Best exercises for weight loss

Best exercises for weight loss

While most exercises can help you lose weight by merely allowing you to burn calories, such as walking, running, cycling, swimming or jogging, other exercises help you boost your weight loss efforts by helping you keep burning calories and target fat even after the workout is complete.

Pull-ups

As this exercise makes you use all the muscles in the body, particularly in the core, back, and arms, it helps you burn more fat. These exercises can be particularly difficult for beginners, but it’ll get easier with practice. And remember that even the assisted ones can help burn calories.

Push-ups

This exercise also engages your core and legs, and helps you burn fat quickly. Just like pull-ups, push-ups are particularly difficult for beginners, but unlike the former, you can do push-ups from your knees or from your feet as you push off a wall or table, which also helps you burn calories and strengthen your muscles. Once you’ve mastered the modified version of the push-ups, you can use objects that are closer to the ground until you can push yourself off the floor.

Swimming

If it’s done well, swimming is a great weight to burn calories and practice resistance-training, particularly for people who suffer from painful joints. As you push against the water in order to move, you are exercising your muscles and burning calories.

Running

This is one of the best cardio exercises for weight loss. If you want to see the effects more quickly, try running outside rather than on a treadmill - this will engage more muscles as you push yourself forward. Running uphill, however, is the most effective form of this exercise as it helps you strengthen your legs and abdominals more than when you run on a flat surface.

Kettlebell swings

This is one of the most effective exercises to target fat as you’ll use your glutes, hips and quads to propel the kettlebell upwards, while you exercise your abs which will help you keep your core stable. The way to do this exercise correctly is by bending your hips and holding a kettlebell with both hands at arms’ length in front of you. Squeeze your glutes, move your hips forward, and power the kettlebell upwards.

Skipping

Whether it’s part of a warm-up or programmed into your main exercise routine, skipping can be a full-body workout that benefits your overall fitness. This comprehensive workout requires you to use your shoulders and arms to turn the rope at a quick pace, at the same time your legs and calves will be propelling your body upwards, and your core and abs remain engaged. Some of its benefits include cardiovascular fitness, leg strength, stamina, balance, flexibility, endurance, and coordination.

Burpees

Whether you use programme it into your strength training or aerobic routine, Burpee is a full-body exercise that can rev your metabolism as much as a 30-second sprint and works your arms, back, chest, core, glutes and legs. All of these translates into burning more calories, improving your cardiovascular fitness, while testing your balance and coordination. This is one of the reasons burpees are usually integrated into the high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Another advantage of this exercise is that you can enjoy all of its benefits without the need of a machine; you can do it anywhere, anytime.

Dumbbell Goblet Squat

Although the traditional squat is one of the most basic exercises for building lower body strength and preventing injuries, due to the load’s position, it can put you at risk for a back injury. A dumbbell goblet squat, however, removes that tension and it targets the quads and glutes. This is because, while a traditional squat place the tension on your upper and lower back, a dumbbell goblet squat brings the load to the front as a counterbalance. The position of the load also makes your core work harder, and it will encourage your core, shoulders, glutes, legs and core to work. It also helps improve your mobility. As it engages many muscles, it’s great for burning calories and fat.

Rowing

Although most gym-goers are likely to give the rowing machine a miss, some claim that each stroke on the machine uses 85 percent of your muscles across the nine major muscle groups. Apart from being a full-body workout, it will also spike your heartrate, blast fat, and burn about 150 calories in just 15 minutes. For best results, avoid long stints in the seat, and try, instead, sharp intervals sessions.