Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to unpack the extra baggage of clothes, ang pows, and also the excess fats we all accumulated during the festive season. Ahhhh, what a lovely cheat weekend it was. Now, back to reality, guys! Now is the time you’ll be seeing a lot of people hitting the gym trying to lose some weight and getting ready for a summer body (it’s Malaysia, every day is summer season) To the bak kwa’s, steamboat session, beers, and countless of pork dishes, time to say farewell and be ready for a calorie burning season.
Sometimes coming back from work after a long day, all we want to do is sit at home and not go anywhere else. Instead of hitting the gym, why not try home workouts? It’s a great source of calorie burning and you can sweat your excess fats away too!
1. Cardio
This simple exercise is one of the simplest forms you can do every day for only a few minutes to get the results you seek to achieve. Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is any movement that gets your heart rate up and increases blood circulation throughout the body. Cardio is one thing you do not want to overdo in the beginning because spending hour upon hour on a machine at a moderate pace is really not going to give you any further benefits than someone doing a more moderate volume.
Things you can do: Skipping rope, jogging, swimming
2. Zumba
If just being stagnant and working in one place is not the thing for you, why don’t you opt for a dance-exercise type of activity? Zumba is a fitness-party with a contagious blend of Latin and international rhythms that provides a fun and effective workout. Forget the workout, just lose yourself in the music and find yourself in shape at the original dance-fitness party! Gets your heart pumping and metabolism a go!
3. Atkins Diet
In case you’ve never heard of this, this diet surely has been making waves across the world. For decades, the conventional wisdom on managing your weight focused primarily on eating less. No, with this simple diet, it’s all about consuming proteins and taking less of carbohydrates. Controlling the things that the human body turns into sugar is the single biggest factor in eating right. When there is too much sugar in the bloodstream, your body stores it as fat. Many people don’t know that starchy carbohydrates are really just complex sugars.
4. Yoga
Living a spiritual, meditated and quiet simplicity life is for you, why don’t try yoga? Yoga does more than burn calories and tone muscles. It’s a total mind-body workout that combines strengthening and stretching poses with deep breathing and meditation or relaxation. A recent review in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology shows that yoga reduces the risk of heart disease as much as conventional exercise. On average, yoga participants lost five pounds, decreased their blood pressure. Probably a workout worth the try for the weekends.
5. Aqua Exercises
Did you know that swimming exercises lose more weight at a faster rate than normal exercises? This is because you’ll be using all your muscles and strength just to move or walk. The major benefit of exercising in the water is the protection it offers for your joints. It tones your body faster too! Aqua-exercises also have a cooling effect on the body, this means there is less chance of you becoming dehydrated during your workout.
What other alternative exercises/diets you’ve done to lose weight? Share with us!