Better aerobic exercise to lose weight on their lunch break

Better aerobic exercise to lose weight on their lunch break

Exercise bikes and treadmills most useful of the weights for those who want to burn fat while having little time to devote to the sport

What will be the most enduring memory of the holidays? The waistband, for many. It will not be permanent, but we know that to deflate him and all the guilt attached, will serve tears and blood. For those who do not have much free time to devote to the sport, but is forced to take advantage of the miserable minutes of the lunch break to sneak out in the gym, there's a golden rule to follow: choose carefully the tools on which to focus in order to obtain the maximum results with minimum effort. To lose weight and fat mass, in fact, aerobic exercise done with exercise bikes and treadmills is definitely more effective than resistance training done with weights, as demonstrated by a U.S. study coordinated by Duke University and published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

STUDY 

Researchers in North Carolina have compared aerobic exercise with resistance training to evaluate their effects on four key parameters: weight, fat mass, lean mass and waist. They then recruited a hundred people sedentary obese or overweight men and women, aged between 18 and 70 years, and divided them into three groups. The first was subjected to an aerobic workout that included a pretty intense exercise (equal to 70-85% of maximum heart rate) divided into three weekly sessions of 45 minutes each for a total period of eight months. At the second group was prescribed resistance training (always three times a week for eight months) which provided for the completion of three sets of 8-12 repetitions on eight specific tools that stress all the major muscle groups. The third group has instead addressed a workout "mixed", a real mix of aerobic exercise and resistance. At the end of eight months of hard work, for each volunteer were evaluated improvements in terms of weight, body composition, waist circumference, strength and cardiopulmonary capacity.

ONE WINNER 

The results showed clearly only one winner: the aerobic exercise. And 'in fact this type of training that has allowed us to achieve three important results in one fell swoop: lose weight, burn fat and reduce waist size. The work of resistance, in contrast, did not produce any effect on fat and waist, while showed even an increase in body weight due to the increase in muscle mass. The union of the two types of training, however, did not seem particularly convincing. While requiring more time for the exercises, did not bring better results than aerobic exercise with regard to weight and fat mass, in return, the waist has dropped more prominently than in the other cases, but according to the researchers, this is due to their greater time spent to perform the exercises.

TO EACH HIS TRAINING 

"If you want to lose weight and fat mass with little time - says the study coordinator Leslie H. Willis - the best option is aerobic exercise: when you burn the fat you also lose visceral fat, and this results in benefits for the cardiovascular system and general health. However, if the goal is to increase muscle mass and strength - he adds - then you must focus on strength. " There is therefore a universal practice that can satisfy all your needs: better make a balance between our goals and our opportunities, taking into account not only the time available, but also the age and state of health.