Saturday, July 18, 2009

Exercises To Help You Lose Weight

By Austin Stern

New Year's resolutions have become a popular tradition each year. Many people resolve to do things like saving up to buy an expensive item, or to finally go back to school. One of the most popular New Year's resolutions is to start working out and get back into shape.

If you are looking to get slimmer and to build lean muscle then working out is a great way to do it. You tear your muscles, which repair themselves and grow bigger and stronger, when you provide resistance or exert yourself. There are different ways, either with cardio or even lifting weights, that you can burn fat (and calories).

Different muscles will be exercised and used depending on the type of workout you choose. You'll be burning calories no matter which way you choose though. As long as you are working out and burning more calories than you are consuming by eating, then you will begin to see good changes in your body.

When doing cardio, you can burn calories quicker because your heart is pumping faster because your body is being stressed for oxygen. Some great cardiovascular activities and exercises include bicycling, walking, swimming, and jogging. You won't cause as much stress on your lungs and heart after a while because cardio exercises boost your capacity for oxygen which allows you to exercise for longer.

Strength training exercises, better known as weight lifting, is the practice of lifting a weighted object against the force of gravity, often to tear muscle to them later have it grow as it heals. Strength training is quite popular across the world because it is easy to get started. Many people use it to tone their bodies (or to make themselves more attractive), its also a great way to burn those troublesome calories.

Body resistance training is a fantastic and cheap form of strength training. When you're doing this, you are only using your body's weight as resistance, nothing else (like weights or resistance bands). Push ups are the prime example, as well as sit-ups and jumping jacks.

Strength training exercises are fantastic because they help to burn fat quickly. You may be worried because muscle weighs more than fat and you don't want to weigh more. But strength training helps to build lean muscle tissue, which burns away fat quickly, and helping you to look tone.

Whether its the middle of the year, or New Years, its never a bad time to start working towards your weight loss goals. Not only will you slim down, but over time youll discover your level of strength raise and your energy increase as well. As the old catch phrase and t-shirts said, no pain no gain.

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