Whether you want to build muscle, lose weight, or improve your overall health, it can take some time to notice the fruits of exercise.

If you want the body to continue burning calories for a long time after completing training, then this can only be achieved by practicing high-intensity resistance exercises because it leads to an increase in metabolism and an increase in the so-called "post-fat burning effect", or "excess oxygen consumption after Exercise "(EPOC).

After exercise, oxygen uptake remains elevated in order to return muscles to a resting state, by breaking down stored fats and carbohydrates, according to the American Council on Exercise.

The excess oxygen is the oxygen that is available from energy use during exercise "to burn calories, as the body reaches recovery and rest," according to Tracy Wehrmann, an exercise physiologist.

Resistance exercises differ from strength exercises, and resistance exercises cannot be referred to as strength training, and although they are related to lifting weights, resistance exercises aim to increase muscle endurance, and strength exercises aim to increase muscle strength.

Examples of resistance exercises recommended by trainers are: squats, weight throwers, weight throws, dumbbell presses, shoulder squats, front hand movement, shoulder presses, and others.

Several studies have shown growing evidence indicating a relationship between exercise intensity and excess oxygen consumption after completion, in maintaining body mass.

Tips to burn calories

To take advantage of "excess oxygen consumption" to burn calories after your workout, you should know the following:

1. High-intensity resistance

training stimulates more oxygen at rest, more than low-intensity exercise.

Through metabolism, our bodies convert the food we eat into a chemical compound called "adenosine triphosphate", symbolized by ATP, which is used as fuel that supplies the body with the energy needed for muscle activity, instead of oxygen.

"The higher the intensity of exercise, the greater the stress, the doubled the energy production (ATP), and the more oxygen can be consumed to burn calories at rest," says Steve Brunwich, an exercise physiologist at New York University.

2. Heavy exercise with short breaks

makes muscles quick to twitch, and provides more excess oxygen.

Muscles with rapid prominence, used in resistance exercises and weightlifting, can generate more strength and speed of response, than muscles with slow projection.

"The bigger and denser your muscles, the more you need to produce ATP, which means more oxygen and a higher level of burn," Bruniitch says.

3. Cardio stable (aerobic) exercises with less heartburn;

Running, swimming and cycling are great exercises, but they burn less calories, because their level of intensity is constant, and they depend on oxygen to produce energy, so there is not enough oxygen left to be consumed during rest and enhance the burning process.

Unlike resistance exercise, which produces less energy with oxygen, it provides more oxygen to be consumed in the burn process, Bruniitch says.

4. More oxygen burns more calories.

Our bodies spend approximately 5 calories to consume one liter of oxygen.

So the extra oxygen consumed after exercise can increase the net calories burned, (calories are the amount of energy needed to heat one liter of water by one degree Celsius).

5. Excess oxygen consumption is

affected by the intensity of exercise, not its duration, so high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the most effective way to stimulate the effect of excess oxygen consumption as it requires providing the necessary energy much more quickly, to the point where we can only maintain a high-intensity activity for a short period. Of time, because our energy is quickly depleted, the body uses oxygen to rebuild the muscle proteins that were damaged during exercise, even after it has finished.

6. Excess oxygen restores the energy (ATP)

that was consumed during exercise. During post-workout recovery, blood oxygen levels are restored, to compensate for energy, and to adjust body temperature to resting levels.

Resistance exercises at home

If you want to burn fat and lose weight at home in the shortest possible time, you need resistance training.

Research shows that resistance exercises after being combined with a healthy diet, whether done through body weight, resistance ropes, machines, dumbbells or free weights, have beneficial effects that combine reducing body fat, increasing muscle size and strength, and helping to cope with loss. Muscle age related.

And because hesitating to the gym at the moment may be a risky thing, due to the Corona virus, it is possible to practice resistance exercises at home for the whole body, in practical and effective ways, without the need for any equipment, by using some things of different weights available at home, such as beans cans Or water bottles.

To combine exercise and family fun, you can play with your child as a pleasant weight in carrying out the exercises.

Not a magic formula

Still, "consuming excess oxygen after exercise" is not a miraculous recipe, as its effect is linked to a variety of factors, such as fitness level, exercise intensity, age, weight, and diet.

But it normally burns from 6 to 15% of the total calories burned. "If you burn 200 calories during a workout, you will burn 12 to 30 additional calories after it," according to Andrew Schott, a fitness expert, who adds to the "Pop Sugar" website. (Popsugar.com), The effect of "excess oxygen consumption after exercise" lasts one to two hours after exercise.

Therefore, the best way to increase your fitness is to focus on a comprehensive lifestyle, while increasing the impact of your "excess oxygen consumption" in burning calories, by increasing the intensity of exercise.