In today's time-crunched world it's not surprising that not having enough time is one of the leading reasons people don't exercise. However, exercising --- along with eating a healthy diet in the right portions --- is essential for losing weight. Fortunately, you don't have to spend hours sweating in a gym or training for a marathon to lose weight.
Rollerblading
This exercise helps you to get back in touch with your inner child or roller-disco days while burning a high amount of calories. Consider that rollerblading burns more calories than a high-impact aerobics class, jogging, flag football or rope jumping or walking at 3.5 miles per hour for the same amount of time. Rollerblading is also a bit gentler on your joints than high-impact sports such as aerobics, football or running.
Supersets
Building muscle is as important as burning excess calories when you're trying to lose weight. Muscle increases your metabolic rate and helps you burn more calories, even when you're at rest. A quick way to increase muscle is through supersets. Instead of taking a break after doing one set of weight-training exercise --- such as lifting weights or using resistance bands --- do two sets back to back. You can do exercises on the same muscle group or on different muscle groups.
Interval Training
If you don't have time to do 30 or 60 minutes of cardio each day, try interval training instead. While taking a much shorter time, interval training provides the same benefits of exercises that last for a longer duration. It involves alternating brief bouts of high-intensity aerobic exercise with moderate-intensity exercise. For instance, if you have just 15 minutes to workout, alternate four minutes of brisk walking with 1 minute of running. However, be aware that interval training is safer if you're used to exercising and vigorous activity.
Consideration
Even if you're trying to save time, you still need warm up before exercising and cool down afterward to prepare your body for exercise, aid recovery and reduce your risk of injury. Your warm-up and cool-down can include five minutes of slow walking. You should also stretch all your major muscle groups during your cool-down.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Barriers to Fitness: Overcoming Common Problems
- MayoClinic.com: Exercise for Weight Loss: Calories Burned in 1 Hour
- "The Body Fat Solution"; Tom Venuto; 2009
- "Journal of Physiology"; A Practical Model Of Low-Volume High-Intensity Interval Training Induces Mitochondrial Biogenesis In Human Skeletal Muscle: Potential Mechanisms; Martin J. Gibala et al.; March 15, 2010
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