Do Interval Cardio on Land and Leg Strength Circuits to Sculpt Lower Body
You will burn more fat and sculpt your lower body faster by doing: 1) interval cardio on land and 2) leg strength circuits . You don’t need a machine to do cardio.
Interval Cardio on Land
Have you ever tried doing 20 minutes of running intervals on grass? You should. If you get through one week (3 sessions) of these cardio intervals, you will see the results.
When you have a choice, run outside on grass, sand, etc. (not pavement, asphalt or other hard surface). Why? Because its tougher—you have to supply all the momentum and force with no help from machines. This will cause you to burn more calories during and after your workout.
Research says that you will burn 10% more calories by running on the land. I believe its probably more when you figure in wind resistance and natural land inclines.
Running outside is definitely my first choice and sprint intervals is the cardio workout I do the most. It works—much better than cardio on machines!
–It could work this way: Sprint 50 yards, walk back to start line, sprint 50 yards (do this rotation for 20 minutes)
Another effective form of cardio exercise is bodyweight cardio. Pick strength exercises like squats, step ups, squat jumps, pushups, pullups, inverted rows, etc. and do 20 minutes of cardio. You get both strength and cardio benefits.
–Do sets of 10 for each exercise and walk 30 seconds between sets (do exercises for 20 minutes)
My point is this: ditch the machines and do tougher, more effective cardio on land. The body fat will melt off!
Leg Strength Circuits
Sculpt your legs with a consistent, challenging exercise program. You want your lower body to look good in 3-D space. Your leg exercise program should train your leg muscles in all planes of motion. Your leg exercises should also include high speed exercises like jumps and sprints to shape your bulkier fast twitch muscle fibers (like glutes and hamstrings).
Rotate heavy and light lifting days. You could do bodyweight strength circuits on your light days, if you want. Since this workout is circuit-style, you also get the benefit of a great cardio workout. Do each exercise (10 repetitions) one after the other with little or no rest between exercises. Rest 2-3 minutes and do the circuit again. On heavy days, do 5 repetitions of each exercise and rest 30 seconds between sets. Here is a representative leg circuit program:
–Walking Lunges with rotation
–Bodyweight Squats, squat jumps (rotate with each circuit)
–Glute Bridge
–1 Legged Dumbbell Deadlift
–Reverse Lunges
–Split Squats
–Front Step Ups
–Side Lunges (pictured above), side-to-side cone hops (rotate with each circuit)
–Lateral Step Ups
–Transverse Lunges
–Glute/Ham Raises
–Calf Raises (slow and fast)
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“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”
Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!
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My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!
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Burn Fat, Reach Weight Loss Goals with Home Gym Workouts
Burn fat and reach your weight loss goals with short, intense and effective home gym workouts. It is one of the best timesavers.
You won’t burn fat in your home gym by just setting it up. How many little-used treadmills and fitness gadgets are sitting in people’s garages gathering dust?
About all you will need is a stability ball, medicine ball, resistance tubes and some dumbbells. And, don’t forget about bodyweight strength exercises—pushups, pullups, inverted rows, squats, lunges, mountain climbers and step ups are all staple bodyweight exercises you should be doing.
Building muscle mass will speed up your metabolism because your body has to work harder to maintain it. Muscle mass will also help you to lose body fat and inches which is more important than losing weight. Transform your body to lean and toned–that’s how to keep the weight off.
Do strength training 3 days a week and interval cardio exercise 2-3 days a week.
Vary your workout routines and intensity to keep your workouts fresh and to keep making progress. Your body will adapt if you do the same workouts week after week.
A shorter, more intense 20-30 minute full body circuit strength workout will give you better results than doing a 1 hour strength workout when you are trying to lose body fat and weight. A circuit workout is one in which you do one exercise after the other with little or no rest between exercises.
Research at Duke University, directed by Dr. Cris Slentz, supports high-intensity exercise for better fat loss. The eight-month study showed that people could lose weight with exercise and no dieting. Those who exercised intensely (especially using interval training) lost much more fat than those who exercised moderately.
According to the research, the high-intensity exercisers had these advantages over the low-to-moderate intensity exercisers:
–more release of fat from cells
–more fat used as fuel during exercise
–increased metabolic rate after exercise
Also, change up your interval cardio routines—such as rotating sprints, jump rope and bodyweight cardio.
Here are some more tips to keep your home workouts from becoming boring:
1. On some days, it helps to split up workouts into 2 separate workouts—such as doing two 15-minute strength training workouts (morning and evening) instead of one 30-minute workout.
2. Exercising outdoors can be a refreshing change from exercising in the living room.
3. Doing something fun and different works too—such as playing soccer, basketball or tennis (these are 3 of the best natural interval cardio exercises).
4. Exercising in a totally different place works sometimes—such as running on the trails at the lake.
5. Take a day off from working out—sometimes even on a scheduled workout day. Its always important to listen to your body.
Also, don’t make the mistake of laying around as much as possible until your workout. Research proves that your fat-burning enzymes shut down when you sit down. Keep your metabolism ramped up all day and burn more calories.
Walking helps you lose the weight and keep it off because it helps you maintain an active lifestyle. Walk at least 30 minutes every day.
Be sure and download your FREE eBook: “10 Must Know Fat Loss Tips,” Free Fat Loss Meals and Free Fat Loss Workouts!
“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”
Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!
Check out my other great blogs:
My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!
Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named one of the 50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!
Shape Your Body with Bodyweight Cardio
Bodyweight cardio has 3 primary benefits–fat loss, body shaping or toning and heart health. You won’t get bored doing bodyweight cardio. And, it only takes 20-30 minutes per workout.
Your strength workouts will definitely burn fat. Use your cardio workouts to burn fat too! Burn more body fat with a bodyweight cardio circuit. These circuits are a tried and true method to burn more fat, increase strength/endurance and improve heart health.
Cardio exercise doesn’t have to be aerobic. Aerobic exercise is an activity that is done continuously for more than 2 straight minutes. Favorite aerobic exercises are done on the treadmill (walking, running, jogging), bike, elliptical and stair-stepper. Unless you want to run long distance races, you don’t need to do aerobic exercise to improve your body’s ability to process oxygen and improve your heart and lung function.
Anaerobic exercise is all you need to improve heart/lung function and increase your body’s oxygen intake. Anaerobic exercise (like bodyweight cardio, sprint intervals and weightlifting), requires you to lessen the intensity or rest for less than 2 minutes (intervals or circuits). You’re talking about very intense exercise with intervals and circuits!
Interval training is a great way to do cardio exercise. There is much research to show that interval training sessions are superior to continuous aerobic sessions. You will get better fat loss results and more improved heart/lung health doing interval training or circuits.
Bodyweight cardio workouts also burn more fat and calories during and after your workout. Exercise Post-Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) causes your body to burn more calories and fat after a tough workout. Your body has to work harder to get back to its pre-exercise state.
Here are two bodyweight cardio workouts for you to try:
Workout 1
Do each exercise (10 repetitions) one after the other with little or no rest between exercises. Rest 3 minutes between circuits. Do the circuit 3 times.
–Bulgarian split squats
–Incline pushups or pushups on medicine ball
–Pullups to failure
–Walking lunges with rotation
–Inverted rows
–Squat jumps. The squat jump is a power exercise meaning that it is done at full speed. Power exercises activate your bulkier fast twitch muscle fibers which will shape and tone your butt, hips and legs better.
Workout 2
Do each exercise one after the other with little or no rest between exercises. Rest 3 minutes between circuits. Do the circuit 3 times.
–Step Ups-knee high platform (pictured above), 10 repetitions each leg
–Plank, 8 repetitions, 30 second hold
–Pushups on stability ball, 10 repetitions
–Mountain Climbers, 30 seconds, fast
–Pullups, to failure
–Triceps dips on bars, 10 repetitions
Let me know how these workouts treat you!
Be sure and download your FREE eBook: “10 Must Know Fat Loss Tips,” Free Fat Loss Meals and Free Fat Loss Workouts!
“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”
Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!
Check out my other great blogs:
My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!
Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!
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