Losing a significant amount of weight can take time, and patience is key. Your trip should be done at a safe and healthy pace that suits your body best. At the same time, you can give your weight loss process a jump start by establishing a goal that you can work towards and a clear method of how you want to reach that point. With that in mind, you’ll want to check out the following four-week weight loss challenge from a certified personal trainer Alicia Jones.
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Jones tells Eat this, not that!“When you’re trying to lose weight, the name of the game is to gain as much lean mass as possible to get your metabolism up. (And no, ladies, this won’t bulk you up, because women we don’t have enough testosterone to bulk up.) This is because lean mass is very metabolically active. It needs more calories to maintain its tone and strength.
Jones emphasizes the importance of improving your muscle mass by targeting as many muscles as you can with each exercise you perform. To make every move count, she suggests jumping into the following exercises for a four-week weight loss challenge that will lead to a leaner, healthier you.
“Because these exercises are intense for full-body muscle growth, which will help you lose weight and tone from head to toe, you only need to do these exercises two to three days a week,” points out Jones. “Remember that it is actually during rest that the body repairs itself stronger, and you are working on the fat burning potential! So less is more!”
1. Lunge with Row
The single-row lunge targets every major muscle in your body. Jones recommends starting your four-week weight loss challenge with this variation.
Here’s how to do it:
- Hold a dumbbell in your left hand.
- Take a big step back with your left leg.
- Bend your right knee to lower into a lunge position.
- Step forward and extend your left arm toward the ground.
- Row the dumbbell up towards your torso.
- Lower the weight back toward the floor.
- Do 1 to 3 sets of 15 reps per side.
2. Quick squats
Then prepare for quick squats. “Another trick when using exercise for weight loss is to add a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) component to your weight training session,” explains Jones. “That way, not only will you improve muscle mass and speed up your metabolism, but you’ll burn more calories over the next 72 hours.” This exercise will help you achieve exactly that.
Here’s how to do it:
- Start with your feet planted shoulder width apart.
- Bend both knees and push your hips back to lower into a squat.
- Lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
- Push back up.
- As you feel more comfortable, start doing this faster and continue for a full minute.
- Rest for a minute and a half before completing the exercise again until you reach 3 to 5 sets.
3. Bridge with chest press
Next, you want to tackle a bridge with a chest press. As Jones points out, “Again, working the big muscles in your body is the best way to lose weight and burn more calories because you’re hitting more muscles.”
Here’s how to do it:
- Lie flat on your back on the floor, holding a dumbbell in each hand.
- Make sure your feet are planted on the ground and your knees are shoulder width apart.
- Press through your heels to lift your hips until your body forms a bridge.
- Remain in the bridge as you perform a chest press with the dumbbells and press them over your chest.
- Aim for 3 sets of 15 reps.
4. Boxing Jab HIIT exercise
“This HIIT exercise tones your arms and gets your abs and back involved in the workout all at once,” says Jones. “What I especially love about this exercise is that anyone can do it. It’s low impact and easy on the joints, but it literally ‘packs a punch.'” Again, you’re both engaging large muscles like your back, abs, and legs, but you also get the HIIT component for maximum fat burning.”
Here’s how to do it:
- Begin standing in boxing stance.
- Make fists with your hands, placing them in front of your face.
- Twist your hips and torso to the left while taking a “punch” with your left hand. Hold your right hand to your face.
- Turn back and switch hands.
- Complete 2 minutes of punching and rest for 1 minute.
- Complete 2 rounds.
5. Burpees
Finally, to finish off this productive four-week weight loss challenge, you’ll want to do burpees. Jones says of this part of the workout, “This is another exercise that works as both HIIT and full-body toning.”
Here’s how to do it:
- Stand tall with your feet shoulder width apart.
- Lower into a squat.
- Place your hands on the floor between your feet.
- Extend one leg back, then the other, to form a plank.
- Perform any pushup.
- Jump your feet back into a squat.
- Explosively jump up.
- Do 3 sets of 15 reps.
