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!
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!
Slim Down Your Tummy for Health and Beauty
One important goal that you should always have is to slim down your tummy. Do it for beauty if you want. I want you to do it because its good for your health.
I know the size and shape of your abdominal area is important to you. Keep thinking that way…..
A fitness assessment is performed by a professional trainer before you start your exercise program. Body fat measurements will let you know where you are and how far you have to go to reach your goals.
You should focus not only on your belly fat…..focus on burning total body fat with full body circuit strength training and short, intense interval cardio sessions.
Your strength training sessions can be about 30-40 minutes (3 times a week) and your cardio sessions about 20 minutes (2-3 times a week). Your strength training workouts will include core exercises like planks, bridges, back extensions and mountain climbers to help burn your belly fat. If you want to do extra “belly fat burning” core exercises on off days, you can.
There is a correlation between chronic diseases, such as cancer, and abdominal fat.
Work to shrink your waist size and abdominal fat. Researchers from the American Cancer Society warns us about the deadly risks of having too much belly fat.
Eric J. Jacobs, PHD, American Cancer Society strategic director, and his colleagues found that people with very large waists (47 inches or larger in men, 42 inches or larger in women) had approximately twice the risk of death compared to those with the smallest waists (35 inches in men, 30 inches in women) during the study period.
It didn’t matter if the person was normal weight, overweight or obese (according to body mass index).
“We found a pattern showing that expanding waist size was linked to a greater risk of dying regardless of body weight,” said Jacobs. “Similarly, people with the smallest waist sizes had the lowest risk. The take home message here is watch your waist size regardless of your weight.”
Burn your post-baby fat as soon as you can. Don’t let post-baby fat follow you to subsequent baby births, if possible. Excess weight/fat gain and failure to lose this weight six months postpartum are predictors of long-term obesity, according to research.
Exercise plays a huge part in the fat-burning process. Many women continue to do strength and cardio training well into the third trimester of their pregnancies. Sometimes medical conditions don’t allow much exercise. After the birth of your baby, resume your regular workouts as soon as you can.
And, get a good fat loss meal plan that you can maintain. It obviously plays a huge part in the success of your fat loss and weight loss efforts.
Start slimming down your tummy region now (summer is coming)!
Be sure and download my FREE 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program and torch body fat now!
“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!
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!
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