You can’t get around the fact that genetics plays a huge part in the shape of your body. But, there’s a good chance you can change your body shape with exercise. I’m not saying it’s easy or guaranteed, but regular exercise does wonders to all body shapes and sizes.
However, unless you are willing to make exercise a regular part of your life, you just as well forget it.
Making exercise a habit is vital for burning calories, strengthening muscles, bettering your health, and modifying the way your body is shaped.
If you are looking to get bigger, you build muscles and not fat. And, if you want to slim down, you’ll need more muscle mass to burn excess fat.
Regular physical activity is key to a better body
That doesn’t mean you will need to spend the rest of your life in a gym with a personal trainer, either. Of course, if you have the bucks, the time, and the desire — that will work.
But, since that group of people is in the minority, let’s talk about other ways to change your body shape.
Getting Physical
In the end, exercise just means moving your body, and no matter who you are, the more movement you get the better.
As a modern society, the vast majority of us get far to little exercise or movement. We spend our free time in front of the TV and use a remote so we never need to move.
Change Your Body Shape With These Activities
Start changing the way your body looks immediately by doing simple things like;
- Going for a walk every morning or afternoon. Even it’s a slow pace at first, it won’t be long before you get into how good it makes you feel and you’ll want to set a brisk pace.
- Stop using the elevator. If you use the elevator to get to your office or apartment, start using the stairs instead. If it’s just too many flights, try walking one flight at first and adding one every week or so.
- Park farther from the destination. Here’s a good one! Instead of holding up traffic in parking lots while you wait for the closest parking place, park far out the lot and walk to the door.
- Work in the yard. Just making your yard a hobby will keep you out of the recliner and actively engaging your body. I’m amazed at how many people who do tend to their own lawns ride on mowers instead of pushing them? Get in shape with a push mower.
Those ideas may sound too simple for you — but trust me, starting somewhere is far better than doing nothing.
Nothing Changes Until Something Changes
Like I stated earlier, nothing will change without regular exercise to tone and reshape your body. And, there’s no end to the ways to get more physical activity into your everyday life.
I agree that those methods will be a slow go — if you decide that’s all you need.
And how much exercise you need of course depends on your own body shape, and the lengths you are will to go to change it.
To get the best results, those 4 tips, above, need to become a part of your life. You really shouldn’t even consider them exercise, but just who you are and the way you live every day.
Add Real Exercise for Fast Results
Now that you’ve incorporated the most natural movements designed for all human beings, it’s time to get aggressive.
All health organizations recommend about 2 hours a week of moderate exercise. That is about 30 minutes 4 times a week and is for your best health.
To Change Your Body, That’s Not Enough
If you are a couch potato when you start, that is where you need to start.
However, your goal should be to double that. Shooting for 1 hour — 4 days a week is where you will find the changes you are looking for.
Start simple, and plan on lifestyle changes that include scheduling your life around your end goals.
What is Exercise?
For changes to occur, your first step will be to give up the idea that you get your exercise at work.
Even if you are on your feet and staying physically active 8 hours a day at work, that is not the exercise you need.
What we are talking about here is something that raises your heart rate to about 75% of it’s maximum and stays there for 30–60 minutes.
By raising your heart rate above the normal, your body starts burning calories, exchanging fat for energy, and toning muscles.
What happens at work, is your body quickly becomes accustomed to the grind and your heart rate stays at its normal speed.
Exercise is doing something that exercises your heart and lungs above the normal, and the results to your body, health and emotions are phenomenal.
How to Get Started?
The best way to keep track of your heart rate and be sure your exercise routine is working is with one of these smartwatches.
Use it to see exactly how fast your heart is going anytime.
Any workout should build heart strength to keep it healthy, increase your breathing for more oxygen intake and burn calories.
It’s never too late to start revamping your body by changing muscle density.
Even if you have avoided real exercise all your life, the changes to your health, body, and emotions start soon after getting into a workout routine. And the great thing is that you have a lot of options when it comes to choosing which type of workout suits your taste.
In fact, you don’t need to take up running marathons or pay for a gym membership.
Home workout equipment purchases hit new highs every year for a reason. It’s convenient, cost-effective, and can produce better results because it’s so practical to exercise at home.
On the other hand, the convenience of knowing you can workout whenever you happen to feel like it, can lead to putting it off forever?
Experimenting with different types of exercise can help you decide which style fits you personally.
This is where a gym membership can help because they have all the equipment allowing you to see if you would rather run outside or inside, or not at all.
Having the ability to change from one type of exercise to another lets you see what affects your body the most, and what you enjoy doing.
Once you’ve established a routine, you need to incorporate different types of exercise into your week. Employing only one workout routine means your body adapts and stops modifying and improving itself.
Types of Exercises That Change Bodies
1. Interval training
Interval training is the most productive way to see changes fast. It’s simple and easily incorporates into any routine you choose.
Let me explain interval training: it’s alternating between very intense activity and much less intense activity while you are working out.
Let’s say your normal routine is walking for 30–60 minutes each day and at the same pace each day. While this is a great way to get started, you will stop seeing any results after a few weeks.
Interval training means during each walk, you speed up to a very fast pace for 15–30 seconds, and then immediately slow down to your normal pace for 2–5 minutes. As soon as you breath returns to normal, you speed the pace up again for 15–30 seconds.
This is known as HIIT training, and the total time you do it should never be more than 15 minutes.
You never start right out with HIIT intervals, but rather, spend 5–15 minutes exercising at a normal pace to warm your body and muscles.
This 15 minutes of HIIT will burn more calories than an hour than more normal cardio exercises. That means you can change your body shape fast with this method.
2. Strength training
It’s important to not confuse strength training with body building, especially if you are concerned about muscling up with bulk.
We all need strength which comes from muscles to hold ourselves erect and keep from losing balance and falling. But, you also burn more calories as you build muscle. In fact, those muscles burn calories even while you are asleep.
So the higher the percentage of lean muscle in your body, the easier it is to burn fat. Moreover, building muscle is the most direct route to reaching your goal of reshaping your body.
Don’t worry, you can build just the right amount of muscle to shape up your body, lose weight, and look better without looking like a body builder.
How to Do Strength Training
- Bodyweight exercises
- Dumbells
- Barbells
- Resistance bands
Strength training is progressive loading of muscle groups. That simply means you workout using sets and repetitions. Say you purchased a couple of lightweight dumbbells to use at home.
You might start out curls, which means to hold a dumbbell by your side. Now with your elbow stationary by your side, lift the weight from your elbow up to your shoulder.
Do 8 repetitions of that movement without stopping, and rest for a few seconds. Now do 8 more reps. If you do that 3 times you do 3 sets of 8 reps.
Each set gets progressively more difficult and activates muscle groups to gain more strength. There are countless ways to do strength training and all are great for altering the way your body looks and is shaped.
3. Core Training
All the muscles that make up the midsection of your body are your core. They make up the muscles of your back, sides, and abdomen and are vital for stabilizing your entire body.
Benefits of increased core strength
- Decrease lower back pain
- Improve stability and balance
- Better posture
- Make all exercise easier and more enjoyable
Many people who complain of chronic backaches could correct the problem with core training that would increase the strength of muscles to hold them upright.
Besides back problems, weak core muscles result in “beer bellies”, or protruding waistlines. When you build and strengthen these muscles it makes any other exercise you do much easier. Walking and running especially depend on your core for endurance.
These core muscles make the simplest everyday activities easier. Build a stronger core and all of your everyday bending, reaching out and over, and twisting movements will be much more natural and easier.
One rule to remember for any exercise routine, when any routine is easy, it’s time to increase the intensity or move to something more challenging.
What is BMI
Keeping up with and changing your Body Mass Index is a vital component of changing your body.
BMI is a way to measure the percentage of your body that is fat by comparing your weight with your height. This measurement from this calculator is used to determine if you are obese and surprises most overweight people.
Even though it’s not a perfect measure, it gives great insight into whether you should take a very close look at how your diet and exercise is affecting your health.
Summary
If you are serious about a better looking body, staying active is the key.
However relying on workout sessions alone may not produce the results you are looking for — as fast as you want them. That means that you must start moving as much as possible every waking hour.
Use simple things like getting outdoors, parking farther out in the parking lot, working in the yard, and anything that keeps you on your feet.
As you achieve more natural physical activity in your lifestyle, regular exercise sessions will be easier.
When it comes to your workout sessions, only you know how often to start out exercising. If you have never been into an exercise of any type, try walking a few minutes every day.
Set a goal of 1 hour 4 times a week, and gradually work up to it. And get a grip on how dangerous sedentary lifestyles are to your life and health.
Using exercise to change your body shape — not only improves your life and health, you will be proud of your body no matter the figure or form.