To get a good cardio workout, who says you have to spend 30 to 60 minutes on only one machine? Not certified strength and conditioning specialist Chris Powell, author of Choose More, Lose More for Life. Switching up machines and spending 10 to 15 minutes on each will amp up your aerobic conditioning, burn calories, and give you some great cross-training benefits, he says. To get out of your cardio rut—or even just to mix it up a bit—Powell suggests trying one of the three circuits below. Note: If you'd like, you can always sub in the elliptical for the treadmill.
Cardio Circuit #1: Max Calorie Burn
This circuit’s not-so-secret weapon? Burpees. Thanks to the total-body move, you’ll torch calories during this workout and set yourself up for some crazy afterburn post-session.
How to Do It: Fire up the stairmill to a moderate pace. Before you climb up, bang out three burpees. Then, at the top of every minute of the 15 you’ll spend climbing, hop down and do three more burpees. At the five-minute mark, increase the step speed by one level. At the 10-minute mark, increase the speed by another level.
Once you're 15 minutes in, take your burpee-banging bod over to the treadmill. You’ll continue doing a set of burpees every minute, running at a moderate pace for five minutes, then increasing the speed by 0.5 mph both at the five-minute mark and again at the 10, for a total of 15 minutes.
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Cardio Circuit #2: Endurance Challenge
Test your stamina with an indoor triathlon—no pool required. For this workout, you’ll use the rowing machine, a stationary bike, and the treadmill. Your aim: to complete the prescribed distances as fast as you can.
How to Do It: Kick things off with a 3-K (1.9-mile) rowing session, then a 20-K (12.4-mile) bike ride, followed by a 5-K (3.1-mile) treadmill run. Record your times so you can attempt to best them on your next, er, try. “This triathlon is fun because it requires some strategy [both with pacing and timing], and you get to feel great progress with each component completed,” says Powell. “Plus, it’s just so cool to tell people, ‘I did a triathlon today.’” Limited to 30 minutes of gym time? Try a timed circuit of 10 minutes of rowing, 10 minutes of cycling, and 10 minutes of running, seeing how far you can go, distance-wise, with each.
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Cardio Circuit #3: A Need for Speed
“The more we move at high speeds, the more we train our body to work efficiently there, greatly improving overall performance,” says Powell. The speed bursts in this cardio circuit have an added bonus: calorie torching.
How to Do It: Row as fast as you can for 20 seconds, and note your pace. Row slowly to recover for 40 seconds. Then, row again as fast as you can for as long as you can, until your pace drops below your initial pace. Recover for another 40 seconds. Go for 10 minutes.
Next, make a beeline for the treadmill. Set it to a one-percent incline, and run as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Walk for one minute. Repeat these short intervals for another 10 minutes.
Finish off with 10 minutes of cycling: Pedal for 20 seconds as fast as you can with the resistance set so that you can spin the flywheel fast yet feel some drag. Then reduce the resistance and spin slowly to recover for 30 seconds. Repeat for 10 minutes. “As a good rule of thumb, your ‘as fast as you can’ should be at about 90 percent of your all-out max—and it will very likely slow down as you go, although your exertion will still feel incredibly high,” says Powell. “The recovery in between the high-intensity bouts is necessary to help clear lactic acid and control breathing, for maximum effort again.”
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Amy Roberts is a certified personal trainer.
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