An Easy Workout Plan For Weight Loss
Here’s what you need to keep in mind about weight loss – it’s ALL about burning more calories than you consume. The trick is to maximize your calorie burning and minimize the calories you consume, hence creating a balance that will help you lose a maximum amount of weight. Setting up a consistent workout routine that you follow through on will help you achieve your weight loss goals.
The Added Benefits of Working Out
Working out has more to do with than just you weight, however. It is a great way to unwind yourself after a long day. It helps relieve stress and is a healthy outlet for any kind of pent up emotion that is causing you stress. To see results it is recommended that you work out for at least 30 minutes per day.
While this article will be focusing mainly on workouts, do keep in mind that your diet is also a primary factor in your weight loss goals. If you’re planning to burn more calories than you consume every day, you don’t just have to maximize your calories burning, you must also reduce your consumption of calories through a healthy, nutritious and minimally caloric diet.
Now that we’ve covered the basics about working out and its benefits, let’s move on to the exercise routines you can follow to get the body you want.
Workout Routines For Weight Loss
For the purpose of this article, we’ll portion your workout plan just like you portion your delicious meals. Just like you make sure to finish all parts of your meal, you must make sure to follow through all segments of your workout plan!
The appetizer: Warm-up
Warming up is the essential beginning to any workout. It is important to lead into intense workout with a moderate level activity that pumps up your heart and has you slightly out of breath. The warm-up must NOT be of high intensity – save that for the later parts of your plan. What can your warm-up consist of? Try any four of the following workouts:
- 4-5 minutes of jumping rope (don’t worry about messing up, just push yourself to do your best)
- 40-50 jumping jacks (make sure to pull your shoulders back, extending your arms and concentrating fully on the movements)
- 15-20 squats (you can do these with or without weights – depending on your own capacity)
- 10 lunges (each leg)
- 10-15 hip extensions
- 15 side leg swings for each leg
- 7 hip rotations for each leg (think of it as stepping over a fence)
- 15 forward leg swings for each leg
- 10-15 pushups (you can increase these over time, depending on your own capacity)
- 15 Spiderman steps for each leg
Doing a combination of these exercises will work out your butts, legs, hips and the core. These are the muscles that need the most activity as they’re the least used for the rest of the day (especially if you’re working on a desk)
If you’ve been working out the day before and suffering from sore chest or arms, you can throw in these additional exercises to make sure your movement is easy for the rest of the workout:
Shoulder Rotations: Hold your arms on to the sides and keep moving them in a circular motion. Increase the size of the circle each time. Do this for a few minutes, until your arms start feeling like there’s more blood flowing through them, and the soreness is beginning to fade.
Arm swings: These are similar to shoulders rotations. Hold your arms to the side, straight and upright. Now keep swinging them to make a cross above your chest. Do this until you feel the soreness beginning to fade away.
The entrée: Main workout
You’re now done with the workout and geared up to work your butt off for the main course of your workout. Make sure you’ve got your running shoes on, because your workout is about to get intense!
Squats
Squats are one of the most holistic way to work up your body and target pretty much every muscle in your body. Make sure to begin squatting at least 10-20 times at the beginning, and increasing to 50-100 and more as time passes by and your body begins to adapt. You can do your squats during any part of your workout. Just make sure you’re bending your body in the right posture and working up your glutes the right way.
Treadmill:
If your goal is to lose weight, as opposed to bulking up, the treadmill is one of the best exercises to burn fat throughout your body. It is also one of the best workouts to burn belly fat. If you’re not going to a gym and don’t have a treadmill lying around in your house, you can work your body up alternatively through running or jogging. Treadmill works up the major parts of your body and gets your heart pumping just the way you need in order to lose weight. Keep in mind that if your goal is to put on weight and bulk up, it’s best not to spend too much time on the treadmill. However, regardless of your body type and weight goals, the treadmill must be used for at least 10 minutes every time you’re working out. If you’re looking to lose weight, just be sure you’re following an HIIT routine. HIIT routines have been considered one of the best ways to lose weight by experts, and have gained massive traction and popularity over the past few years. What’s a HIIT routine? We break it down:
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
HIIT is one of the quickest and most efficient ways to lose weight. High Intensity Interval Training, as the name indicates, involves short bursts of intense activity followed by intervals of resting your body with a moderate activity. It’s important to not just stop altogether in your resting period – you must keep your heart beating fast throughout the whole workout. On a treadmill, an HIIT routine can look like this: 1 minute and 10 seconds of 6-7 mph with 0.0 incline, followed by 50 seconds of 10 mph with 4.0 incline.
Continue following this pattern of speed and incline for a 20-minute treadmill workout everyday – and you’re on track to lose weight in one of the best and most effective ways possible. If you don’t have a treadmill, you can still do your HIT routine by just running at a moderate speed for an interval of time followed by a short but intense period of running faster.
Strength Training
Strength training must constitute a major part of your workout plan. It allows your body to build up resistance that induces muscular contractions. This allows you to develop anaerobic endurance and amp up your body strength over time. The most common way to strength train is to lift heavy weights in the gym. You can start with a 4-5 lb. weight at the beginning and practice 4-5 sets of 10 reps every day until your body adapts to the weights. Keep increasing your sets and the weights over time in order to tone your biceps and triceps. If you don’t have dumbbells lying around in your house and aren’t subscribed to a gym, you can still strength train your body through exercises like intense pushups and lateral squats. Strength training is a great way to tone up your muscles; it has positive effects on all aspects of your health and can help lower your cholesterol levels, improve your cardiovascular health and keep your blood pressure in check. Do make sure to consult a fitness trainer before moving onto heavy weights for lifting, in order to correct your posture and minimizing any chances of injury from working up in the wrong angles.
The Dessert: Post Workout
This is part of your exercise where you’ll slowly regain your breath and cool your body down. Now that you’re done with the most intense parts of your workout plan, make sure to engage in moderate intensity exercises that will help you taper out your way out of the gym. The idea is to gradually get your body to a calmer state and your heart beat to around 100-120 beats per minute. If you’d been lifting beforehand, make sure to stretch your body through yoga poses or walking lunges. If you’d been on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes, make sure to actually use the ‘cool down’ option and run at a moderate speed before stopping altogether.
Finally, as you’re beginning to wrap up your workout, make absolutely sure that you are fully hydrated. In fact, you must keep drinking water all throughout your workout in order to make sure your body has the energy and hydration it needs to be working this hard! If you’re looking to sync your diet with your workout (which is highly recommended) make sure to consume something protein-rich after your workout. This protein-rich food can be anything from a protein shake to boiled eggs to 2-3 bananas.
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