Best Exercise to Lose Weight - And How to Get the Most Out of It
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
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Searching for the best exercise to lose weight? Just remember that any cardio activity that you engage in for half an hour or more and raises your heart rate to about 80% of it's maximum is a good exercise for burning fat and losing weight fast. All other factors being equal, the best exercise to lose weight has to be swimming.
Why is it so great for your body? Firstly swimming is a full body exercise that works every muscle in your body from head to toe. Its low impact, strengthens the heart, shoulders and abdominal muscles and doesn't place any stress on your joints. Since it works a greater percentage of your body's muscles it's an excellent exercise for creating fantastic muscle tone and definition.
Swimming for a quarter of a mile is equivalent to one mile of running. You can burn around 400 calories in half an hour by doing the breast stroke.
Since water offers resistance and also keeps you buoyant, engaging in a water workout is like doing two exercises at once. For example, you'd be using different machines in a gym for arm presses and arm curls. Lowering and raising your arms while you are swimming gives you the benefit of both these exercises in a single motion.
It's one of the best exercises to lose weight at home because it combines both strength training and balance training in a gentle fashion and is kind on your body. However the benefit you'll get from swimming depends on how you swim. If you just do two laps in a pool and float on your back the rest of the time all you've really gotten is a nice long bath. Remember, to get the benefit of a good cardio workout it needs to increase your heart rate.
So get someone to help you out with designing a water workout that truly helps you lose weight or see to it that you do swim for half an hour at least fast, pushing yourself a little without over exerting yourself.
While swimming can be the best exercise to lose weight, whether you lose any weight depends on the intensity of your workout and what you do after you get out of the water. Some people actually gain weight once they begin a water workout! Why? They get so hungry after a good swim that they just pile on the calories. So they end up replacing all the calories they've burned with a humongous post-exercise meal which defeats the entire purpose of their swim
If you can swim with a little intensity and control your eating afterwards then swimming will be the best exercise for you. It has a lot of other benefits such as increasing your flexibility and reducing problems associated with allergies, asthma, high blood pressure and diabetes. It's especially excellent for those suffering from knee, hip or joint pain.
However the single most important thing is to be consistent with your exercise program and to just stick to it. Make sure you enjoy what you choose, since it's easy to be let go of an exercise program that never really liked. If you enjoy swimming then it's simply the best exercise to help you lose weight and maintain your ideal body shape in the long run.