When you think of a good exercise for weight loss, running might spring to mind. Jogging or running is an excellent way to get in shape and lose weight. Any aerobic exercise will help your weight loss efforts. But don't overlook strength training as an excellent exercise to help you lose weight.
Strength training might make you think of dumbbells and barbells and muscled men working out in gyms. But it's not that. Strength training can be something as simple as doing some resistance movements. Leg lifts or arm raises done with controlled muscle strength will help you lose weight.
Resistance rings or bands are a wonderful tool for this type of exercise. The bands are particularly nice because you can use them for anything. You can wrap a band around your back, hold the ends of it, and push your fists forward. You can step up on the band and pulls the ends up.
Hold the band in place against your hip while you exercise on arm and then switch sides. Even just playing around with these bands helps you strength train.
Almost any exercise you can do with the barbell or dumbbell set, you can do with resistance bands.
A resistance band or even a whole set of them in different resistance levels, might cost $10-$20. Try to find a barbell or dumbbell set that you can get for that price. A complete set of those types of weights costs hundreds of dollars. Even a small set of hand dumbbells can cost $100 or more.
But with resistance bands, you practically have a whole set of weights in one piece of equipment. While the band is set up to offer a certain amount of resistance, if you hold it in a different way you increase the resistance.
By giving yourself very little slack, for instance, you can double or triple the resistance of the band.
Why is this type of exercise so good for losing weight? It's good because you're toning your muscles. You won't get bulky or end up with huge biceps. Toning your muscles means making them smaller.
If you want huge muscles, you really have to work for them. In that case you will need to go to a gym or have a complete set of weights. Huge muscles require large amounts of weight and exhausting workouts. By using resistance bands or any other type of strength training equipment, you'll only tone your muscles and make your body smaller.
And when you tone your muscles, you make them more efficient. Muscle tissue burns more fat and is more metabolically active than any other tissue in your body. So the more toned muscle you have, the more fat you burn.
You do need to do fat burning exercises. Aerobic activities and exercises are necessary to help you lose weight. But strength training, however you choose to do it, is also a very good exercise for weight loss. And by combining it with aerobic activity, you'll lose more weight than ever before.
