If you are looking for a calorie burning workout, try using cardio machines. While you may have looked at them whenever you have visited your local gym and thought that they seemed boring or useless, they really are a good way to burn off those calories form that doughnut you had earlier. Plus, you can use them at your leisure with little to no instruction needed.
Many of the cardio machines that you can find in your local gym can be programmed with a specific type of workout. For example, you can set the elliptical machine for a weight loss workout that alternates resistances to simulate walking up and down a hill. As you use the machine you will find that your heart rate increases, you are sweating, and your breathing is heavier. This cardio exercise is giving you a good overall calorie burning workout.
One of the only problems with using cardio machines is that we as individuals tend to become complacent with our workouts. We will read a book, watch television, and simply go through the motions thinking we are doing something good. While we are definitely getting our body moving, we are not stretching it to the limits like we should. Instead we should be paying attention to our workout and not everything else around us.
If you listen to music during your workout, you can effectively drown out the rest of the distractions around you. Before settling in, however, to walk your ten miles on the tread mill, set it for a more difficult calorie burning workout than you had previously. Change the incline of the cardio machine, increase the speed, or lengthen your time. Never change it so drastically that you hurt yourself while doing it, but change it just enough to make the routine a bit different.
Before starting make sure you properly warm up your muscles. This will help avoid painful muscle cramping later in the day. Most of the cardio machines you find today have a warm up preprogrammed into its overall routine settings that last for five to ten minutes. Note how many calories you have burned when you are finished with your workout and track how many total steps you have taken. By doing this, you have a way to track your progress and a goal to work towards. Say you walked 2,500 steps on the elliptical the first day. Try walking 3,000 the next. When you vary your fat burning workout, boredom does not set in.
In an effort to keep things lively, take a day or two out of the gym and exercise outside. Take a walk or jog in the park or along the local track at the High School. Go swimming. Use the workout nature course at the local nature park. Do something different and stay on top of your workout. You and your body will appreciate the change of scenery and the receptive attitude you will suddenly have about your calorie burning workout.