8 Tips to Improve Weight Loss with Exercise, Rest and Recovery

If you want fat loss with lasting weight loss---exercise, rest and recovery are all important.

Treat your body good and it will reward you with good health and a fit body. If you don't allow your body to rest and recover, it will affect your metabolism, fat loss and weight loss efforts.

Here are 8 tips to help you reach your permanent weight loss goals:

Note: It is assumed that you have a healthy meal plan you are following most of the time.

1. Do no more than 3 full body weight training workouts and 2-3 interval cardio workouts in a week. Take a break from exercise 1-2 days a week. You don't want to end up injured because of over-training.

You must build muscle mass to change your body to lean and to help burn body fat.

2. This might sound elementary but warm-up properly to avoid injuries. Walking for 2 minutes is not a good warm-up. A good dynamic warm-up prepares your body best for intense workouts. A sample dynamic warm-up could be a 5 minute jog, prisoner squats and lunges. Static stretches would be done after your workout to bring your muscles back to normal length.

3. Don't underestimate the benefits of full body massages. The benefits include improved flexibility, tension release, relieving of swelling, alleviation of fatigue and prevention of injuries.

4. Along the same lines, self myofascial release with foam rolls (SMFR) is a type of self massage that you can do every day and prevent various muscle injuries, strains and tears.

5. Protect your feet. Its amazing how many injuries (like shin splints and plantar fasciitis) can be avoided by wearing quality footwear. If you have flat feet or high arches you definitely need the right footwear.

6. Avoid various tendonitis injuries (pain, swelling) caused by over-training and wear and tear. Rest and recovery is important. R.I.C.E.R. (REST, ICE, COMPRESSION, ELEVATION, REFERRAL FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE) should be followed immediately after a muscle or tendon injury.

And, these injuries will put you on the shelf for months.....

Knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. It is the most common injury affecting the knee joint. Having adequate hamstring strength and practicing proper landing, jumping techniques will help lessen the risks.

Torn or injured Achilles tendon (the largest tendon in the body). It takes a full year to recover from a torn Achilles tendon. Stretch and stabilize the tendon with one-legged exercises, calf/peroneal stretches and Achilles tendon stretch.

Strengthen and stretch your shoulder muscles to avoid rotator cuff, shoulder and elbow injuries. These painful injuries are hard to recover from and affect every exercise you attempt to perform.

7. Strengthen and stabilize your core to prevent injuries such as low back pain, oblique strains/pulls, neck pain, ruptured disks and various other muscle and ligament strains. You can barely walk right with low back pain.

8. Most people need 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Your metabolism will be "out of wack" if you don't sleep enough. And, you won't be able to exercise properly.

If you want fat loss, weight loss and a healthy body, take care of yourself! Good workouts and healthy nutrition are just part of the equation.

Train hard and smart.

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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