5 Unconventional Workouts That Burn Fat

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When you decide to burn fat, you should think about it in terms of a process, a lifestyle change that needs commitment and determination. Extreme weight loss in a short amount of time can lead to severe health problems and an almost guaranteed rebound effect. Diet, exercise, and behavioral changes in our everyday routines open the path to health and wellbeing.

Unfortunately, while many people are able to follow a diet and make the necessary changes, not many are fond of traditional and conventional fitness and training routines.

Nevertheless, what is an unconventional workout? Such types of fitness routines become more and more popular due to the intensity of the workouts, the significant amount of burnt fat, the originality of the gear, and the innovation brought by the mix of methods and exercise types.

If you ever saw somebody working out with huge ropes or training like a maniac only for a few seconds, it means you witnessed some unconventional workout methods. Today, we will present you with five such novelty workouts for you to burn fat, have some fun, and build a healthy body.

1. Plyometrics

The plyometric workout relies on a physical phenomenon called post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). This means that plyos allow you to burn fat hours after your training session is over. The exercises enhance force generation in your muscles.

They also encourage the activation of fast-twitch muscle fibers, just as all-out sprints do. In other words, they help you lose fat while you train and after you train, with the added benefit that they also build your muscles and tone your body.

Plyometrics rely on a mix of exercises you need to perform fast, with very short periods between rounds and no resting between the exercises.  One drawback of plyometrics is the fact that you need to tailor your own cardio training before you begin the actual exercise to stay safe from muscle pulls and sprains.

Plyometrics mix in squat jumps, medicine ball passes and twists, box jumps, and jump lunges. It is intense, diverse, and challenging. You will surely not get bored. You need to make sure, however, that you also follow a proper diet.

2. Shin Ohtake’s Max Workouts

Former athlete Shin Ohtake is currently a legend in the world of training, fat burning, and body strengthening. His Max Workouts program is an unconventional, no nonsense approach to fat losing and body building on all levels.

The Max Workouts program also follows the principles of Exercise After-Burn effect – meaning you will lose weight and burn fat for at least 24 hours after you finished training. The program does use conventional (yet minimal) gear, such as dumbbells. It relies on short exercises performed at high levels of intensity, with no rest in between exercises and with little rest between rounds.

The Max Workouts basic program lasts about 90 days and you have to work only a few minutes a day. One of the greatest advantages of the program is that Shin offers more than just the high-intensity circuit exercises. His program comes with a selection of intense interval cardio exercises you should perform when you do not engage in the high-intensity training. He also allows you to choose what cardio to follow, as long as you respect the times, the reps numbers, and the resting intervals to a tee.

The Max Workout program is complex and not recommended to beginners, seniors and the elderly. It is quite hard. For this reason, Shin also offers a wide palette of warmup exercises for you to perform before you engage in the high-intensity ones.

The exercises represent a mix of pull-ups, push-ups, deadlifts, and squats. They are diverse, versatile, and challenging. The best part is that you receive complete guidelines on how to perform them.

As an athlete, Shin knows very well that diet and exercise go hand in hand if you want to lose fat and never see it again, so he also offers a bonus – a dieting manual telling you what to eat and what to avoid to keep your body slim, fit, and healthy. We have to admit, not many workout programs deal with fat loss in such a complex manner, focusing on warmup, cardio, training, and diet.

3. The Battle Ropes Workout

You can use the Battle Ropes Workout as a standalone exercise if you do not have much time, but you do want to burn plenty of calories. Battle Ropes rely on a popular concept and phenomenon in weight loss and fitness: high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Medicine and sports are both focusing on HIIT as a method of improving endurance in athletes.

For weight loss, however, HIIT has at least one major benefit: it improves anaerobic conditioning, essential for stripping your body of unwanted calories and pounds. The ropes are no joke, either, and the full exercise increases muscle mass while working your bones, joints, and every fiber in your body.

The novelty of the exercise comes from the fact that it mixes heavy ropes waving with a series of more traditional exercises, such as jumps, lunges, or squats, among others. Each exercises lasts about 30 seconds, followed by 30 seconds of rest. The idea is to perform the exercises in a row in a round and take two minutes of rest in between rounds.

Just like the two workouts mentioned before, this one can also become a part of your lifestyle and use it for body maintenance and wellbeing after you lost the weight you needed to lose.

4. Sandbag Training

This type of training became very popular in the last years, as a healthy and efficient alternative to traditional workouts. The science behind sandbag training relies on the concept of “functional training” – training that mimic natural human movement, the requirements of real physical activities or individual needs.

The main goal of sandbag training is to optimize time, use a little amount of resources, and enhance weight loss and fitness in a different manner.

In short, a sandbag workout means Olympic lifting with sandbags instead of barbells. It sounds easy and boring at a first glance, but it is an intense, versatile, and rewarding workout. It is a mix of Tabata principles and military training if you like. Not for the inexperienced or unmotivated ones, as it represents quite the challenge.

You will have to perform back squats, floor presses, military presses, Tabata thrusting, extensions, and so on. A four-week program shows very good results for weight loss and strength training.

5. Dancing

You did not expect to see this on the list, but if you thought Zumba dance is just a hobby, science begs to differ. Dancing involves all your muscles and many of your cognitive skills to work out in tandem. It boosts the mood as well and teaches you coordination, balance, posture, and grace. Zumba is not the only type of dancing-meets-cardio you can engage in to lose weight. Any type of dancing actually helps you build muscles and burn fat in one of the most entertaining manners.

Actually, dancing is one of the most entertaining forms of interval training, if you follow the rules: dance hard and rest well in between two sessions. Of course, dancing to lose weight needs more than just going to the club once a weekend.

Dancing is beneficial not only for your body, but for your mind and lifestyle as well.

What other unconventional workouts would you follow to lose weight and build a brilliant mind in a healthy body?

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