Jan
Workouts
14 Tips to Maximize Your Home Cardio Training
The debate over the most effective form of aerobic exercise has been raging ever since Dr Kenneth Cooper coined the term ‘Aerobics’ in the early 70’s. Today, there are two diametrically opposed groups – those who advocate slow state, steady cardio and others who swear by high intensity, short duration cardio sessions. When it comes to fat loss, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. A combination of short, high-intensity training and slower longer duration cardio will yield the best results. Here are 14 tips to allow you to get the most out of both exercise types without having to step foot into a gym.
Tip No. 1 Hit it Hard and Fast with HIIT Training
How To Do It:
Choose a cardio exercise that you can do go all out on (running, cycling, rowing, etc). After a warm-up, sprint for 20 seconds at absolute max capacity. Then walk for precisely 10 seconds. Repeat for 7 more cycles.
Why Do It:
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) not only burns more calories than slow state cardio, it also boosts your metabolism, allowing your body to burn more calories all day long. It also allows you to get an awesome workout in, in a short period of time.
When To Do It:
Perform your HIIT training every second day. On alternate days, do your weight training workout.
Tip No. 2: Don’t do your HIIT cardio on an empty stomach
How To Do It:
Get some fast acting carbs in your body to fuel you through your HIIT session by way of a banana or two or a pre-workout drink.
Why Do It:
HIIT training requires energy. Energy comes from food. If you were to do your HIIT training on an empty stomach you negatively will impact upon your efficiency.
When To Do It:
15 minutes prior to doing your HIIT cardio.
Tip No. 3: Run on the Sand
How To Do It:
Take yourself down to the beach and go for a jog along the water’s edge. Then do a series of sprints before diving in for a well-deserved swim.
Why Do It:
Running on the sand takes a whole lot more energy than running on a hard surface. That means that you’ll be burning more calories – and giving your calves a fantastic workout.
When To Do It:
Once a week, mix it up a little by heading to the beach.
Tip No. 4: Mix up the intensity on the treadmill
How To Do It:
Alternate sixty-second periods of intense sprinting with sixty seconds of medium to low-intensity work.
Why Do It:
You won’t burn fat by walking on the treadmill for an hour while reading your Ipad. By switching back and forth between maximum intensity and medium pace training, you’ll be revving up the metabolism and improving your heart health.
When To Do It:
Every time you jump on the treadmill, which should happen on the days that you don’t do your HIIT training.
Tip No. 5: Know your heart rate training zone
How To Do It:
Find your ideal training heart rate with the following calculation . . .
220 – your age x 75%
Why Do It:
Training within your heart rate zone allows you to work optimally, burning the most calories and receiving the most cardiovascular benefit.
When To Do It:
When you’re doing your non-HIIT cardio training. While doing HIIT just go as fast as you possibly can – you won’t have time to worry about your heart rate!
Tip No. 6: Buy a pedometer and use it
How To Do It:
Purchase a good pedometer, clip it on and make sure that you get a minimum of 10,000 steps every day. All of the steps you do every day counts. If that’s not enough, top it up with a power walk.
Why Do It:
Your non-exercise movement counts. In fact, incorporating more activity into your daily routine is the goal of lifeline fitness – and this is a great way to make sure that you are doing just that.
When To Do It: Every day – 10,000 steps before you can go to bed!
Tip No. 7 Mix up your cardio
How To Do It:
Within a cardio session, rather than 45 minutes on one machine, choose 3 machines and do 15 minutes on each. As an example, you could work on the treadmill, elliptical machine, and a rowing machine.
Why Do It:
A change in cardio is a great way to break through a fat loss plateau. It also helps to stave off boredom. Mixing it up also allows you to work a range of stabilizer muscles and takes the strain off joints that may be caused by prolonged movement through one plane.
When To Do It:
Every couple of weeks, completely switch around your cardio choices. Within a single workout, do shorter sessions on a variety of machines.
Tip No. 8: Boot Camp it
How To Do It:
Sign up for a boot camp, kickboxing or circuit-training class.
When To Do It:
By performing bodyweight exercises and conditioning drills non-stop or in circuits, the workout becomes cardiovascular in nature. The calorie burn is also very high. These classes are often a good fit for people who don’t gel with cardio machines.
When To Do It: Typically boot camp type classes happen twice a week, with two days between each session.
Tip No. 9: Run Up Stairs
How To Do It:
Find a place where you can run up a flight of between 30 and 50 steps. Start with a warm-up jog and then sprint up and walk down. Repeat this 10 t0 12 times. If you can’t find any stairs to climb, hill running comes in a close second.
Why Do It:
Running stairs is a fantastic way to ramp up your cardio sessions. It will give you a fantastic cardio workout, burn a ton of calories – and it will provide an amazing leg pump.
When To Do It:
Try stair running once a week to add variety and intensity to your program.
Tip No. 10: Do your cardio first thing in the morning
How To Do It:
Set your alarm clock to allow you to get your cardio in before the rest of your day kicks in.
Why Do It: Taking positive action early in the morning starts your day on the right foot and makes you feel good all day long. Training after work, when you’re exhausted and distracted by the issues of the day makes it more likely that you’ll skip your workout.
When To Do It:
7 am, 6 am, 5 am ??? The busier you are, the earlier you’ll have to get up – all you have to do is overcome mind over mattress syndrome.
Tip No. 11: Do moderate intensity cardio on an empty stomach
How To Do It:
Get straight into your early morning moderate intensity cardio training without no food. Drink plenty of water, however, and have a 50 percent carbohydrate and 30 percent protein meal about 30 minutes after your session finishes.
When To Do It:
Cardio on an empty stomach allows fat to be more easily released from fat cells and burned for energy.
Who Is It Ideal For:
People who are doing moderate intensity cardio only in the morning. If you are following it with weight training, you’re better off getting some fuel into your system.
Tip No. 12: Utilize cardio periodization
How To Do It:
Cycle the intensity and duration of your cardio to prevent burn out and overtraining.
Why Do It:
Intense cardio day after day, without let up, is too stressful on the body. By doing so, you run the risk of mental and physical burn out.
When To Do It:
Every 6 weeks, take a one week break from cardio, then spend two weeks just doing low to moderate intensity before starting the next high-intensity cycle.
Tip No. 13: Try Kettlebell Cardio
How To Do It:
Grab a kettlebell and start performing two handle kettlebell swings for a set of 20 reps. Then do a set of push-ups. Now go back to the kettlebell swings. Do six cycles of this superset for a fantastic workout which improves your VO2 max while churning through the calories.
Why Do It:
As well as providing a great calorie burning workout, kettlebells are an excellent way to improve your functional fitness. In other words, they work your muscles in a similar way to how they work during your everyday activities.
When To Do It:
Throw in a kettlebell session every couple of weeks to add some variety to your cardio routine.
Tip No. 14: Carry Extra weight while doing your cardio
How To Do It:
Wear a weight vest or ankle weights while performing your cardio sessions.
Why Do It:
Carrying extra weight during cardio has been proven to improve fast twitch muscle fiber recruitment, as well as calorie burning and recovery.
When To Do It:
Slowly start adding weight to one cardio session per week – just make sure that the added resistance doesn’t deter from your exercise performance.
