Top exercises to increase your metabolism and shrink fat.

The top three exercise related questions I get are:

1) How do I get toned thighs?

2) How do I get rid of these love handles?

 3) How do I lose my arm flab?

Every time my answer is the same- You have to have good nutrition to start. What do I mean by “good” nutrition? Good nutrition means to eat foods that are not processed or artificial, eating regularly throughout the day, eating the right combinations of foods, and eating for your specific fitness goals.

When you are following good nutrition practices and are ready to take it a step further exercise is the next step.

The type of exercise you do will help or hurt your results. Most times women want to appear “more toned”. While this is a great goal, it is actually a fancy term for “building muscle”. So when I say to my clients- “Let’s work on building muscle,” sometimes they get scared because they think of female body builders and think they will look like the Hulk. This is far from the truth. “Building muscle” is the same as “getting toned. In order for a women to turn into the Hulk she would have to eat massive amounts of food, train like a bodybuilder, and take anabolic steroids. Now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about what top exercises will increase your metabolism and shrink fat. The best part is that you don’t need heavy equipment to build muscle and start seeing changes in your body. Whether you like to train at the gym or at home is up to you!

Let’s get down to it!

Exercise # 1

Squat- Regular, jump, sumo, side to side, squat and kick, squat press, squat and curl.

Why- Squats are compound movements and your legs are the biggest muscle group in your body. 

Ever notice how working lower body gets your heart rate up faster? That is why!

You can try many squat variations to maximize your results and develop shapely legs. 

Exercise #2

Lunges- Forward, walking, backward, curtsie.

Why- Again, you are working the largest muscles in your body, but you are also working them at different angles. Additionally, you are putting more weight on the opposite leg making it work harder.

Exercise #3

Chin up/Pull up

Why- Chin ups and pullups work your entire upper body. Want bigger biceps? This will get them! Want more defined shoulders and a V curved taper back? This will get you just that! 

For women chin ups are easier to start because you do them underhanded. To make them a bit easier you can place your hands further away from each other. The goal is to extend all the way down and back up, but if you can't just yet go down as far as you can- even if it's just a few inches and go back up. This will build your strength and in a few weeks you will be able to extend further down. 

Exercise # 4

Dips

Why-Dips work our upper body muscle as well as our abs. 

Exercise # 5

Push-ups

Why- They work our upper body including our glutes (butt) and quads. 

Exercise # 6

Planks

Why- Planks work our entire upper body including our chest, shoulders, back and arms. Obviously our abs are worked, but also our butt! 

Not sure how to correctly do these exercises? Follow me here on Facebook to catch my live video stream demos!