The Best Workout For Weight Loss - Cardio or Weights?

You know exercise is good for you, and you want to have a fit body, but you only have so much time in your day and cannot do it all. 

What do you focus on, cardio or weight training? On the other hand, perhaps you want to buy some home fitness equipment, but are not sure about the best thing on which to spend your limited funds. Do you buy the treadmill or the weight set? 

Despite weight training's reputation as a "jock" thing for he-men who want to bulk up, the answer for most people is weights. 

While cardio exercise can help you to increase your heart health and stamina, and can burn some extra calories while you are engaged in it, weight training can help you get stronger, tone your muscles, improve your appearance, increase your metabolism to burn calories more efficiently all day long, and fight age-related muscle and bone loss. If you must choose between the two, weight training comes out the winner, easily.

Weight training is strength training, using a variety of weights for resistance. In the same way that cardio exercise strengthens your heart and lungs by providing stress on your breathing and circulation, weight training improves your overall body strength by providing enough stress to different muscle groups that they adapt and grow stronger. Weight training also helps with the following:

•Lose weight and maintain fat loss: Muscles are thirsty for calories, so the more lean muscle mass you have, the more efficient your body will be at converting that smoothie into the energy you need to keep going all day. For every 3 pounds of muscle you develop with weight training, your body will burn an extra 120 calories a day simply vegging out on the couch! That can mean about 10 pounds of fat lost per year, without even forsaking your favorite treat. Yes, please.

•Reduce the possibility of injury: Unlike the pounding action involved in many cardio exercises, correctly training with weights can actually protect your joints and spine. Strong muscles connected to joints helps to protect them from injury, and increased core muscle strength contributes to better balance and a stronger back.

•Develop bone density: Just as muscle mass naturally diminishes with age and inactivity, bones lose strength and density too. Strength training increases bone density, helping to prevent fractures due to brittle bones or osteoporosis.

•Boost your stamina: As you develop stronger and more efficient muscles in all parts of your body, fatigue will be outdated, and everyday activities will no longer make you want to lie down for a nap in the middle of your day.

Too often, people focus solely on the number of calories burned during their workout, or the number they see on the scale. Focusing on either of these is shortsighted when it comes to your health and fitness. Instead of watching the "calories burned" readout on the treadmill and being satisfied when you hit your magic number, consider how your body is expending calories outside the gym and after your workout. Weight training exercise, by developing calorie-thirsty muscle tissue, increases the number of calories you burn all day long, no matter what you are doing.

So, spend those limited funds on the weights, and the majority of your limited workout time on weight training to build your muscle strength. Your body will thank you, and your mirror will become your friend.

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Dumbbell Weight Training For Weight Loss

When people are trying to lose weight, they quite often overlook the dumbbell as a viable tool for achieving their goals. Including dumbbell weight training as part of a diet and exercise plan is an excellent strategy for achieving weight loss dreams.

Strength training isn't necessarily about lifting huge amounts of weight all at once. Every repetition with a decently weighted dumbbell burns off lots of calories, particularly when done over a period of time. The trick to losing weight through strength training comes not from how much you lift, but how often you lift it. Look to find a comfortable spot where the amount of weight you are lifting causes a burn, yet you can still press out three sets of eight repetitions. This will get the calories burning and your body going down that weight loss path!

Some people try to lose weight by doing cardio alone or just strength training. The best way to get an evenly toned, well-balanced body is to combine the two disciplines. This way, you can get the rapid calorie burns of cardio combined with the strength and muscle building of a dumbbell session. Increased muscle mass helps sculpt the body and boosts metabolism, which in turn helps fight fat.

For a good weight-loss strength workout, you need to ensure that the entire body is worked. It is vital to focus on technique and stability as these will ensure you burn more calories than you will if you rush through the program. Take it slow and steady and do as many repetitions with the dumbbells as you comfortably can before resting. Rest for a couple of minutes between sets.

A good sample exercise program would include a series of exercises using dumbbells, such as horizontal chest presses, incline flies, preacher curls, and dumbbell lunges.  Combine these with 20 minutes of cardio, plus abdominal crunches and push-ups for a well-rounded workout.

Finish off your workout with a nice hot sauna or bath to stretch out and relax your muscles. http://ezinearticles.com/?Dumbbell-Weight-Training-For-Weight-Loss&id=2782565

The 3 Key Elements For Effective Weight Loss

When starting any type of workout program, many people will soon discover that for effective weight loss they need to add muscle to their body. This muscle helps to boost your metabolism and burn more fat. This is because muscle is denser than fat and therefore needs more nutrients to stay healthy. Muscles take these nutrients from your fat stores and burn more fat.

As well as knowing this, we all need to know the 3 key elements to an efficient workout program, these 3 elements are:

- Intensity
- Volume & Frequency
- Progression

Intensity is basically how hard you need to work to perform an exercise based on the difficulty of that exercise. Different types of exercise need different levels of intensity to get the most out of your workout. Volume is the amount of reps you perform e.g 10 reps or 10 minutes running, Frequency is very similar but is judged by how many times you do 1 exercise over a period of time e.g 10 reps, 2 times a day, 5 times a week. Finally progression is about moving forward and making your workouts slightly harder so your body has to keep adapting.

Where many individuals go wrong is weight training, they think that if they do hours of weights their bodies will be forced to burn fat. This is in fact totally the opposite, To get the best out of your weight training and to keep up an effective weight loss routine you need to remember one thing. Short and sweet, keep any weight training to a high intensity but very small volume and frequency for optimal results. When it comes to progressing with weights you want to aim to either improve your amount of reps or the weight you push every week.

Aerobic or cardio exercise is different to that of weight training, where as you do high intense workouts in small amounts, in aerobic you aim for a medium intensity for a longer period of time. So for best results in your cardio aim for a run every day but keep the same distance because with aerobic exercises you don't need to progress as much as with weight training.

Even if you lower the weights and perform exercises at a low intensity for longer periods of time you won't see any benefit beyond the first week. Your overall goal for any weight training should be to improve the weight you are lifting to keep you gaining lean muscle and strength.

A very important aspect that a lot of people don't think to involve in their workout program is rest. A decent rest period including sleep is as important as how heavy the weight is you are lifting. We need our sleep for weight loss because this is our repairing stage, when we do any type of physical exercise we are actually causing injuries to our muscles. These are tiny little tears in our muscles and when we sleep and rest these muscle fibres rebuild themselves to be stronger and thicker, Thicker and stronger muscle burn more fat to get more energy.

Upon hearing that you need to add muscle to your body for effective weight loss, many people, especially women start thinking "I don't want muscle, I want to lose weight." But this is very unlikely to happen because we aren't made to pack on muscle like the guys you see on tv. Many of these men & women take muscle building supplements along with high intakes of protein and carbohydrates, this helps them maximize their muscle building potential. The muscle you want is pure lean muscle, which will actually be compact and thinner than fat. It will also replace most of the fat on your body, in turn making you look a lot slimmer.

Remember to implement these 3 key elements into your regime and you will have put yourself into the best position possible for effective weight loss, if you don't you will limit your ability to burn excess fat and ultimately gain the body you deserve. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-3-Key-Elements-For-Effective-Weight-Loss&id=7414684

Weight Loss Tips - The Top 10

Top 10 Weight Loss Tips

Losing weight and keeping it off isn't difficult - all you need is a few changes and the motivation to get you started. Not sure where to begin? Have a look at these great tips for easy weight loss...

1) Keep a Food and Exercise Diary

This is a great way of keeping track of your foods, drinks and how much you have worked out over a week. Be honest with yourself and write down everything - even if you have a bad day.

2) Exercise to Maintain Weight Loss

Exercise helps you burn fat and calories and also helps boost your metabolic rate, even when you're resting so try to work your way up to doing a 30 minute workout 5 days a week.

3) Measure Food Amounts at Home

Weigh out foods and don't eat too much of the 'wrong' thing. For example if a recipe tells you to use 2tbsp dressing, don't go over this as a few more excess measurements all adds up to excess calories.

4) Still Eat Foods you Like

Have a rare treat so that you don't feel too deprived - just don't let a small treat turn into a big binge of crisps, chocolate, alcohol and fast food - you'll destroy all the hard work you've put in!

5) Think Long Term - Not Short Term

Losing weight fast is what everyone wants, but losing weight slowly actually allows your body to adjust and keep weight off for longer. Set goals for losing weight but think of it as a long term venture.

6) Savour Your Food

When you eat - enjoy it! Chew and enjoy the textures and flavours of your food - this will keep you fuller for longer and will reduce the likelihood of you reaching for the unhealthy snacks later.

7) Increase Workout Intensity

As a beginner you may be able to manage short workouts 2-3 times a week. Find the time to exercise and gradually increase your workout program to help you keep the weight off.

 

8) Keep Motivated

Buy yourself treats such as new clothes to celebrate your weight loss, work towards your goals such as having energy to play in the garden with your children - anything that keeps you motivated.

9) Weigh Yourself Once a Week

Weighing yourself everyday is a bad idea - weight fluctuates when muscle mass etc is varying. Have a weekly weigh in (i.e. on Monday morning before breakfast) and use it as motivation for the next week's weight loss.

10) Enjoy Your Workout!

Performing the same workout day after day means that your body gets used to it, therefore making it less effective each time you do it. Varying your workout keeps it exciting and if you're enjoying it, you're more likely to put more effort in. Go cycling, swim, do dance classes, play football in the park, go jogging and mix up your workout regime and your body will continue to burn fat.

Try out these 10 simple tips and you'll not only be able to lose weight but also keep it off! http://ezinearticles.com/?Weight-Loss-Tips---The-Top-10&id=7306455