Why single-leg exercise is your best friend for fat burning

Traditional exercises like squats, lunges, presses and pulls get the most credit for helping boost metabolism and burn fat. The science behind that is solid.

If you want to burn more fat, you have to have more muscle.  Muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns more calories even at rest, and fat is not.

And the more muscles you move at once, and the more stress you overcome to do it, the better your results (think lunges with hand weights). That’s why my formula for midlife women who want to fit into their skinny jeans better includes heavy lifting.

But there is an exception: Single-sided exercises. And they’re great if you aren’t comfortable adding weight to movements, or need to build up some muscle and balance before tackling heavy lifting with movements.

In my single-sided leg exercise:

• Your lower legs will get a workout and your ankles will grow stronger.
• Your glutes, provided you sit back on your heel and flex from the hip keeping your back straight, will be challenged.
• Your core will actively be engaged as you displace your center of gravity both moving up and down and reaching further away.

Besides helping you burn fat and firm up, unilateral movements have an added benefit: they’re great for helping you strengthen a weaker side of your body, and that can help prevent injury down the road.

For example, when you first do a unilateral movement exercise like this one, you might learn that you balance and perform with ease an exercise on your right leg, while you experience limited range of motion or feel a little “twinge” on your left. Knowing this can help you address a weak or tight muscle and bring you back into balance.

After all, in order to boost metabolism and burn fat you have to be injury-free. If you’re like the many midlife adults whose biggest fear around exercise is getting hurt, put a little energy toward one-sided training. Even though the use of muscles is slightly lower with this kind of exercise, the benefits will ensure that you’re able to do the bigger actions that matter.