There are so many things today that we can use to get in our cardio workout. There are elliptical machines, stationary bikes, stair climbers, treadmills, bodyweight circuits, jumping rope, and the list could go on and on…. There are even fitness videos that do some form of intervals in their videos, such as Turbo Jam Fat Blaster. My preferences are the treadmill, elliptical and bodyweight circuits.

Whether you are trying to lose fat or just trying to work up your cardio endurance, make sure you are doing intervals. What are intervals? Intervals are repetitions of high and low speeds for a specific period of time.

An example of an interval on the treadmill:

Warm up for 2-3 minutes at a moderate intensity (about 4 out of 10). Then increase speed to high intensity (about 8 out of 10) for 30 seconds, then low intensity (about 3 out of 10) for 60 seconds and do this 6 times. Then cool down for 3-5 minutes at low intensity (about 4 out of 10). When you reach interval #6, you should be thinking to yourself “I don’t think I can do this”, but you WILL! That is how intense these intervals should be. If you are not dragging yourself off the machine when you are done, then you didn’t work hard enough. You should never have to do intervals for longer than 30 minutes.

You can also change up your intervals in many ways, by changing the incline of the machine or the time you are doing the high intervals. You can do 30, 60, 90, all the way to 120 seconds and then just make sure your recovery interval is equal to or double the high intensity intervals.

Sometimes, my intervals last only about 10 minutes long, but I go hard during this time and definitely know I burned some serious fat! So there should never be an excuse that you don’t have time to workout…just remember intervals…SHORT AND SWEET!

So, what do you use for cardio?