Exercises that help lose body fat are those that use your all of your major muscle groups at the same time. By engaging your entire body in a cardio exercise program, you increase your heart rate more quickly, burn more calories and tone your body. You can also increase your fat-loss advantage by using interval training, which increases metabolism and burns calories fast.
Swimming
Swimming workouts improve respiratory fitness, increase muscle tone and burn fat. You must use your entire body to propel you through the water. There are a variety of exercises swimmers can use. Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle swimming techniques are some of the most popular. Choose one or two for a single workout, or combine all of them and alternate every few minutes. You can also walk or jog through the water to mix up your workout, or take a water aerobics class.
Elliptical Training
Elliptical trainers are a stationary piece of equipment that simulates walking and jogging, without the same joint impact. Some elliptical trainers work lower body only, while others have revolving handlebars that rhythmically move back and forth with your feet. Most ellipticals have a variety of pre-programmed workouts, and you can choose the one that best suits your fitness goals. Some of the options include hills, intervals, random and manual workouts.
Interval Training
The Mayo Clinic says interval training is one of the best methods to burn more calories in a short time frame. Most any cardio exercise, including the ones listed above, can incorporate interval training into the workout. This is where you exert yourself to the fullest capacity for one to two minutes, then rest for the same amount of time. You can swim the breaststroke for two minutes, rest one minute, then swim freestyle. If you like jogging, run as hard as you can for two minutes and walk for two minutes.
Circuit Training
Circuit training accomplishes two goals within a single workout -- adequate calorie burn through cardio and increased lean muscle mass with resistance training. Both are necessary for fast body-fat loss. Circuit training entails moving from one machine to the next, usually 30 to 60 seconds spent on a single machine. All major muscle groups are worked in an alternating fashion. You may spend one minute on a chest press machine, one minute on a cardio station and the next minute on a leg press. Circuit training can provide a full-body workout with intensity in a short period of time.
Member Comments