Are you one of those who have been sweating and trudging on the treadmill for years at the gym and haven’t shed a single pound? Then it’s time to up your game! If your gym trainer hasn’t already given you a workout plan (which cheap gym are you going to anyway, try out the ones listed here on Hogyvagy; they are experts in their area and superb trainers!) then it’s time to formulate your own plan. Maybe you have a gym at home or in your building. Just visiting the gym and doing two rounds of weight lifts and 20 mins on the bike is getting you nowhere in terms of weight loss. So here, we reveal to you the real success of weight loss (whether you choose to hit the gym or not) and the regime you can follow with equipment for ultimate fat blasting.
TOP SECRET
See, weight loss is simple. If you can eat fewer calories than your body actually requires to go about doing daily activities, then you are in for weight loss. Mathematically, for weight loss, calorie burn > calorie intake. Now, we are nowhere close to suggesting you should starve to achieve this formula. What we are instead suggesting is to increase the other side of the equation, so that it meets the requirement. Your body daily requires at least 1200 kcal/day on a bare minimum. Now to satisfy the equation, if you are going to stop eating, the body is going to go into starvation mode and in a fat storage drive. So instead of losing weight, you are going to start gaining weight. Now consider the scenario where you eat a healthy 1500 calories per day, but burn off 500 calories that day. Ta da, you are erasing 200 calories of fat at least from the body that day.
Simple isn’t it? Except, your walking down the stairs and getting into the car doesn’t burn 500 cals per day. Neither does arguing with your boss. What is really effective is, you guessed it, EXERCISE! Any kind of exercise? Well not really. There’s a concept of BMR (Base metabolic rate) or simply, your body’s fat burning rate. If we increase our BMR, even with little exercise, our fat is getting burnt. If our BMR is low, then no matter how much cardio and exercise we continue to do, we are going to stay in the same shape.
The real secret to increase BMR (or lose weight) is to increase muscle in the body. Muscle and non-muscle mass should be proportional in your body. Muscle burns more fat on an average than other part of your body. Just having muscle in your body means more energy is getting consumed (or more calories are getting blasted to release energy to the muscles). Therefore it is essential to build muscle mass in your body. And that’s why gym is one of the best option to lose weight because it has equipment that helps you build muscle.
There are two forms of exercises-
- Cardio- exercises that increase your heart rate
- Strength Training – exercises that build muscle
If you can combine exercises of both types equally in your regime, you are bound for success! Cardio gets your muscles moving and initiates the calorie blasting process, and if you have more muscle, more energy is required to feed them, which means more calories are getting blasted.
Having understood this simple fact, let’s look at the most basic regime you can do at the gym to start losing weight and stay fit now!
1.The Treadmill
A staple at most gyms, treadmills are popular for good reason: They accommodate almost any fitness level and goal. If weight loss is on your list, working out on a treadmill should be, too. This is one of the best warm up exercises and great cardio option. People of any age and shape can get onto a treadmill and see it work effectively towards their goals.
2.The Elliptical
It engages both your arms and legs and what better way to get a full body cardio workout! To maximize fat burning, don’t let the machine’s gliding momentum dictate your pace. Engage your leg muscles, your core and once in a while, the arms to push the pedals. This way, the muscles are actually working and burning off those calories. (Remember the top secret mentioned above!?)
3. Weights
You will see a lot of funny equipment in the gym (that might scare some of us!) when you visit it the first time. But they all boil down to being some kind of “weights” Essentially, each equipment is designed for use by a certain part of the body, but they all use weights. The weights engage a certain area of the body, and in the process builds muscle there. Some of the most common equipment you should be using at the gym are:
a. Leg Curls – This is for the legs. You will find both the lying down ones and standing leg curls. Both engage your muscles differently and both would be important. If not sure, you should recommend the gym trainer. Ultimately you are building your calf muscles. Try leg presses for even a thigh workout.
b.Reverse Pull Down – Can be pulled front and on the backside. It helps build the back muscles and chest muscles. Of course, it is working your biceps as well, and a great way to begin your upper body strength training.
c. Dumbbells – These are the most versatile. You can engage different upper body muscles by just changing the position in which you do the dumbbell lifts. Either you lie down on the flat dumbbell press or do the row, all the parts of biceps and triceps are going to be activated.
d. Barbell bench press – a great one for the chest!
While these are common equipment found in the gym, your gym may have some other nice equipment as well!
- Bike
This is the stationary one in the gym. It might have been long back when you cycled to school. This time the cycle can make you sore! Get on that bike and use it as a cool down after your strength training. It is primarily a cardio equipment, but it engages all the muscles you just built from the strength training. So a great way to get round of the regime.
For a perfect weight loss program, the equipment you choose would be unique to your weight loss goals. Depending on which parts you want to burn fat from, your regime will vary completely from another person’s. Hence it is important to get the gym trainer interested in your goals and let him guide you on which equipment to use. Don’t try to go to your apartment gym for the first time and try to do stuff you don’t know anything about!
Hit the gym the right way. Find gyms near you now!
NOTE: All views mentioned above are not from a certified trainer and serve only for general information. For personal regimes and recommendations, please consult your personal gym trainer.
