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Fat-burning for the
beginner
by Scott White
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty
when it comes to exercise: what exactly should you do to start seeing
better results. Remember, these are general guidelines and they might
not apply to everyone, but this exercise program will give you an
excellent starting point for making the most of your time at the gym.
Although hiring a personal trainer
would be your best option, you can successfully implement this program
on your own. Note: Always consult with your physician before beginning
any exercise program.
Start with a warm up on a treadmill,
stair stepper, or stationary bike — anything that gets your heart
pumping hard enough for you to break a sweat. Walk, run or sprint for
eight to 10 minutes, depending on your level of conditioning. Do what’s
comfortable to begin, and work up from there.
Weight Training
After your warm-up, it’s time to
lift weights. Studies have proven that weight training is far more
effective at burning fat than cardiovascular activity alone. The best
starter program is a circuit that includes a leg press, leg curl, arm
row and chest press, followed by a pull-up machine, in that order.
Don’t be scared or embarrassed if
you don’t know how to perform a particular exercise. Ask a friend or one
of the gym trainers to show you how it’s done.
Do just one set that includes five
to eight repetitions each of these exercises. Each time you work out,
increase the number of sets until you reach about five or six sets.
Again, perform no more than eight repetitions for any single set. Be
careful not to use too much weight in the beginning — you should be able
to comfortably perform up to eight repetitions. The goal is to work
toward the heaviest weight you can use and still perform the five to
eight repetitions.
Complete one time through the
circuit, and rest at the end if you need to. However, as time goes on,
your goal should be to decrease your rest time until you don’t rest at
all between each set of exercises. Your mission for this program is to
perform the reps on this circuit as many times as possible, as quickly
as possible, without rushing through the exercises and always
maintaining proper form. Ideally, this workout should take about 25 to
40 minutes.
Beginning an exercise program is the
hardest part, so ease into it. Though you do need to push yourself,
every time you go to the gym you should expect to perform the circuit in
less time than your previous workout. You want to beat your previous
time, as well as consistently add weight to the machine so that you can
only perform five to eight repetitions.
Perform this program only three days
per week, in order to give yourself a rest in between workouts so your
body can recover. Too many people hit the gym every day and never see
any results because their bodies are too stressed and don’t have the
opportunity to recover, which inhibits their results.
Don’t be put off by the idea that
lifting weights will make you big and bulky, even if you’re a woman.
Although you may be lifting a fairly heavy amount of weight, this
workout is not giving your body enough time under that stress to
actually build more muscle, which is what makes it an ideal fat-burning
workout.
Cardio Exercise
The next phase of your workout
should consist of cardio exercise. This means walking, running,
sprinting or whatever your heart desires (ha-ha, no pun intended).
Perform cardio three times a week for no more than 30 minutes. You
cardio junkies are probably screaming, “No! How can I lose fat doing
only 30 minutes of cardio three times a week!?" Remember, weight
training is far more beneficial for shedding those pounds than cardio
training, but cardio is an essential supplementary exercise.
The goal with your cardio program is
to perform as much as you can in as little time as possible. Say you
start off by doing 30 minutes on the treadmill, jogging 2.2 miles, after
which you are exhausted. You think, “Wow, I could never do any more than
that.” Wrong! You will do more the next time you work out — your second
time out, your goal is to do 2.3 miles on the treadmill in 30 minutes or
less. And you want to keep on beating that distance each consecutive
time.
It is far more important when trying
to lose fat to work at a higher intensity than to go for a longer time.
So increase the intensity and sweat, sweat, sweat, if you really want to
drop those sizes and tighten that toosh.
This program is simple and will make
all the difference in your results. In a perfect world, you would
perform free-weight exercises rather than machine training, but these
machine exercises are a great place for a beginner to start. They’re
also simple enough that you can start achieving great results
immediately.
I’m excited for you and the results
you will achieve with this exercise program. Please write me at
swhite@personalpowertraining.net to tell me about your
success stories.
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