I've noticed many of my friends and co-workers who are consistently hitting the gym in hopes to lose some extra weight for whatever reason. I've also noticed that some of those people are not losing the weight, gaining the strength or any other positive gains from their routine.
When I posed the question to many of these people of what are they doing in the gym, and what are they eating throughout the day, there is one commonality. Cardio. Everyone is so cardio-heavy in their workout but rarely any of them (women especially) add any sort of strength training to their routine. If there is strength training, rarely any of it is core-strength training.
Why does any of that matter? Well simply put...
Cardio workouts are known to burn off excessive amounts of calories, assuming you're not pussyfooting around and actually doing the work. However, the drawback is once you stop running, cycling, whatever, you stop burning calories. Makes sense, right? Well it should. If you stop moving, your body does not need to expend any more energy to those muscles. This is where strength training comes in.
With strength training (using weights to build strength), once you stop lifting, crunching, curling, whatever, you continue to burn calories. Makes sense, right? It will. Whenever you use your muscles to lift, and you continue to lift, that burning sensation you feel is the lactic acids going to work where your muscles ripped. Protein in your body goes to work and begins to repair the muscle. This can take place even hours after you've finished your workout. So the body is expending energy to repair your torn muscles. The amount of calories burned is no where near what you were burning during the actual workout though.
Core-strength training is even more important because you are working on your abs primarily. The core of your body is what helps your balance. With having a strong core you'll be able to do other exercises much easier. Nearly any routine you do, whether you believe it or not, depends on having a strong core. A strong core will also allow less strain on your back with greater stability and balance for your body.
And the last point here is what you eat. Please remember, you don't want to beast mode it at the gym for 2 hours and kill it by stopping by McDonald's and picking up french fries and other heart-clogging messes. If you do hit up McDonald's (or any other fast food joint) because you are on the go, make the better choice. Keep it lean and nutritious. If there has to be calories, make it beneficial by some other means. Eating an orange is much healthier than drinking an 8oz glass of OJ.
