If you were to decide to build a new house, how would you start
building it once you had all the materials, permits, workers, etc.?
Would you start building the roof first? That wouldn't make sense.
What about having the window company deliver all the windows in your house first? That's probably not a good idea either.
Chance are, you're going to start with the foundation first. But even before that, you're going to have to have a plan.
The same goes when starting a fat loss program.
You've sat down and decided what diet or what kind of eating you're going to do. You've got meals planned for each day of the week.
Now it comes time to put together an exercise plan, and this is where people tend to get lost on what kind of exercise routine is best for fat loss.
People think that they need to buy that fancy (and expensive) exercise equipment from that man or woman that was in great shape on that infomercial you saw on television last night.
But really, you don't need to do that.
One of the best workouts for fat loss, is using nothing more than the weight of your body by using the biggest, and strongest muscles that you have.
When you use the largest muscles in your body during the workout, this means that those muscles are going to need quite a bit more calories in order to recover than if you had done a workout where you just focused on the smaller muscles.
I'll use the pushup as example. During a pushup, the main muscles that you are using are your chest, triceps, shoulders, and forearms, as well as activating your core in order to stabilize your entire body.
Compare that to a bicep curl. A bicep curl is basically isolating your bicep and forearm muscles to lift the weight and using your shoulders and core to stabilize your body.
Aren't you using quite a bit more muscle in the pushup than you are in the bicep curl?
Meaning, doesn't it make sense that with all the muscle that you're using in the pushup, that it's going to mean that your body needs to burn more calories after the workout to repair those muscles from the pushups then it would take to repair the smaller amount of muscle you used in the bicep curl?
Which is why more and more studies are showing and confirming that when workouts revolve around full body movements such as pushups, squats, pullups, lunges, and the hundreds of variations of those, the body continues to burn calories in order to recover from that workout for up to 24-36 hours. Burning more calories equals, more fat loss.
But if you're just staring off, are overweight, and never worked out in your life and think there's no way you can do pushups, what can you do?
Let's take the pushup again. You can first start off by doing the pushup against the wall.
Over time, these are going to get easier, so you have the change it so that it's more challenging on your muscles to make sure that you continue to increase strength and to cause your body to continue to burn more calories after the workout which will lead to more fat loss. So you can modify the wall pushups by doing pushups against an incline like a chair or a table.
When that gets easier, pick a lower object to the do incline pushups on, such as a step. Then you can modify it to doing them on your knees. Then modify them to do them on your toes. Then when you really get good at them, prop your legs up on something and do them on a decline.
With just a simple movement like a pushup, you can see that you can start off with a simple modification to it to make it challenging for you, and then you progress over time.
Don't forget that point about progression: In order to continue to see results, you have to challenge your muscles when a movement becomes too easy because if you don't, your body will adapt, and you'll see a plateau in strength gains, as well as in the amount of calories that you are burning after the workout.
Note though, that these are exercises that you can do to ENHANCE the fat loss you're going to see. If you don't get your diet in line, quite frankly, you're not going to see much fat loss. As the saying going in the personal training industry "You can't out exercise a bad diet."
Variations of pushups, squats, lunges, and if you're up to it, pullups, are just some simple examples of exercises that you can start off with in a fat loss program that you can do without spending thousands of dollars on exercise equipment that you'll use a few times and then turn into a clothes hanger.
A simple (yet challenging) fat loss program that you can do right in your own home in thirty minutes a few times a week that can get you closer and closer to not only your goal weight, but also make you a more healthy looking and healthy feeling person with each passing day.
What about having the window company deliver all the windows in your house first? That's probably not a good idea either.
Chance are, you're going to start with the foundation first. But even before that, you're going to have to have a plan.
The same goes when starting a fat loss program.
You've sat down and decided what diet or what kind of eating you're going to do. You've got meals planned for each day of the week.
Now it comes time to put together an exercise plan, and this is where people tend to get lost on what kind of exercise routine is best for fat loss.
People think that they need to buy that fancy (and expensive) exercise equipment from that man or woman that was in great shape on that infomercial you saw on television last night.
But really, you don't need to do that.
One of the best workouts for fat loss, is using nothing more than the weight of your body by using the biggest, and strongest muscles that you have.
When you use the largest muscles in your body during the workout, this means that those muscles are going to need quite a bit more calories in order to recover than if you had done a workout where you just focused on the smaller muscles.
I'll use the pushup as example. During a pushup, the main muscles that you are using are your chest, triceps, shoulders, and forearms, as well as activating your core in order to stabilize your entire body.
Compare that to a bicep curl. A bicep curl is basically isolating your bicep and forearm muscles to lift the weight and using your shoulders and core to stabilize your body.
Aren't you using quite a bit more muscle in the pushup than you are in the bicep curl?
Meaning, doesn't it make sense that with all the muscle that you're using in the pushup, that it's going to mean that your body needs to burn more calories after the workout to repair those muscles from the pushups then it would take to repair the smaller amount of muscle you used in the bicep curl?
Which is why more and more studies are showing and confirming that when workouts revolve around full body movements such as pushups, squats, pullups, lunges, and the hundreds of variations of those, the body continues to burn calories in order to recover from that workout for up to 24-36 hours. Burning more calories equals, more fat loss.
But if you're just staring off, are overweight, and never worked out in your life and think there's no way you can do pushups, what can you do?
Let's take the pushup again. You can first start off by doing the pushup against the wall.
Over time, these are going to get easier, so you have the change it so that it's more challenging on your muscles to make sure that you continue to increase strength and to cause your body to continue to burn more calories after the workout which will lead to more fat loss. So you can modify the wall pushups by doing pushups against an incline like a chair or a table.
When that gets easier, pick a lower object to the do incline pushups on, such as a step. Then you can modify it to doing them on your knees. Then modify them to do them on your toes. Then when you really get good at them, prop your legs up on something and do them on a decline.
With just a simple movement like a pushup, you can see that you can start off with a simple modification to it to make it challenging for you, and then you progress over time.
Don't forget that point about progression: In order to continue to see results, you have to challenge your muscles when a movement becomes too easy because if you don't, your body will adapt, and you'll see a plateau in strength gains, as well as in the amount of calories that you are burning after the workout.
Note though, that these are exercises that you can do to ENHANCE the fat loss you're going to see. If you don't get your diet in line, quite frankly, you're not going to see much fat loss. As the saying going in the personal training industry "You can't out exercise a bad diet."
Variations of pushups, squats, lunges, and if you're up to it, pullups, are just some simple examples of exercises that you can start off with in a fat loss program that you can do without spending thousands of dollars on exercise equipment that you'll use a few times and then turn into a clothes hanger.
A simple (yet challenging) fat loss program that you can do right in your own home in thirty minutes a few times a week that can get you closer and closer to not only your goal weight, but also make you a more healthy looking and healthy feeling person with each passing day.
Mike Navin is a Certfied Strength and Conditioning Specialist
(CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and
specializes in creating effective and efficient fat loss programs for
those that need a workout but only have a limited time in the day. You
can read more about his workouts at http://www.30-minuteworkout.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mike_Navin/718430
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