Forget burpees – this no-jump cardio workout boosts your metabolism in 15 minutes
If you Google 'best bodyweight cardio exercises' burpees are bound to appear. Understandably, they work your entire body, which gets your heart rate soaring. However, they're not easy to master, as you're basically combining a plank, push-up and squat jump into one swift movement. Luckily, there are plenty of other ways you can get your cardio-fix that require no jumping or throwing yourself around on the floor – like this 15-minute workout from Sweat Trainer Britany Williams.
It features dynamic, multi-joint movements that engage multiple muscle groups at once. As these exercises require more energy to perform, they elevate your heart rate and help you burn more calories. To take it up a notch – and give your metabolism an extra boost – Britany also incorporates two light dumbbells, challenging your body to work even harder.
You've got three supersets that you'll work through for this workout, each of which contains two exercises. Start with superset 1 and perform each exercise for 30 seconds, with a 15-second rest between them. After completing both exercises, rest for 60 seconds. Repeat the superset two more times before moving on to the next one. If you don't have dumbbells, or a kettlebell, you can always use two heavy water bottle instead. Here's the workout:
Superset 1
Knee to elbow march
Weighted squat punches
Superset 2
Skull crusher scissor switch
Lateral lunge pick-ups
Superset 3
Squat press knee drive
Kettlebell swing (or dumbbell)
As always, if you're not sure about any of the exercises, make sure you take a quick watch of the video above. Now complete some dynamic stretches to reduce having super stiff and sore muscles tomorrow.
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So when you bench and use your chest and triceps, for example, the ATP used for contraction in your back and biceps isn't used up. These types of supersets alternate pushing exercises with pulling exercises—pullups with pushups, or biceps curls with triceps pushdowns, or leg extensions with leg curls, for example. Supersetting can result in slightly reduced performance in both exercises, Nelson says, compared to resting fully. But setting up your training in this way can reduce overall workout length while still allowing you to fit more quality volume into your session time. Trade Isolation Moves for Large, Compound Exercises Saving time is about prioritizing. If you're trying to save time, Arent says, focus on the most impactful moves for your goals of getting stronger and more muscular—moves that use more muscles and joints at once, and let you move heavier weights. 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Focusing on five to 10 reps per set can save you time and let you build up similar volumes, he says. Do Some Aerobic Training When You're Not Lifting This might sounds counterintuitive—aerobic cardio training takes time, which you're trying to save—but by building your aerobic base, Nelson says, your strength workouts may be shorter … because you won't need to rest as long between sets to recover. 'If you look at someone who has a horrible aerobic capacity, they're going to be limited by just how much volume they can do in the gym because they can't recover,' he says. Better aerobic fitness means faster recovery, which means more volume. Nelson's suggestion: Do your best to move for an hour each day, five days per week, whether it's lifting or cardio. If you lift on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for example, try to do some brisk walking or other cardio work for 30 to 60 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday. 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