There are many different types of training one can adopt to lose stubborn fat. In this article though, we will be looking in details at different Aerobic and Anaerobic exercises, to determine which are the best cardio exercises to lose weight.
Aerobic exercises are light activity you can sustain over long periods of time, such as jump rope, jogging, and rowing, and Anaerobic exercises are bursts of activity for short periods of time, such as sprints, squats, and HIIT training.
Other than changing your diet to more low calorie, nutrient dense foods such as you would get the most on a plant based diet, and eating less calories than you burn in a day; simply working out will call on the fat mass as the extra energy needed to build muscle (assuming you are in a caloric deficit), as the extra fat you hold is a source of energy that can be metabolized by your body.
The higher the amount of body fat you have, the easier it will be for your body to shred fat and gain muscle simultaneously. This is why even just working out alone, whether you lift weights or do calisthenics only workouts, will take you very far in terms of weight loss.
Aerobic Vs Anaerobic
We know that there are many ways to work on losing weight and burning fat, and these different methods affect people differently. It also comes down to personal preferences and whether one likes to sustain an exercises over long periods of time, or prefers short, high intensity workouts like sprint intervals.
What follows is a list of the most efficient exercises you can do in both categories (aerobic vs anaerobic). Pick one or two that you like, cycle between them for some variety and try some others from time to time; you never know, one might work better than an other for you !
Best cardio exercises to lose weight – Aerobic
Jumping ropeÂ
Jumping rope is known as one of the highest calorie burning exercises you can do. It’s also easier on the joints than other forms of cardio such as jogging.
On top of burning a high number of calories, this is a great exercise for developing hand-eye coordination, as they learn to work together to get the right rhythm going for a constant jumping streak.
According to Science Daily, 10 minutes of skipping rope is about equivalent to running an 8-minute-mile, or 10 minutes of one, is worth roughly 30 minutes of the other. Performing moderate skipping for something like 3 rounds of 10 minutes would equal to burning around 500 calories.
You can start with shorter 2-3 minutes rounds and gradually progress to being able to skip for 30 minutes straight, although to maintain fitness, 2 to 3 rounds of 10 minutes is amply sufficient.
Jump ropes are very portable and cost almost nothing. They are definitely a worthy investment for anyone looking to burn some serious fat or simply improve upon their cardio vascular health, endurance, and tone their muscles.
Rowing
Rowing is an opportunity for fantastic, high fat burning, low impact workouts, that will target almost your entire body as it works in unison, with minimal stress on the joints.
After skipping, it’s one of the most efficient calorie burning exercises and can also be performed in rounds of several minutes, or, for time, for distance, and plenty more variations that you should try to find what works best for you.
If you don’t have access to a rowing machine or wish to purchase one for your own home gym, or maybe simply want to install one in your living room to actually burn calories whilst watching your favorite show, you can find two in depth buyer’s guides here, and here.
For those who are fans of Cross fit or competition rowing, the concept 2 will be known and loved, as the arguably highest quality rower currently on the market. If you are into other real water rowing sports such as kayak or rowing, certain rowing machines like the WaterRowers, are specially made to mimic the real patterns of rowing and implement a water provided resistance that are almost meditative to the user, but most importantly, will make you feel like you are rowing on real water currents.
A rowing machine is definitely a worthy investment for anyone looking to burn some serious fat or simply improve upon their cardio vascular health, endurance, and tone their muscles.
SwimmingÂ
Swimming workouts are a great way to build muscle, develop cardio-respiratory fitness, and burn calories, all with a low impact on your joints. Once again, along with skipping an rowing, swimming is a very effective way of burning calories.
It’s important to have a decent grasp of form during your swimming workouts, so that you may decrease the amount of drag you will be faced against and waste as little energy as possible. Your swimming strokes should controlled, fluid, your body should be in a straight line parallel to the pool floor, and overall you should aim to be gliding through the water; not fighting it.
Proper breathing can be difficult to master the first few sessions, but you will quickly grasp the technique and improve.
Swimming intervals is a great way to program your workouts, they make things challenging and more interesting by being able to scale the difficulty yourself from easier intervals, to harder ones. They incorporate changing speed within the distances.
Best cardio exercises to lose weight – Anaerobic
Compound movements
Compound, multi-joint exercises work out many different muscles at the same time and provide a greater challenge to your central nervous system, also burning more calories on the way.
Many exercises like push ups, pull ups, squats, deadlifts, and more, are considered as compound exercises. Programming these the right way can lead to some amazing results in terms of weight loss without even needing to do any separate Aerobic exercise ( although you would progress even faster if you did).
It doesn’t matter if you do weighted, or bodyweight compound movements, both will burn calories to a certain degree. What is important, is that you apply progressive overload; aim to do more very session. That can be achieved by doing a single extra rep, decreasing rest time, increasing weight, and more.
Using compounds exercises in circuit training styles can also be effective. Pick 4-6 exercises, and perform them back to back with as little rest as possible in between them. Once you have gone through all exercises, rest for 90 seconds and go again. Every time you have gone through all of the exercises, it makes for 1 round. Try to do several rounds.
Sprints
Sprinting could almost be considered as a compound exercise in itself. It utilizes your arms, chest, shoulders and back for arm swinging, All of your lower body activates to drive you during the movement, your core works to stabilize your spine. All the major and smaller stabilizers get hit.
hill sprints are a good way of making the exercise safer and arguably more effective, as well as adding a little more of a challenge as you fight your way up steep slopes.
Program these once or twice a week and you’ll reap the benefits almost instantly, more power, explosiveness, speed, and you may also improve upon other lifts like the deadlift and squat; you will feel the difference.
Be sure to warm up sufficiently by performing lighter, lower intensity sprints or just jogging. Then, gradually amp it up until you are performing at close to 100% of sprinting capacity.
HIIT
High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, involves short bursts of a given exercise followed by brief low-intensity recovery periods.
After warming up for a few minutes use the skipping rope all out for 30 seconds, then skip lightly for 30 to 90 seconds for recovery. Beginners should perform a normal paced skipping rate the entire 90 seconds and gradually reduce the recovery period over time. The intervals then should be repeat six to 12 times. Finish your workout with a five-minute cool-down.
It can also be done with an almost infinite number of other exercises such as sprints, burpees, swimming (as mentioned above), and more.
If you are new at this, remember to start slow and with enough recovery time. You can gradually increase the difficulty from workout to workout, as you improve.
Other cardio exercises worth mentioning
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- Running up steps
- burpees
- box jumps
- jogging
- jumping squats
- Jumping jacks
- Mountain climbers
- Kickboxing
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Conclusion
Keep in mind that the heavier you are, the more calories you will burn with a given cardio exercise. When trying to lose fat, pick one or two that you really enjoy and perform them between 1 to 4 times a week, depending on the intensity of the exercise.
Pairing these exercises and the right training with a balanced, preferably plant based diet, will give you results like never before, given that you are consistent with both diet and training.
If you have any other exercises in mind that you think should be featured in this article, or want to share your opinion on any information contained in this article, feel free to comment below.
