A lean body, well defined muscles, and a stronger physique are all fruits of clean eating and intense exercising several times a day. However, it is possible to fail at weight loss regardless of how much time you spend at the gym. This particularly occurs to people who walk to a gym blindly and start doing ‘exercises’ without a goal or the proper guidance of a professional/expert. Here are a few things that will actually help you lose weight at the gym and hopefully gain a head turning manly physique.
1. Start Off With Cardio
Via: menshealth.com
The key to achieving any positive result with exercise equipment at the gym is beginning your sessions with cardiovascular exercises. Exercises such as jogging on the treadmill, skipping rope, biking are categorized as warm ups. These help to prepare your body for the oncoming vigorous workouts. This way, you prevent injury and prepares your body for the vigorous workouts ahead. You are able to go further having performed warm-ups at the beginning of the session. Warm ups performed for longer periods of time are considered cardio which is an effective form of exercise that engaged the whole body. For instance, jogging for 10 minutes is considered as a warm-up but doing it for 30 minutes is considered cardio.
2. Discipline Equals Consistency
Another big mistake that will keep you from losing weight at the gym is skipping sessions. Working out three times a week is recommended. This gives your body adequate time to rest and rejuvenate in between. However, you can choose to perform simple workouts such as sit ups, pull ups, jogging, press ups, and biking during the days that you don’t go to the gym. It will help you lose a few calories regardless of how light the workouts are.
3. Divide Your Workouts
One of the biggest secrets of losing weight and gaining muscle while at the gym is categorizing your workouts. Walking in there blindly and going crazy with equipment will only exhaust you for absolutely no reason at all. Plan to workout different muscle groups in different sessions. These should include; leg, chest, and back, biceps. This way, you get to maximize your workouts and burn even more calories in each session. This is unlike working out the entire body in every session where you get to burn fewer calories.
4. Choose To Advance- Do Not Fear The Weights
Via: maxedmuscle.com
In weight loss and workouts, everyone begins somewhere. Some begin with 5-pound weights while others feel comfortable with 15-pound weights. Regardless of where you begin, the ultimate goal should be advancing with time. Once a routine starts feeling too comfortable, it is time to advance to tougher routines and heavier weights. Stagnating will stop your weight loss and muscle gain.
5. Keep Watch Of The Resting Periods
A common mistake that a lot of people, especially beginners, make is abandoning their reps and resting longer than they should. The resting period between sets should normally be between 30-90 seconds depending on the workout. This is not the time to strike conversations with other members, dash for bathroom breaks, checking your cell phone or getting something from the car. Jumping back into your routines quickly will help you lose more weight and gain muscle than taking long breaks in between. The higher the intensity of the workout, the higher the metabolism and weight loss.
Bonus Tip
1. Although most workouts involve your core, it is advisable that you aim at engaging your abs during every workout. People with stronger and tighter abs eat less as they get fuller faster. This is because the tight abs prevent the tummy from expanding. This definitely equates to weight loss.
2. When you work larger muscle groups such as; abs and back, you actually lose more calories than when working smaller muscle groups such as biceps. However, engaging all muscle groups at once is much more beneficial.
3. HIIT sessions are definitely worth your effort and will boost your weight loss. HIIT, which stands for High-Intensity Interval Training, is able to boost your metabolic rate for up to 8 days. However, these are not to be performed on a daily basis because your body will not have time to rest which is a vital part of working out so once or twice a week is perfectly fine
Weight loss is the ultimate reward for clean eating and intense work out sessions. If you are new to this, feel free to seek the guidance of a professional fitness instructor. This way, you will be able to achieve more result, stay safe and successfully advance in your workout routines. In addition, you could incorporate a thermogenic fat burner supplement to your diet. It helps you to burn even more body fat hence a leaner physique.