3 Motion Fitness Workout Tips
to Lose Midsection Fat
If your belly fat has gotten to the “bowl full of jelly” stage, then it’s time for an exercise intervention.
Three basic exercise motion fitness principles can help you manage and reduce your belly. Get ready, because that jelly is going to do some shaking.
Motion Fitness Tip One: Get Moving
The simplest exercise of all is walking:
All you need is a long stretch of sidewalk and some comfortable tennis shoes. Lace up those shoes, head out the door and walk. Walking will raise your metabolism. Keep walking….and a little more.
Such activities as walking, jogging, biking and swimming are all considered cardiovascular exercises.
Cardiovascular exercises:
Cardiovascular exercises burns a lot of calories, strengthens you heart, improves balance, increases oxygen utilization in the body and has been known to protect against heart disease and diabetes by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.
Research has also shown that during cardiovascular exercise, the brain releases chemicals that help balance mood, improve concentration and even memory.
A good bout of cardio will help you work off steam, relax and sleep better at night. Oh, and you might even lost a little weight while you’re at it.
Exercise is kryptonite to stomach fat, if you are a beginning exerciser, attempt at least a half hour a day of moderate cardio exercise. As you improve, increase that amount of time and the intensity of your exercise.
Instead of walking, try jogging or bicycling. If you are on a treadmill, increase the slope. If you are on an elliptical trainer, increase the resistance each week to keep pushing yourself farther and farther.
Motion Fitness Tip Two: Mind Your Muscles
Yes, you really do have muscles somewhere under that jelly. They are shy little things, but they just need some tender love and care, and they’ll be out and growing in no time.
Muscles are calorie eaters:
The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day, so start packing it on.
Your muscles are what protect your bones and organs. They help maintain posture and allow you the strength to perform necessary movements like picking up heavy grocery bags, getting up off the floor if you fall and running to catch the bus.
It is important to exercise your muscles so that they stay strong and supple as you age. Muscle is also much more metabolically active then fat. That means it burns many more calories a day.
Strength training:
Strength training is another important component of a fitness routine. It is the process of putting specific stress on your muscles (i.e. lifting weights) to increase strength.
Strength training doesn’t have to be overly-complicated. Sign up for a basic gym membership and ask a trainer to provide an overview of the equipment. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most gym machines also have detailed user instructions on them.
When strength training, find a weight that is challenging but allows you to complete several repetitions of the motion. Beginners want to do more reps with less weight to activate and tone the muscles.
More advanced athletes will do fewer reps with heavier weight to build and challenge their strength. Strength training can be accomplished using gym equipment, free weights or even body weight for classic exercises such as pushups or sit ups.
For better results, utilize lots of different equipment and vary your routine.
Try to fit in at least two or three strength training workouts a week. Concentrate on maintaining posture and breathing through the movement. If the weight is not challenging after a few reps, increase.
If you feel out of your element, you might consider hiring a personal trainer, who can help you design an effective strength training routine.
Motion Fitness Tip Three: Progression
Your body is an incredible machine that is able to effectively adapt to the stresses placed upon it.
What is progression?
It may seem crazy that many people are able to complete in an Iron Man Triathlon race comprised of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and followed by a 26.2 mile run, but these people didn’t become ironized overnight.
They trained day after day and used the principle of progression to slowly increase their mileage in the water and on the bike and run.
The principle of progression simply means that as your body adapts to a certain exercise, you should continually increase the stress in order to improve your fitness level.
After walking a half hour every day for two weeks, you might want to begin jogging a little. Each week, try to jog more and walk less.
If you are strength training, this means adding more weight, doing more reps or trying a more difficult version of the exercise (full pushups instead of knee pushups, for example).
Progression is a never ending endeavor:
As you push your body, it will continue to adapt. Every couple of weeks or as you notice a certain exercise becoming easier, crank up the intensity.
Staying at the same weight or following the same exercise routine may result in a plateau where results taper off or even reverse. Plateaus are very good at dampening motivation.
These three basic principles of exercise do not cover everything you need to know about fitness, but they are good rules to use when starting out.
When you commit to gradually improving your fitness by moving and exercising your body, that ‘bowl full of jelly’ will evaporate to reveal stellar abs beneath.
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