10 Ways to Take Your Fitness Routine to The Next Level to Lose Weight

You’ve taken the first steps necessary to lose weight. Watching your diet and exercising helped you shed a few pounds. But now your workout isn’t making much of a difference. That’s normal.

Many people find that losing a few pounds quickly is easy. Often, a healthier diet and a few days on the treadmill will oust water weight and a little fat. But to keep trimming the waistline, you’ll need to take your fitness routine to next level.

Lose Weight With These Intensified Exercises

There’s no need to get overwhelmed by leveling up your fitness routine. You can still perform the exercises you already know. Just take them to the next level to start seeing results again.

Use these 10 twists on regular exercises to step up your weight loss game:

1. Planks -> Swiss Ball Planks

The Benefit: Regular planks expend a regular amount of energy and mainly strengthen major muscles. When you move up to swiss ball planks, your abs get a serious workout and you burn more calories.

The Twist:

• Kneel behind a swiss ball.
• Place your elbows and forearms on the ball.
• Roll the ball out until your back, core, and legs are in a typical plank position.
• Hold, squeezing your core and glutes, for 5 seconds.

2. Jumping Jacks -> Burpee Jacks

The Benefit: Your jumping jacks are mostly cardio. Burpee jacks add bodyweight exercise in.

The Twist:

• Begin by standing as if you are about to do a jumping jack.
• Instead of jumping, bend down to touch the ground and kick your legs out behind you.
• With your legs behind you, dip into a pushup.
• Immediately jump back to standing and finish the jumping jack.

3. Push Ups -> Weight Row Push Ups

The Benefit: Adding free weights to any exercise is one of the top ten tips for muscle building. Weight loss is a major side effect of getting ripped.

The Twist:

• Perform your regular pushup with each hand on a dumbbell.
• After one pushup, row the left dumbbell to chest height.
• Repeat on your right side.
• Perform your next pushup and repeat.

4. Pull-Ups -> Hanging Knee Tucks

The Benefit: You’ll get your core and lower body muscles working along with those upper body muscles.  

The Twist:

• Get in position for a typical pull-up.
• As you raise your chin over the bar, draw your knees to your abs, keeping your back straight.

5. Squats -> Weighted Squats

The Benefit: Adding weight to squats adds intensity. That means more calories burned and better muscle building.

The Twist:

• When you perform a squat, hold a dumbbell in each hand.

6. Seated Presses -> Incline Presses

The Benefit: Your abs will get an extra workout when you upgrade this upper body workout.

The Twist:

• Perform your regular dumbbell press but opt to have the bench set at an incline.
• Start with a raised incline.
• Add more intensity by switching to a decline position.

7. Sit-Ups -> Jackknife Sit-ups

The Benefit: Both your legs and your abs get an intense workout with this basic exercise.

The Twist:

• Start lying down with your arms overhead and legs fully extended.
• Perform a sit-up, touching your arms to your legs.

8. Lunges -> Lateral Lunges

The Benefit: They seem simple, but once you feel the burn you’ll understand that this move makes your muscles work harder.

The Twist:

• Stand up with your feet a shoulder width apart, stepping one leg out to the side.
• Dip into a lunge.
• Return to standing.
• Repeat with the other leg.

9. Crunches -> V-Ups

The Benefit: All your major muscle groups will work instead of just your abs.

The Twist:

• Lie with your hands over your head and legs straight so your body forms a line.
• Raise your arms and legs, holding both straight, as you bend at your core in a crunch.
• Keep your back straight.
• Continue crunching your abs until your arms are in front of you, parallel to the ground.
• Your legs and back should form a “V” shape.
• Hold 5 seconds.

10. Jogging -> Interval Training

The Benefit: Cardio, like jogging, is important. But your body burns more calories, gains more flexibility, and benefits much more from alternating between different kinds of cardio and stretching.

The Twist:

• Instead of just jogging 45 minutes a day, alternate between the elliptical, cycle, and treadmill.
• For a bigger difference, try High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or a similar class.

How to Keep Leveling Up

Getting your body into the shape you want is a process. Once you’ve moved from basic exercises to these intensified versions, you’ll still have more leveling up to do. The amazing thing about weight loss and fitness is that there is always a new goal to aim for. The sky’s the limit. All you have to do is take it one step, and one level, at a time.

Add even more intensity to reach your goal faster!
Try our FREE Ultimate 30 Minute High Impact Workouts.