Exercise – The Metabolism Turbo Charger
Exercise is the single most important way to increase metabolism. There are ways to turbo-charge the metabolism by building muscle and by following certain principles of nature.
Walking is often the first choice of exercise for those who want to lose weight. If you currently do not exercise , walking is a good first step to fitness. It is easy and readily available to most of us. You don’t need a gym membership or any special equipment other than a good pair of walking shoes. 60 minutes for 5 days/week is often recommended for weight loss. Of course, if you are new to exercise, you need to start slowly and work up to this level.
The ability for you to walk outside may be limited by the weather, so it is good to have a back up plan. If you decide to brave the elements, be careful not to slip on the ice, and use good judgment when it comes to extreme cold or hazardous conditions. An injury will really put you behind in your weight loss efforts!
Your body is extremely adaptable, so you need to “mix it up”. As soon as you get comfortable with an exercise routine, your benefits from that exercise decrease. You are a very adaptable creature and your muscles learn to get used to your exercise program in a few weeks. So you will need to continually make changes in the type, duration, or intensity of your exercise regimen.
Cross-training is recommended. This involves adding a variety of exercise activities rather than just relying on one method such as walking or running. You use different muscles with different types of exercise. Cross-training helps prevent boredom and exercise burnout.
Add biking, play a team sport, or practice yoga, dancing, or kickboxing. Weight training is highly recommended, and some form of resistance exercise should be a part of everyone’s routine if they want to burn fat. The exercise choices are endless, and many can be done at home or at your gym. Check out a variety of exercise DVDs. Rotate your favorites and experience a different workout routine every day of the week.
Join an on-line exercise program. This can provide the breakthrough you have been looking for. The programs we have selected customize the exercise routine to you – to your fitness level, abilities, preferences, and goals. These have been designed by experts, and provide the variety you need to build muscle, burn fat, and keep you interested.
We highly recommend Global Health & Fitness. This program is designed by experts in fitness who tailor an exercise program to custom-fit each participant. When you sign up, you can benefit from personal consulting as well as easy-to-follow instructions and video demonstrations of hundreds of exercises. GHF also provides tracking software and “success coaching”. We think this is an excellent program and well worth the $20/month fee. Learn more about the benefits of Global Health & Fitness ».
Increase the intensity of your exercise. This will pay off by increasing your metabolic rate even when you are not exercising. Exercising more intensely can allow you to reduce your daily exercise commitment to an average of 20 – 40 minutes. However, if you are older or significantly overweight, look to lower impact forms of exercise when boosting the pace.
Intense exercise has another benefit – it can increase growth hormone secretion. Growth hormone stimulates muscle growth and increases the rate of fat burning. Growth hormone is triggered with intense exercise or exercise that stresses the muscles in new ways. Increasing the pace as well as changing the type of your workout routine frequently will enhance production of this “magical” hormone.
Exercise Methods
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Increase muscle mass with resistance exercise.
If you had to choose one “magic bullet” technique to boost your metabolism, this is it. Add strength training 2 – 3 times per week. Lift weights. You can choose free weights, weight machines, a medicine ball, or use resistance bands. You might be amazed to find out that Yoga, Pilates, and calisthenics can also effectively increase muscle strength and fat burning power by using your own body weight as resistance.
Remember that building muscle is the best way to burn fat. It can increase the burn rate even while you are not exercising. So even if you don’t burn a lot of calories while doing the weight lifting activity, you will continue to reap the benefits over a longer time frame.
If you are a beginner to weight lifting, you will profit from some instruction. Many gyms provide a trainer to show you the ropes, or you can hire a personal trainer. Several online programs offer photographs and even video instruction that you can easily follow.
Global Health & Fitness can provide an affordable personal training program that can design a custom program for you, whether you are a beginner or highly advanced body builder. They have an extremely informative site and take you through proper form and technique, with over 100 videos of strength training exercises that can be used at home, in the gym, or while traveling (resistance bands).
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Aerobic training
Cardiovascular exercise is effective for weight loss, and can burn a lot of calories. Walking is often the most convenient for most people, and can be done in your favorite park, the shopping mall, around your neighborhood, or on the treadmill. Jogging, running, swimming, cycling, rowing, and various forms of dancing all fit into this category. Playing team sports that involve a lot of running, like soccer and basketball, can be a lot of fun for those who are already fit. (Although sprinting actually falls into the anaerobic exercise category.) The elliptical machine is a wonderful piece of gym equipment that can provide an excellent workout yet minimize the impact on your joints. We highly recommend this machine.
An important key to remember about aerobic exercise is that you must steadily increase your intensity as your aerobic fitness improves. Forcing the body to work just a little bit past its comfort zone will lead to increased growth hormone production and new muscle. This in turn will improve fat burning capacity.
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Interval training
This technique involves shorts bursts of intense exercise interspersed with aerobic exercise at a moderate pace. The interval training breakthrough can work miraculously to increase your metabolism and burn fat. A recent Canadian study demonstrated that a group of exercisers who performed interval training lost an amazing 9 times more body fat than a group of exercisers who performed endurance exercise.
You can benefit from the principles of interval training whether you are an extremely fit athlete or a confirmed couch potato who hasn’t exercise in years. However, if you are significantly overweight, unfit, or over 40, you must get clearance from your physician before you participate in this type of training. You also need to start slowly if you are not in good shape.
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Just move.
Research studies have shown that overweight people tend to be more sedentary. They often just don’t move or fidget as much in their day to day lives as thinner folks. So get active. Get off the couch and do something – chores around the house, gardening, shopping, anything to keep moving.