I have friends who want to lose weight. Some of them are active, exercise regularly and still have trouble shedding the pounds and reaching their goals. I started to watch these friends during their workouts to enable me to give them sound advice.
This is what I observed:
1. Some did not work out hard enough to burn enough calories or build muscle.
2. I have one friend who has been doing the same basic workout for three years. Her body adapted to her workout long ago causing her weight loss plateau.
3. I have one friend who talks to friends between exercise sets. It is a social club for him. Talking for 5 minutes between sets won’t help you reach your goals. Talk to your friends before or after your work out.
4. One friend spends two hours or more on one work out. She works out at the same slow pace.
5. And one friend takes my advice but still eventually goes back to doing his same old workout. He is not willing to change how he works out so he keeps getting the same small results.
If you are having difficulty burning fat and losing weight, there is a reason or reasons. Maybe you can identify with some of my friends having a hard time melting the fat. You can’t do the same things and get different results.
Do you really want to change your body to lean and toned? Be ready to make changes in order to reach your goals. Here are some tips:
1. Limit your workout time to one hour or less for weight training workouts and 20 minutes for cardio workouts. Doing these two things will help you burn more calories during and after your workout because they will be more intense. Circuit weight training and interval cardio sessions fit the bill for very intense exercise.
Research has proven that the heart-health and fat-burning benefits of anaerobic exercise (short bursts like sprinting and circuit training) is superior to slow aerobic exercise.
2. Change your basic workouts every two to three weeks. Some ways you can vary your workouts and keep your body guessing are:
--include cardio blasts (like jumping rope) between weight training sets
--rotate with heavy and light weight workouts
--vary the speed of your repetitions (slow, moderate, fast)
--vary your workout order
--don’t go to your favorite treadmill to do cardio every time (bodyweight cardio is actually more effective)
--do most exercises standing up and you will burn more calories (and build core strength)
--jump and speed exercises will help shape your body faster and better---do them often
Lean out your body by making changes to your program---even if you have to leave your comfort zone.
Mark Dilworth, BA, PES, CPT is a Certified Personal Trainer and former NCAA Division I athlete. Mark is the owner of My Fitness Hut, Her Fitness Hut, Sports Fitness Hut and My Nutrition Hut. Mark’s Fat Blaster Athletic Training System has been proven to give his clients the fit, sculpted and athletic-type bodies they want. Visit Mark’s main site:
Your Fitness University http://yourfitnessuniversity.com