Best Exercise For Plus-Size Ladies

If you are a plus-size woman, exercise can help you stay healthy and lose weight. Health experts  recommends that you exercise for 30 minutes almost every day and that you include aerobics and strength training in your workout. If you have not been actively exercising, start slowly, and gradually increase intensity and exercise duration. 

Consult your doctor before starting an exercise program.

Good Start

Begin every workout with three to five minutes of gentle warmup. Walking, biking or swimming will increase the temperature of your core muscles so you exercise more efficiently and with fewer injuries. After your warmup, spend up to 10 minutes stretching your muscles. Stretch those muscles most involved in your main workout. For example, stretch your calves, hamstrings, quads and glutes if your aerobics focus on your lower body. Include core muscle, arm and shoulder stretches if your aerobics include your upper body. Stretching improves your performance, extends your range of motion, reduces injury risk and maintains flexibility.

Aerobics

Aerobic exercise strengthens your heart and lung function as it works your large muscle groups. Over the course of each week you should work all the muscle groups at least once. Using exercises that work multiple muscle groups makes your exercise time more effective. For example, leg and arm lifts performed on your hands and knees work all major muscle groups. Aerobic options include walking, jogging, biking, dancing, swimming, skiing, rowing, skating, rebounding and water aerobics. If you have joint issues, dancing, swimming, water aerobics and rebounding all offer low-impact alternatives your joints will appreciate.

Intensity

The intensity with which you exercise governs how many calories and how much fat you burn. If you vary the intensity of your aerobics between short spurts of intense activity and longer periods of moderate intensity, you increase the caloric and fat burning capacity of your workout. Build your endurance gradually for one to two months before trying high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. Prepare for adding two to three days of HIIT each week by varying your workouts between gentle and moderate intensities and increasing the intensity as you are able.

Strengthening

Strengthening exercises build muscle mass as you reduce fat mass. This may not show a quick shift on your scale, but you will notice it in the way your clothes fit. Strengthening tones your body and can shrink individual areas where you want to lose inches the most. Add weights, resistance bands or tubes with your aerobic exercise to include a strengthening component. For example, use hand-held weights as you walk to work all major muscle groups and include strengthening. Alternately, consider water aerobics to use the resistance of water for strengthening and to accommodate almost any level of fitness.

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