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If you are seeking a smaller waist (who isn’t?), trainers recommend a combination of cardio and strength training to achieve your goal. We spoke to leading certified personal trainer Evan Williams, CSCS, of E2G Performance to learn everything we need to know about getting a tighter waistline, including some 10-minute exercises you can start doing immediately to help you hit your goals.
“The best and fastest way to achieve this goal is to include strength and cardio exercises in their routine. Whether they’re done during the same session or done separately, it’s been proven to be the most effective way to reduce body fat,” Evan explains. “Body fat percentage is a great way to gauge the progress of your goal,” he explains, pointing to the fact that fat mass is mostly stored at the waist area–so this is a perfect area of focus for your workout plan.
So, what exercises should you start with? “When picking exercises, you can look to do exercises that utilize more than one area of the body. This will make the body work harder and help to burn fat faster,” he advises. Without further ado–here are the moves he suggests trying immediately for maximum results:
Kettlebell Swing
How to do it: Start with the kettlebell on the ground out in front of you. Feet should be shoulder width apart. Hinge at the hips with a slight bend at the knees. Grasp the kettle bell and hike the kettlebell back like a football. Stand tall while keeping arms extended and engaging core. Swing kettlebell up to chest height extending the hips and squeezing glutes at top position. Allow the momentum of the kettlebell to bring you back into a hinged position sitting back into the hips. Drive through and extend the hips and repeat.
Key benefits: "The kettlebell swing utilizes strength, power and endurance, making it an efficient fat-reducing exercise," Evan says. "The speed of the movement helps increase heart rate, thus making it easier to burn calories."
Mountain Climbers
How to do it: Start in a plank position, head facing the ground with hands and feet on the ground. Engage the core, glutes and quads. Bring one knee towards the chest while the other leg stays planted in the ground. Bring leg back to start position, while simultaneously bringing the opposite knee towards the chest and repeat.
Key benefits: "Mountain climbers work your abdominal area, upper, and lower body, making it a total body movement," Evan says. "This is a great fat burning exercise due to its ability to quickly increase heart rate, which helps burn calories fast and efficiently."
Squat To Press
How to do it: While standing with feet shoulder width apart or slightly outside shoulder width, position a pair of dumbbells shoulder level. While keeping core engaged, sit down into a squat. Drop down until thighs are parallel to the ground. Push into the ground with your feet and stand up from the squat. Once fully standing from squat, press the dumbbells up overhead, fully extending arms to where biceps are near ears. Bring weights back to shoulder height and repeat.
Key benefits "The Squat to Press utilizes the full body," Evan explains. "The quads and core are utilized during the squat portion and the deltoids and core are utilized during the press portion. As it’s a full body movement, it allows you to burn a lot of calories (energy) while still gaining the benefits of it being a strength exercise. This makes it a great all-in-one movement to help reduce body fat."
