If you want to lose weight, you should keep in mind that it is best to carry out a combination of healthy eating and physical activity. But, do not worry, healthy eating is not about carrying out strict diets that only generate more anxiety; it is about avoiding excesses, respecting the meal schedule and drinking plenty of water. And, if this is accompanied by exercises to lose weight, the results can be sensational.
Therefore, this time we will show you that combination of exercises that will facilitate weight loss and, at the same time, offer some toning in order to avoid flaccidity after losing weight, which is obtained through a progressive process.
Exercises to lose weight
There are many exercises you can do in order to improve your figure, but when it comes to exercises to lose weight, there is nothing better than combining cardiovascular exercises with strength exercises, but why?
Remember that cardiovascular exercises are responsible for burning calories, while strength exercises are responsible for toning and speeding up the metabolism. Therefore, it is an excellent combination when you want to lose weight, avoid flaccidity and have long-lasting results.
What are the best cardiovascular exercises?
This type of exercise will be responsible for raising your heart rate, which allows an increase in energy consumption; this is very convenient because when you want to lose weight the focus should be on consuming as much energy as possible in order to burn the accumulated fat. For this reason, we recommend the following:
- Burpees: standing, bring your hands to the floor, with a small jump, your legs go backwards to be in a plank position. Then, do a push-up and, with a jump, bring your legs back behind your hands and return to the initial standing position.
- Squat jump: do a squat in a 90° position, then jump and repeat.
- Skipping: without moving from your site, make as if you were running by raising your knee above your hip, do it continuously for a certain time.
- Jumping Juck: also known as “scissor jump”, jump and while you raise your arms open your legs, then lower your arms and close your legs.
Ideally, this type of exercises should be performed for approximately 25 to 30 minutes continuously.
Cardiovascular exercise routine
- 5 minutes of stretching
- 10 minutes of walking
- Burpees: 20 repetitions
- Squat jump: 20 repetitions
- Skipping: 60 seconds
- Jumping Juck: 60 seconds
- 5 minutes of walking
- 5 minutes of relaxation
Between each exercise you can have a rest interval of 5 to 10 seconds in order to catch your breath. Remember that during this rest you can walk slowly, but you should not sit or stand still.
Remember that physical exercise should not be interrupted abruptly, so once you finish you should avoid sitting or stopping immediately.
What are the best strength exercises?
One of the great advantages of this type of exercises is that it allows an increase in energy consumption in the short and long term, i.e., while you perform the exercises and after you finish them. This is thanks to the fact that strength exercises generate that slight muscular pain, while the muscles recover, the body burns calories faster despite being at rest. Among the best strength exercises, the following stand out:
- Squats: your legs should be shoulder-width apart and with your back straight, do as if you were going to sit down by bringing your buttocks down, trying to maintain a 90º angle.
- Push-ups: you must place your hands on the floor and the tips of your feet also resting on the floor, then bend and extend your arms continuously; keeping in mind that, while you bend them, your knees should not touch the floor and your elbows should not be higher than your back.
- Pull ups: you must hold on to an elevated bar, placing your palms forward and, from this position, try to go up. You must raise the bar at neck level: however, this is for an advanced level, if you just start go up as much as you can and repeat.
- Tractions: are all those exercises that try to bring a resistance to the body. You can vary them between stretching with suspension straps and rowing on a fitness machine.
- Lunge: also known as stride, take a step forward, leaving that leg at a 90° position and bend the other leg without touching the ground, return to standing in the starting position and repeat with the other leg.
- Step up: place one leg on a slightly elevated platform and step up the other foot, using force only with the leg that is resting on the platform.
- Biceps curl: with weights (2 kg in each hand is fine) and your arms close to your body, bend your elbows and bring your hands with the weights to your shoulders.
These exercises are also an excellent alternative for those who for some reason have difficulty moving around.
Strength Exercise Routine
You can perform all the strength exercises mentioned above, doing 3 sets of 12 to 14 repetitions. Between each set, you can rest for a maximum of 45 to 60 seconds.
Another option is to perform a circuit where you do 4 to 5 varied strength exercises and you only perform one set of each. In this case the ideal is to repeat the circuit 5 times without rest.
Exercise routine to lose weight
If you want to have a good exercise routine that combines cardiovascular and strength exercises, then we recommend you to perform one of the two strength routines described above and then perform the cardiovascular exercise routine.
Another option is to alternate the exercises, for this it is recommended to choose only 4 strength exercises. So, start with a cardiovascular exercise, then a strength exercise and so on until you perform a total of 8 exercises of 45 seconds each.
