To lose weight? Get moving!

Short and powerful training

In the past, people thought that long-term exercise was especially healthy. Cardio training was the magic word, with endless sessions on the exercise bike or the treadmill, or outside in the woods. However, the insight that short, intensive training sessions work better has gained ground. Strength training in particular helps. It increases muscle mass, making you stronger and improving your figure. In addition, after a vigorous strength training, you will continue to burn more calories for hours.

Use your own weight

Strength training really doesn’t require complicated equipment, such as in the gym. Free weights are also not necessary. You can do most exercises with your own body as resistance.

These are five exercises for the living room:

Imprints

Lean on your hands and knees and, if all goes well, on all fours. Keep your back straight and tighten your abs to keep your back straight. Sink through the elbows and press back up. Try increasing the number of impressions. With this exercise you train your chest, abdomen and shoulders.

dips

Use a chair. Place your hands behind you on the chair seat and stretch your legs forward. Inhale deeply and lower your arms down until your elbows are at a 90-degree angle. Push yourself up to the starting position. This exercise will make the backs of your arms (the ‘chicken fillets’) firmer.

To get off

Stand upright with feet shoulder width apart. Step forward alternately with the left and right leg. Keeping the front leg at a 90 degree angle, the lower leg of your extended back leg almost touches the floor and the upper body remains upright. Good for buttocks and thighs.

Knee bends

Stand up straight and look straight ahead. Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Move the hips back, as if you were sitting on an imaginary chair. Bend the knees and then slowly come back up. Repeat the exercise. This exercise strengthens the thighs and glutes.

Abdominal Exercises

Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and arms behind your head. Raise your head by lifting your shoulders off the floor. Tighten your abs well. This exercise strengthens the abs.

Challenge yourself!

Always the same exercises or the same running or cycling round from home? That will no longer work in the long run. Your body gets used to it, so the training effect becomes less and less. Challenge yourself and surprise your body with variety. A new route (or simply reverse the route), other exercises or make it just that little bit harder. If you find that lifting and pressing exercises are becoming too easy, buy weights to increase the intensity of your workout.

Get up more often

However comfortable the armchair is, it is best to sit in moderation. It is said that not moving is the new smoking. Worldwide, about as many people die each year from lack of exercise (5.3 million) as from smoking (5.1 million), researchers calculated in the scientific journal The Lancet.

And recently research by TNO showed that sitting is ‘deadly’. People who sit between eight and 11 hours a day are 15 percent more likely to die prematurely than people who are more active. People who sit for more than 11 hours have a 40 percent chance of doing so.

What to do? Sit less! At work you can meet standing up or work at a sit-stand desk, and at home you can ‘scroll up’ a bit more. Get up regularly, walk around, do a small job, do some exercises, drink a glass of water, read the newspaper standing at a table or counter. If you stand three hours more five days a week, you will burn as many calories on an annual basis as if you were running ten marathons!