Exercise Program for weight loss
Creating an exercise program that revolves around weight loss will help in keeping you focused and determined. By planning everything before hand, you are more likely to follow through and achieve your weight loss goals. While this may take some time, once the exercise program is set in place it is simply a matter of following it.
Follow the steps below for starting an exercise program:
Find Your Heart Rate: To make the most out of your workouts you need to figure out your target heart rate zone. This decreases chance of injury and increases performance. click here to use the Karvonen formula to figure out your target heart rate zones. (do not skip this step)
Find Your Intensity: Beginners should workout at 50% - 60% of the maximum heart rate. This is a low intensity work out. A higher percentage of calories from fat are burned up when performing low intensity work outs.
work outs at 80%-85% of the target heart rate are considered high intensity workouts. These type of workouts result in an overall higher amount of calories burned. You want to include both high intensity and low intensity workouts in your exercise program.
low intensity workouts fall under the fat burning zone but studies show that high intensity and or interval training are more successfull in achieving weight loss.
Choose Your Exercise: A weight loss program should consist of exercises that target large muscle groups. Running and Swimming are good examples of such.
Strength training should also be incorporated in a weight loss program. This will help in improving joint strength and developing a faster metabolism.
For optimum results in weight loss, incorporate strength training first followed by a low to mid intensity cardio session. Ideally strength training will use up the glycogen stores. The cardio session will then serve to burn up fat stores.
Duration of exercise: Rule of thumb for exercise is 30 minutes a day for 3 to 5 days a week. The lower the intensity the longer the workout. Allow the body to rest to decrease chance of injury. The duration of the exercise varies depending on your conditioning. As you improve make changes either to the length of the workout or change up the intensity.
Warm up and cool down: It is extremely important that prior to working out, the body be warmed up. Allow at least 15 minutes to warm up the muscles. This will decrease chance of injury. The same should be applied to cooling down. The warm up and cool down are just as important as the actual workout itself. If done incorrectly, you may find yourself inactive for a long period of time.
note: be sure to consult a physician before incorporating any changes to diet and exercise.
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