During a busy day, carving out an hour to head to the gym can be tough, so the question is this: are you making the most of those 60 minutes? With a few simple tweaks, you can increase your calorie burn instantly. Try these tips the next time you're at the gym to maximize your sweat session.
On the Treadmill
- Incorporate speed intervals. Playing with your speed not only burns more calories, but it's also proven to diminish belly fat — a bonus of going faster when running. Here's a printable 45-minute interval workout [1] for the treadmill.
- Raise the incline. You'll not only feel the burn more in your tush and thighs, but working harder also means burning more calories than if you were running on a flat surface.
- Go a little longer. If you can push it for five extra minutes, you'll burn close to 50 more calories [2].
- Pump those arms! Resist the urge to hold on to the side bars, because the more you move, the more calories you'll burn.
On the Elliptical
- Use the handles to go for a total-body workout. Actively push and pull the handles — don't just hold on for support — to burn more calories and work your upper body while raising your heart rate.
- Utilize the resistance. Making your muscles exert more effort is sure to yield a bigger caloric burn.
- Watch your pace. The graceful motion of the elliptical can lull you into a slow pace, so make sure you're moving fast enough to get your heart rate up, which is about 140 to 160 strides per minute.
- Include intervals, alternating between short periods of pushing your body to the max with recovery periods. Here's a 30-minute elliptical interval workout [3] to try.
When Strength Training
- Exercises that utilize your own bodyweight have been shown to burn more calories [4]. Instead of doing shoulder presses with a set of dumbbells, get on the floor and do push-ups instead. Here's a printable no-equipment total-body workout [5] that you can do anywhere!
- HIIT it! Add some high-intensity interval training to your gym time with a Tabata workout [6].
- Force your body to work harder by creating instability. Stand on one leg for your bicep curls, or work with an exercise ball or a BOSU [7]. You'll use more muscles to hold your body steady — not just the ones you're intending to work.
- Do supersets [8], moving quickly from one exercise to the next without resting. This not only saves time so you can get in and out of the gym, but you're also increasing the intensity to work your muscles harder.
- Mix cardio moves with strength training for a metabolic burn, like this jump rope and strength-training workout [9] — it's killer for the abs!
- Do multitasking moves that work more than one part of the body at once. These plank variations [10] are great examples. You can also combine cardio with strength training by grabbing a kettlebell [11].