3 Cardio Exercises You Should Try Instead of the Treadmill!

3 Cardio Exercises You Should Try Instead of the Treadmill!

“I have a treadmill at home but it only collects dust”

It’s common to become bored with the same workout routine, especially when that involves moving your legs without going anywhere!  One of the most important things you can do with your training is to ensure that you get variety so that you can enjoy it.

Aside from using a personal trainer to tell you what to do, you can learn the correct technique for these 3 great exercises and use them to provide you with a little more variety.

Kettlebell

Kettlebell training improve some of the most important muscles in your body from a functional standpoint.

What do I mean by that?

Things like being able to pick up heavy groceries, move furniture, pick up children, sprint for the bus – all these things can improve from the humble kettlebell swing.  But it’s important to learn how to do them correctly.  To learn how, head to How To Perform Kettlebell Swings.

A kettle bell is a weight that, basically, has the shape of a kettle.  They generally come in 4kg increments but can be seen in 2kg increments sometimes.  A kettlebell workout enables you to work on your posterior chain – the muscles that assist you to jump, lunge forwards, sprint and lift.  They also keep your body balanced from a front/back perspective – we often get tight pec muscles due to poor postures, but kettlebell workouts can help to take that in the other direction.

There are many other exercises you can do with a kettlebell aside from swings.  Training in FitRanX will give you the skills to do many kettlebell workouts!

Burpees

Does EVERYONE really hate burpees?

They’re such a great workout, and can be done in a huge variety of ways, they can even be made easier for those who need a starting point.

The regular, everyday burpee starts with you reaching your hands to the ground, jumping your feet out behind you, jumping them back in again and then standing up with a jump.

To make it easier, you can step feet out and in instead of jumping them, and/or you can put your hands on a higher surface than the ground.  Find a level that you find challenging.

To make it harder, you can incorporate a pushup in the middle, you can do it with one arm or one leg or you can jump feet out more than once when you’re at the bottom.
This exercise just raises your heart rate so fast because you’re using so many muscle groups all at once, and it also helps with coordination and balance.  First (carefully) work your way up to doing 50 in a row, and then see how fast you can do them!

Boxing/kickboxing

Nothing beats training with other people, it really can be the difference between showing up and not showing up to training.  Boxing and kickboxing are both great for the core and cardio fitness.  Boxing defines muscles in the arms and shoulders that can’t be defined through simply treadmill running.

For something different, definitely try one of these classes and bring a friend if you can, because laughing also burns calories!

We have the punching bags in our group fitness room so you can use them on your own any time, but it’s just never the same training on your own.

Alternatively, a personal training boxing session will give you a REALLY intense workout that you will feel for days!

There are heaps of alternatives to the treadmill for your cardio workout, and it isn’t just restricted to the cardio machines.  You never have to suffer another boring workout again!