Weight loss exercises

On your journey towards a new, healthier body, physical exercises are the key. Doing sports will not only help you burn those calories, but also feel more energetic, strong and positive.

Generally speaking, working out can have one of three basic goals: losing fat, gaining muscle and maintaining your current form. If you start exercising for losing that extra weight you may have, we recommend that your new weight loss workout plan should include both strength training and cardio exercises.

Traditionally, people tend to choose cardio for a quicker weight loss. However, recent studies prove that strength training is more beneficial to your health in the long run.

If you are beginner, you can start with slow walking (every day, about 30-40 minutes). Once you’re comfortable with this amount of exercise, you can try adding working out with weights or your bodyweight, and short cardio sessions after the strength exercises for quicker results.

An example of a perfect weight loss workout plan for men can look like this: 40-60 minutes of strength training and 15-20 minutes of cardio. For a powerful fat-burning effect, your strength workout should consists of supersets—a combination of two exercises with only a short pause in between. Repeat each superset 3-5 times, depending on your current goal.

Here is a typical workout plan for a man in the gym.

  1. Warm-Up (about 5 minutes).
  2. Abs crunches (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps).
  3. Push-ups (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps).
  4. Squats (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps). Depending on your current form, you can squat with your bodyweight, a light bar, with dumbbells or with a loaded barbell. If you want to add more fat-burning impact to the bodyweight squats, you can do pulse squats, squats with bicep curls, or squat-into-jump exercises.
  5. Bench press (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps). Same rule—start with a light bar or dumbbells, and steadily progress towards a loaded barbell.
  6. Deadlift (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps) with a bar, dumbbells, or a barbell.
  7. Lat pulldowns. (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps).
  8. Bicep curl (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps).
  9. Triceps dips (3-5 sets x 15-20 reps).
  10. Post workout cardio.

After-workout cardio includes walking, jogging, running, swimming, rowing on a machine, going uphill on an inclined treadmill or a Stair Master type of a machine. Women will greatly benefit from a workout that is built on a ‘circuit’ principle because this workout plan will help them to burn more calories during a workout itself. The idea of a ‘circuit’ workout is very simple: you do one set of each exercise on your plan, and once you’re done with all of them, you start from the first one again (take a rest!). You can do from three to five circuits but overall time of your workout should not be longer than an hour and a half. In this case, you don’t need a post-workout cardio.

A typical ‘circuit’ gym-based weight loss workout plan for women can look like this:

  1. Warm-Up (about 5 minutes).
  2. Abs crunches (20-30 reps) – for a firm tummy;
  3. Leg press (15-20 reps) – for stronger, beautiful legs;
  4. Walking lunges (15-20 reps) – for a nice separation between your glutes and your hamstrings;
  5. Hip thrusts (15-20 reps) – for a peachy butt;
  6. Push-ups (10-15 reps) – for a stronger, toned chest;
  7. Lat pulldown (15-20 reps) – for a stronger back;
  8. Bicep curls (15-20 reps) – for stronger arms;
  9. Triceps dips (10-15 reps) – for toned arms (to beat ‘bat wings’);
  10.  Plank (30-60 seconds) – for a flat stomach.

After you finished all 3-5 circuits, you need to spend 7-10 minutes on stretching exercises. They will help you to recover better and will also help to strengthen your ligaments. It will help you gain a ’fit’ and ‘toned’ look faster!

All of these exercises have a ‘home version’ that can be easily performed with your body weight or light dumbbells. Remember—you don’t have to train ‘heavy’, your primary goal should be to get your body moving and blood running. Leave heavy lifting to professional athletes and people who like pumping their ego instead of their muscle.

Feel free to give us a call to sign up for a free, thorough consultation in our Brandon clinic in Tampa Area with the certified, experienced weight loss coaches. They will be happy to answer all your questions about proper weight loss exercises and a meal plan that will hit your personal needs and wants.