Weight Loss – How Effective Are Bodyweight Exercises?
So, the question here is, can bodyweight exercise help you lose weight?
The answer?
Yes and no.
Exercise does not have the same effect on every body’s body composition, at least not the same way. Everyone is different.
Additionally, there are other factors that determine whether you’ll lose weight fast or not, or if you’ll even lose weight at all at any given period. These factors include like your stress levels, diet and sleep. They all play a big part in this.
But, contrary to popular belief, doing bodyweight workout as part of your weekly fitness routine will give you better results. Better results than the ones you will get from only doing traditional cardio.
Bodyweight exercise is also more likely to make you leaner.
Cortisol levels are usually high in most adults, especially when they are stressed. Building muscle can help you decrease cortisol levels. Doing this can also help you repair insulin sensitivity, which will boost your potential for burning fat naturally.
You will also get to enjoy a control of your cravings and food intake. So, you have even lots more to benefit from building strength, instead of just burning calories.
Cardio workouts have notorious ways of making people hungrier, especially when you overdo it. This means doing aerobic exercises for a longer time might be antagonistic to your weight loss goals.
According to researches, because people want to make up for calorie they burn during cardio workout, they end up consuming more. But to some people, the effect of strength training isn’t the same.
Building muscle won’t make you hungrier, but you will need more calories to achieve your desired result. So, calories can come in handy.
Also, more muscle tone is much beneficial to a woman’s body. It can help you achieve an attractive hourglass figure by shaping your legs and glute, narrowing your waist and tightening your stomach.
Bodyweight exercises might not change the number on the scale to what you want, but they can change the way you feel and look in a great way.
Plus, eating well to maintain a healthy bodyweight during workout helps to prevent the body from entering “starvation mode. Starvation mode can occur if you are trying to sustain a calorie deficit while dieting to lose weight.
There is often more emphasis on the “exercise more and eat less” equation and it has an unfortunate side effect. When you are stressed and over train, your body’s response to this might be to down-regulate the activity of your thyroid.
When this happens and your thyroid becomes slow in its function, it becomes harder for you to lose weight or maintain. This is because the thyroid hormone is very important if your metabolic rate is to be efficient.
Bodyweight Exercises – How to Get Started
Now that you know the benefits of bodyweight workouts to your weight loss goal, let’s look at how you can get started.
The idea here is for you to find ways to integrate workouts that help to build strength all over.
So, you will have to start by doing moves that makes use of more than one body part such as burpees, squats or push-ups.
Make sure you keep things simple. Be time-efficient as well. If your exercise routine is convenient, it will be easier for you to stick with it.
Then you can make effort to a circuit workout for yourself. Combine 5–10 varieties of the bodyweight exercises listed below.
Each of them can be done one after, without resting too much in between. This will give you the best results. This way, your heart rate will quickly get up quickly and at the same time, you will as well enjoy the benefits of a cardio workout.
After going through the circuit of all 5–10 exercises, you can repeat everything again. But only if you’re fit enough to do so. If can’t d that, then you can just follow gradually work towards that at your own pace. Do bodyweight workouts circuits for 3–4 times a week.
Have rest days in between. You can just alternate with cardio workouts if you want. This will provide your body and muscle with the proper time to recover. If you have problem getting started, getting a personal trainer for a couple of weeks will be a good way to go.
You can visit one of the best fitness centres in your city to do this. Boise, ID is a great place to start.
Bodyweight exercises to try include:
- Squats
- Tricep dips
- Reverse fly
- Wall-sits
- Push-ups
- Plank
- Mountain climbers
- Burpees
- sit-ups
- Pull-ups
- Lunges
- Tuck-jumps
- Bicycles
- Chair pose
- Limb-raises
- “supermans”
How many repetitions to do?
So, how do you know how many times you should repeat your circuit workout?
Do whatever feels right to you and focus on form always. Pay attention to your muscles and listen to their feedback.
Usually you should try and do 12–20 reps, those are pretty good numbers to aim for. However, everything depends on your fitness levels and abilities.
Start with light loads and go at a slow speed. This will allow you to get proper form down. After which you can then increase difficulty. That’s if you are able to maintain proper form by performing the workouts at a quick speed and doing more reps.
It is even more fun to do it with family, friends or at the gym. If you are having problem getting started, you can get a personal trainer for a couple of weeks or do that at any of the best fitness centres around.
Even though your muscles could be fatigued, which is normal at the end but you shouldn’t be in injured, strained or in complete pain.
If you want to further keep things interesting, you can consider investing in simple at-home tools or Bodyweight Burn program. They can make it easier for you to incorporate strength exercises and bodyweight exercises all through the day.
Such at-home tools include BOSU ball, stability ball, a yoga mat, dumbbells or basic free weights and a pull-up bar, which you can hook onto a door at home.
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