September 3, 2012

Today's post is going to be short and sweet.

I'm going to give you 5 of my favorite high calorie burning workouts.

These are all workouts that I've personally implemented at one time or another as staples in my own training program, and I guarantee that they work to both blast away calories and to get you fast fitness results.

Without further ado, let's jump right in…

Treadmill Build

Warm-up for about 5 minutes, then set the treadmill at a pace that is somewhat challenging, but do-able. For me, I begin at a speed of 8.0mph and an incline of 2.0.

Two minutes later, increase the incline by 0.5.

Two minutes later, increase the speed by 0.2.

Continue this scenario for a total of 20 minutes. If you really, truly start at a pace that is somewhat challenging, you'll be sucking wind by the end of this quick workout, and for a few hours after.

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Swim Aqua-Jog Workout

This workout takes full advantage of the calorie burning benefits of both swimming and water running.

Get in the water and warm-up by swimming about 200-400 meters.

Then swim 250 meters as fast as you can.

As soon as you touch the wall, turn around and water run for 50 meters (literally just like it sounds – pumping your arms and legs and running in the water – or click here for a more detailed primer)

After 50 meters, immediately go back into swimming 250 meters as fast as you can.

5 rounds is a good goal for this workout.

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Bike Jumps

I've been doing this bike workout for as long as I can remember, probably because when I first started riding a bicycle competitively, I always trained on this one riding trail that had some kind of footbridge about every mile.

Every time I got to one of those footbridges, I'd simply stand and sprint as hard as possible, then get back in the saddle and ride as hard as I could for the next mile.

Then I'd recover for a mile.

The “Bike Jumps” workout is just that: warm-up well, then, when you get to a mile marker, stand and sprint as hard as you can for about 15-20 seconds, and then get back in the saddle and ride at maximum sustainable pace until that mile is done. Recover for one mile, then repeat for available time.

I've never been able to last longer than about 60 minutes with this workout if I really, truly do push at maximum sustainable pace for each mile repeat, and that's the longest you'd need to do it to get the lactic acid buffering and power building benefits of this routine.

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Nifty 50

Nifty 50 is a workout straight from my “Top 12 Resistance Training For Triathletes” book, and it breaks all the rules. Anytime you perform it, you simply 50 reps of every exercise in the circuit, with minimal rest between each exercise. It goes like this (video below)

1. One Leg or Two Leg Jumps up onto Box or Platform
2. Dumbbell Overhead Swings
3. Jump Pull-ups or Regular Pull-downs
4. Walking Lunges
5. Mountain Climbers
6. Low Back Extensions or Superman
7. Push Press
8. Deadlift
9. Somersault Push-ups, Rocket Push-ups, Corkscrews or novel and unique exercise of your choice.
10. 10. Choose your weakness: cycling or running – finish with 5 minutes as hard as possible on either.

10×10 Jump Squats or Lunges

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This workout is based off a study entitled “Preferential Type II Muscle Fiber Damage From Plyometric Exercise”. In the study, they found that a really good way to stimulate lots of fast twitch muscle to the highest degree possible is to simply do 10 sets of 10 repetitions of jump squats.

In the study, participants rested 60 seconds between each set. But I prefer to kill that time doing something else, such as a front or side plank.

If you don't care for squats, or you get bored of them, then jump lunges (like the exercise in the photo at the top of this article) will also work.

By the way, don't just “hop”. Freaking jump like Jordan if you want the full advantage of this workout.

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And that's it. Those are 5 of my favorite high calorie burning workouts.

Questions, comments or feedback? Leave them below, along with any of your favorite workouts you'd like to add.