Crunches? Roman Chair Situps? Squats? Bench Pressing? There are literally thousands of exercises to choose from and hundreds of different types of training apparatuses you can use at a gym. But how to you cut out all of the fluff? Exactly what weight training exercises are most effective in helping a person to lose weight? Simply put, none of them.
Well, it’s a bit extreme to say that weight training exercises don’t help to you lose weight, because having muscle does help to burn fat. Having muscle also can give you a ripped, muscular look, once you lose your desired amount of weight. We’ll talk a little more about these later.
If weight training isn’t the best way to lose weight, what is?
The best exercise to lose weight is one that is cardio-based. What is cardio exactly? Cardiovascular exercise is designed to get your heart rate above a certain threshold. This effect ends up being the ideal conditions for caloric burn and over time, fat loss. Wanna lose weight? Cardio is key.
What is the best cardio exercises for weight loss? The one that you can stick to.
Cardiovascular exercises include running, aerobics, swimming, biking, dance, tennis, basketball (most sports for that matter), jumping rope, stationary biking, using an elliptical machine, gymnastics, even walking (to a lesser extent) etc.. To say one cardio exercise is better than another is really a matter of opinion. Sure some cardio exercises are more intense and promote the burning of calories at a faster rate, but not everyone is into high impact, high intensity exercise. The best exercise is to lose weight is the one you can enjoy, the one you can do long term without getting injured, the one you won’t do after a few weeks and say “Screw this!,” the one that gets your heart beating and your brow sweating.
I happen to enjoy a combination of different exercises: karate sparring, swimming, running, biking and gymnastics. No, I don’t do them all every week, but the combination works for me, because I’m never bored with the cardio I do. I don’t see cardio as a chore everyday, but something I look forward to, something that energizes me. There are so many cool exercises to choose from. There’s a whole world of cardio exercises out there. Test out different ones to see what you like.
Oh, I nearly forgot, back to weight training. To really help your body to change, I think weights are necessary. Weights are the perfect complement to cardio and overall fat loss.
Just as I recommended with cardio, testing can be a great way to get started with your training. Do a little bit of research. Find a list of different exercises for each body part, and understand how to do these exercises properly. With the internet there are thousands of free tutorials on how to properly do just about any exercise you can type into a search box (YouTube is wonderful). For a beginner, take a week to go through each muscle group in your regimen, but do test sets. Try the bench press, see how it feels. Try the ab machine, see how it feels. If you’re feeling an effective muscle burn more in one exercise than another, make that one of your primary exercises for that muscle group. Go through the same process with all of the other muscle groups.
When you have a base of cardio exercises that you love, and a base of weight training exercises you love, and you do them consistently, weight loss is almost a given (diet is a big factor, too).
To your weight loss success…
