises are different from compound exercises in that you’re working two separate muscle groups by combining two different exercises. Think a squat + press, a lunge + row, step up + hip extension, etc.

Complexes are another super fun way to increase intensity. They can be a bit advanced, depending on what tool you’re using, so my advice would be to work your way up to them.

(^TRX Complex Workout!!)

Of course, there are many other fun ways to change up the format of a workout to increase intensity, but these are some of my favorites. You can read more about different interval workouts in this 5 Metabolic Workouts post I wrote last May.

For additional strength training for fat loss workouts, you can check out the following posts – or just head over to my Pinterest page, where I pin all of my metabolic strength workouts!

At Home Circuit Workout

20 Minute Conditioning Circuit

TRX Complex Workout

Bodyweight Circuit Workout

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How long are your workouts typically?

Do you ever do complex workouts?