Cardio Methods to Burn Fat

Lot of us indulge in cardio exercises to stay lean &/or show off muscles gains built by picking up weights which is perfectly right.

Using cardio, you can burn more calories by increasing the intensity of workouts. High intensity interval workout is an effective way to shed fat while maintaining or gaining muscle weight. The following exercises when done in high intensity can help you shed weight:

• Elliptical : This equipment was designed to minimize impact on knees & hips. Since the impact of this machine is low, calorie burning effect is not as great as other cardio machines such as treadmill & cross fit has. Going at a moderate pace, you can burn 500 to 600 calories an hour. By increasing intensity & speed you burn at above moderate pace.
• Running: Running at moderate pace can help you burn close to 900 calories at a rate of 7 miles per hour. Long run over a couple of weeks can increase your aerobic capacity but running over prolonged period shall break down your muscle. So if you are looking for fat loss without losing muscle, consider doing long run once in a while. The long run on treadmill can be at an incline of 2% to 3% to maximise fat loss.

• Stairclimber: Stair climber can burn upto 500 to 600 calories per hour. Since stair climber involves higher leg lift, it uses more muscles than does walking & in this way builds leg muscles in a better way. Put more than 80% efforts on stair climbing for 35 to 40 seconds with 1.5 minutes recovery. You can strengthen your core & upper body by picking up weights & climbing stairs.

• Jumping rope:  This increases your foot moment & burns a lot of calories. It enhances foot work, builds your shoulder strength & stimulates sprint which enables you to burn around 450 to 550 calories in half an hour. The best way for beginners is doing at regular intervals starting with 1 minutes with 10 to 20 seconds break.
• Cycling: Doing a vigorous stationary or spin cycling helps you burn more than 1000 calories per hour. Doing intervals on stationary bike helps you burn more calories in minimum time.

• High intensity interval training(HIIT): HIIT is intensive all rounded workout which enables you to burn between 500 to 1500 calories per hour. These are considered to be highly impactful given its intensity & variation in exercises & steps. Doing 2 cycles of these 10 HIIT exercises for 40 seconds each will help you burn up to 1000 calories:  Burpees , Kettlebell Swing, Mountain climber, Jump squats, spiderman pushup, Jumping Jack, plank to pushup, alternate lunges, high box jump & planks.