Exercise Smarter - 3 Techniques to Increase Weight Loss

You already know you can increase your chances of achieving permanent weight loss if you exercise consistently. But doing hours and hours of cardio will not lead to a corresponding increase in weight loss. Instead, cut your time in the gym and burn more calories by exercising smarter not longer.

Modern Strength Training

Are you already doing strength training? Then you are experiencing the benefits of building muscle. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so increasing your lean muscle with regular weight lifting jump starts your metabolism and lets you burn more calories even when you're sleeping.

The old way of lifting weights meant long sessions in the gym. Traditionalists and aspiring body builders may still train this way. But for the rest of us, we can cut our time in the gym significantly with new training methods.

The new methods involve working all the body parts two to three times per week with at least one rest day in between. Alternate an exercise for upper body and lower body. For example, you might do a set of bench presses followed by a set of squats. This keeps your heart rate up and eliminates the need to rest between sets, reducing your workout time. The resulting workout is high intensity and fun.

To jump start your muscle building even more, use different equipment on different days. This keeps your muscles confused, burning even more calories. For example, train with free weights on Monday, weight machines on Wednesday, and kettlebells on Saturday.

It's best to hire a personal trainer for a few sessions to learn how to train using proper technique. He or she can put together a series of workouts that will tone all of your major muscle groups.

High Intensity Cardio

What should you do on the non weight training days? Increase the intensity of your cardio. If you run, mix in a few sprints or uphill segments. If you use a cardio machine like the elliptical or stairmaster, set it for interval training to alternate high energy bursts with a moderate pace. These strategies will burn more calories than increasing your minutes at a steady, comfortable clip.

Yoga

Finally, add yoga at least once a week. That's right yoga. You may wonder how yoga, a relatively sedate form of exercise, can help you lose weight. Yoga's benefits go beyond calories burned, and involve reducing stress and massaging your internal organs. Too much stress increases your propensity to retain fat, and massaging your internal organs eliminates the toxins that build up in your cells, making it easier to shed fat. Don't knock it until you try it - yoga helps fat loss.

Consistent exercise leads to permanent weight loss. But if you exercise smarter by mixing in modern weight training, high intensity cardio, and yoga, you can obtain even more of the benefits of exercise in a shorter amount of time.

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