The Total Gym is a home exercise machine popularized by celebrities Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley. One of the exercises possible on this machine is a lying triceps extension. As a resistance exercise, these won't be your first choice for weight loss -- but they can still provide a respectable caloric burn.
Calorie Basics
Exercise increases the number of calories your body burns. If you burn more calories than you take in by eating, your body burns energy stored as body fat. Burning that body fat means you lose weight. In general, cardiovascular exercises like running burn more calories than resistance exercises such as lying triceps extensions.
Total Gym Basics
The Total Gym workout system consists of an inclined plane on a frame. The plane is wheeled and on a track, allowing it to glide up and down hill. Handles are attached to the rolling plane via a set of cables. When using the Total Gym, you lie on the plane and move the handles -- using your own body weight as the resistance for most of the exercises. For lying triceps extensions, you lie face up and grip the handles with your elbows directly above your face. Extending your arms pulls the plane up the incline in a motion similar to doing the same exercise with dumb bells.
Calories
Health resource website HealthStatus.com provides calorie burn information for many different activities. According to HealthStatus, a 180 pound person burns about 140 calories in 30 minutes of general weightlifting like lying triceps extensions. Heavier people will burn more, and lighter people will burn less. The problem is that 30 minutes of lying triceps extensions is exceedingly hard: a typical set of these exercises lasts no more than five minutes, for a burn of between 20 and 30 calories.
Variations
Calculating caloric burn is more of an art than a science. Although guides like HealthStatus can give an estimation, each individual workout will vary your burn up or down. Some of the factors that affect caloric burn include the intensity of your workout, the air temperature, what you ate earlier that day, what time you work out and even your mental state.
Metabolism
According to Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, bodies with more muscle burn more calories in all activities. Lying triceps extensions, though not the best calorie burner on their own, will build muscles in your arms, shoulder and back. This means that the more lying triceps extensions you do, the more calories you will burn the next time you do lying triceps extensions.
References
- Total Gym Home Page
- HealthStatus: Calories Burned Estimator
- "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy;" Walter Willett; et. al; 2005
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