Exercises To Lose Weight

This was the best rated article for the year 2008, by our readers opinion. It is written by one of our visitors, signed as Mr. Ninja - "Simple Exercises To Lose Weight At Home". Although, his English is not perfect, we published this article in the original version.

 

Simple Exercises To Lose Weight At Home

Before I start overload you with scientific evidence of the relationship between physical activity and weight loss, I will tell you my story. I think it would be more useful for you than any scientifically proven theory. A few years ago, I was struggling with weight loss trying many different kind of diets and was starving for weeks. Eat this, not that, count calories in each product... and so on.

 

It was like that until the day I heard that my neighbor goes to a nearby gym. Of course, I wanted to go to. I asked him about details and he told me one very important thing, by the way - this is sometnig most people don't take serious, even if you warrning them several times: "Do not go there alone. You should hire a personal coach which will teach you what you should do there". Moreover a coach will make a training program for you.

 

So, I've been doing this for a month. Although I started lose weight, I lose my motivation to go there as well... I realized that I can do the same exercises at home. Now, I had a knowledge about best exercises for weight loss (I will explain later). I knew what exercise equipment I needed, but I didn't want to go to the gym just because of the fitness machines. I decided to find a right solution for me once for ever: "Do I really want to lose my weight? What am I willing to sacrifice to reach my goal?"... and so, I made one of the biggest decisions in my life: I made my own small gym in my house!

 

 

 

My Own Home Gym

I bought the following equipment:

  1. Treadmill (If you have no money, you can always go out to jogging. But let's be honest, you can go out right now, but you are not going, right?)

  2. Elliptical trainer

  3. Pilates ball

  4. Ball (an ordinary children's rubber ball)

  5. TV wall mount holder (for my old TV - it is the most important thing in every gym)

• A buying guide you will find at the end of this article.

 

Weight Loss Exercises

So, I begun to exercise every evening in 20:00 to about 21:30 - 22:00, on this way:

 

  1. Walking on a treadmill (20 minutes). First minute start slowly and than raise speed up to walk just a little bit faster, no more. You will raise your speed and time you spend on treadmill over time, but no more than 30 minutes. You should have a bottle of water and drink every time you feel it's needed (if you don't feel thirsty, you have to take a few swigs of water on every few minutes).

 

  2. After short resting, the next one is a pilates ball. It is used for several muscle groups: back, abdominal or ABS, and for stretching (to prevent muscle inflammation). It is very important to work on mentioned mucles. This will significally burn your fat and remove it from exactly those parts of the body that you want.

 

Exercise A: Sit on the ball. Knees and hips should be at or above 90 degrees. Hoop (up and down) while seating on the ball, by using your leg muscles, counting to 100. Stand up, walk and rest for awhile.

 

Exercise B: Take a semi-prone position (sit with the part of your body somewhere between your rump and lower back, on your tail - see image B). Sit up and down for 7-8 times. While sit down, do it with your muscle slowly. It is more benefitial to sit down with your muscles than to sit up. Inhale as you go down, and exhale on the up.

 

Exercise C: Stretching and relaxation. When you are fully relaxed and stretched in the lower end position, breathe deep with your abdomen, so hard that you fill how your abdominal muscles are stretching. Breathe a few times, then slowly rise up and walk around. Repeat exercise 3 times.

 

Exercise D:
This exercise is very similar to the exercise B, but you should do it with your back.

 

Exercise E: Complete Relaxation. lie down with your stomach over the ball, leaving the rest of the body to completely relax.

 

 

After these exercises, It would be good if you could hang down for a bit. Simply attach your hands to something above your head, and let your body hang for 10 seconds.

 

There is one more exercise that you could add later, when your abdominal muscles strengthened. It's lifting the ball with your feet. For now, you can do it with an ordinary, small ball.

 

For the next exercise you will use an ordinary, small ball. Your abdomen will have a lot of benefit from this exercise.

Lie on a floor (illustration F1). Bend your knees. Put the ball on your stomach and roll it in the foot direction, using your fingertips, all over the knees. Slowly lifting your head, shoulders and back from the floor (illustration F2), lift the legs up and roll the ball all over the top of your leg fingers and than back the ball using the same way, but reversed, until you return to the original position F1.

Repeat this as much times as you can. Exhale in the top position. Stand up and relax by walking around. Repeat it 3 times with pause between exercises.

 

3. After a little rest, go for an elliptical trainer ride. It should take about 10 minutes (it wuold be increased to 20 minutes as you progress). This will additionally burn tons of calories.

 

Reminder: It is very important to drink water regularly during training.

 

Everything that I wrote above will affect your weight much faster if you reduce your bad eating habits. I know, it is the most difficult part, but if you are exercising regulary, it is already a habit change and it would be much easer for you to change your diet, as well. There is only a few rules you should follow: do not eat after 19:00 (7:00 PM). If you are hungry after this time, try to fooled hunger with some fruits (bananas are perfect). Try to not eat a food reach in fat (you can, but eat it less than before). Also you should reduce sweets (sugar) and try to eat it as less as possible. Do not eat a white bread, but only bread that is made from whole grain cereals. Add yogurt or some probiotic drink to your diet (e.g. bifidus) to improve your stomach function and improve your metabolism.

 

 

Exercise Equipment Buying Guide:

 

I was searching for an affordable treadmill which is yet equipped with as powerful engine as possible. To get as much as I can for the lowest possible price. I bought the compact teadmill with a single motor (2.0 horespower). Some treadmills are equipped with two engines. First one is used to speed up the treadbelt and another one for incline funcion, as well. To be honest, I never use incline function. If you are not limited with your budget, I suggest you to buy some of a bit expensive but high-quality treadmills (the same for elliptical), such as LifeFitness, or Bowflex. Of course, pay attention that you have to get equiment which can stand your weight. I used this website to find a treadmill for myself: Best Treadmills for Home Use (they have a great collection of coupon codes).

 

The main problem with home exercise equipment is that it is made for occasional use. All manufacturers know that there are a small number of people that will use these machines everyday. The most of people who bought some fitness equipment use it ones a week, even monthly, or never. The producers figured out that there is no need for home exercise equipment to be made in commercial-grade, like the equipment for everyday use. So, if you are really planning to lose your weight in your own home gym, my honest recommendation is to go for a little expensive, but high-quality machines. Also, if your are limited on a budget or you have no budget at all, there is always an option to go out there and walk in nature.
Another option is to buy only elliptical machine. It is a real home weight loss buster! While you can easily replace a treadmill with a walking outthere, an elliptical is irreplaceable.