What kind of exercise does it take to get a lean body and permanently lose weight? First, you have to rethink some of what you know about proper exercise and effective workouts.
BTW, I made this cardio mistake too.
Ask anyone who wants to burn fat and get lean about what they need to do and they will likely say, “long cardio like running, treadmill, even indoor spin/cycle classes”.
In defense of indoor spin/cycle that I teach… I teach short burst/intervals. We ride real hard and intense for roughly 30 or 45 seconds, then ease up and recover. I choreograph this to the music so the music drives us to work hard for short bursts. Then we relax and recover between these short bursts/intervals. We are also up and down in and out of the saddle a lot to work different muscles etc. My classes are more in line with what I’m about to tell you.
Truth is that long duration steady state cardio does not really burn off a lot of fat like we once thought.
EX: This research from an obesity scientific Journal revealed very clearly that when both men and women do up to 300 hours of cardio exercise per year they only lose 4-6 pounds of weight.
What?
Read that again…
These obese participants did 300 hours of cardio in a year and only lost 4-6 pounds.
Now we know why the media tells us that “see exercise does not work”.
Yeah, if you look at this kind of slow, steady state exercise, sure. No doubt it does not work.
Results like 3-6 pounds in a year is not acceptable.
What exercise does work?
First it’s true that in order to condition the body and get it to burn fat we must elevate the heart rate to high-intensity heart rate zones
Pushing yourself to get your heart rate elevated does in fact facilitate greater fat loss. But we get much better results pushing hard for short intervals.
One of the best ways to do this is with high-intensity exercises, and long-distance running or traditional, slow steady (watching your favorite show) treadmill workouts will not push you enough. Either will the typical slow steady elliptical workout.
What works is what is called “body weight” exercises. And the good news is you do not need a fancy gym or fancy machine to do this kind of workout.
The kind of body weight exercises I’m talking about are really so varied and almost endless.
A few examples are: Mountain climbing, speed squats, kettlebell swings, jump rope, running in place, jump squats (my personal favorite), and resistance band body jacks.
And the good news is far reaching. You can do these in your office. Your hotel room. The airport. At home. You do not need a lot of space.
Another great bonus is that generally body weight exercises do not tend to create overuse injuries if you learn to do them correctly.
And, short-burst intervals can be done by anyone no matter how out of shape. You just need to monitor your body. How you feel. It would be ideal to get with a good certified personal trainer who can teach you some of these exercises and evaluate you for any postural issues that need to be corrected.
And guess what, with body weight exercises you get much better fat loss results. Your body actually begins to change. You start to see muscle development and good hormone balances that you cannot see but you can certainly feel.
Now look, if your body is made to run and likes it, please go ahead; but, don’t think that if you can’t run, you will never be lean and lose the fat that makes you unhappy. Okay?
Want to learn how to make your treadmill or elliptical workout really work for you? Get some unique workouts and body weight ideas to lose weight fast and
==>> see that lean body emerge.
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