Are you looking to lose weight and wondering what are the best exercises in gym for weight loss? Here are a few tips on How to Lose Weight at the Gym and enjoy the fitness program. Gym training is the best workout plan to lose weight fast. Gym weight lifting and exercising can help you lose belly fat and your body will transform faster than fat burning workouts like aerobic.
There are numerous benefits of physical activity, from increased energy, weight loss and health to productivity, growth and confidence.
The Best Gym Workouts for Weight Loss
The gym is a perplexing place for many people, especially beginners. What exercises should you do? How many sets and reps? How much weight should you lift? And what type and how much cardio do you need to lose weight?
But it doesn’t need to be confusing. Any type of gym workout will help you lose weight, and the best routine is one you enjoy doing. That being said, when it comes to how to lose weight at the gym, there are a few types of gym workouts that stand out among the rest.
How to Lose Weight at the Gym
The first thing to note is that the best exercise to lose weight is one that challenges you. But sprinting right out the gate (literally and figuratively) can leave you burned out, discouraged, and worse, injured.
To start seeing results as soon (and sustainably) as possible, you need a balanced strength-training and cardio routine, according to Carolina Araujo, CPT, a California-based strength coach. From there, incorporate a little progressive overload by increasing your workout intensity, weight, sets or reps little by little each week.
“A weekly resistance routine with some cardio on the side is the key to weight loss in the gym,” Araujo says.
Start your workouts with dynamic stretches to loosen up your connective tissues. Perform side bends, heel lifts, arm crossovers, shoulder circles, forward leg swings, reverse lunges and alternating toe touches to target your whole body.
You can also perform these kind of gentle movements on their own. Remember, when you feel less stressed, you may find it easier to stick with healthy eating and exercise. Consider yoga or stretching on your days off from cardio and weight training. These practices improve your flexibility and mobility and give your muscles time to recover.
Reverse Lunge
- Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, arms at your sides. Hold a pair of light dumbbells in each hand.
- Step with your right leg 3 feet behind you and bend both knees until they form 90-degree angles. Your back knee should hover an inch above the ground and your front thigh should be parallel to the ground.
- Keep most of your weight in the front leg as you press into your left heel and straighten your left leg.
- Bring the right leg back to the starting position and stand up.
- Repeat the motion with the opposite leg.
Tip
If reverse lunges feel too challenging with weights, drop the dumbbells, Araujo recommends. Focus on your form above all else.
Bent-Over Dumbbell Row
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand at your sides, palms facing each other.
- Push your hips back and soften your knees to lean your torso forward until it’s nearly parallel with the ground and your weight is centered in your heels. Let the weights hang straight down in front of your knees.
- Brace your core and focus on keeping your back flat.
- Leading with your upper back, squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull through your arms to raise the dumbbells up toward your ribcage.
- Pause at the top of the movement.
- Keep your core and spine stable as you reverse the motion, extending your arms to lower the dumbbells so they hang by your knees.
Tip
“Start with a light pair of weights as you perfect your bent-over row form,” Araujo says. “You can even record yourself on your phone to make sure your back stays in a flat line as you do the move.”
Sumo Squat
- Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, toes pointed out at a 45-degree angle. (If the position feels uncomfortable, move your feet in a little closer).
- Clasp your hands together at your chest.
- Keeping your back straight, push your hips back and bend your knees out over your toes to squat down. Thinking about sliding down a wall, keeping your back as straight as possible and avoiding leaning forward or sticking your butt out.
- Lower until your your thighs are parallel to the floor (or as low as you can comfortably go).
- Activate your core, glutes and quads to propel your body back upright, driving your weight through your feet to return to a standing position.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top of the movement and repeat.
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Sit on a bench with your feet rooted to the floor.
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height with your forearms vertical, hands in a neutral grip with fingers toward your face. Your arms shoulder be just slightly in front of your body. Brace your core.
- On an exhale, press both dumbbells up and in toward each other.
- Lower the weights back to the starting position with control.
HOW TO START IMPLEMENTING THE BEST EXERCISES FOR WEIGHT LOSS
If you are looking to try the best exercises for weight loss and become stronger as you do this, then take note of the exercises below to incorporate into your next workouts. These include things like burpees, ball slams, and kettlebell swings.
It is an idea to start with, say 6-8 reps, and slowly build to more repetitions as the weeks progress. Similarly, if the move requires weights, start off light and gradually increase the load week-by-week.
Of course, not everyone is at a stage where they are confident steaming into a hectic spin class or group HIIT session, but swapping your daily jog for some kettlebell workouts, shadow boxing, skipping, burpees or traditional weights training will pay dividends over a much shorter timescale.
We’ve collated some of the best exercises for weight loss, studying numerous books and online articles to surface those scientifically-backed moves that can easily be incorporated into your next workout for maximum calorie burn and muscle toning.
If you’re serious about losing weight, you should invest in a smart device such as the best fitness watch, which can monitor calories expended, workouts, steps and loads more. And if you’re really serious, you could take your home gym set-up to the max and consider investing in the best exercise machines to lose weight.
How to Lose Weight at the Gym
If you’re trying to lose weight, working out at the gym is one of the best ways to do it. However, if you’re not exactly a “gym rat” to begin with, you may not know where to start! Ultimately, you’ll need to do both cardiovascular and resistance workouts in order to burn fat while building muscle. At the same time, you’ll also need to make sure you’re eating a proper diet.
Method 1 Performing the Best Workouts
- Talk to your doctor to determine a healthy weight-loss goal for you. Although many people want to lose weight, not everybody actually needs to. Your doctor will be able to tell you what a healthy weight range would be for you, based on your particular physical characteristics. Use this information to set a healthy weight for yourself that you’d like to reach.
- For example, if your doctor tells you that a healthy weight range for you would be 150 to 160 pounds (68 to 73 kg), set a goal for yourself to eventually weigh 155 pounds (70 kg).
- Don’t try to lose more than 2 pounds (0.91 kg) a week; this is not only unrealistic for most people, but it also makes you more likely to regain the weight you lost later. Ideally, you should aim to lose 1 pound (0.45 kg) a week overall.
- Use push-ups, planks, and jogging to assess your fitness level. To test your muscular strength and endurance, perform as many push-ups as you can before you have to stop and rest. See how long you can hold a plank to test your abdominal muscle strength. Finally, time how long it takes you to complete a 1.5 mi (2.4 km) run to gauge your aerobic fitness. Use the results of these tests to determine how intense your initial workouts at the gym should be.
- A healthy 25-year-old man should be able to jog 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in 11 minutes and perform 28 push-ups in a row.
- A healthy 25-year-old woman should be able to jog 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in 13 minutes, perform 20 push-ups in a row.
- Most healthy people should be able to hold a classic front plank for 1-2 minutes. Planks are a safer and more effective alternative to crunches or situps for building and gauging abdominal strength.
- People over or under the age of 25 will have less intense benchmarks for gauging their particular fitness level.
- Run on the treadmill without holding onto the handles. Running or walking on the treadmill is one of the best ways to burn fat at the gym, since you already know how to walk or run. However, you need to actually bear the brunt of your bodyweight in order to effectively burn calories. Avoid holding onto the handles while you run, if you can.
- A good workout to perform on the treadmill is to run at a moderate intensity for about 30 minutes.
- You may be able to burn fat even more efficiently by varying the intensity of your run over 20-30 minutes. This is called interval training.
- If this workout is too intense for you, decrease your speed to a more comfortable pace. If you want to increase the intensity, try running at a faster speed or at a bit of an incline.
- You should generally only grasp the handles if you’re having trouble staying upright. However, if you are having trouble staying up, you need to get off the treadmill immediately and get help from a member of the gym staff.
- Perform high-intensity intervals on a stationary bike. Do a couple of minutes of high-speed cycling, followed by a couple of minutes of slower cycling. Repeat this process over the course of a 30-minute workout for an efficient calorie burner.
- This is an especially useful workout if you suffer from joint pain, since there’s less impact on your knees.
- Swim laps or tread water in the pool if your gym has one. Just treading water is a good workout, since your muscles are constantly fighting against gravity to keep you afloat. For a more intense workout, swim laps at a relatively fast speed for as long as you can. Be sure to change your stroke style every couple of laps.
- For example, if you just swam 2 laps using a breaststroke, do the next 2 laps with a butterfly stroke.
- Don’t swim as fast as you possibly can, at least not all the time. Just like with running, aim for an intense but tolerable pace that you can sustain for at least 30 minutes, if not an hour.
- Use the rowing machine to engage most of your body’s muscles. Row a set distance (e.g., 250 metres (0.16 mi)) as fast as you can, then slow down for 1 minute. Repeat this process over a 30-minute workout period.
- This is a very good machine for working out your arms and back as well as your leg muscles.
- Lift heavy weights to build muscle and increase your metabolic rate. Start out with weights that you can lift 8-12 times without having to strain too hard. Then, gradually work your way up to heavier weights over the course of several workout sessions.
- Taking this type of gradual approach will dramatically reduce the risk of injury as you build more and more lean muscle.
- Although it may seem counterintuitive to build muscle if you’re trying to lose weight, the added muscle mass will increase the amount of calories you burn while you’re resting. This means you’ll burn more fat over time, even as you gain a little extra muscle weight.
Benefits Of Physical Activity
benefits of regular physical activity
Want to feel better, have more energy and even add years to your life? Just exercise.
The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. Everyone benefits from exercise, regardless of age, sex or physical ability.
1. Exercise controls weight
Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help maintain weight loss. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn.
Regular trips to the gym are great, but don’t worry if you can’t find a large chunk of time to exercise every day. Any amount of activity is better than none at all. To reap the benefits of exercise, just get more active throughout your day — take the stairs instead of the elevator or rev up your household chores. Consistency is key.
2. Exercise combats health conditions and diseases
Worried about heart disease? Hoping to prevent high blood pressure? No matter what your current weight is, being active boosts high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol, and it decreases unhealthy triglycerides. This one-two punch keeps your blood flowing smoothly, which decreases your risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Regular exercise helps prevent or manage many health problems and concerns, including:
- Stroke
- Metabolic syndrome
- High blood pressure
- Type 2 diabetes
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Many types of cancer
- Arthritis
- Falls
It can also help improve cognitive function and helps lower the risk of death from all causes.
3. Exercise improves mood
Need an emotional lift? Or need to destress after a stressful day? A gym session or brisk walk can help. Physical activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier, more relaxed and less anxious.
You may also feel better about your appearance and yourself when you exercise regularly, which can boost your confidence and improve your self-esteem.
4. Exercise boosts energy
Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance.
Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle daily chores.
5. Exercise promotes better sleep
Struggling to snooze? Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep faster, get better sleep and deepen your sleep. Just don’t exercise too close to bedtime, or you may be too energized to go to sleep.