5 Practical Tips to help lose Pregnancy Weight Fast
July 29, 2008
Moms who want to lose weight after giving birth can do so by exercising. The goal is to find the most effective ways to reduce your workout time and increase your metabolism, to get a lean, fit body.
1. Resistance Training
Weights are a good for losing the baby fat because they work the fat burning tissues of your body, namely your muscles. Not all weight training is the same and thus you should choose resistance weight training because it increases your muscle strength. Resistance training uses any form of resistance such as your body weight or free weights, for example, to work your muscles. You should choose weights that provide some challenge for you to move them, as this will increase your metabolism and burn more calories in the long term.
2. Include Compound Exercises
In order to maximize your body’s ability to burn the baby fat, you have to recruit as many muscle groups as possible. Compound exercises do just that. It is a form of exercise that engages several muscle groups and this increases the demand for more energy and therefore burns more fat. Doing lunges with dumbbells, for example, works the muscle groups of the leg, back, arms and buttocks.
3. Workout your Body in Pairs
Muscles exist in pairs and as such they work as a team. So, in order to maximize the number of calories you can burn in a workout session, you need to do a full body workout. This involves alternating your workout session between your upper and lower body. As mentioned before, the more muscle groups you work, the more fat burned and hence the more quickly you will lose the pregnancy weight and fit into your bikini.
4. Maintain your Rest and Reps low
Too much of a good thing can sabotage your progress to trim your tummy. Resistance training is a good thing but you need to know when and how to do the exercises in order to extract the maximum benefit. Research suggests that to build lean muscle and thereby burn the most calories during a workout, you should perform each exercise between 8 to 12 reps at your best effort with rests between each set between 30 to 60 seconds. This will result in a decrease in your workout time and an increase in calories burned.
5. Cardio in moderation
Cardio is good for strengthening your heart and lungs but not your skeletal muscles. When it comes to losing the baby fat, you want to do the exercises that can strengthen your muscles to become lean. Strength training is the exercise that builds lean muscle.
Cardio burns fat for the short term and does not give you lean muscles. The proper way to get toned muscles is by incorporating some resistance training into your weekly workout schedule. You can alternate your cardio training days with your resistance training days to get a more balanced workout schedule.
Knowledge is power. Now you can put into effect these tips into your workout routine to lose your tummy. But you are more than just pounds of post-pregnancy weight and life-long weight management goes hand in hand with a healthy lifestyle. Losing pregnancy weight is only one of many aspects to living well. The realistic way to look at any weight loss endeavor is to ensure that you are able to maintain a balance between of how you work, play and love you and yours.
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