When you think about getting fit and shaping up, your first thought is probably to do lots and lots of cardio. And you could be forgiven for thinking this way, cardio is fantastic. It gets the blood pumping, quickly improving heart and lung function. It increases endurance, gives you a huge boost of serotonin (‘runner’s high’) after your workouts and can certainly help you to shed unwanted pounds too. However, a good fitness routine will involve more than just going for the burn. Along with your cardio- running, biking, cross training, hill walking and more- here are some other activities to add to your routine.
Low Intensity Workouts
High intensity workouts will burn a lot of calories and you’ll really feel the effects of them quickly. However, there’s nothing wrong with adding some much slower paced activity to your routine too. Take walking for example, this is a massively underrated exercise which is free to do and provides numerous effects to the body. Lace up your walking boots and go for a hike, you could take your dog, take in the views and get some fresh air in the process. Swimming is another example, as well as going on a more leisurely paced bike ride. You’re still being active, you’re burning calories and you’re sculpting muscles but you’re not pushing yourself to the limit. This kind of activity is great to break up higher intensity workouts, they’re less harsh on your joints and in many cases they’ll be more enjoyable too. And it’s activity you enjoy that will really help you to stick to a routine.
Flexibility
Being flexible helps you to achieve a greater range of motion, which can prevent injury. Stretching is a great way to warm down too and can help with relaxation as well as providing mental health benefits. Many stretching workouts also help you to get stronger too, as you can see by these yoga trapeze reviews. Consider adding some form of stretch workout to your routine once a week. Be grateful for the flexibility you have and the flexibility you could have, because it gets harder as you get older or gain new medical conditions.
Strength
Many women can be guilty of completely overlooking strength training as they worry they’ll become too bulky or muscly. However, this isn’t the case. Women don’t have the testosterone levels needed to support muscle gain like is seen in men. The very muscly women you see in bodybuilding shows have gone through a strict diet, training and protein supplement routine to achieve their physique- it’s not something that will happen by accident. Strength training is great for lean muscle which will actually make you look slimmer and more sculpted. It will of course make you stronger, and having this muscle means you will burn more calories at rest so is fantastic for weight loss or managing weight. The stronger your muscles are, the harder you can work in your cardio workouts too and so this is something that everyone should include in their routine regardless of gender. You don’t have to hit the heavy weights, to build lean muscle it’s better to use lighter weight and do more reps.
I hope you enjoyed this article about effective exercise techniques you can add to your fitness routine on a frugal budget.
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