Ever plod along on a treadmill that tells you the number of calories burned? You might go 45 minutes before you hit 300 calories, and that\u2019s just 300 total calories burned in that time, not 300 calories above what your baseline metabolism would have burned anyway, even while at rest.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I\u2019d rather sit in traffic for an hour than spend that time in the \u201cfat-burning zone\u201d on an elliptical. For those seeking to lose fat, it\u2019s incredibly inefficient to exercise to burn calories, especially when a slice of bread can undo an hour on a treadmill.<\/p>\n
The reason many people gain weight as they age, especially beginning in their 30s, is because they have less muscle than they had in their late teens and early twenties.<\/p>\n
As we age, our bodies naturally lose muscle, especially as we are less active in our lives. This muscle tissue loss results in a decreasing metabolic rate. And then, if you continue to eat like you did when you were younger\u2026 well, you\u2019ll slowly gain weight, pound by pound, month by month, year by year, until one day you look in the mirror and wonder, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d That\u2019s how the average American adult gains 2.2 pounds per year.<\/p>\n
In an already overly busy and complicated world, I\u2019ve watched fitness fads getting more complex while our society is getting in worse shape. And a lot of modern exercise fads are just\ntoo damn hard.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/h3>\n
Because they\u2019re trying to overcome their lack of knowledge of what\u2019s really needed with sheer intensity and volume.<\/p>\n
After joining the Air Force, I became the physical trainer of nearly a thousand elite Special Operations warriors\u2014including SEALs, Rangers, Green Berets, Force Recon teams, and air force commandos – and I developed a purely bodyweight program that evolved until my squadrons were using it all the time. The program became my latest book, STRONG AND LEAN: 9-Minute Daily Workouts to Build Your Best Body<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n These exercises focus on the fundamentals of fitness and are meant to be done without equipment, a gym membership, or fancy, expensive workout gear. All you need to get into the best shape of your life truly is your body weight and nine minutes a day.<\/p>\n The way to eliminate accumulated body fat is to regain your youthful metabolism by building muscle through strength training. It takes about ten calories a day just to keep one pound of muscle alive, for both men and women, even if you are completely inactive. An extra five pounds of muscle can burn up to 1500 calories in a month\u2014that\u2019s the equivalent of 5 pounds of fat per year, which more than reverses the negative effects of aging on your metabolism.<\/p>\n Reducing training to only the most essential bodyweight movements nearly eliminates the cost of time and money while increasing the returns. Just like professional athletes, you\u2019ll attain the most strength and the leanest body through the movements most vital to your survival.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll burn more fat, even while you sleep. And if you\u2019re worried about cardiovascular conditioning, you can get that too out of strength training.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to change the way we think about working out.<\/p>\n Cardio, which feels like a chore and wastes our time, isn\u2019t sustainable, and it isn\u2019t going to help anyone achieve their weight loss goals.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve spent decades researching bodyweight training, and the true key to lifelong health and fitness is to keep what gets results and chuck the rest. And the best part is, you can start right now.<\/p>\n HIGH KNEE MARCH<\/strong><\/p>\n March in Place. Stand up tall and straight, keep your feet parallel, and find a steady pace. Get your knees up high, and use a strong arm swing while keeping your elbows bent at ninety degrees. With each step, fully extend through the supporting leg while lifting your chest slightly and keeping your midsection tight to prevent your back from arching. This basic movement pattern has a lot of useful carry-over to real-life activities when done properly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n KICKOUT<\/strong><\/p>\n Start in a crawling position with your hands a couple of inches in front of your knees. Elevate your knees off the floor slightly.<\/p>\n INHALE: Rotate your knees to the left about forty-five degrees, and then raise your left hand and right foot off the floor.<\/p>\n EXHALE: Continue rotating until you are able to fully extend the right leg in front of you.<\/p>\n In the Kickout position, point the toes and knee of the extended leg straight up to the sky. Let your hips rest on your supporting leg and lift your chest slightly.<\/p>\n Reset to the starting position with your knees close to your hands, and switch sides.\nAfter each Kickout, as you reset to the quadruped starting position, place your feet so that your knees remain close to your hands. This makes the exercise slightly easier while teaching you to pay attention to your footwork.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t rush. Focus on transitioning smoothly and getting into the perfect end position.<\/p>\n To learn more, watch the Mark Lauren videos here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Personal trainer offers insight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2023","category-winter-2023-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13641,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13299\/revisions\/13641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sample Exercises<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/highKneeMarch-600.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/kickout-750.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMark Lauren<\/a> spent fifteen years as a military physical-training specialist for the social operations community. A triathlete, bodybuilder, and champion Thai boxer, Mark is now a sought-after personal trainer for governments, trainers, and civilian men and women of all fitness levels. He is the author of several internationally popular body-weight bibles, including his most recent, STRONG AND LEAN: 9-Minute Daily Workouts to Build Your Best Body<\/em>.<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"