Fitness

5 Important Steps toward that Perfect Beach Body

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Getting the perfect beach body that you’ve always wanted takes work, but the payoff for that work will be well worth it. There’s more to getting your body ready for the beach than just doing a few basic exercises, and you’ll need to know how different muscle groups work together to tone your body and build the physique you ultimately desire. Here are five things to keep in mind while working toward your ideal body so you’ll be ready for the beach when the time comes.

  • Set Goals
    The key here is to set multiple achievable goals, not just an overall goal that will seem miles away once you start working toward it. Having an overall goal is important, but by creating smaller milestones you’ll actually have incremental steps to work toward that all feed into that larger goal. You can choose how you want to structure your goals, and whether you want to measure them in inches, pounds, or just the way you look in the mirror.
  • Adjust Your Diet
    It’s been said that you can’t out-exercise a bad diet, and you’ll probably need to make some changes to what you eat if you plan on being ready to show off your beach body. Cut back on carbs and fatty foods, up your leafy green intake, and start bringing your daily caloric intake down to create a calorie deficit which will help fuel weight loss. A nutritionist can help you to create a diet that’s right for you without the health risks associated with some fad-of-the-week diet plans.
  • Burn the Fat
    Cardio is king when it comes to fat-burning exercise. Running, swimming, biking, jump rope, aerobics… they’re all great ways to burn calories, which increases that calorie deficit and makes your body burn more fat. It may take a little while for you to notice some of the results because your body burns fat from all over (which means that you may notice your arms and legs becoming thinner before that stubborn belly fat seems to budge), but as you keep exercising, you’ll start seeing steady results.
  • Tone the Muscle
    While you’re doing cardio to burn fat, you should also add in strength training to build and tone your muscles. Lift weights or choose different strength-training exercises that focus on different major muscle groups, working on not only your arms but also your legs, abs, chest, and back. You should also keep in mind that muscle has weight too, so you might not lose weight as quickly because the weight of your muscle is replacing the weight of the fat you’ve burned off. You’ll certainly notice the difference in the mirror, though.

Keep At It!

It isn’t always easy to get in shape and sculpt the body you want for the beach. Breaking bad dietary habits can be hard, and sticking to an exercise routine containing both cardio and strength training can be even harder. This is why it’s important to force yourself to stick with it until it becomes habit, and to celebrate each and every milestone that you hit in a way that won’t hurt your goals. This will help you to keep motivated, and all of the hard work that you’re doing now will be totally worth it in the end.

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Cardio or Weight Training, Which Is the Better Option?

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This is one debate that has been raging for years, but the truth is that you need to understand the benefits and risks of each type of exercise to see which option is really the best for you. Cardio and weight training are both great options for getting fit, but let’s find out what each type has to offer.
Cardio
Cardiovascular exercise is designed to get your heart pumping. When your heart is pumping more efficiently, it increases the amount of oxygen in your system, and helps your lungs work better. Cardio exercise provides the overall benefit of making your heart and lungs stronger, which leads to more endurance and improved function, even when you are not working out. However, there are other benefits that should be considered when trying to choose which type of exercise is the better option.

  • Weight Loss – Cardio exercise done at higher intensity levels, in conjunction with a healthy diet, will provide weight loss benefits.
  • More Stamina – The improved heart and lung function help you increase your overall endurance as your cardiovascular system works more efficiently.
  • Better Mental Health – Exercise results in an increase in the amount of endorphins that are released, and this leads to decreased anxiety and depression.
  • Better Health – Cardio exercise helps with weight loss, which decreases the chances of diabetes, heart disease, and other health issues.
  • Low Impact – Some cardio workouts, such as walking and swimming, are low impact, which reduces that chance of injury – especially for those already dealing with joint pain and other mobility issues.

Weight Training
Weight or strength training helps you grow stronger, leading you to be in better physical condition. In addition, lifting weights increases the amount of lean muscle, which is a necessity for those wanting to increase weight loss. There are different options available for strength training, such as hitting the gym, creating your own home gym with dumbbells and the like, and body weight training that needs no additional equipment. Regardless of which type of workout you choose, you need to know the benefits:

  • Increased Weight Loss – Lean muscle burns fat even when you are not working out, resulting in a higher metabolism that boosts weight loss by burning more calories.
  • Bone Health – Strength training builds muscle, which also helps increase bone strength and density. This helps protect against bone loss associated with osteoporosis and the natural aging process.
  • Better Coordination and Balance – When your muscles are stronger, they provide a better support system for your joints. This results in better coordination and balance as your strength improves.
  • Improved Mood – Like cardio, strength training increases endorphin release. This leads to less depression, decreased stress, and a general sense of well-being.
  • More Energy – As you get stronger, you will notice an improvement in energy levels due to an overall increase in physical fitness.
  • Better Health – Weight loss helps to decrease the chances of health issues such as heart disease, helps to relieve joint pain, and helps to provide better diabetes control.

As you can see, both cardio and weight training provide lots of health benefits. The decision of which is the better option is essentially up to you and your current health goals. If you just want to improve heart and lung function, cardio works great. If your goal is to promote long-term weight control, strength training wins.  In all honesty, if you want to experience the best results overall, you should include both cardio and weight training.

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Five Benefits of a Home Gym

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When it comes to fitness and weight loss, most people assume that the only way to get a great workout is to go to the gym. While you do need to include weight training and cardio workouts in your weight loss plan, there is no rule that you have to do these things at a gym. If you have been trying to decide whether you really need that gym membership, here are five benefits of home gyms that might make your decision easier.
No Traffic
One of the number one reasons people fail to make it to the gym is the travel needed to get there. Traffic can be a pain, and it makes a great excuse for skipping your workout. When you have your very own gym right there in your home, this ready-made excuse flies right out the window. The whole point of adding exercise to your weight loss efforts is to make sure you see results. A home gym makes sure you get rid of those excuses that are holding you back from reaching those goals.
Exercise on Your Time
A home gym is available whenever you are. Even though many gyms are making the switch to 24-hour availability, you still have to get there. If you have to fit your workouts in around a demanding schedule, or you live in a not so nice neighborhood, you might not want to deal with venturing out at 3AM to get it done. Your home gym allows you to workout no matter what time of day or night, and you don’t have to worry about running into some rather shady characters in the middle of the night.
Privacy
Working out can be intimidating, especially if you are just starting out on creating that body you actually want to show off. While the local gym may provide you with plenty of gear to work on weight training and cardio, if you feel uncomfortable walking right next to a marathon trainer running four miles on a treadmill, you might find it difficult to get motivated. A home gym allows you to work out at your own pace, without having to feel like you are being compared to all those other fit bodies.
Motivation
Let’s face it, motivation is a key element in making sure you look forward to your exercise sessions. While you can always use your iPod to help you keep the pace at the fitness center, your home gym allows you to blast the tunes that make you want to get moving. You can also deck out your space with décor that makes you happy, including the posters of that hot body you want to attain. Your surroundings really do make a difference in motivation, and a home gym lets you customize your area to keep you moving.
Your Space, Your Rules
When you create your own home gym, you do not have to take anyone else into consideration. This means you can work out on whatever equipment you want, without having to move along so that someone else can use it. Not only does this make it easier for you to focus on a specific muscle group whenever you want, it also allows you to choose a pace that you are comfortable maintaining.
Home gyms can include equipment that allows you to perform the same exercises that you do at a fitness center. If you want to make sure you have no excuses for skipping your workout, a home gym is a great option. Plus, the fact that you bought all that equipment does wonders for keeping you on track – you don’t want to waste all that cash!

These are the same reasons that I get up each morning at 5 am and workout at home.  If you want to join me, let me know.

Weight Lifting for Weight Loss

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Usually, people who are interested in losing weight focus largely on cardio because it burns more calories than lifting weights. There’s something to be said for weight lifting for weight loss, though. While weight lifting shouldn’t be your sole form of exercise when trying to lose weight, strength training does play an important part in helping you reach your long-term weight loss goals. It also goes a long way toward toning your body and getting you in top shape once the pounds come off.

Lifting vs. Cardio

When you exercise as part of a weight loss plan, the goal is generally to burn calories and make your body burn stored fat to make up the difference between the calories it uses and the calories it brings in. Lifting weights doesn’t burn many calories compared to other forms of exercise, so those who are solely looking to lose weight often skimp on the strength training because other exercises produce faster results. To really get the most out of a weight loss plan, however, strength training should be added in every few days in addition to more calorie-intensive types of exercise.

Developing Lean Muscle

Lifting weights strengthens your body’s muscles, resulting in increased amounts of lean muscle in your arms, legs, abs, and other parts of the body. This can actually cause your weight loss to slow down a little as the lean muscle tissue is dense and adds weight to your body even as you’re taking it off by burning fat. This might prompt some people to wonder what’s going on, since they’re exercising more but losing less weight. They’re still losing fat, however, which is much more important than simply losing weight.

Boosting Your Metabolism

Once you start developing more lean muscle, the real benefit of weight lifting for weight loss starts to kick in. All of that new lean muscle tissue needs energy, and it gets that energy the same way that the rest of your tissues do: by burning calories. As you lift more weights and develop more lean muscle, your base metabolism will rise and your body will burn more calories throughout the day. This even applies when you’re at rest, because that energy-hungry lean muscle tissue will still need to be fed.

Toning Up

If you’re not lifting weights while trying to drop a few pounds, you may notice that your skin seems a bit looser and you generally look a little more out of shape than you did before you started losing weight. That’s because your body is burning the fat stored under your skin and you’re not building additional muscle to take up the slack. Lifting weights to work all of your major muscle groups will help with this, as the additional muscle bulk will provide you with additional toning and muscle definition once the fat starts melting away.

Long-Term Weight Loss

Strength training is an important part of long-term weight loss. Not only does it make you look and feel better, but it also gives you a much-needed break between cardio days. Between the boost you’ll receive to your metabolism and the self-confidence boost that you’ll receive from your new beach body physique, there’s no reason to not work weight lifting into your long-term weight loss goals.

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