Exercise is essential for weight loss. Dieters often believe calorie restriction is enough on its own. However, the opposite is true. This means that to lose weight and keep it off, it’s important to integrate an effective exercise routine into your daily habits.
In this article, we’ll discuss 5 tips you can use to build an effective exercise routine into your existing weight loss efforts. Doing so will help accelerate your weight loss while making it much simpler to keep it off long-term.
Take Your Current Fitness Level Into Consideration
If you don’t consider your current fitness level when creating an exercise routine, you’re setting yourself up to fail. After all, you can create the most challenging workout routines possible but if you can’t perform them, they won’t do your weight loss plan any good.
When you’re assessing your current fitness level, measure key metrics like:
- Heart Rate – You should measure both your resting heart rate and your heart rate after a set activity (for example, walking one mile) to determine how much stress you can put on your body.
- Basic Exercises – How many pushups can you do? How about sit-ups, squats, and lunges? Understanding this number can help you create a number of reps that challenges you without pushing you too far.
- Flexibility – Flexibility is key in preventing injury during many exercises. Measure your flexibility by sitting with your legs stretched out in front of you and bending as far as possible.
All these factors will give you a better idea as to which exercises you can and should be performing.
Create a Balanced Routine With Variety
If your “plan” is to walk or jog on the treadmill every day, you’re going to get bored and grow unmotivated. It’s important to create a workout routine with variety to reap the best health benefits and keep you looking forward to time in the gym.
It’s recommended that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, and at least two or more days of strength training every week for optimal results. As such, you should structure your days accordingly to incorporate different aerobic activities into your routine along with weight training routines that work with your current fitness level.
Make Exercise Work With (Not Against) Your Daily Routine
Just like you must plan the shopping, preparation, and eating stages of each of your meals to succeed, you should do the same for your exercise. If you don’t create a plan, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Many busy people find it difficult to find a set time to go to the gym or believe that going to the gym interferes with their schedule. But by scheduling time to workout (as you would any other important activity in your day), you can guarantee you can go and remain committed when there are no other distractions during that “time block.”
If you’re doing cardio for the day, you may even want to bring along your tablet to watch a movie or a book to read. This makes the time go by faster and will keep you entertained throughout your workout.
Listen to Your Body and Go At Your Own Pace
Once you’ve created a plan and hit the gym, you would think that the difficult part is over, right? Not necessarily.
Too many people push their bodies too far in desperation to lose weight. This often results in exhaustion or injury, putting you out of the gym and further back from your weight loss goals than before.
Remember, success in any exercise routine means listening to your body and making adjustments accordingly. If you aren’t feeling well one day, it’s ok to skip a workout and make it up another day. You must always put your health first to make positive changes in your body and prevent feeling run-down or unable to perform in your day-to-day life.
Give Your Body Time to Recover
Those turning to exercise for weight loss often encounter the same problem: they push their bodies too far. In fact, many don’t want to take days off for fear of setting back their progress. However, rest days are just as important as the days you spend in the gym.
Taking days off:
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Gives Your Body Time to Repair – After strength training or other workouts, your body needs time to repair damage and rebuild muscle. You won’t benefit from training if your body can’t do so effectively and regularly.
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Maintains Performance – If you overtrain, your performance may decline rather than improve over time.
- Prevents Injury – Overtraining can cause stress fractures, muscle strains, and joint pain, amongst other issues. Rest days prevent these injuries and strengthen your muscles and other body structures.
According to Crystal Reeves, a NASM certified master trainer, performing excessive exercise without rest may cause side effects such as “decreased performance, fatigue, altered hormonal states, poor sleeping patterns, reproductive disorders, decreased immunity, loss of appetite, and mood swings.”
Use These Five Tips to Get a Jump Start on Your weight loss Exercise Routine
When you want to amplify your weight loss, planning and executing an effective exercise routine is essential. The five tips above are designed to help you do just that.
If you find that you suffer from a lack of energy or are struggling to control your appetite, PhenQ can help. PhenQ is a comprehensive weight management supplement designed to give you the energy necessary to power through your workouts while complement your dieting efforts by suppressing your appetite and boosting your body’s fat burning process.
Your goal weight is just around the corner. And by creating an effective exercise routine, you’ll be one step closer to achieving it.
Read: How to Burn Belly Fat at the Gym
