1. Understand Why You Need to Up the Ante
You already know that
exercise is one big key to boosting metabolism. But, the bad news is
that just engaging in aerobic exercise isn’t enough. This is because
when you engage in aerobic exercise your body craves energy for fuel and
sometimes this means dipping into muscle proteins to get it. The result
is a loss in muscle mass. To prevent this from happening and to assure
that you are losing fat not muscle, you need to strength-train—either
against your own body weight or with weights— at least twice a week.
This extra work will also help boost your metabolism because every extra
pound of muscle you put on burns 35 calories each day; each pound of
fat only burns 2 calories.
2. Strength-Train to Keep Those Metabolic Fires Burning
Eventually (if it hasn’t happened
already) your metabolism will slow down and eating pints of ice cream
will have an effect on your waistline. As you grow older, you start to
lose muscle mass, which leads to a larger body fat percentage. To bring
this down, you’ll need to incorporate strength training two to three
times a week into your schedule to maintain your muscle mass and
counteract the effects of aging so that you can keep your metabolism
burning at an ideal rate.
Muscles require more energy (and also burn more calories) than fat cells.
3. Strength-Train for Overall Fitness
Aerobic activity is good, but to
achieve total body fitness it’s important to develop your body in
different areas. These include:
• Muscular fitness, strength, and endurance
• Flexibility
• Cardiovascular endurance
• Body composition
Body composition describes
the percentages of fat, bone, and muscle within your body; acceptable
levels of body fat differ between the genders. For instance, an
acceptable body fat percentage for a female who is not a professional
athlete is 21–24 percent while for men the range is 14–17 percent. To
make sure that you are achieving total body fitness, and also helping
prevent heart disease and adult-onset diabetes, it is important to add
strength training to your workout schedule.
4. Know Your Health Risks Before Beginning
Before you begin a
strength-training program, it’s important to see your doctor if you have
a history of heart disease, diabetes, carpal tunnel syndrome, or high
blood pressure, or you are over forty. Your doctor will recommend what
level of activity is best for you so you can work out efficiently
without putting your body in danger.
5. Slow Your Workout
When you work with
weights, don’t rush the process. In fact, with every rep, count to three
as you lower the weight back to the start position. Slowing things down
increases the breakdown of muscle tissue, which may sound
counterproductive, but it’s not. The muscle repair process that takes
place following your workouts is what pumps up your metabolism for as
long as 72 hours after your session. Don’t go too easy on yourself
though! Make sure you use weights that are heavy enough to make those
final few reps a real struggle.
6. Focus on Your Core Muscles
Your core muscles are the
abdominal muscles that do the heavy lifting in your life. Strengthening
your core muscles is essential to building a strong muscular system,
which also improves your ability to burn calories quicker and more
efficiently. The abdominals are comprised of the rectus abdominus, the
obliques, and the transverse abdominus. The rectus abdominus runs from
your rib cage past your belly button, down into your pubic crest. This
muscle can be contracted by bringing your hips closer to your rib cage,
as you do in regular crunches. The external and internal obliques run in
a more diagonal pattern and are located on each side of the rectus
abdominus. The obliques are responsible for trunk rotation (twisting)
and lateral bending. The transverse abdominus is the deepest abdominal
muscle. It is commonly referred to as a stabilizing belt for your trunk
and spine. This muscle is not responsible for movement, but it is a
vital component to lower back health. These muscles combine with those
of the lower back to form what is commonly referred to as the core.
7. Strengthen Your Core
Activities like martial
arts, dancing, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, boxing, and basketball all
require you to engage your core regularly. All of these options force
you to twist and bend at the waist a lot, which is great work for your
core muscles. The elliptical machine and the stationary bicycle do not
do as much to strengthen your core. When you plan out your exercise
regime, make sure you include abdominal strength-training exercises for 5
to 20 minutes every other day. Your mission is to choose a variety of
exercises that work each core muscle in a challenging way. Start slowly
and progress to extremely challenging exercises. How will you know if a
certain exercise is extremely challenging? Give it a try and you’ll find
out. The exercises that you cannot already do will be the ones you
should strive to accomplish.
