Archive for April, 2010
I think I may have invented a new body weight exercise for burning fat. I didn’t set out to invent it but it happened nonetheless. And the interesting thing is that it will not force you to find any extra time to perform it. It left me feeling as if I had a great workout and I believe I burned quite a few calories in the process.
Let me describe how it happened. The last couple of days it has rained quite a bit where I live. In fact, it poured for most of the weekend. Yesterday (Saturday), I went to watch my son play baseball at college so it left only Sunday to get my grass cut. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day. Finally, I was able to get outside in the late afternoon to cut what was a pretty wet yard. But when you have only certain times to get it done you need to take advantage of what you are presented with.
Now I am cheap. All of my neighbors have riding lawnmowers. I do not. I still give it a go with my old standby push mower. I have no intentions of changing either. I don’t have a huge yard. It normally takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to cut my grass.
Well when I went out to cut the grass about halfway through it began to rain lightly again and dinner time was just around the corner. So I had the great idea of jogging while cutting grass. My 17 year old daughter was watching through our large window that overlooks the back yard and was laughing at her dad looking rather weird running with a lawn mower.
Now this is not something you would do everyday unless you want to run with your lawnmower off through your yard each day. If you do that then your neighbors may wonder what caused you to go crazy. But jogging while cutting grass is quite challenging. Your heart rate will elevate and I guarantee that you will burn quite a few calories and burn fat in the process. Since you have to cut grass each week anyway you may want to give it a try. If you have a riding lawnmower then maybe you want to put it away every now and then and break out the push mower. It will provide you a great workout and burn some fat in the process. You will even get your grass cutting duties done quicker. Give it a try.
One of the best ways to condition your body is through bodyweight exercises. The nice thing about it is that you do not need a treadmill, an elliptical machine or a rowing machine. All you need is your body. You can perform it anywhere. Bodyweight conditioning is able to get your heart rate up to a level where you will burn a serious amount of calories. I think the routines for conditioning with bodyweight exercises look simple at first. However, when you begin to perform them you come to realize that they take much more out of you than you thought. It is quite challenging just to get through the circuit.
I was reading the other day (can’t quite remember where) and the individual who was writing the article made mention of the fact that the football team that he played on in college dreaded the bodyweight conditioning exercises most of all because they took so much out of you.
Just yesterday, I took the day off and made a 90 minute trip to watch my son play baseball for his college. While I was sitting in the bleachers watching the game I heard a soccer player from his college talking about the burpee exercises that they had to do for conditioning. They were extremely tough.
You can get a tremendous workout from bodyweight exercises alone. They are some of the most effective exercises for shedding fat and losing weight as well. Below is a sample workout that I will be performing tomorrow for my bodyweight conditioning segment.
Perform 5 rounds with about a 1 – 2 minute rest between each round. Within the round you should not have any rest between exercises. Move from exercise to the next.
Burpees (10)
Mountain Climbers (15 each leg)
Squat Jumps (10)
Atomic Push Ups (10)
Knees To Elbows (10)
Tuck Jumps (10)
In case you are not familiar with tuck jumps, knees to elbows or an atomic push up then you can watch the videos below. If you do not have a TRX suspension trainer then you can substitute 15 – 20 push ups for the atomic push up.
Tuck Jumps
Knees To Elbows
Atomic Push Up
Bodyweight exercises are great for burning calories and burning fat. One of the most effective exercises that you can perform to really get you heart pumping is box jumps. They are just what they sound like. You jump up on a box and then either step down or jump down. Then repeat. I usually perform them in sets of 15 as part of a bodyweight exercise circuit but you can perform them as a stand alone workout as well.
I built a platform out of 2 x 4s from some wood I had laying around the house. I put a 3/4″ piece of plywood on the top of this very primitive platform. It is quite sturdy despite its ugly looks. There are other more attractive options that you can build so that you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on plyometric boxes. There is a design that Crossfit has published that is quite good. It is even slanted to help to possibly save your shins a bit if you miss a jump. My plyo platform is not so forgiving. You can find the pdf file for building the box here.
Here are a few videos of box jumps to get you started in case you are not sure exactly what they are. Give them a try. Use them in place of your regular cardio workout. You will burn many more fat calories with box jumping than you will with a leisurely jog through the neighborhood.
