5 simple Arena workouts for weight loss

Trying to burn fat with traditional workouts can be time consuming, boring and often ineffective.

How many times have you decided to start running regularly after work only to quit because you were bored, hated it or pulled a hamstring?

Working out to lose weight should be fun, exciting and more importantly provide you with results.

Arena Fitness has based its classes on HIIT, functional and boxing practices, in addition to some core principles of mixed marital arts (MMA). It’s no secret that boxers and MMA fighters are well known for their lean bodies and amazing conditioning. Incorporating some of their ideas into your own workouts can be a fun and effective way to lose weight. 

Warming up

Professional fighters around the world have used these workouts to both improve fitness and burn fat. If it works for them, maybe you should give it a try too!

The combination of full body functional movements with rounds of HIIT (high intensity interval training) has proven to be the ideal method for shedding those unwanted kilos.

So lets get started.

It is important to get a good warm-up before starting any work out. Working up to a light sweat before you begin will help you to improve:

• Blood flow

• Muscle elasticity

• Joint mobility

• Resistance to injury

• Potential for quality movement

To do this you can choose any of the exercises listed below and perform them at low intensity – Just enough to get a sweat going. You can also check out top 10 warm-up exercises to get started.

After five minutes you should be feeling nice and warm and ready to enter the fat burning zone.

Workout duration

Each of these workouts should be broken up into intervals of work and rest.

For the beginner, you may want to try:

• 4 rounds of 1 minute work : 2 minutes rest

Assess how you feel. If this is too difficult, you can either decrease the length and number of rounds, or increase the duration of each rest interval.

Simple Weight Loss Workouts

1. Jump rope 

Boxers, kick boxers and many other martial artists have used skipping in their workout for years, and for good reason too. Skipping is extremely versatile. It can be used to warm up or as an effective fat burner.

Jumping rope has been proven to:

• Improve cardiovascular health

• Improve coordination

• Burn calories

• Strengthen the ankles and feet

• Improve bone density

If the rope is too long it will tend to be very slack and cross over itself as you jump.  If the rope is too short you will find that each of your jumps will end in a painful whipping of your toes.  To find the right size for you, stand on the middle of the rope with both feet and pull up on the handles. The perfect rope length will see the handles reach your armpits and no further.

• Hold the handles in each hand at hip height

• Start by standing in front of the rope and swing it over your head from back to front.

• Breathe in a slow controlled rhythm

• Focus your gaze forward and do not look at your feet

• Don’t jump too high as it will kill your rhythm. Aim to JUST clear the rope as it passes under your feet.

Begin by jumping with two feet together. As coordination, timing and confidence improves you can then watch the following video for more variety.

2. Shadow boxing

Shadow boxing burns calories while improving striking technique and can be used both as a warm up or work out. Find a nice open space for your work out (and avoid accidentally knocking out your lamp or your cat). Aim to include a variety of striking actions to increase intensity.

You may choose to include:

• The jab

• The straight cross

• The hook

• The uppercut

• The front kick

• The roundhouse kick

  • Low (to the leg)

  • Medium (to the body)

  • High (to the head)

 3. The ground and pound

This is a common movement in mixed martial arts, and provides an intense fat burning workout. It is important that you wear hand wraps and boxing gloves to protect the bones in your hands and wrist from injury.

Lay a grappling dummy or a boxing bag flat on the ground. You should aim to be striking the bag with either punches or elbows while switching from:

• The mount position

• The knee on belly position

• The side control position

Aim to switch between each position as often as possible during each round.

You can alternate between slow and heavy strikes or faster lighter strikes to increase intensity.

 4. Run, Jump, Sprawl!

 This workout is a favourite amongst collegiate and Olympic level wrestlers and is great for:

• Cardiovascular health

• Fat burning

• Improving the reflexes

This workout is extremely intense so please start conservatively in regards to round duration. You can increase the length of the rounds as your fitness improves.

There are three components to this routine:

• Running on the spot

• The sprawl

• The jump

You should always be running on the spot during the rounds. Imagine that there are many tiny fires under your feet that you are trying to stamp out with short fast stomps.

Randomly alternate between jumping as high as you can and dropping for sprawls, always returning to the running on the spot movement.

You can choose to do single jumps and sprawls, or mix it up by performing two, three or four in a row before returning to running on the spot.

Remember to breathe as deep as possible during the breaks as you’re going to need all the oxygen you can get.

 5. The technical stand up

This is a very important technique in MMA and Jiu Jitsu. It uses core strength and hip movement to safely stand up while avoiding an opponent’s strikes.

• Lay flat on the ground facing the ceiling

• Move into an upright position by performing a sit up

• Lean to one side and post with the hand on that side on the ground

• Push with that hand, and your opposite foot, into the ground to lift your hips from the floor

• Bring your bottom leg underneath you and back so that you are in a squatting position

• Stand up while keeping your hands high to protect your face

• Return to the starting position and repeat the process

All of these workouts, in combination with diet will soon transform you into a fat burning machine.

If you'd like to try some high-intensity, fat-burning, non-contact workouts based on the principles of martial arts, get a free trial of Arena Fitness.