After last night’s Birthday
Celebration, it’s time to burn it back off.
And even with good eating, you still need to be sure to incorporate
exercise into your regular routine.
Exercise is not only important for losing weight and sculpting a toned,
sexy body, but it's also important for keeping your heart healthy, gaining
strength and flexibility, and preventing injury.
There are numerous workout programs out there like yoga,
cross fit, zumba, body building, piloxing and many more. Some I've tried,
others I haven't, but have seen success from just about all of them when done consistently
because it something other than sitting on the couch.
Different programs will give you different results, just
depends on what type of results you are wanting. Despite the look, buff, toned,
lean, or whatever your vision of hot is, you need both cardio and some form of strength
training.
Cardio is great for weight loss, increasing endurance, and overall
heart health. It gets your heart rate
up, gets you sweating, and melts the muffin tops. The key is to push yourself, give yourself a
challenge. You’re not going to see any results
if you only put in little effort, and no, walking around the mall doesn’t
count.
My cardio time is my therapy time. A time for me to either get on the treadmill
with some good music or get outside in the fresh air and just clear my head. And each time I get on the treadmill I
challenge myself to make it more intense than the last run; increase speed, add
an incline, or add 5 minutes to my time.
Changing it up will keep your body from plateauing and give you
continued results.
A great way to incorporate both intensity and variation into
your routine is High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT. This is when you exercise at a high intensity
(going as hard as you can) for a duration and then resting for a duration (may
not be fully at rest, but slowing down to a pace to get rest and catch your
breath).
Ex: Sprint 60
seconds, walk 60 seconds, sprint 60 seconds, walk 60 seconds – repeat
HIIT doesn’t have to be just running either. Any exercise where you can perform intervals
with very high and low intensities will be just as affective. And HIIT is growing widely popular because it
can be done in such a short time because of the high intensity. Where you might dread the idea of cardio
because it means an hour on the treadmill, HIIT will give you the same results
in half the time and gives your metabolism an extra boost to keep burning
calories longer after you’re done!
Get up, get out there and start sweating! Find something you’ll love, something that
will keep you motivated, and something that will get you results!
So, if cardio is what you do for maximum weight loss, then
why strength train?
Your body is covered in muscle; it’s what gives you the strength
to get up, sit down, pick up stuff, run, play…anything. Without that muscle you’ll be unable to perform
daily tasks as efficiently and more susceptible to injury. And despite how much weight you lose, without
any muscle underneath your skin, you’ll still have some flabbiness and loosens.
Gaining muscle also has great benefits in weight loss and control, helping to burn more calories faster and keeping your metabolism reved up longer.
Ladies, don’t think that if you do strength training or
weight lifting that you’ll bulk up and look like this:
Iris Kyle 2013 Arnold Classic Ms. International
This is done only through specific training and hormonal supplementation,
where the average women will not be physically nor anatomically possible to get
these results.
Strength training will, however, give you that fullness and
sexy curviness everyone desires especially during bikini season.
Like I said before, there are so many different routines you
can do to achieve the body type you want.
Some prefer muscle definition, others prefer more curves, and most just want
to look like Victoria’s Secret models – all which are achieved through strength
training.
I like muscle definition, so that’s what I worked for, but
you can change your routine to focus on what body type you want or what part of
the body may need extra work, but make sure you work every muscle group for symmetry
and safety. Use more weights, use less
weight, use bands, just use something that will give your muscles a workout to
tone and strengthen them. And just like
the cardio, make sure you’re pushing yourself and changing it up often to prevent
plateaus.
Between both cardio and strength training the hardest
exercises I’ve found are:
Getting up off the couch!
Putting down the remote!
Walking away from the fridge!
References:
Bodybuilding.com
LiveStrong.com
FitnessRxWomen.com
No comments:
Post a Comment