Want to lose weight fast ? Stop crunching & stop lifting !

There is a saying about weight loss

“It took more than a day to put it on, it'll take more than a day to take it off. Be patient.”

So patience is the key skill but in order to have a potent & successful weight loss regime we must know which kind of exercises are the most effective ones. Weightlifting & crunches are overhyped weight loss solutions… a waste of time, energy & money. The parameters of finding a good weight loss exercise are :

1) Calories burned

2) Muscle toning

3) Skill addition

Exercise	Calories burned/hour	Muscles toned
Cycling	850 - 950	It’s a complete leg workout. Major muscles worked are thighs (Quadriceps & hamstrings) & calves. Shin muscles assists
Taekwondo	800 - 900	It is all about legs & will give you strong core (abs) & flexibility.
Rope Jumping	750 - 850	From forearms to your toe, skipping works all the muscles & if you do it regularly I guarantee you the best toned calves.
Swimming	700 - 850	No other exercise tones your upper body so well & burns this much calories. Swimming will sculpt your upper back, shoulders & chest.
Jogging/running	700 - 800	The complete leg workout.
Sports(football, basketball, tennis)	600 - 700	Complete body workout. The best legs are of football players, best arms bestowed to tennis players & the strongest upper body is of basketball players.
Zumba/Aerobics	400-500	Complete body workout.

*All the above approximate figures are given for a person weighing 160 pounds/73 kilograms. Calorie burning is directly proportional to body weight & intensity of workout. With every 3500 calories burned you lose 1 pound/0.45 kgs of weight.

Compared to the above exercises a hour of crunches will burn 342 calories (57 calories in 10 minutes on doing 100 sit ups), a hour of weight lifting will only burn 200 - 400(vigorous) calories.

Skill addition is something which we always ignore but it is a very important factor. Crunching 100 times, will it add to any of my skills ? It may help me get better at certain activities but otherwise it’s neither a wholesome workout nor very important unless you want to follow Arnold's footsteps & believe me abs are made in kitchen. Compare the torture of crunches to the refreshing cycling, joy of swimming or the benefits of knowing Taekwondo. All of these strengthen your core & tone your muscles too. The most awesome fact is that they keep your heart strong & healthiest.

The purpose of this article is not to tell you to refrain from crunches or weight lifting but to give you better options. To enable you choose wisely among the exercises & plan your sessions according to your goals. The best weight loss regimes can do without weight lifting & crunches.

Bodybuilding.com has come up with this awesome calorie burning calculator. Check it out & redefine your workouts. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calories.htm

Train wise train hard.

Information sources for figures.

Weightloss.allwomenstalk.com

Ainsworth BE, et al. 2011 compendium of physical activities: A second update of codes and MET values. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2011;43:1575.
Bodybuilding.com

Five lies you will hear about losing fat

In contemporary times when all the hullabaloo is about making money, as any other industry Fitness is also plagued by streaks of lies. Here I bust some of'em.


I'll make you lose fat from your specific body part

Well this is the biggest lie of our times even propagated by some esteemed media houses. Yesterday only I saw a full page article in a leading news daily recommending different weight training exercises to lose fat from belly, thighs, chest etc.
The truth is body parts can't be targeted to lose fat & that has been established with many studies.Fat burning during workout is a complex process.  Doing those torturing crunches & going through hell is absolutely foolish, if your aim is only weight loss. Our bodies are formed according to the genetics. If your genes make you a pear shape obese person, fat will accumulate mostly on your lower body & stick there like a leech,  whatever times you may crunch because you are doing the wrong exercise !
Find here the best fat burning excercises


Steam bath & excess sweating will cut down fat heavily

Why didn't earth crumbled before such dumb claims were made. My dear 'farji' trainers, fat is not water soluble! Steam bath is not a weight loss solution !  The more you sweat more you lose those essential salts(electrolytes) & fluids. More than 90% of sweat is water. A decrease of 5-8 % of body water will result in fatigue, dizziness. Dehydration will give you cramps unless you gulp those rehydration drinks.
Steam & sauna are only purported weight loss solutions with no major, reliable study supporting their claim.


Eat less & all your weight problems will solve
Its not about eating less but eating right & adequate. Cutting down on food heavily will result in lack of necessary vitamins & minerals. On the contrary eating wisely will increase your body metabolism & work as cheat diet. You'll be surprised to know even some fat is necessary for body. Eat well but not in excess.


Whey protein will help you lose fat

This is the ultimate nonsense i have ever heard. Protein isn't going to get inside your body & push the fat out. Whey protein helps in hypertrophy(muscle building). Also when you are working out for longer durations, you may need some protein supplement but i.e. just for preventing muscle breakdown.


Less carbs less weight

Some trainers promote a carb less diet for faster weight loss results. This is again a no brainer, Our energy system needs carbs as fire needs oxygen. You can't burn woods in vacuum, similarly fat burning needs carbohydrates and as i said above it is a complex process.

Train hard Train wise !

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Read about how should you breathe during workout here.

Improper breathing during workouts can even kill you !

Breathing forms the base of any workout but when I walk into gyms I find it is the most abused aspect. There are many forms of bad breathing. Holding your breath while lifting the weights is most common of them. Some do it intentionally others unknowingly.  

The rule is to exhale while lifting & inhale when weights are going down, whether they are in your hands or in a cable pulley. In simpler words ‘Exhale whenever you are applying strength’.

If you are a fitness enthusiast you must have heard/read/seen this principle a thousand times. But did you ever asked why? How does it help? Why it is the right way?

Ask your Personal trainers, floor trainers & bulked up friends who shoot their advices every now & then. I can bet more than 95% will be clueless. Fitness arenas have become a thriving place for quacks.  The above breathing technique is right for many reasons but most importantly because it is the only safe way. On the contrary holding your breath & exerting (pushing or pulling the weights) is called “Valsalva manoeuvre” Which can even kill you!

What is Valsalva manoeuvre?
 
Process
Expiratory effort against a closed glottis, which increases pressure within the thoracic cavity (chest) and thereby impedes venous return of blood to the heart.

The manoeuvre stops the blood from entering the heart & increases thoracic pressure. With release of breath blood trapped in veins rushes, increasing the blood pressure & heart rate.

Risks

The patient may feel dizzy or faint during the procedure. There is a risk that the Valsalva manoeuvre can cause blood clots to detach, bleeding, and abnormal rhythms originating in the ventricle. It can also cause cardiac arrest. Consequently, the procedure is usually performed in a setting where emergency equipment is accessible.-Above taken from a medical dictionary.

Bodybuilding.com says, of the 25 documented weight room-related deaths in the United States between 2008 and 2012, the vast majority occurred due to asphyxiation caused by neck or chest compression during the bench press.

One of my trainees told me ‘I am confused because my much experienced former trainer advised to apply this technique. It helps to lift more weight’. My reply was ‘what is more important, to remain alive or lifting more weights?’

Valsalva is a technique used in certain medical procedures but how come it made its way into bodybuilding is interesting. Power lifters used it first because it increases intrathoracic (chest cavity) pressure, which disperses pressure across the trunk thus decreasing the load on the spine (perhaps the reason behind our tendency of performing this manoeuvre unknowingly) & keeping it safe (research supporting this is however limited). This propelled the popular myth that it helps you lift heavier. Also Power lifting is way different from strength training it has its own demands. Power lifters go for heaviest weights. They don’t have X sets of Y repetitions. They do it for seconds. Time is a great factor in Valsalva method.

So if you want to get healthy in a healthy way, exhale when you push/pull & inhale on the way down. 

As I said above Fitness industry is full of quacks because very few trainers are certified & if they are, than not updated. So keep that “WHY” ready every time you hear an advice & do cross check if you get an answer. This is your mantra to keep your workouts safe.

TRAIN HARD TRAIN SAFE.

If you have any other questions regarding breathing techniques post it in the comments or shoot it to me on Suraj10c@gmail.com