Most people do cardio to stay lean. It helps you to flaunt those muscle gains you get from weightlifting. The smart use of Valsalva maneuver, which is a valuable life hack for weightlifting and it may help in lowering the risk of injury as well.
Each cardio workout must be carried out according to your body type or the body shape that you want to achieve. Because it is the mode of training that decides your body form. You will have very lean little muscles if you train like a distance runner; and have a muscle growth and fat loss with short, high-intensity workouts if you train like a sprinter.
It is now well established that ‘Intensity is the key’. Calories burn with respect to the intensity of your workout. Therefore, if you want to chop off those extra pounds along with gaining and maintaining muscle, you should go for high-intensity interval workouts.
These10 types of cardio workouts are here to help you lose weight much faster and it will show positive results in no time:
1. Elliptical Trainer
Ellipticals were developed to reduce the impact on the knees and hips, unlike treadmills and stair-masters, and the other cardio machines. This low impact reduces the joint dysfunction caused by wear and tear. The average man with 180lb body weight may burn approximately 500-600 calories in an hour with a moderate pace. You can get better results by switching up the speed, intensity, and resistance.
Activate more the leg muscles by adding a high incline. This targets your glutes and is the best way to burn fat. With the reduced impact, you will experience the stimulus of stair-climbing. However, you’ll have a cross-country skiing workout feeling, when you reduce that incline and works your quads. You may reduce the efforts and lead to shoulder or wrist pain if the step-mill is held on by the handles or rails too tightly.
2. Running Fitness Workout
If you want to burn fat and calories, then running at a steady speed is the way, but if you want to build or maintain muscles then it’s not the most economical way.
A man of 180 lb weight can burn approximately 940 calories in 60 minutes by running an 8:00 – 8:59 Pace per Mile or 7 mph on the treadmill. This is a nice, long run that you must do every week to keep up your lung capacity.
If you’re working out on a treadmill then adjust the incline to 2-3% to feel like running outside. This adjustment burns more calories and is actually be easier on the knees. If running on a treadmill feels boring to you, try different tracks in your area or join a local fitness or running club.
3. Stair Challenge
Most gym goers ignore stair climber. If you want to do cardio, you’ve to go on the treadmill, elliptical, or bicycling machine. Stair climbers are fabulous for an efficient workout. You can burn a lot of calories in lesser time. Moreover, they’re low in impact and you can strengthen your core, glutes, quads, and calf muscles.
Maintaining a good form is critical, so don’t slouch forward or lean heavily on the handles. The handles should only be touched for balancing. Every time you step on the stair climber, keep your stomach in and chest out, and lean forward slightly. Either push through your heels, which will help strengthen your glutes and muscles, or push through the ball of your foot, which exerts more pressure on your quads.
4. Jump RopeWorkout
Jumping rope increases the elasticity and resilience of lower-legs, which reduces the risk of lower-leg injuries. Calf raise is the best exercise to strengthen the lower leg. As the excess of everything is lethal, the overuse of this workout may cause the muscle tissue to be too tight, which may lead to the risk of a number of lower-leg injuries, like, Achilles tendon strain or plantar fasciitis.
The regular workout using jump rope strengthens the calf muscles and makes you flexible by the increase in elasticity of the surrounding tendons and fascia.
- Kettlebell Workout
Any heavy object that your body comes in contact with, either by lifting or rolling, will provide resistance. Your body is designed to overcome challenges and burn fats. The kettlebell workout is a mild cardio exercise, but it burns a lot of calories. Kettlebells are actually best for strength training. This workout has recently been proven to burn 20calories per minute. This is huge in terms of aerobic and anaerobic calorie burning. Muscles are built by only a few cardio exercises but this one is the most effective.
Perfom 40-50 reps, if your kettlebell is lighter. But avoid going too light. Same is the case with going heavy. The smart way is to do a kettlebell workout is by moving just for 30 seconds, and then resting for 20 seconds, after that repeat the cycle. Take note of time. It’s better to set the time of 30 minutes.
- Cycling
Stationary bikes are seen in most gyms, but most people avoid that either because of the high-intensity exercise or the stigma attached to the bikes about men losing virulence while riding a bike for a longer period of time. This workout needs the concentration of both mind and body. You cannot use your devices like smartphones or tablets to kill the boredom. You can burn 1,150 calories per hour by indoor cycling while a more moderate ride in nature may burn just half of that number.
Always do intervals on a stationary bike. Because it helps in burning fat in a lesser amount of time. Be sure to switch the intervals with changing intensity and then repeat the cycle.
7. Swimming
Swimming is a full body workout. We fight gravity, so our muscles work hard to keep us floating without resting. We’ll burn 14 calories with just one minute of fast swimming. So keep your head above the water and start swimming to lose weight.
Swimming strokes matter a lot in burning fat and getting into a shape. A butterfly stroke burns more calories than the breast-strokes, so always try to swim with different stokes. Push yourself to the limits and build your stamina underwater to lose weight.
Simply tread water and you’ll do your body a hell of a favor. Perform a few laps, then rest by water-treading, then repeat the cycle. If you love swimming, then swim faster for as long as possible. If you that’s not the case, then do swimming in intervals. Swim faster for few minutes, take some rest by swimming slower, then repeat the cycle.
- Rowing
Rowing is a great way to incorporate the upper and lower body in an active cardio workout. You can burn upwards of 800 calories per hour by following a moderate pace on the rowing machine. Increase the intensity and you will 1,000 calories burned per hour in a very short time.
The best way to burn calories on a rower is to maintaining your body posture. Always keep your chest up and use your entire body while rowing. Use your legs to get the continuous motion. Repeat that workout daily for 20 minutes, row few hundred meters as fast as possible, take a rest for few seconds and then repeat.
9. High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
HIIT gives you a steady workout while maintaining your weight loss. HIIT workouts range from 500 calories per hour to 1500 calories per hour. These workouts are effective because of the variations.
The best way to master it is obviously by practice but learning the techniques vigilantly is the key. You can watch and learn HIIT, high-impact aerobics, and intense interval classes using weights.
10. Sprinting
Sprints anywhere, either on a treadmill, or upstairs. Every option is great to lose weight in the least amount of time. No equipment is essential.
Running on the treadmill or jogging outside burns tons of calories, increasing your speed and intensity in both will really pay you off.
Like swimming sprinting is also a full body workout. If your destination is a finely sculpted body, then go ahead with your sprints and leave no stone unturned.
The best way to burn fat with sprinting is trying sprinting a lap and then jogging a lap, in case you’re outside. Keep on repeating until you’re tired. If you’re on a treadmill, do a sprint for a few seconds, then slow down and jog for a minute before repeating. At a stadium or flights of stairs run up to the top as fast as you can, then jog or walk down.
