If you want to lose pounds, you should use weights as part of your fitness program. Weights come in many varieties: dumbbells, barbells, weighted machines, body weight exercises, medicine balls and kettle balls. Exercising with weights helps your body build muscle, increases your metabolism and allows your body to burn calories at a faster rate during exercise and inactivity. This does not mean that you need to become a bodybuilder or that you need to stick with traditional weight lifting exercises. You can perform a variety of weight training workouts to lose body fat.
Weight Training
Weight training involves performing exercises that target your muscles in a low and methodic manner. You can exercise your upper body and lower body in separate training sessions, you can exercise your whole body or you can work on a specific muscle each day. Include your upper legs, calves, abdominals, arms, shoulders, back and chest in your workout plan.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you weight train twice a week and perform eight to 12 repetitions for eight to 10 exercises. To build muscular endurance, use lighter weights with which you can complete 12 to 15 repetitions. To increase your muscle mass, use heavy weights with which you can complete six to eight repetitions.
Circuit Training
Circuit training enables your body to burn fat while building muscle. Select four to 10 exercises that you want to perform and the length of time you want each exercise to last. You can pick a time from 20 to 60 seconds or a specific number of repetitions for each exercise. You can include an exercise for each major muscle group, alternate between upper and lower body exercises or choose exercises that target one major muscle group. Include a rest period between each station from 15 to 60 seconds. Work through your circuit two or three times or for 20 to 40 minutes.
Cardio-Infused Circuit Training
Adding cardio exercise to your circuit training helps to keep your heart rate elevated and enables your body to burn more calories than through weight training alone. Set up a circuit that includes weight-training exercises alternated with cardio exercises. Try squats, push-ups and triceps push-ups. Beneficial examples of cardio exercises include running in place, jumping rope, jumping jacks and high-knees.
Member Comments