Know what the problem with losing weight is? More often that not even after you actually begin to succeed, you find that you’re actually not really succeeding quite the way that you hoped you would be.

While certain parts of your body may certainly be slimming down, others will stay stubbornly flabby, and this can make your shape look even a little worse than you thought it was to begin with.

Mainly, the reason why this happens in the first place is because your body isn’t really programmed to lose weight uniformly. Instead, it loses weight in direct response to what you’re doing and which parts of your body you’re working most.

Due to that, if you’re doing something like walking or running, you’ll find that it’s your legs, and possibly arms that end up slimming down the most, whereas your belly area and even inner thighs will not slim down as much.

Naturally, the solution to this is simple: Total body exercises.

Some exercises out there are just better at encouraging uniform weight loss than others, mostly because they use a wide array of muscles throughout the body and thus help you to mold yourself into a more desirable shape.

Using a wide array of muscles also has the dual advantage of toning the muscles in those areas too, which means that whatever flab does remain is better supported by the lean muscle bulk that you’re going to be building up there too. End of the day, this is going to help you even more than the actual fat loss will.

How about we take a look at three types of exercises in particular that will help you with a total body workout:

-Swimming

How many times have you enviously looked at the perfect bodies of swimmers? Well, now you know how they get those types of bodies, seeing as swimming is a total body workout that really does help a huge number of different muscle groups.

What’s more, it is a form of resistance training too, so it serves as a strength building exercise as well.

-Walking

Nothing special, no memberships, do it anywhere. Walk 15 minutes from your house in the morning and turn around. The easiest 1/2 hour excercise you’ll ever do. Walk a littler faster than you need to.

-Rowing

Just like swimming, rowing is going to work just as many muscle groups, and also is a form of resistance training and so it shares similar benefits. All in all, this is a great way to work out, although it might be difficult if you don’t have the necessary equipment (and lake!).

-Aerobics

Definitely the most accessible of the three, aerobics by nature is geared towards providing as complete a body workout as possible, and it is something that you can even do from the comfort of your own home!

If you like swimming, great! If you have the necessary prerequisites for rowing, that’s great too! But otherwise, aerobics is probably going to be the single-best option that you have in terms of getting in a total body workout.

Hand-Over-Hand Staggered ChinUps…Rip your Back!

If doing regular chin-ups has become too easy then this will make you hate them all over again….

The Staggered ChinUp is just about THE best exercise you can do not only for your back but for your entire body. It’s a classic bodyweight exercise that never gets old.
Now, if you’re a fan of the chinup, You’ll love this version. It’ll blow up your biceps AND lats like nothing you’ve seen!

If you can’t do at least 8 to 10 regular chin-ups you might want to master that first – this is far more difficult and you’ll need that basic chinning strength to do it.

OK, Ready?

Go to your normal chin-up bar (no special equipment needed!)

Now stand under one end of the bar facing along the bar (as opposed to the usual pull-up position)

Take a staggered chinup grip on the bar – from your normal wide grip, move 1 hand to right in front of your shoulder leaving the other one wide. (You’ll switch off later)

Now pull yourself up to one side of the bar – the side you’ll want to pull to is the same as the hand that is FURTHEST from you. Basically, if your left hand is furthest away, pull up on the left side of the bar.

Now lower yourself down PART WAY…NOT the whole way. You should have some bend in your elbows. At this point, move your furthest hand over behind your nearest hand (hence the hand-over-hand name!).

The key here is to be sure you’ve got a bend in the elbows and tension on the lats. Because when you take one hand off, you’re basically putting your entire bodyweight (just for a moment) on the one lat. VERY big time tension here.

Once you’ve placed the hand, pull yourself up to the OTHER side. Lower yourself down, step your hand backward on the bar again. Now pull up to the other side again.

Continue along the bar until you run out of bar then go back the way you came, moving your hands forward this time. Keep going forward and backward along the bar until you can’t do any more reps.

It’s a BRUTAL back exercise that makes regular chins look like nothing. By the time you’re done, your entire back and your biceps will be so swollen full of blood, you won’t believe it. The continuous tension and bodyweight combination really makes for a potent back attack!

Click here for pictures and video of this exercise in action.

And drop me a line to tell me what these staggered chinups feel like to you.

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