Stop wasting time at the dreadmill treadmill! If you’re serious about burning fat and looking good, you need to up the intensity!

While we know a healthy combination of cardio and strength is needed for optimal health, choosing cardio that is high intensity and utilizes your whole body is what will lean you out quicker than you can say, "Shred!" So if your goal is to lose weight or to lean out and if you want that to happen fast, aim to get 2-3 of these calorie-torching workouts in each week. Fuel up!

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT is a standardized series of intense bursts of cardio followed by rest periods of equal or shorter time. The idea here is to push yourself to your 90-100% capacity so that after you come back from a slightly minimal rest period, your heart has to work that much harder to make up for the lack of complete rest. This is an excellent format to improve cardiovascular health, burn calories, and to work on endurance. Hour-long HIIT workouts can burn anywhere from 300-500 calories and one tabata interval (4 minutes), can alone burn up to 60 calories!

Rowing

That rowing machine on the gym floor is sometimes an underestimated piece of gym equipment. More than just a way to work your back muscles, the legs-body-upper body rhythm motion works your entire body. Rowing machines done correctly can exert an enormous amount of power and energy. You can burn 200-300 calories an hour on a row machine and 300-500 rowing on the open water!

Jump Rope

If you haven’t jumped rope in awhile, you might be surprised just how hard it is. Jump rope uses your upper body, legs, and agility with plyometric moves. Start with basic jumps and then work up to ski jumps, crossing the rope, or just picking up the pace. Doing just 10-minutes of consistent jumping will burn around 100 calories!

Extra Credit: Try one of these classes at Gold’s Gym SoCal

BODYATTACK™

Famed fitness expert Les Mills knew what he was doing when he created a line of athletic-based fitness classes like the favorite, BODYATTACK™! This high-intensity workout combines movements like running, lunging, and jumping with more strength-based moves like push-ups and squats. These classes can burn up to 730 calories!

Cardio Kickboxing

This class takes the basics of kickboxing and mixes them with speed and endurance training. This more predominate cardio format has you jab, cross, hook, and roundhousing your way into achieving your strongest, leanest self! An interval class like this that burns 300-500 calories and utilizes every muscle group is one we have on our own schedule every week!

Circuit Cycle

Working legs is what helps increase that calorie burn. So, taking a spin class to help you shred is absolutely in your best interest! Circuit Cycle takes you through a combination of progressive hills, endurance-happy flat roads, and energy-laden intervals. These intervals help drive up your heart rate and build strength, stamina, and lower body toning! You can burn approximately 400 calories in this type of workout!

While doing cardio may not be your strongest suit, high intensity cardio training will get easier to want to do once you see what happens to your body when you keep at it. How do you lean out in no time? LA, your fat-burning, heart-strengthening workouts await at Gold’s Gym!