Use Your Muscles to Keep Them
I have some bad news for you. There is no way to keep your muscle mass that does not require you to use you muscles. Our bodies will burn of muscle tissue if it’s dead weight that is not being used. No great body composition if the muscles inactive. For that reason resistance training should always be a part of any lifestyle. But when you want to lose fat fast by being on a low calorie diet, using your muscles is even more important. The workout is not to make you lose more fat. It’s to make sure you keep your muscles, keep your metabolism high and most importantly do no regain any weight down the line.
Cardio does not count as using your muscles in this regard.
15 MINUTES A DAY IS ALL IT TAKES
Fear not. Adding workouts is easy, and you do not have to join a gym. This is what you do. Add 15 minutes of body weight resistance training of every day. Simply set a timer for 15 minutes and use your muscles the best way you know how. Focus should be on hitting every major bodypart. This is legs, back, arms, chest and your core. Do not focus on fat burning in these 15 minutes. Only on strength training. Here are some awesome body weight exercises you can do. Alternatively you can do 30 minutes every other day.
THE WORKOUT
The workout routine I recommend is simple.
10 different exercises that make sure every musclegroup is getting it’s fair share of work.
Start of with 25 of each and slowly increase this number over time. When you start to run out of time you can increase the level of difficulty or add weigths and then lower the number to 25 again.
If you’re doing 30 minutes every other day, you can do two sets of the 10 workouts in stead of one.
SQUATS
Squats are amazing because they hit the large muscle groups. You can do this with only bodyweight or you can add weights to make the exercise more difficult. Keep your knees behind your toes at all times and put your feet at shoulder width.
PUSHUPS / BENCH PRESS
Pushups are great for your chest, arms and core. You do not have to have a person on your back. Atleast not in the first few workouts.
If needed you can start up with assisted pushups with your knees on the floor. There are many veryations you can try, and as you get stronger you can increase the diffuculty. This can be done by putting your feet on a chair or putting your arms closer to your body. You can slow down the tempo for even more resistanse.
The New York Times describes pushups as the ultimate barometer of fitness simply because they train so many areas.
PULLSUPS / PULL DOWN
Pushups and pullups hit all your major upper body muscles. Stronglifts.com calls pullups the greatest way to gain upper-body strength.
You can do them in many different ways. If you can not do a pullup or chinup, there are many ways to start up with easier version. If you do not have access to a pullup bar or tree branch there are plenty alternatives to start a great pullup workout.
Take a look here to see the different options if you can not do a pull up and what alternatives you can choose if you do not have a pullup bar.
DIPS
LUNGES
SHOULDER PRESS
DEADLIFT
ROWS
