In the first part of this article we highlighted aerobic exercises and how they benefit weight loss and simple aerobic exercises that are easy to do outside and in the comfort of your own home. Here in part two we will cover anaerobic exercises; what they are, their benefits and how you can utilize basic exercise techniques to achieve excellent weight loss.
Anaerobics
The easiest way to define anaerobics is that they are a form of intense exercise used to build power or muscle mass rather than stamina and endurance. In short ‘muscle building’. The common misconception of weight training is that it is a male dominated exercise and it is used for body building. In actual fact it is the best weight loss exercise you can do, or should I say fat loss.
When we talk about losing weight we generally look at the scales and judge our size on the number we see. It becomes more difficult when you are using anaerobic exercise as it is not weight you are losing but inches.
Muscle is heavier than fat and as you replace burned off fat with muscle you could possibly reach a point where you begin to increase in weight rather than lose it. Lean muscle increases the body’s metabolism and the greater amount of lean muscle you have the greater your metabolism will be increased resulting in weight loss, not only that but unlike aerobic exercise this lean muscle continues to burn calories even when at rest resulting in a constant calorie burn.
Here are some options for doing some anaerobic exercises ‘weight training’ at home without owning or purchasing weights.
Pushups or Press-ups:
Pushups are what are known as a, ‘calisthenic’ exercise. These are a group of muscle building / strengthening exercises that use the body’s weight as the resistance. In a pushup for example you will be pushing up to 70 % of your body weight away from the floor with each movement. As with all exercises in this group your body’s metabolism will be increased greatly because of the increased muscle mass of the tricep muscles and pectoral muscles primarily.
The other exercises in the group of calisthenic exercises are:
Sit-ups:
Builds abdominal muscle. Lie on your back on the floor, knees bent, and bottoms of feet against the floor. Then lift the shoulders off the floor by tightening abdominal muscles and bring the chest up to the knees. Then return to your starting position under control with the stomach muscles still controlling your decent.
Crunches:
As with sit-ups but with a much smaller movement. Instead of the upper body coming up to meet the knees simply lift the shoulder blades off the floor in a partial sit up movement.
Squats: Especially good for the leg muscles: quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and gluteals. Stand with your legs shoulder width apart with your arms stretched out in front of you, then as the name suggests squat as low as you can comfortably squat and then return to the standing position in a controlled manner, and repeat.
Calf raises:
For calf raises stand on a step or a curb with balls of your feet supporting your body weight and your heels hanging unsupported. Using the balls of your feet raise your body and then lower it in a controlled fashion. This exercise works, strengthen and builds the calf muscles.
Pull ups:
This exercise is a little more difficult to perform at home as they require a bar or bars. With pull ups the bar needs to be high enough from the ground that when you can hang from it your legs are clear of the ground. Pull ups work the lateral muscles as well as the biceps. Hanging from the bar with your arms shoulder width apart, and keeping your back as straight as possible pull yourself up to chin level and then lower yourself again and repeat. Always perform this exercise in a controlled manner in order to work the muscle continuously.
And Finally;
Dips:
Again; difficult to do well at home as the use of parallel bars dictate that this is really a gym activity, but an adaptation of this exercise could be done using a couple of kitchen chairs! Jump up into position between the parallel bars. Cross your feet that are now suspended beneath you. Now lower yourself until your elbows are in line with your shoulders and return by pushing yourself back up until you are fully extended, there is no need to lock your elbows. Dips primarily work the chest, triceps, and deltoid muscles.
Conclusion: The benefits to weight loss of aerobic exercises and anaerobic exercises are massively important and it is really very easy to create simple work out routines at home that comprise of both types of exercises to lose weight quickly. These exercises have the greatest impact upon weight loss when used in conjunction with a good weight loss program.
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