Exercise is more than just lifting weights and avoiding injury – it involves careful planning, proper execution, and a healthy lifestyle to achieve your weight loss goals.
To help you lose belly fat quickly and effectively, here are my top 10 tips for exercising the right way.
From scheduling your workouts to implementing healthy habits outside of the gym, these tips will contribute greatly to your weight loss success.
1. Schedule Your Workouts
Write down in your calendar what days you’re going to exercise and treat your workouts like unbreakable commitments.
If you use the calendar app on your phone, set an alarm to remind yourself it’s gym-time.
For example, you could plan to workout every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. And then do light walking the rest of the time.
2. Use Strength Circuits
Strength circuits are two or more strength exercises performed consecutively with 30 seconds (or less) rest between exercises.
Focusing on resistance exercises (ideally multi-joint exercises like squats) helps prevent muscle loss.
Because strength circuits use full-body exercises and challenge your heart rate, they are a time-efficient, effective way to build strength, lose fat, and get lean.
3. Avoid Sitting During Your Workout
There’s a good chance you already spend a lot of your day sitting down– such as at work, while watching TV, and while you’re driving your car.
Make the most of your workout by using active recovery instead of just sitting on a bench between sets.
Stand, walk around, grab a sip of water, or perform dynamic stretches.
This can help improve your posture and increase your calorie burn during your workout.
4. Learn Kettlebell Swings
The kettlebell swing is an incredibly effective exercise that builds power, core strength and stability, and awesome grip strength.
Additionally, it induces a powerful metabolic effect making it a great exercise for weight loss, especially fat loss.
Kettlebell training can burn 20.2 calories per minute while jogging burns half the calories.
5. Do 50 Kettlebell Swings To Finish Your Workout
End your workout with a metabolic finisher like kettlebell swings to boost your metabolism, increase your aerobic conditioning, and burn some serious calories.
For example, do 10 kettlebell swings every minute on the minute for 5 minutes.
Kettlebell swings alone can be a solid workout routine, so you don’t even need to leave your home if you buy one.
6. Invest In A Personal Trainer
A personal trainer can teach you proper exercise form and technique, hold you accountable to your goals, and teach you how to safely progress your workouts.
Working with a trainer can also increase your workout success, helping you lose fat, and increase lean muscle mass more effectively than working out alone.
Your trainer should be able to take you through a fitness assessment to identify your weaknesses and muscular imbalances, which can help you set appropriate and realistic training goals.
7. Workout First Thing In The Morning
Get your workout done first thing in the morning and you won’t have to worry about squeezing it in later in the day. Set your alarm to wake up 30-60 minutes earlier so you can either do an at-home workout or hit the gym before heading to the office.
This is also a great way to wake up, increase your energy, and improve your work performance for the rest of the day.
8. Walk 7,500+ Steps Every Day
Use a pedometer or fitness tracker to count your daily steps, which will incrementally help you lose weight.
If you have an iPhone, there is a health app that automatically counts your steps.
Otherwise, you can download a pedometer app for your smartphone, or buy one of the many fitness trackers on the market. In general, the more active you are, the more weight you will lose.
Consider walking in the morning, during lunch, or after-dinner to exceed 7,500 steps per day.
9. Actively Commute To Work
If you can, walk, bike, or run to work instead of taking a car. This is a great way to increase your daily energy expenditure, spend some time outdoors, and wake up before work.
Commuting daily by car has been found to contribute to an average weight gain of about 5 lbs over 4 years.
So if you have the option, actively commute to work.
10. Take The Stairs Every Time You Have A Choice
If you have a choice, challenge yourself to take the stairs instead of an escalator or an elevator.
This gets your heart rate up and works your muscles more than idly standing on an escalator or in an elevator.
Taking the stairs daily can increase your cardiovascular conditioning and decrease your waist size, weight, body fat percentage, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure.