The Perfect Fat Loss Workout

Several years ago I was at a conference where one of my favorite coaches were speaking, Pavel Tsatsouline. Now, Pavel is best known for making kettlebells popular in the world again, however, he does know how to talk some other interesting points. If you know Pavel’s work, you will no doubt know his passion for the deadlift. In fact, when he was presenting, he was sharing about how powerful the deadlift was, to the point when someone asked him a question it became a bit of a comedy routine. 

Attendee: So, what is your favorite exercise for strength?

Pavel: The deadlift.

Attendee: So, what is your favorite exercise for fat loss?

Pavel: The deadlift.

Attendee: So, what is your favorite muscle building exercise?

Pavel: The deadlift. 

You get the point and see where that conversation went. You might think Pavel was just being dogmatic about the deadlift (maybe he was), but there was a bigger point to be made here. We often think that certain exercises fit different needs. Some are for fat loss, some for muscle, some for strength, others even for corrective exercise. However, the take home idea we can take home from Pavel’s new stand up, is the fact that the exercises that are great for one thing, are often great for many. 

Pretty cool to have one of my early speaking gigs along side Pavel, Dan John, and Charles Staley

Of course we have to assume you do them well, but what changes the intent is largely programming, not the exercise. 

Another Pavel classic idea was “same but different”. This fits well with today’s lesson because people often look for drastically new exercises to get new results. Part of that is boredom, but part of it is that they don’t realize how subtle changes can create profound results!

In DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training I take pride in the fact that we probably do the best job of representing that concept in our system. I want to demonstrate both of these points today by using the routine I posted about yesterday (you can read it HERE if you missed it). 

I posed yesterday’s workout as a functional muscle building one and it TOTALLY is! However, it doesn’t mean it is ONLY a muscle building workout. Using the style of programming I shared also allows it to be a tremendous fat loss workout, endurance program, and fix a lot of movement issues. 

The question really comes up in maybe how do you progress it? In DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training the answer COULD be going heavier, but since we don’t go up by 5 pound increments that might be too challenging for someone. 

If you found that yesterday’s workout was too easy (number one you are a true stud!), you can use Pavel’s lesson of “same but different” and add small tweaks to make it again, one of those workouts that does everything. 

How?

Change your Clean and Press to a Sprinter Stance Clean and Press.

Make your Front Loaded Squat either a Sprinter Stance, Lunge, or Shoulder Squat.

Your Leg Threading, sloooooowwwww down! Like seriously as slow as you can. For those a bit older, think of Keanu Reeves moving in the Matrix. 

The workout can look like this….

-Leg Threading Right x 2 reps

-Sprinter Stance Clean and Press Right x 4 reps

-Front Loaded Forward Step Lunge Right x 6 reps 

Try to do these three without resting. Then take as little rest as you can and repeat the left side. Keep going back and forth and see how many rounds you can complete in 20-25 minutes. 

What you will experience is exactly what I promised. The perfect blend of fat loss training, strength boosting, and muscle building synergy. Great training doesn’t have to be complicated and never does making progression if you have an awesome system to keep following!

If you love learning innovative techniques like this, don’t miss our LAST DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training program of the year at the very cool Brooklyn Athletic Club HERE