Metabolism is the chemical process that occurs within your body to maintain life. In addition to converting food to energy, your metabolism also keeps your body breathing, digesting, and circulating blood.
However, the chemical process is also in control of the baseline number of calories you burn – or your resting metabolic rate (RMR) – meaning it can influence how quickly you lose weight.
To find out how to boost metabolism through exercise, we spoke to Matt Roberts, personal trainer at Matt Roberts Personal Training in London – who explained certain exercises are more beneficial than others.
Roberts told us: “There are many exercises to choose from but ultimately any multi-functional movement involving large muscle groups cause a metabolic spike”.
To employ these large muscle groups, Roberts recommends squats, jumping lunges, and walking – as well as the importance of stretching and warming up before any exercise to avoid injury.
Squats
To activate the “glutes (the biggest muscle group in your body),” Roberts suggests squatting either at home or at the gym.
“Ideally squatting barefoot making sure your knees don’t go too far over your toes and sitting back around 90 degrees on an imaginary chair, then standing up while squeezing the bum as hard as you can until you feel it firing,” he said.
He recommends aiming for three to four sets of 20 bodyweight squats, with 30 seconds rest in between sets.
