Circuit Training is a great way to combine cardio and strength exercise when you're short on time. The goal of circuit training is to keep you moving and only allow minimal breaks between exercises. If you absolutely must rest, take 10 seconds to walk around and then start again. Whatever you do, the key to a successful weight loss workout is not to stop moving.

The following belly fat exercises target one or two specific muscles by working the fatigue factor on those particular muscles. As you increase the intensity of your workout, circuit training causes you to challenge your strength while pushing your body aerobically. You should be progress through the workout and keep your heart rate up. This allows you to reap the same benefits as the guy who mindlessly logs all those miles on the treadmill. Also, fewer rest periods help your muscles grow.

The following circuit workout is a great weight loss workout. Complete each of the following fitness workout one after the other, with no more than 10 seconds of rest between each. Do at least 10 of the following exercises for the specified amount of time or repetitions (or as long as you can safely do so) and then move to the next exercise. Complete all exercises and you will have one circuit. Try to do at least 2 circuits. Ensure you warm up with 5-10 minutes of light cardio and cool down with 10 minutes of stretching.

1. Push Ups (also known as Press-Ups) - On Knees or Toes - Complete 2 sets, first on the ground and the second with a BOSU Ball facing down (if you have one) for 30 seconds.

2. Squats with Front Kick - Stand with your feet together. Bring your right knee up and extend the leg in a front kick, but don't lock your knee! Lower down into a low squat (knees behind toes) and then kick with your left leg. Repeat (right kick, squat, left kick) for 1 minute.

3. Lunge with Biceps Curls - In split stance, slowly lower into lunge (front and back legs at 90 degrees), and curl your forearms towards shoulders. Complete 20-30 seconds on each leg.

4. Burpies – one of the most tiring belly fat exercises. Great to burn calories. Start in a standing position, squat down and place your hands on the floor. Kick your legs out behind you, hold for a second and then bring your legs back to your hands. Next, jump off the floor, straightening up at the waist and jumping as high as you can. After you land, bring your hands to the floor once again; this equals one repetition.

5. Low Side-Step – this belly fat exercises targets your butt and legs
a. Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, arms at sides.
b. Step right foot a stride's length to right side, then squat down, bending both knees and raising arms in front of chest.
c. Stand up, moving left foot toward right foot, hip-distance apart, and lower arms.
d. Continue side-stepping and squatting to right for 30 seconds, then side-step 30 seconds to left.

6. Plank Lift – one the best weight loss workout focuses on your core, legs and chest
a. Begin facedown, balancing on elbows and toes with body in a straight line, abs tight.
b. Keeping legs straight, lift hips toward ceiling, forming an inverted V. Next lower to start position. Continue lifting and lowering hips for 30 seconds, then hold the straight plank position for 30 seconds.

7. High Knees - Running on the spot pick your knees up to waist height and pump your arms. Try doing this same exercise running for 25 yards.

8. Treadmill – try these exercises without starting the treadmill.
a. Manually make the treadmill move without the power (hold on to the handles and push with your legs).
b. Hold the forward handles of treadmill. With your feet at the bottom of the treadmill, hop forward from the bottom of the treadmill (about 12”) and without picking up your feet, push back on the treadmill with your feet).
c. Lie down on the treadmill, facing up with your feet at the bottom. Grab the handles with an outward grip (palms facing out), pull yourself up and then slowly let yourself down. Repeat for 20 seconds. Stay in control.

Next use Dumbbells to supplement your fitness workout. Pick any 2 of the following arm exercises and 1 leg exercise to the above workout. You can add 1 – 2 more exercises as you get in better shape or you can substitute more barbell exercises for some of the above weight loss workout. I always recommend to people that are just beginning circuit, to start by using weights that are comfortable (not too heavy), but that do result in a “burn” as you get to reps 6 – 8.

9. Arm Curls
a. Stand upright with dumbells at your sides.
b. Turn palms inward so they face your body.
c. Curl dumbbells up slowly keeping your elbows at your side. Keep your back straight throughout the exercise. If you can’t do this, then you are using too much weight.

10. Overhead Triceps Extensions
a. Stand upright, feet shoulder width apart.
b. Hold dumbbell directly above head with arm fully extended. Clasp elbow with free hand for support.
c. Slowly let elbow fold so dumbbell is lowered behind head. 4. Extend arm back to starting position. Repeat for the desired number of reps and switch arms.

11. Flat Chest Presses
a. Lying flat on a bench, hold dumbbells directly above your chest (arms extended).
b. In a slow, but controlled manner, lower the dumbbells to your chest. Ensure you exhale as you lower the dumbbells and inhale as you raise them.
c. Push the dumbbells back to starting position and repeat. Never lock your elbows.

12. Dumbbell Lunges – my favorite fitness workout to strengthen leg muscles
a. Holding dumbbells at your side, stand upright with feet hip width apart.
b. Step forward about 2 feet with one foot and bend your knee to about 90 degrees. As you plant your foot, bend the trailing knee until it nearly touches the floor.
c. Push off with front foot and return to starting position. Repeat for 30 seconds and change legs.

13. Lateral Raises
a. Stand upright, knees slightly bent, feet shoulder width apart, holding dumbbells at your sides.
b. Bend elbows slightly and raise the dumbbells out to sides. Keep elbows slightly bent throughout.
c. When arms are parallel to floor, slowly lower back and repeat. To benefit most from this workout, raise the dumbbells no higher than your shoulders

14. Shrugs
a. Stand upright, feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent.
b. Keeping arms straight 'shrug' shoulders as high as possible and hold for a count of 3.
c. Relax and repeat. For this exercise to work best, do not roll shoulders when you shrug.

Finish your circuit training workout by stretching for 10 minutes. Ensure you stretch your hamstrings & quads.

Check out more fat burning exercises at Workouts that Burn Fat and Tone Muscle

The idea that there's a specific exercise that you do to "tone" muscle rather than to build muscle is ridiculous. It's one of those long standing myths that keeps getting passed down because people don't bother to look into the scientific facts. It is impossible to "tone" a muscle. Muscles can get larger (or smaller obviously) but they cannot be toned.

The key to muscle mass is a high enough volume of lifts to induce a bit of damage to the muscles. After the muscle is damaged it is important to rest that muscle enough for a full recovery. Ideally when that muscle is recovered, it will be slightly bigger. Over time this builds a larger muscle. The key to muscle tone is to do less volume of sets, but work out more frequently.

*Make sure that you stretch for 5 seconds after every set. This will allow you muscle to be stretched and toned. Please keep in mind that you must breath when you are stretching in order to provide enough oxygen to the muscles. People tend to omit this when building muscle, that is why their muscles are so ugly! * Remember to do at least 15 minutes of cardio exercises such as jogging or walking to lose weight and to burn fat. By doing so, you are actually burning your fat. The effect of fat burning after muscle building exercises is much better and more effective. This is because your body has been stimulated to burn more calorie and fat after the muscle building workouts. *Do light weight exercises. People who are going for building muscle mass tend to forget this because what they are thinking is getting bigger muscles but not nicely toned muscles. You have to do light weight exercises! Remember, when doing light weight exercises, you have to do more repetitions in one set.

In conclusion, you will need to do exercises like walking to lose weight, stretching as well as light weight lifting to tone up your muscles. Besides, you will have to lose body weight. Therefore, you should have a proper muscle building diet. It should contain high protein, low fat, low carbohydrates. Check out here more related information truth about building muscles

Why exercise? Exercise although it gets a lot of attention and publicity does not seem to get incorporated into most peoples lives. Every year millions of individuals make the big New Years Resolution that this is the year they are goes to lose weight and get in shape but very few follow through. They focus for many is to drop the pounds for the sake of their appearance when in really the focus should be on health. If everyone made their own health a priority in their own lives weight would no longer be an issue because they both go hand in hand.

The benefits of exercise are vast and really endless and go far beyond be able to fit into your favorite outfit or being able to flex your impressive muscles. If is of course true that exercise in combination with a proper balanced diet will lead to weight loss which is a fantastic result however there is really so much more to be gained that most individuals are not even aware of or that is not at the forefront of our mind.

By regularly incorporating a few exercise activities into your life which both strengthen and stretch your muscles you are gaining extraordinary benefits to your health. I am sure most have heard that muscles burn fat, this is true in the sense that there is a direct correlation between the amount of muscle you have and the rate of your metabolism. The more muscle the higher your metabolism. Exercising also has the added bonus of decreasing your appetite.

In addition exercises that work the muscles; known as resistance training also help to strengthen your bones. By doing these types of exercise puts stress on your bones signaling your body to put effort into rebuilding your bones in those areas. This helps to prevent excess bone loss as we age because in reality with out intervention on our part we begin to loss muscle mass from the point we reach our maximum which is in our twenties.

Exercising will also help alleviate joint pain whether it is in your knees, back, hips, or neck in three ways. The first is the natural weight loss that will occur with exercise, as you lose the weight there is less and less stress being put on your joints. The second is the strengthening of the joints themselves. The third deals with the fact that those individuals who exercise tends to have better posture, for instance back pain in a lot of instances is caused by weak muscles of the back and the abdomen. You will notice shortly after you commit to an exercise routine you posture will improve drastically.

Exercise is also important for heart health as the heart is a muscle it is the same as any our tissue in your body, if you do not use it you will lose it. Anytime you workout and increase your heart rate you are strengthening it and your lungs. In addition exercise benefits cardiovascular system as a whole, as it keeps your blood vessels open and clog free which in turn helps to ward off high blood pressure, high cholesterol (the bad kind), heart attacks and strokes.

Another fabulous benefit of exercise is the fact that it stimulates the release of endorphins. Endorphins are essentially chemicals which stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. They will make you feel energized and in control (great stress release). This release of endorphins is so strong that exercise is being successfully used to treat many individuals with depression. In addition with exercise, you will begin to feel stronger, more focused, more energetic, less stressed, and will have improved confidence.

The fact is; those individuals who engage in exercise for the sole purpose of weight loss more often then not give it up because at some point they will hit a wall or plateau and frustration sets in. Plateaus do eventually end but the bigger point is that although the scale is not dropping as quickly as you may like you are improving the strengthen and health of your body. Having a strong healthy body is not only beneficial in the present but it is very beneficial as we age and impacts greatly how we are going to age. Make health your focus and the rest will fall into line.

It’s been proven that long, slow cardio can work for fat loss, but it usually works for young, heavily muscled males with time on their hands. These people can workout for 10+ hours per week.

There’s many men and women out there with little time to train but a real need to lose fat. These people have only 3-4 hours available for workout programs each week and they want to lose belly fat or simply tone their bodies from a weak physique. I have found that for most, slow, traditional cardio is not the way to go.

When we speak about fat burning exercises, we’re speaking about getting the most results in the least amount of training time. High-intensity exercise (strength training and interval training) ramps up your metabolism more than slow, marathon like cardio training sessions. But, with most kinds of training, there is a diminishing return on every set. So you can't expect 4 sets to be twice as good as 2 sets. I have found that as long as you get in 1 hard set, you can be well on your way to successful fat burning and bodysculpting.

During high intensity training, the increased activity results in "afterburn" - which is the burning of more calories after the high-intensity exercise than you would have burned after low-intensity exercise such as slow cardio. Even though you often burn more calories during a long slow cardio workout (approx. 500 calories), when compared to an equal length high-intensity workout programs (using 325 calories), you will burn a lot more calories after the high-intensity training session. The result is more calories burned in a 24 hour period with high-intensity fitness training. If you combine this regimen with muscle-sculpting benefits of strength training, you'll have a better body in no time.

The fact is, muscle burns energy. Think of muscle as the bigger the motor the more gas you use. If you’re completing intervals and weight training, at first you may not lose much weight but your body fat will decrease. The more muscle you have equals more calories burned while using those muscles.

If you have only 30 minutes, get in there and really work your butt off, you will do yourself more good than if you wait until you have that full hour and then work out more slowly.
nutrition and sports are complementary. In addition to completing a regular balanced fitness exercise program, nutrition is the real key to fat loss. With training, all you need to do is apply a relatively small amount of high-intensity exercise to your muscles and you'll sculpt them or build them, whatever your goal.

Today there’s fitness workouts designed for home gyms equipped with only a bench, an exercise ball, and dumbbells (and a pullup bar for those that are strong enough).

Even if all you can do is a bodyweight circuit, do so safely, but with a high intensity. There is a huge variety of bodyweight exercises you can do...these will boost your metabolism.
Make your workouts fun, enjoy your sweet treats in moderation, and stay active with family activities where appropriate. Just don't leave a big ol' "butt imprint" on your couch. If you follow a regular workout programs with high intensity, you'll soon be riding a huge wave of motivation where you can really achieve your fitness goals.

Check out more fat burning exercises at Workouts that Burn Fat and Tone Muscle

This weight loss workouts works for people that have a limited amount of time to exercise. Most of us don't have 6-8 hours per week to workout, nor do we really need it.

Most people use bodyweight exercises to warm-up. They help to build muscle. Bodyweight exercises are a form of weight loss workouts used to develop strength and endurance, where the only resistance to movement is supplied by the weight your own body. Consider using the following bodyweight exercises prior to your fat burning exercise and you’ll be able to get in and out of the gym in 45 - 60 minutes, three times per week.

3 bodyweight exercises

a) Wall walking - Stand with your back to a wall or tree or anything else you can wall walk down. Make sure you are about 3-4 feet away from the wall. Lean backwards and place your hands on the wall behind you. Slowly move your hands down the wall until your hands hit the floor. Arch your back and come up to your tippy-toes as you move further down. THEN, either 1): Turn to your stomach and repeat or 2) Walk BACK UP the wall.

b) Bear Walks – for your arms, back, chest and lower body. These get you out of breath really quickly if you perform them correctly. It’s basically an animal walks. Find a large area to do this exercise. Put all your weigh on your hands and feet. Bring your right hand and left foot forward and then your left hand and right foot. Start RUNNING like this on all fours. Keep going until you’re out of breath.

c) Press Ups - also known as a push-up. This fat burning exercise is performed in a prone position, lying horizontal and face down. Raise and lower the body using the arms. Push ups develop the pectoral and triceps muscles. There’s also some development of the deltoids. To develop other arm, chest, shoulder and back muscles, you can perform variations of the push-up. Planche press-ups are completed with the feet elevated. Boxer’s push-ups are completed while wearing boxing gloves. This means the exercise is done on your knuckles without using your wrists.

Bodyweight exercises are great to get use of your whole body. They are all exercises you can do at home. After completing these exercises, you can move into weight loss workouts where I recommend at least 3 fat burning exercise are performed twice each with minimum rest between each. This way you only need 20-25 minutes to complete your fitness exercise program.

I think that the best way to burn belly fat is with a combination of strength training and interval training. It’s fast, it works, and it’s fun!

Check out more fitness workouts at Workouts that Burn Fat and Tone Muscle