In 2001 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 21% of Americans were obese. It’s been a growing epidemic since the 80’s, and obesity related deaths are growing by the day. In the face of this new threat, many experts recommended that people use cardio exercises to lose weight.
However, while cardio certainly won’t hurt you, strength training exercises have been shown to work better and faster when it comes to losing weight—the bottom line is that strength training will allow you to lose weight fast with exercise!
You’ve probably heard that if you want to lose weight, you have to boost your metabolism. You’re metabolism is directly impacted by how much muscle mass you have. Muscle burns more calories than fat. It stands to reason that you want as much muscle mass as possible, so that you will burn more calories in a state of rest, than you would if your body were primarily made up of fat. This is where resistance training can really help you lose weight and boost your metabolism and endurance.
Top Five Fat Burning, Resistance Training Exercises
If you’re main goal is to lose weight, you should be using strength training exercises that work large muscle groups, instead of ones that isolate one muscle at a time. This way you maximize the calories being burned, and build muscle in larger areas in order to boost your metabolism.
Below you’ll find a list of the five best strength training exercises. They’re the best because they work large muscle groups, and allow you to build as much muscle as possible in the shortest amount of time.
1. The Squat: The squat is the best all-around exercise. It works your core muscles, leg muscles, butt muscles and almost every other area of your body. It’s a difficult exercise, especially for beginners, which is why you should use only body weight for resistance your first few times out.
2. The Lunge: The lunge is another great muscle-building exercise. It primarily targets your butt and the large muscles in your leg. You can hold hand weights if you want to boost the resistance level, and really challenge yourself.
3. The Push-up/Bench-press: The push-up is an amazing exercise because it can be performed almost anywhere. It works much the same way as the bench-press exercise, which is another fabulous exercise for building upper body strength. Both the push-up and bench-press really work the large chest muscles and triceps.
4. Cable-fly’s: Cable based exercises are very good at building muscle because of the constant resistance. The cable-fly exercise is probably the best of them. If you choose to use this exercise, you’ll find that it really works your arms and chest muscles.
5. The Row: And last but not least, we have the row. This exercise is excellent at working your legs, upper body and back muscles. Every good workout routine should have this exercise in it!
There you have it. If you use the exercises mentioned above, you’re guaranteed to gain muscle and lose fat fast. Strength training, coupled with determination and will power are the best way of achieving the body you’ve always dreamed about.