5 Ways to Spice Up Your Cardio Workout

Written by Shoshana Pritzker Thursday, 12 August 2010 21:19

Bored with the usual elliptical trainer?  Do you dread the treadmill?  Performing the same types of cardio exercise 5-6 days per week can be tedious and less than motivating.  Just because your gym is loaded with bicicyles and treadmills doesn't mean you have to actually use them the old fashioned way.  Get creative with your workouts and try any one of these five (5) ways to spice up your cardio workout today.

1.  Mix It In! Can't stand bouncing on the elliptical for any longer than 20 minutes?  Try incorporating your cardio workout in to your resistance training routine.  In between sets jump on the stepmill for 2 minutes then get straight back to work.  Or in between exercises run on the treadmill for 5-10 minutes.  By the time you finish your entire workout you'll have completed anywhere from 40-60 minutes of cardio and you'd never even notice you did that much.

2.  Bring Your Pup Along! Your pup needs a workout too.  Why not bring your best friend along for an outdoor workout.  Find a local high school track and put together a workout for the both of you.  Try walking the straights, running the curves, and when you get to the bleachers - climb them ten times before making it around the track again.  You can get more creative by adding in lunges, squats, mountain climbers, crunches, sprints and much more.  Just make sure you bring water for you and your pup!

3.  Try a Cardio Workout DVD There are ample workout DVDs to choose from and you can even find them online for free.  Clear some space and pop one in your living room DVD player.  Trying something new that you can follow along to will keep you interested.  Get an array of DVDs and you can mix them up daily.

4.  Do a Fitness Class Often times your local gym will offer free fitness classes for members.  Check the schedule and pick something you've never tried before.  The dance style classes are known to keep you grooving and moving while burning calories.

5.  Make a Game Out Of It! Grab a partner and take it outdoors.  Find an empty parking lot, school track or open field.  Design your workout with sprints, foot drills, pushups, crunches, squats, lunges and more.  Each person will perform a given exercise for 1 minute straight while the other times the person.  As soon as you're done, hand off the exercise to your partner and continue.  For sprints think back to your childhood PE class.  What types of drills and exercises did you do then?  Get creative and make it work!  Just make sure you stay out there 30-45 minutes and bring lots of water for a great cardio fat burning workout.

Got more ideas?  Discuss them on our forums with other fitness fanatics.