Cardio is often not especially effective for fat loss. Many people believe in the myth that says if you’re sweating, you’re definitely burning fat. In fact, the opposite is true – if you’re cold, your body is forced to use energy to warm your body up. Sweating just means your body is making too much heat, compared to the outside temperature. This often has turns on protective processes in the body that shut down energy production to prevent overheating – hence why you feel sleepy and tired after baking on the beach or after a hot sauna.
If you’re serious about loosing weight, give this strategy a try. It’s extremely effective in putting your body in a fat-burning state, and adding a yoga workout daily will lead to even more amazing results.
What is especially effective for weight loss is continuous tension in the large muscles – the legs and the back. You’ll often find diabetics using those sort of exercises to lower their blood sugar, and intense cardio often has the opposite effect on them – it raises their blood sugar an hour after the workout, due to stress hormones being released in the adrenals and the liver. You’ll also notice sprinters have a better physique than marathon runners, which again proves the point of this article.
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1. Side Plank
2. Downward Facing Dog
3. Plank Flow
As you can see, those exercises put a lot of static tension on the muscles. Aim for 10 minutes of total tension, which is harder than it looks at first. There is no specific timing for each exercise – just hold the pose until you no longer can and you feel the burn. Rest for a minute, move on to the next exercise. Repeat. The squat hold is also very effective, but demanding – just holding it for 30 seconds can have a massive effect on how much carbohydrates you store on your thighs.
As you can see, the whole session is three exercises. You don’t need more. We’re not aiming for stretching here, only muscle tension. The three exercises put tension on the legs, the abdominal muscles and the upper body (shoulders).