If you hate treadmills but love at home workouts then this is for you. The dreaded treadmill…some folks love them, lots of people dislike them! The monotony of running or walking on a piece of equipment – and not actually going anywhere – can be mundane for even the most active of people.
When a treadmill is all you have available and the weather is nasty out, what other choice do you have though? Typically, a workout on a treadmill can torch some calories, although this burn ratio will be different for everyone depending on age, weight, fitness level, and the speed of the treadmill. Running upwards of 8 miles per hour can burn almost 300, according to Live Strong.
If you’re bored with the treadmill (or just don’t like running or walking on a piece of equipment), there are other ways that you can burn calories, and often times more than you’d burn doing a workout on a treadmill!
Increasing Caloric Burn With At Home Workouts
The key here is to get your heart rate up. This can’t be done while on a stroll with your best friend through the local park – if you can carry on a comfortable conversation, your intensity level isn’t high enough if your goal is to burn fat and torch some calories. As your exercise intensity increases, so does your heart rate….and this in turn burns more calories per hour.
Increasing your caloric burn over time takes some work, since your body needs to learn to adapt to the higher stresses that you’re putting on it. A couple of high energy workouts each week, combined with some moderate intensity exercises, will put you on the right track to whittling your waistline and burning up those calories!
Let’s take a look at 7 different bodyweight workouts that you can incorporate into your daily exercise routine, that don’t involve the repetitive motions of the treadmill – and that will burn more calories!30-Minute Calorie Torcher
1. 30-Minute Calorie Torcher
Brought to you by the ladies from The Phoenix Effect, this full body workout incorporates jumping movements in order to burn a ton of calories, and get you off the boring treadmill. Doing movements like jump squats, jumping lunges, burpees, and froggers will keep your heart rate up and pumping throughout your workout.
It might seem like jumping is a child’s activity, but it’s actually a wonderful choice for a cardio workout or as a supplementation with other exercises. Touted as typically a more challenging movement, your heart and lungs have to work hard in order to get fresh oxygen to your muscles during an exercise like jumping!
Jumping movements increases muscular endurance, as well as increasing bone strength. One study in particular done by the University of Missouri-Columbia discovered that exercises like jumping actually reduce the risk of developing osteopenia, which can lead to significant fractures within bones.
2. 20-Minute HIIT Workout
Otherwise known as high intensity interval training, HIIT is a top contender for torching calories without having to step foot on the treadmill! Inspired by this video from PopSugar Fitness, you’ll be done with your full body workout in under half an hour!
HIIT has been shown to burn a ton of calories within a short period of time, and can boost your metabolism. Research has also shown that training at high intensity can decrease high blood pressure, and also shows improvement in blood sugar levels!
With a Tabata-style workout (40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest), you’ll move through exercises for your entire body that will sculpt, strengthen, and burn some serious calories. Don’t be concerned if you find yourself breathing hard within just a few minutes of a HIIT workout – these are meant to be quick, powerful, and fast-paced movements to get the job done!
3. Yoga and Strength Combined!
You might not think yoga is imperative when combined with strength and other resistance workouts, but it is! Yoga has been shown to improve posture, which in turn helps improve movement within the body when doing other exercises and activities. Yoga can also help to decrease blood pressure, as well as improve flexibility levels – even just over a course of 8 weeks.
Aside from that, who would’ve thought that a combination of yoga moves and bodyweight strength exercises would be helpful in torching calories? This fabulous workout from Total Body Reboot does just that – combining the flexibility of yoga moves with the strength required for pushups, sit-ups, and squats, you’ll get a well-rounded full body workout, plus any modifications needed to be able to successfully perform each movement.
4. 30-Minute Core and Cardio
With a dynamic combination of movements to target both your core and burn some serious calories, Massy Arias has put together a workout that will not only strengthen and tone your mid-section, but also get you moving at the same time!
Core training is important – not only for us to strengthen our mid-section and protect against injury, but also to help us in our day to day activities. You wouldn’t be able to bend over and tie your shoes or lift your groceries out of your car if you didn’t have a strong core.
Aside from daily actions that use our core (mostly when we don’t even know it), we also need a strong core to protect us from developing low back pain. Seeing as how a large majority of adults have experienced back pain at one point or another, core training seems like it would be a good thing to work into an exercise routine to help prevent further injury or problems.
A workout that is perfect for beginners all the way up to advanced exercisers, this workout can be done on your living room floor – and have you out the door and on with the rest of your day in half an hour!
5. 40-Minute Full Body Workout
Lower impact workouts can be just as challenging – and just as beneficial as high impact ones! Many people can benefit from a low impact workout, and still get the calorie-burning effects at the same time. Elderly people, pregnant ladies, and those with joint problems are just a handful of folks that can see amazing results from switching from high impact to low impact activities.
Strength and endurance can be improved with low impact without any further pressure on joints, and improvements with cardiovascular health can be seen as well. You don’t have to make pre-existing conditions worse, or harder…. try low impact activities like this one!
Limiting the amount of high impact movements in this workout while still adding a ton of value, Sydney Cummings keeps you moving with rounds of exercises that are 45 seconds long, with a 15 second rest. Those 45 second rounds will torch calories, strengthen core, and get your heart rate up (and keep it up!) for the whole 40 minutes. Grab your water bottle and a towel, and get to work!
6. 32 Minutes of Plyometrics
Plyometric works can be challenging – but its nothing that you can’t complete! This type of workout by Stronger is characterized by combining speed and strength: stretching the muscles to a certain degree, then quickly contracting them. This in turn develops explosive movement, builds strength, and destroys calories.
Other benefits of plyometric movements include increasing the strength of your tendons (the tissues that connect muscles to bones), which decreases the risk of injuries. Furthermore, plyometric training helps to burn calories like crazy, and boosts your metabolism even after you’re done exercising.
Plyometric exercises include different styles of jumps and quick, high-intense movements. Because of this, be sure that you’re fully prepared to complete the movements with proper form before adding the level of explosiveness.
7. Bodyweight Blast Workout
No equipment required for this BodyFit by Amy workout – your full body will be worked with exercises for upper body, lower body, core, and a bit of cardio! There are three separate circuits associated with this workout, utilizing 4 exercises in each circuit. Circuit training is beneficial for the whole body, since you’re moving through a series of different exercises with little to no rest in between.
Circuits can be set up with as many different moves as you’d like (typically anywhere up to 10 exercises) and range from upper body to lower body to core movements. With such a flexible set up, you’ll stay engaged with your workout and burn fat like never before!
Benefits of At Home Bodyweight Workouts
All of these workouts you can do from the comfort of your own home! There ends up being minimal to no equipment – minus a water bottle, towel, and exercise mat, if you need them – and affordable. Of course, if you want to add resistance to these workouts, you certainly can. Dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands are found in your local stores, and can add a bit of flare and change to your current bodyweight routine!
Sometimes you just have those days when you don’t want to hop on the treadmill – and that’s okay! With these seven workouts as examples of what you can do to torch more calories without touching the tread, you’ll be on your way to slimming that waistline in no time!
Don’t forget to recharge after your workout with a delicious weight loss smoothie!
Health Coach Drew
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