It’s tempting to perform crunches or lunges solely on the parts of your body where you want to reduce weight. However, aerobic activity will accelerate weight loss by burning more calories and fat. Your effects will be slow even if you undertake calisthenics or weightlifting to burn some fat. These workouts work the muscles more effectively, though.
Building Heavy Muscle:
Muscle is denser than fat, which means a small increase in muscle and a small loss in fat could actually cause you to gain weight. While the scale is a good guide for whether you’re meeting your fitness goals, you should also consider your health and physical development. If you’re growing stronger and more toned, you might not need to lose weight.
Not Cutting Calories:
No matter how much fat you burn, if your diet is high in calories, you’ll undo your effort. You have to shed 3,500 calories for every pound of fat you want to lose, and losing weight through exercise alone is challenging. A 125-pound person, for example, would have to spend more than eight hours a week cycling on a stationary bike to lose a pound a week, according to Harvard Health Publications. Eliminating even just 100 to 200 calories a day can greatly increase your rate of weight loss.
Your Health Conditions:
If you’re doing everything right — cutting calories and getting regular aerobic exercise — but still not losing weight, it’s time to talk to your doctor. Endocrine system disorders such as hypothyroidism and Cushing’s syndrome can slow down your metabolism and cause your body to stubbornly cling to weight. You might need medication, or your doctor may recommend a more intense exercise regimen.
The 5 Hardest Ab Exercises You Can Do at Home
Are you sick of crunches? Or maybe planks just aren’t doing it for you anymore. If your usual core routine is losing its appeal, it’s probably time to level up. And don’t worry — there’s no shortage of grueling ab exercises out there.
Next time you’re feeling particularly bored with your core workouts, burn out your abdominal muscles with these five exercises, courtesy of Mathew Forzaglia, certified personal trainer and founder of Forzag Fitness on the NEOU App.
1. V-Ups
- Start lying on the ground with your legs extended and held together, arms above your head, elbows along your ears.
- Raise your legs, arms, and torso a few inches off the ground, keeping your lower back flat on the floor. This is the starting position.
- On an exhale, raise your legs up toward the ceiling and reach for your toes with your hands, hollowing out your core. You’ll resemble a V shape.
- Then, lower your arms and legs back down to the starting position.
Tip
You want to keep your legs as straight as possible at the top of this exercise. But, if that’s too challenging or you don’t have the flexibility, bend your knees, Forzaglia says.
2. Knee to Elbow Dead Bug
- For the dead bug exercise, start lying flat on your back with your knees bent and pointing to the ceiling, shins parallel to the ground.
- Engage your core and press your lower back into the ground, raising your head and shoulder blades up off the ground.
- Raise your arms up and over your chest, then bend your elbows to 90 degrees, touching your elbows to your knees.
- Keeping your left arm and knee touching, extend your right arm straight over your head, elbow close to your ear.
- Simultaneously, extend your right leg straight out, hovering just above the ground.
- Pause here for a moment, pressing your left elbow to your knee firmly.
- Then, bring your right elbow and knee to touch and switch sides.
3. Forearm Side Plank Knee to Elbow
- Start lying on your left side with your legs stacked and your left forearm on the floor.
- Press into your forearm and lift your hips up toward the ceiling, keeping the side of your feet on the ground.
- Bring your right hand behind your head, bending the elbow.
- On an exhale, raise your right knee up toward your elbow, simultaneously crunching your obliques.
- Lightly tap your right elbow and knee and bring your leg back down, straightening your torso back to the side plank position.
- Do all your reps on one side before switching sides.
Tip
“[In the] side plank position, focus on pressing your leg into the ground to stabilize the hips in order to bring your knee to elbow,” Forzaglia says. If you’re unable to meet knee to elbow, you can make the move easier by just holding a side plank.
4. Quadruped Wall Walks
- Face a wall on all fours with your knees in line with your hips and hands beneath your shoulders. Lift your knees an inch off the ground
- Place your left hand on the wall in front of you, knees still close to the ground.
- Engage your core and bring the right hand up onto the wall alongside the left, in line with the shoulder.
- Then, bring your right hand back to the starting position, followed by the left.
Tip
As you perform this exercise, maintain your hips as steadily as you can. Holding the quadruped position with the knees barely off the floor, you can perform shoulder taps by touching each hand to the opposing shoulder.
5. Dragonfly
