I’ve been trying to lift a little weight on my cardio days so that I can keep building muscle endurance while burning calories. Since I do this workout on cardio days, I keep the weight pretty light. Another reason to keep it light is so that I can lift the weight for the full one minute time. Light weight for a longer time per set helps to build muscle endurance instead of strength like lifting heavy with low reps does.
Adding the weight keeps the exertion level higher which burns more calories in a shorter amount of time. I put the exercises together so that I can move from one to the next pretty quickly without having to mess too much with changing weights. I chose jumping rope for cardio but other exercises like jumping jacks, high knees, or running in place works too. I hit most of the body parts but chest. I skipped chest because I didn’t want to spend too long lying down and lowering my heart rate.
I warm up for a couple minutes first and then move back and forth between the cardio and exercises as quickly as possible. I have a clock with a second hand that I watch and just keep track of my minutes that way. Nothing fancy. I like to keep it simple so I don’t have to think while working out. That takes too much effort. 😉 I repeat the exercise series twice if I have time or just once if I’m really rushed.
For some reason I like jumping rope with my invisible rope. You can go faster or slower with your jumping to adjust your heart rate. If I get bored though I switch to something else to make the time pass quickly. Do you have a favorite cardio exercise that you use for intervals?
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