Cardio exercises are important. You will burn calories consistently whether you walk or run. However, if you want to tone you should add resistance training to that cardio workout. Exercises such as lunges, squats, leg lifts and 90 degree leg curls with just your body weight alone can increase the way your body burns fat. When you add dumbbells to your workout routine some people can burn up to 50% more calories in their workout. It is also important to tone as you lose weight. Weight training will build stronger muscles, stronger connective tissues and improves the stabilization of your joints. You don’t have to go hard and heavy to reap the benefits of weight training but you must push yourself. If you don’t challenge your body you won’t see the change you want to see. The next time you are at the gym try this. Try a HIIT run on the elliptical or the treadmill for 10 – 15 mins. Get that heart rate up. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) you see these workouts used in the videos P90x and Insanity. For 10 – 15 mins, you go as hard as you can on these machines. Of course walk it out or jog it out slowly if it becomes too much for you but you don’t stop. You keep going until your 10 – 15 mins are up. You should be hot and sweaty, if you aren’t a sweater than you most certainly should be hot. Get you some water and head straight to the weights. I do a total body weight training session each time I go to the gym. I start with my arms since I just got off a machine that used my legs. On each arm machine I will do 8 – 10 reps and 4 sets. Breathing and your form is important in these exercises. Breathing will help you push it out when your arms get tired and form will help you isolate your biceps, triceps, shoulders and avoid injury. Then I will go to my legs, I do the leg press, both curls, again 8 – 10 reps with 4 sets. I will do the crunches with the weights after the legs. I do as many crunches as my body will allow me to. I don’t count those. Then last weight machines will be for my back. I do 8 – 10 reps with 4 sets. If I still have energy after all of that (which I usually do) I had over to the floor exercise area and do squats, lunges and an abdominal workout that usually kills my body for the rest of the day. The amount of calories I burn during this type of workout is estimated at 1100 – 1400 cals ( I am usually in the gym for 2.5hrs)
Archive for July, 2013
Want to lose weight? Lift weights!
Posted: July 7, 2013 in FitnessTags: exercise, Fitness, HIIT, weight loss
This isn’t a short cut guide but more so an overview.
You can’t get around needing basic math especially when it comes to dieting. So let’s have a crash course in metabolic math.
There are 3500 calories in 1 pound. The way you lose 1 pound per week is to figure out how many calories you are eating per day and decreasing that by 500 cals and then burning 500 cals extra. So if you are eating 2500 cals a day, start eating 2000 cals a day plus burning an extra 500 cals in that day doing exercises and eating certain foods. You now have a net loss of 1000 cals, that is your calorie deficit. I know it appears to be difficult but it is real simple. You lose weight by consuming less food (calorie energy) than what you are using. Your body uses food as energy hence the meaning of Eating to live, not living to eat. So when your body has excess calories because it can’t burn them the body stores that energy as fat. The fat accumulates overtime and becomes pounds of fat. So what do you have to do? Eat more energy containing foods: dark greens, spinach, kale, greens, broccoli, nuts, seeds. Eat more fruits: strawberries, banana’s, oranges, apples, watermelon, grapes, pineapples, grapefruits. Drink more water, at least 60 ounces of day should be pure water. The key to losing weight is more of what you put in your body than working out. Working out will help your body look good but it can’t do anything if your body is missing key nutrients like protein, good carbs, and good fats. Your muscles look for these things when they are starting to grow. Think of yourself as a flower. If you don’t get enough water, sun, oxygen and other gases from the Earth you won’t grown. If you get too much of those things you will grow and die. But, if you get the right balance you will grow into a beautiful flower providing nectar for the bees and a pleasant scent for people to smell as they walk by.
WEMAFIT 