Life as we know it these days has become more complicated and this has made our list of daily ‘to dos’ longer. Indeed, the tight schedule most of us keep each day prevents us from maintaining a healthy lifestyle and this is evidenced by recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says 66% adults in the U.S. are overweight.
The rich, delicious food we have at our disposal 24/7 is also adding to the health crisis facing millions of urban dwellers having trouble with their waistlines. It’s very easy for us to grab a few jelly donuts or a heaping plate of chili fries with nary a second thought because ours has become a culture of high-calorie fast food.
Since we can’t really do anything to prevent fast-food establishments from making money, the best thing to do is to control ourselves and make it a point to eat healthier fare. A healthy diet alone is insufficient in bringing about rapid fat-loss however. For a leaner body and a shredded six pack, the correct weight loss exercises have to be done as well.
People with hectic schedules don’t bother to maintain a regular workout schedule because they have the impression that less than an hour of exercise is useless. There are actual ways of modifying conventional cardio and resistance workouts to increase their calorie-burning potential and shorten exercise sessions.
We amass body fat when we have surplus calories upon hitting the sack each night. The only real way to lose weight from stored fat is to burn more calories than we get from the food we eat. Doing exercises with high calorie-burning potential makes sure we use up all the energy we get from all the unhealthy food we munch on.
There is no doubt as to the effectiveness of cardio exercises when it comes to isolating body fat for energy. However intense anaerobic exercises (bodybuilding) can be just as effective because additional muscle tissue improves our body’s ability to burn calories even while we’re not exercising. Traditional weight-training can be modified to increase intensity and enabling us to burn more calories and shorten our sessions.
Involving the most number of muscle groups in a workout will multiply the amount of calories used up and doing core exercises that strengthen the trunk and legs is perfect for that. When the upper and lower abs, the lumbar, oblique and leg muscles are working together, such as lifting weights while trying to balance on the uneven surface of a Bosu ball, you can bet you’re using-up way more energy than if you were on a flat surface.
The variety of core exercises we can choose from allows flexibility and fun in our workout regimen and this keeps us from getting bored and burning-out. We can actually strengthen our core by incorporating exercise balls, planks and Dyna discs into our weight-lifting sessions- making them less dull and monotonous.
