Play Soccer for Fat-Burning Interval Cardio

Playing soccer is great for interval cardio exercise. Look for different ways to do cardio to change up your routine (avoid boredom) and burn more fat.


It helps to keep exercise fun as much as possible. If you hate doing exercise, you will quit at some point. By its routine nature, cardio can become boring, so you need to mix it up.

Playing games is one of the best forms of exercise because you're focused on the game and not on the exercise (especially if you are in shape to play).

Play soccer the right way and you will get great fat burning benefits. Here are 3 tips:

1. Sprinting when you should sprint will burn major calories and fat. Research has proven that the benefits of anaerobic exercise (like sprint interval cardio) is superior to aerobic exercise for fat loss, fitness and heart health.

Sprinting activates your bulkier, shapely fast twitch muscle fibers. These fast twitch muscle fibers lie dormant when you do slow-paced cardio sessions. Sprinting will really burn the fat on your butt, hips, thighs, hamstrings and lower legs. Fat will also be burned on your upper body. You don't have to be fast, just run as fast as you can.

If you want a faster version of soccer, play in an indoor soccer league.

The progression of your cardio exercise should be low-intensity aerobics to moderate/high-intensity aerobics to high-intensity anaerobic exercise.

2. Soccer is great for developing agility (change-of-direction skills) and balance. This adds more intensity to an otherwise intense form of exercise. Soccer will improve your dynamic balance, power and coordination.

Growth hormone elevations during this type of exercise have been shown to decrease body fat.

3. You should jog (between sprints) when you play soccer. Notice I said jogging and not walking.

You could do some metabolic training to get in shape to play. Metabolic training is a popular and effective method for sports teams. You would also lessen your chances of injury. Many weekend warriors get hurt because they aren't in condition to play a sport at full speed.

Soccer requires constant running---jogging, half-effort sprints and maximum effort sprints. You could simulate an actual game by training this way.

Play soccer once or twice a week if you need a change up for cardio exercise.

Download your FREE 10-Minute Fat Burning Workouts now! There are strength and cardio workouts in the e-book.

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
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Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs

3 Steps to Getting Toned Beach Arms

Planning a summer vacation? Or even just spending a few days in the sunshine at the beach? Whatever your plans are this summer, it’s likely that at some point you’re going to have dig out your bikini and swimwear.

At a time of year when we practically live in vests and t-shirts, we want our upper arms to look toned and slim. 

Therefore, the time to tackle the bingo wing, the flabby flapper – however you like to refer to it - is here. Following a few pieces of simple advice will leave you self-confident, in better general health, and with toned upper arms.

Diet

When you’re fighting the fat, the best place to start is, naturally, your diet. Ditch foods with high fat and salt content, in favor of healthier options like fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds.

It’s not all about choosing the right foods. It’s equally important that you get your mind in the right place when you’re trying to shed body fat. Adopt a positive, determined attitude and you’ll succeed. That includes things like not giving in to the pressure of family and friends when you’re eating out – as much as they might try to coerce you into choosing something unhealthy with high fat and salt levels from the menu, or to join them for dessert, remain focused and go your own way.

Choosing the healthy options will leave you guilt free and firmly on track to achieving the results you want. Writing for fitnessmagazine.com, Richard Laliberte outlines a helpful top ten strategies to lose fat that will get you in the mind set that will lead you to success.

Starting to Tone Up

You’re the master of healthy eating and in control of a sensible diet. You’re losing weight and feeling great - that bathing suit is already calling out to you. But bear in mind that weight loss, especially if it’s quick, can leave you with excess skin that’s a nightmare to get rid of. 

Start your exercise regime at the same time that you embark on a fat fighting diet and you should be in great shape. Ease yourself in gently though. Don’t go straight for the big guns – you’re likely to end up hurting yourself and you’ll be less likely to get the end result that you want.

Using things from around the house or the office is a great start when you’re toning your upper arms. Starting with something lightweight, like cans or bottles of water, is a good idea to build up your exercise plan gradually. Spend fifteen minutes each day doing some light reps with a small weight and you’ll already start to see results.

A tricep kickstart – don’t panic, it’s not as complicated as it sounds – is a good step up from using cans or bags of sand to help tone your upper arms. It’s common to focus on your biceps when you’re doing reps with a weight, but this exercise will help tone the back of your arms. For a full demonstration of this exercise, carried out by fitness expert Samantha Clayton, see the following video. 

Building your core strength and toning your upper body.

As your health and fitness is improving, you’re naturally going to want to push yourself further. Getting yourself some equipment is a good move and will help you achieve great results. 

Whether your focus is purely your upper arms, or you’re interested in working your entire body, a rower is a fast and effective way of achieving the results you’re looking for. As well as working your upper arms and your shoulders, rowing will develop core muscles like your back and abs. For more information on which muscles you’ll be working on a rower, see here.

And you won’t have to commit to a monthly gym payment or the worry of feeling self-conscious as you’re working out. Rowers are smaller than most gym equipment and can be easily accommodated in the home.

Rowers are available to buy for the home from companies such Iron Company, which stock a range of rowing machines.

For UK readers, companies like Best Gym Equipment stock brands such as WaterRower, offering free UK delivery. A design like this, which uses a water wheel design as opposed to a traditional ergometer, means that the rower adjusts itself to how much effort you’re putting into your workout. The harder you work it, the harder the machine will work you! You’ll be burning calories as you tone your muscles, achieving great upper arms that you’ll be desperate to show off this summer.

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs

Exposing Diet Myths

by Karen Danish, LAP

With bathing suit and vacation season fast approaching, finding and sticking to a diet is always on our minds. But which one do we choose? Whatever your goal, there is surely one out there that you hope will help you achieve it: weight loss, muscle-toner, fat-burner, abs-flattener, etc. There isn’t a miracle solution, though. Most fad diets aren’t personalized to fit each and every unique body, so we’re going to crack the myths behind some popular diet trends. From fat-free to no and low carb diets; let’s take a deeper dive into why these get-skinny-quick methods just aren’t what they seem.


Myth: Low-fat diets are good for you and will help you drop weight quick.

Fact: Dieters tend to think that if you cut out all fat, it will help them lose weight. However, a healthy diet means one third of your daily calories should come from fat. The body uses this fat for energy, tissue repair, and to transport vitamins throughout the body. There is no need to follow a fat-free diet, and could cause dieters to feel deprived and binge on high-fat foods later.

Myth: Crash dieting and fasting helps drop weight quickly.

Fact: There may be truth in this in the short term, but crash diets cause weight gain in the end. Losing weight over the long term in a healthy way burns off fat, but crash dieting burns fat but also lean muscle and tissue, causing a drop in metabolic rate. This means your body requires less calories throughout the day and can make weight gain more likely once you stop dieting.

Myth: Eating late at night is more fattening.

Fact: Many diets tell you not to eat after a certain hour of the day to prevent the body from storing food as fat. They say that the lack of activity after you eat causes weight gain at night. However, research has proven that it is more important to track calories over a 24-hour period than to start or stop eating meals at certain hours of the day. Space meals evenly throughout the day to prevent binge eating at night. This pattern will cause weight gain.

Myth: Low-fat or skim milk has less Calcium than full-fat milk.

Fact: Skimmed or semi-skimmed milk may actually have more Calcium than the full-fat variety because the Calcium is in the watery part of the milk, not the creamy part. Low-fat milk is an excellent part of a balanced diet and helps maintain a healthy weight.

Myth: Low-fat foods are the best for you.

Fact: Low-fat or fat-free foods don’t necessarily mean low-calorie. Next time you are in the grocery store, compare labels of your favorite food – the regular version and the low-fat. The caloric difference may only be slightly different, if there’s any difference at all. Plus, low-fat versions sometimes have added sugar or thickeners to enhance the flavor, which is affected by the lower fat content.

Myth: You can eat what you want as long as you exercise.

Fact: No amount of exercise can fix an unhealthy diet. A clean diet is the most important to maintaining a healthy body inside and out. Don’t give up your exercise routine, though.
Many diet trends today promise quick weight loss, but extreme diets and unhealthy exercise is unnecessary if you can work on cleaning up your diet and fitting in a little bit of exercise.

This post was written for My Fitness Hut, by Karen Danish, LAP. Karen is a licensed acupuncture physician and a valued staff member at Anne Hermann MD, PA, a Tampa Weight Loss and Nutrition Clinic

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs