Burn More Calories in Less Time
By Paul Rothbart
One of the main goals of exercise is burning calories. Along with eating, exercise is the way to manipulate daily calories into a balance, a surplus for gaining weight, or a deficit to lose weight. The more you burn the more you can eat. Most people lead busy lives. Jobs, family, and household chores take up much of the day. With the time that is available for exercise, we want to burn as many calories as possible. Here are some activities that burn calories at a high rate per minute.
Running in Place With High-Knees
Running in place has the benefit of being able to be performed indoors. It's weatherproof and you don't need much space. Pump your arms vigorously while raising your knees high on each stride. This is a high-intensity exercise that is very effective at burning calories. In 30 minutes, the average calories burned ranges from 240-360. You can alternate periods of running with brief rests in between if you can last an entire 30 minutes.
Butt Kicks
This is a fun variation on running in place. While pumping your arms, alternately raise each heel to your butt and back to the floor. Just like in running, add rests as needed. This exercise will also burn 240-360 calories in 30 minutes. You can think of it as kicking your butt to better fitness.
Swimming
For those who prefer low-intensity exercise, swimming is an excellent choice. The buoyancy of the water eliminates stress on the joints and the entire body gets a solid workout. A 30-minute swim will burn 200-294 calories and is an excellent cardio workout. For those who don't swim well, running or doing aerobics in water will produce similar results. It's also a great way to cool off on a hot day.
Stationary Bike Intervals
The stationary bike is a great indoor piece of equipment and training in intervals makes it even more effective at burning calories. After a five-minute warmup, alternate intervals of one minute at high speed with two minutes of recovery intervals at a more relaxed pace. Using a scale of 1-10, the speed intervals should be a 7-9, and the recovery 5-6. This will burn 240-350 calories in 30 minutes. It is also an excellent workout for cardio.
Maintaining a healthy weight requires burning calories. That can take time you may not have. By trying some of these exercises, you can burn a large amount of calories, in just 30 minutes. Get fit and still have time for other things.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Cartersville, Ga.