With the pandemic actually forcing everyone to stay indoors, most fitness lovers wonder if they can continue their usual routines. The impossibility of indulging in outdoor exercises like running, jogging and walking amidst the pandemic has been a reason for the anxiety of people who have been dependent on such cardio workouts to maintain their bodies. It is perhaps the best time to understand how benefitting it can be to invest in home exercise equipment and its capacity to replace outdoor cardio workouts. Finding it difficult to resort to activity and be consistent? There is a way for everyone, read through and choose which.
The Myths of Cardio Workouts:
Most people believe that heavy cardio is the way towards weight loss, and while it isn’t entirely wrong, it is also not a fact. It is, however, the first routine that a new fitness enthusiast encounters. For the initial stages for anyone trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle and burn the extra fat off the body, cardio is a great push. However, it is just that. It burns fat only during exercise, unlike other muscle-oriented ones. The time constraint of fat burning is highly insufficient because most people usually find themselves dreading cardio routines since it requires maintaining an intensive/aerobic heart rate through the entire workout (generally very hard for those who are overweight) and also getting outdoors.
Even though cardio is one of the quickest ways to burn fat and those extra calories, weight loss is about a consistent journey and an overall lifestyle change. The first part of getting into a consistent routine and changing one’s lifestyle into one which prioritizes health over other things is to choose habits that are not hard to follow.
Benefits of Strength and Conditioning or other Body-weight exercises:
The first factor that immediately puts these exercises a little over cardio is their ability to burn calories even beyond the duration of the workout. Interval and Circuit training exercises combine moves that increase the heart rate (therefore can be considered as light cardio) along with moves that target specific muscles. Strained muscles are said to be burning more calories than when they do not undergo any effort. Who wouldn’t like the fact that their muscles are burning more calories even while resting?
Secondly, some people develop loose skin, cellulite (deposits of fat cells), and other issues that cause the body to lose its ideal shape. Calories burnt through strenuous cardio would probably not be of solution in such cases, even though they are extremely helpful in burning the first layer of fat. The next step is to tone and strengthen the muscles to feel and look like a healthy body.
Of course, the best benefit of these kinds of workouts is that people can do it anywhere and anytime. It essentially takes out the chances of blaming it on the weather or the area’s safety or choice of clothing to cancel a workout.
The importance of both kinds of workouts has been emphasized, and complete transformation requires a good balance of the two. Basic home exercise equipment that completes an indoor workout experience are a yoga mat and weights: dumbbells, barbells, etc. When a person is looking to move into advanced exercises, there is equipment that targets each muscle specifically and hence up the game for one’s body. However, one must consult a professional in every stage of their journey towards a healthier self. It’s a choice one can make today. Why wait?
Author Bio: Steffy Alen is a copywriter and content strategist. She helps businesses stop playing around with content marketing and start seeing the tangible ROI. She loves writing as much as she loves the cake.
Photo by Gabin Vallet on Unsplash.
