The 5 best exercises to lose stubborn weight after the holiday period no matter what your fitness level is
We’ve all been there! Having amazing food and drinks with our nearest and dearest over the holiday period and then realising as the new year rolls in that our clothes are not quite fitting as comfortably as they did before. Naturally when it comes to weight loss there is always a bit of ying and yang when it comes to exercise and your diet. Generally speaking the best results come from consistent healthy eating habits combined with regular exercise. On the movement front here's 5 exercises that will help get rid of those unwanted festive kilo's.
WALKING
One of the most common and regularly the first thought we associate weight loss to is an aerobic exercise also known as cardio. When we think cardio, we think walking, running, swimming, and cycling. Cardio exercise doesn’t have a major effect on your muscle mass, at least not compared to lifting weights. However, it is very effective at burning calories. Walking is a great form of physical activity that’s low risk and accessible to most people. In fact, walking is not just good for you, it’s one of the easiest forms of exercise to incorporate into your day-to-day life. Investing in a treadmill like the Horizon T101 Treadmill could be the perfect solution for introducing a cardio workout into your exercise regime which caters to all fitness levels.
RUNNING
Running can provide a lot of the same benefits of walking. But running burns nearly double the number of calories as walking. Walking is considered low intensity and while you still may lose weight, running burns more calories, which will result in a greater weight loss overall. With the luxury of a treadmill at home you can really amp up your calorie burn by adding an incline to either your walk or run; a great incline treadmill to consider is the Horizon Paragon X Treadmill.
CYCLING
Cycling is a great low impact workout. It can help boost your heart and lung health, improve your blood flow, build muscle strength, and lower your stress levels. On top of that, it can also help you burn fat, torch calories, and lose weight.
Regardless of your fitness level, cycling can get that heart pumping and those calories burning, from upright cycles through to spin cycles, a great way to increase your calorie burn is to increase the intensity and resistance. Cycling is a great way to introduce HIIT training to your fitness regime to, we’ll talk more about the benefits of HIIT training below.
WEIGHT TRAINING
All physical activity can help you burn calories, and when we think weight loss, we generally think of cardio workout. However, resistance training, such as weight lifting has benefits that go beyond that. Resistance training helps increase your strength, tone your muscles, and increase the amount of muscle you have.
Higher amounts of muscle also increase your metabolism, helping you burn more calories around the clock; even at rest. This is because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, meaning it requires more energy.
This also helps prevent the drop in metabolism that can occur alongside weight loss.
Because of this, doing some form of resistance training is a crucial addition to an effective long-term weight loss plan. It makes it easier to keep the weight off, which is actually much harder than losing it in the first place.
A great way to introduce a variety of weight training to your workout is with a kettlebell or dumbbells.
HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING (HIIT)
High intensity interval training also known as HIIT is a type of exercise characterised by short bursts of intense exercise followed by a brief rest before repeating this cycle. HIIT can be done with cardio or resistance training exercises and provides the benefits of both.
Most HIIT workouts are only 10–20 minutes long, but they offer some powerful benefits in regard to weight loss and calories burned.
One of the many reasons why HIIT workouts are so popular is because they’re extremely effective for weight loss. When trying to lose weight, you want to burn fat and build lean muscle to continue to burn more fat. HIIT forces your body to use energy from fat as opposed to carbs. This makes losing fat more efficiently. On a diet, it’s hard to lose fat while maintaining the muscle. But studies have shown that with HIIT, you can preserve those hard-earned muscles while burning the maximum amount of fat.
Not only do you burn more calories during a HIIT workout than with steady cardio, but the effect of all that intense exertion keeps your body working long after you’re done with your exercise for the day.
HIIT may offer similar benefits as cardio exercise, with about half of the time commitment. A great piece of equipment to start HIIT training with is the Freeform Air Bike
Regardless what your fitness level is, and how much weight you would like to lose, introducing any form of exercise will have you on a one way ticket to a healthier life. From taking the dog for a walk or doing a HIIT workout, your body will thank you post the holiday season for looking after it!