Exercise for Body Transformation

We will attempt to make this as simple as possible, while still giving you the most up to date information and cutting edge research possible.

What is the best way to exercise for long term body transformation?

Answer: It takes two different types of exercise to help you most effectively lose weight and keep it off. One to burn a high number of calories, aerobic-type exercise, the other to build and preserve muscle tissue, strength aka resistance exercise.

So what form of Aerobic exercise should I be doing?

Working out what type of aerobic workout will help your transformation depends on a number of factors.  The American college of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that aerobic fitness (and the resultant caloric burn) can be best achieved by exercising three to five days a week, for 20 to 60 minutes at a time, at an intensity level of 60% to 90% of your maximum heart rate. Max heart rate is generally (about 220 – Age in years).

The more vigorous exercise burns both more total calories and fat calories, but milder exercise has its benefits as well (IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO DO SOMETHING, RATHER THAN NOTHING).

A famous distance runner Emil Zatopek once said: “Why would I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow! I train running fast and do it many times for endurance.”

If your body finds the exercise easy, it gen-erally won’t be causing the changes we’re after!

So what form of Strength exercise should I be doing?

Strength training is great for transfor-mations as it burns calories. While it helps you build and sustain lean muscle mass, which is the bodily tissue most responsible for the expenditure of calories. Strength training plays a critical role in the most difficult aspect of weight control... keeping the weight off once you’ve initially lost it.

Recently conducted studies have found that it is possible to develop high levels of strength while performing high volumes of work at a moderate intensity. One of the more obvious applications of such an approach to strength training is that individuals would be able to burn a maximum number of calories and build high levels of muscular fitness in the same 15 to 20 minute workout.

So let’s try and use as many muscles as possible as often as possible in 20mins. The easiest way to do this is by super setting, this means you use muscles that haven’t been used in the previous set of exercise. For example if you do a squat 20 times, then 15 push ups you will increase heart rate while still being able to complete the exercises.

Can’t I just watch what I’m eating and not exercise?

A survey conducted by the American Dietetics Association revealed that 90% of maintainers (individuals who lose weight and keep it off) exercise on a regular basis, while only approximately one-third of relapses (individuals who lose weight only to re-gain it) were physically active.

Rather than simply promoting immediate weight loss, exercise helps to ensure that weight loss is permanent. Finally it is important to remember that exercise can greatly improve your health regardless of its effect on body composition.